WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has issued a presidential permit to pipeline builder TransCanada to build the Keystone XL pipeline.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer tweeted that President Donald Trump would discuss the pipeline later Friday morning.

The State Department says that it determined that building Keystone serves the U.S. national interest. That’s the opposite conclusion to the one the State Department reached during the Obama administration.

The State Department says it considered foreign policy and energy security in making the determination.

The permit was signed by Tom Shannon, a career diplomat serving as undersecretary of state for political affairs. That’s because Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recused himself due to his previous work running Exxon Mobil.

Keystone will carry oil from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens is backing a contested health care overhaul proposed in the U.S. House.

Greitens joined seven other Republican governors in a Thursday letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan voicing support of the bill.

The letter comes as President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers are scrambling to get enough votes in the U.S. House to pass the proposed replacement for the federal health care law enacted under former President Barack Obama.

Greitens last week said he wants a program that offers flexibility to states to develop their own systems. That option was among changes unveiled this week and touted in the governors’ letter.

Other Republican governors who signed the letter include Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities say a welder accidentally started a fire that spread from a suburban Kansas City apartment complex that was under construction to nearly two dozen homes.

Overland Park Fire Marshal Mark Sweany said the fire started Monday when a welder ignited wooden building materials at the multimillion-dollar CityPlace development. The blaze leveled one large, four-story apartment building and heavily damaged a second. Intense heat and the burning debris that rained down also spread the fire into a nearby neighborhood.

Three firefighters were treated for minor injuries.

Overland Park Fire Chief Bryan Dehner says the building where the fire started was “vulnerable” because it was so early in the construction process that it lacked fire deterrents such as sprinklers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa House is considering a bill to establish mandatory minimum sentences for some people convicted of domestic abuse.

The Republican-controlled House is expected to vote on the legislation Thursday. It would create mandatory minimums for some abuse, harassment and stalking convictions.

Individuals convicted of domestic abuse three or more times would be required to serve 20 percent of the maximum sentence before eligibility for parole. The bill also requires risk assessments for some individuals before release and expands GPS tracking. Supporters of the legislation say it would reassure abuse survivors.

Groups opposing the bill say lengthening prison sentences will only increase Iowa’s incarceration rate and not address roots of domestic violence.

The House voted Monday in favor of sentencing reform for non-violent drug crimes to reduce prison crowding.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas legislators are trying to avoid the kind of funding moves with public employee pensions that previously clouded the retirement system’s long-term financial health.

But lawmakers are wrestling with the state’s serious budget problems and were not sure Wednesday whether the state could afford its full, annual commitments.

Republican Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed freezing annual pension contributions at 2016 levels to help erase projected budget shortfalls totaling more than $1 billion through June 2019.

The Senate budget committee has added a total of $330 million to its proposed budgets for the two fiscal years beginning in July 1 to keep contributions where they’re supposed to be. Its House counterpart voted Wednesday to put off a decision.

The annual contributions were set to increase to bolster the pension system’s health.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has offered his condolences to British Prime Minister Theresa May following the deadly attack in London. The White House says the president praised the response of security forces and first responders and pledged “the full cooperation and support” of the U.S. government “in responding to the attack and bringing those responsible to justice.”

The White House says the two spoke by phone after a vehicle mowed down pedestrians on London’s Westminster Bridge. Around the same time, a knife-wielding attacker stabbed a police officer and was shot on the grounds outside Britain’s Parliament. The compound was placed on lockdown.

Prime Minister May condemned the “sick and depraved terrorist attack” and says the targeting of Parliament was no accident. In a late-night statement outside her Downing Street office Wednesday, a defiant May said the nation will not give in to terror and those who targeted the seat of power in Britain.

She insisted that “tomorrow morning Parliament will meet as normal,” and urged the country to move on and behave as normal on Thursday.

“we will all move forward together, never giving in to terror and never allowing the voices of hate and evil to drive us apart,” she said.

T that four people died in the attack and praised the security services who ran toward danger.

The head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police has said, and the prime minister confirmed, that four people died in what has been labeled a terror incident, including the attacker and a police officer.

Mark Rowley, the head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police, says some 20 people were injured and Parliament was locked down. Authorities searched to make certain no other attackers were in the area, though police believe there was only one attacker.

Rowley said the dead policeman was one of the armed officers who guard Parliament. The other victims were on Westminster Bridge.

Rowley says “We are satisfied at this stage that it looks like there was only one attacker. But it would be foolish to be overconfident early on.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Activists who want to derail the Keystone pipeline expansion in Nebraska are again mobilizing to try to make their case to a small state commission that will decide the project’s fate.

Opponents on Wednesday were ask the Nebraska Public Service Commission to let them intervene in the case.

That would allow them to file legal briefs, cross-examine witnesses and present formal arguments alongside attorneys for pipeline developer TransCanada.

Nebraska requires residents to show a “substantial legal interest” in a project before they can intervene. Commission Chairman Tim Schram will decide who qualifies.

Linda Anderson of Bold Nebraska says her pipeline opposition group will argue that opponents have an interest as taxpayers and consumers of the state’s water.

TransCanada spokesman Terry Cuhna says the company will keep working with residents.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A trial is underway in suburban St. Louis in the case of a mother accused of poisoning her 9-year-old son for almost a year.

Rachel Kinsella’s trial on charges of first-degree assault and child endangerment began Tuesday in St. Louis County.

A prosecutor, Sheila Whirley, told jurors the mother from north-central Missouri’s Meadville put her son, Patrick, at “death’s door” by poisoning him. The boy survived.

Authorities allege Kinsella, 36, intentionally made her son sick by secretly giving him prescription medication at a home the two shared in Marlborough from March 2014 until the following January, when the state took Patrick from her.

Kinsella’s attorney countered that the mere presence of medication in the boy’s blood does not prove his client poisoned him.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Sears, once the monolith of American retail, says that there is “substantial doubt” that it will be able to keep its doors open.