BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — The Afghan capital is now the main focus of the anti-Taliban fight, with U.S. special forces conducting raids in the sprawling city and additional American military advisers arriving to help beleaguered local police, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

“We’ve increased the number of special operations we’re doing in and around the city to target the networks that are attacking the city,” Gen. John Nicholson said in an interview with a small group of reporters. “So Kabul is our main effort right now.”

He said the Afghan government has replaced the top five police officials in each district inside Kabul as part of a plan to more effectively counter the militants.

“This leadership element is key because what we found is many failures at the local level in terms of local security,” he said, noting that the Taliban in recent months have managed to carry out large attacks with high numbers of civilian casualties.

Nicholson said some members of a newly arrived brigade of U.S. Army advisers are being assigned to mentoring Afghan police in Kabul as part of a comprehensive plan for improving security in a city of an estimated 5 million residents.

“I’ll just be very candid. We have a lot of work to do because this city has grown exponentially over the last 15 years” and in a haphazard way that left it vulnerable to movement by insurgents as well as criminal groups, Nicholson said.

In the interview, Nicholson also talked up prospects for peace negotiations with the Taliban.

Perry denies interest in VA job as support for Shulkin fades

WASHINGTON — Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Wednesday he had no interest in becoming the next head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, rejecting speculation that he would soon take over the position amid eroding White House support for embattled VA Secretary David Shulkin.

Two administration officials told The Associated Press that Shulkin could be out of a job within the week but cautioned that nothing was finalized. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Shulkin, a former Obama administration official, has faced investigations over his travel and leadership. Until recently, he had received praise from President Donald Trump for his work to turn around the agency, but a raft of blistering VA watchdog reports detailing mismanagement and spending waste has weakened his standing.

Senate passes bill easing Dodd-Frank rules for banks

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed bipartisan legislation Wednesday designed to ease bank rules enacted to prevent a relapse of the 2008 financial crisis that caused millions of Americans to lose their jobs and homes.

The Senate voted 67-31 for a bill that would dial back portions of the law known as Dodd-Frank.

The legislation would increase the threshold at which banks are considered so big and plugged into the financial grid that if one were to fail it would cause major havoc. Those banks are subject to stricter capital and planning requirements. Lawmakers are intent on loosening the restraints on them in hopes that it will boost lending and the economy.

The House already passed more a more expansive rollback. Now lawmakers will try to work out a compromise.

2 Navy aviators reported dead after jet crashes off Key West

WASHINGTON — Navy officials said two aviators died Wednesday after their fighter jet crashed off the coast of Key West, Fla.

According to officials, the F/A-18 Super Hornet was on approach to land at the naval air station around 4:30 p.m. EDT, and crashed into the water about a mile east of the runway. The pilot and weapons system officer ejected and were recovered and taken to a local medical facility. Wednesday night, the Navy tweeted that the two crew members were confirmed dead. The aircraft crew is based out of Naval Air Station Oceana, in Virginia Beach, Va. The Super Hornet is a twin-engine fighter jet that is larger than the single-seat F/A-18 Hornet.

The Navy said that the cause of the crash was under investigation.

United mistakenly flies Kan.-bound dog to Japan

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — United Airlines said it was investigating after mistakenly flying a Kansas family’s dog to Japan.

KCTV reports that Kara Swindle and her two children flew from Oregon to Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday on a United flight.

They went to a cargo facility to pick up 10-year-old Irgo, a German shepherd, but were instead given a Great Dane.

Swindle, of Wichita, Kan., learned Irgo had been put on a flight to Japan, where the Great Dane was supposed to go.

Airline officials in Japan put Irgo on a flight back to Kansas City.

It wasn’t clear when the dog would arrive.

The news of Irgo’s unplanned odyssey comes as United admitted that another dog had died after a flight attendant forced it to travel in an overhead bin on a Houston-to-New York flight.

Physicist Hawking, 76, remembered as ‘inspiration’

The world reacted Wednesday with an outpouring of accolades and reflection upon the death of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, who died at age 76 in his home in Cambridge, England.

“His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake. But it’s not empty,” Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of New York’s Hayden Planetarium, wrote on Twitter. “Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure.”

Hawking became one of science’s biggest celebrities since Albert Einstein. “Professor Stephen Hawking was a brilliant and extraordinary mind — one of the great scientists of his generation,” U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May wrote on Twitter. “His courage, humour and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration.”

“Star Wars” creator George Lucas broke ground Wednesday on a $1.5 billion Los Angeles museum he says will be dedicated to the art of visual storytelling. He was joined by his wife, elected officials and more than 100 well-wishers for the official beginning of construction on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Six U.S. soldiers in mountain warfare training were hit by an avalanche at one of Vermont’s tallest peaks. The Vermont National Guard said the soldiers were evacuated Wednesday afternoon. Five soldiers were taken to the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. The sixth returned to duty.