WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials on Wednesday will begin notifying lawmakers who represent districts where key military construction projects will be delayed due to construction of President Donald Trump’s border barrier, according to two congressional officials.

Trump issued an emergency declaration in February in an attempt to free up new federal funding for his controversial U.S.-Mexico border wall that had been denied by Congress and triggered a record-long partial government shutdown earlier this year. But since the border emergency was issued earlier this year, the Trump administration had not detailed publicly which projects would be affected.

Under the declaration, about $3.6 billion designated for military construction projects would be rerouted for border barrier construction.

Of that, about $1.8 billion would be taken from military projects overseas, while the other half would come from projects in the continental U.S. and territories, according to one of the congressional officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the announcement was not public.

House Democrats were informed of the Pentagon’s plans at a Tuesday afternoon caucus-wide call.

Defense Secretary Mark Esper had notified House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., earlier in the day.

Though the administration has characterized the projects as merely being delayed, it would depend on Congress approving new funds to revive them, something House Democrats have vowed not to do.

AP source: Texas shooter purchased rifle at private sale

ODESSA, Texas — The gunman in a West Texas rampage that left seven dead obtained his AR-style rifle through a private sale, allowing him to evade a federal background check that previously blocked him from getting a gun, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

The official spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Responding police officers killed 36-year-old Seth Aaron Ator on Saturday outside a busy Odessa movie theater after a spate of violence that spanned 10 miles, injuring around two dozen people in addition to the dead.

A neighbor of Ator’s, Rocio Gutierrez, said Ator was “a violent, aggressive person” who would shoot at animals, mostly rabbits, at all hours of the night

Daniels eager to testify in probe of Trump hush payments

Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels said Tuesday she’s ready to testify before Congress amid revelations that House Democrats are gearing up to investigate President Donald Trump’s role in salacious hush payments issued to her and another woman before the 2016 election.

“I have no fear of being under oath because I have been and will be honest. Bring it!” tweeted Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Daniels’ missive came on the heels of sources confirming that the House Judiciary Committee plans to pick up as early as October where federal prosecutors left off and dig into the $130,000 payment to her on Trump’s behalf in exchange for her promising to keep her lips sealed about allegedly having sex with him in 2006.

Sheriff: 14-year-old killed five

in his family, later confessed

ELKMONT, Ala. — A 14-year-old boy admitted to killing five members of his family including his three younger siblings, Alabama authorities said Tuesday.

Limestone County sheriff’s spokesman Stephen Young said the teen called 911 at about 11 p.m. Monday. He told arriving deputies that he heard gunshots upstairs while he was in the basement and ran out the door, but the teen later confessed to being the shooter, Young said.

The suspect’s 6-month-old brother, 5-year-old sister and 6-year-old brother were among the victims. The adult victims were identified as the 38-year-old father of the suspect and the teen’s 35-year-old stepmother.

They did not release the teen’s name because he is a juvenile, but he could face adult charges.

Iran tanker sought by US mutes tracker near Syria

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — An Iranian oil tanker blacklisted and pursued by the U.S. turned off its tracking beacon off the coast of Syria, leading to renewed speculation Tuesday that its oil will end up there, despite earlier assurances it wouldn’t.

The disappearance of the Adrian Darya 1, formerly known as the Grace 1, follows a pattern of Iranian oil tankers turning off their Automatic Identification System to try and mask where they deliver their cargo amid U.S. sanctions targeting Iran’s energy industry.

Its disappearance comes after the British territory of Gibraltar seized the tanker and ultimately released it weeks later when officials there said they received assurances its oil wouldn’t go to Syria, underscoring the challenges authorities face as a U.S. maximum pressure campaign against Iran continues.

Feds offer reprieve on immigrant medical cases

BOSTON — Federal immigration authorities have partly reversed course on a controversial decision to stop considering requests for foreign nationals to remain in the country for medical treatment or other special circumstances.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said letters will go out this week reopening all cases pending as of Aug. 7.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had previously said on that date that it would no longer consider the requests and ordered all pending applicants to leave the country within 33 days.

Mahsa Khanbabai of the American Immigration Lawyers Association says the reprieve isn’t sufficient because it doesn’t address new requests.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it’s weighing a lawsuit.

In Yemen: By arming and backing a Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen, the United States, Britain and France may be complicit in potential war crimes, the United Nations said in a scathing report Tuesday.

The U.N. Human Rights Council found that all parties in the conflict had perpetrated possible war crimes through airstrikes, shelling, snipers and land mines, as well as arbitrary killings, torture and other abuses.

The Saudi-led coalition, which is aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognized government, is accused of intentionally starving Yemenis and killing thousands of civilians in airstrikes. The coalition’s foes, known as Houthis, are accused of planting land mines and deploying child soldiers.