Cuban-Americans chant pro-Trump slogans as they show their support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in Miami, Oct. 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)2025-05-03T13:15:13Z For years, President Donald Trump blamed communists for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents from judges to educators as threats to American identity, culture and values.Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the White House election.All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country, he told reporters at his New Jersey golf club in August.Trump did just that branding Harris comrade Kamala and he won in November. With the assent of more than 77 million Americans who cast ballots 49.9% of the vote Trump is carrying that strategy into his second term. What hes talking about is not actually communismIn 2025, communism wields big influence in countries such as China, Vietnam, North Korea and Cuba. But not the United States.The core of communism is the belief that governments can do better than markets in providing goods and services. There are very, very few people in the West who seriously believe that, said Raymond Robertson of the Texas A&M University Bush School of Government & Public Service. Unless they are arguing that the government should run U.S. Steel and Tesla, they are simply not communists. The word communist, on the other hand, can carry great emotional power as a rhetorical tool, even now. Its all the more potent as a pejorative though frequently inaccurate, even dangerous amid the contemporary flash of social media and misinformation. After all, the fear and paranoia of the Russian Revolution, the Red Scare, World War II, McCarthyism and the Cold War are fading into the 20th century past. But Trump, 78 and famous for labeling people he views as obstacles, remembers. We cannot allow a handful of communist radical-left judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws, Trump said Tuesday in Michigan while celebrating his first 100 days in office. The White House did not reply to a request for what Trump means when he calls someone a communist.The timing of his use of communist is worth noting. Trumps Michigan speech came during a week of dicey economic and political news. Days earlier, The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs published a poll showing that more Americans disagree with Trumps priorities so far than agree with them, and that many Republicans are ambivalent about his choices of focus. After the speech, the government reported that the economy shrank during the first quarter of 2025 as Trumps tariffs disrupted business.On Thursday, senior presidential aide Stephen Miller stepped to the White House podium and uttered the same c-word four times in about 35 minutes during a denunciation of past policies on transgender, diversity and immigration issues. These are a few of the areas in which President Trump has fought the cancerous, communist woke culture that was destroying this country, Miller told reporters. His collection of words offered a selection of clickbait for social media users, as well as terms that could catch the attention of older Americans. Voters over age 45 narrowly voted for Trump over his Democratic rivals in 2020 and 2024. Smack in the middle of Millers sentence: communist. It tends to be a term that is loaded with negative affect, particularly for older Americans who grew up during the Cold War, said Jacob Neiheisel, a political communications expert at the University at Buffalo. Appending emotionally laden terms to political adversaries is a way to minimize their legitimacy in the eyes of the public and paint them in a negative light. A Red Scare-era figure influenced a young TrumpThe threat that communists could influence or even obliterate the United States hovered over the country for decades and drove some of the countrys ugliest chapters.The years after World War I and the Russian Revolution in 1917, along with a wave of immigrants, led to whats known as the Red Scare of 1920, a period of intense paranoia about the potential for a communist-led revolution in America. McCarthyism after World War II meant the hunt for supposed communists. Its named for Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin Republican who conducted televised hearings at the dawn of the Cold War that drove anti-communist fears to new heights with a series of threats, innuendos and untruths. Culturally, the merest suggestion that someone was soft on communism could end careers and ruin lives. Blacklists of suspected communists proliferated in Hollywood and beyond. McCarthy fell into disgrace and died in 1957. The senators chief counsel during the hearings, Roy Cohn, became Trumps mentor and fixer in the 1980s and 1990s, when Trump rose as a real estate mogul in New York. The Cold War was more than three decades old. The threat of nuclear war was pervasive. Communism started to collapse in 1989 and the Soviet Union was dissolved two years later. Its now Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin.But communism at least in one form lives on in China, with which Trump is waging a trade war that could result in fewer and costlier products in the United States. By weeks end, Trump was acknowledging the potential consequences of his government stepping in: Americans might soon not be able to buy what they want, or they might be forced to pay more. He insisted China would be hurt more by the tariffs.The real modern debate, Robertson says, is not between capitalism and communism, but about how much the government needs to step in and when. He suggests that Trump is not really debating communism vs. capitalism anyway.Calling people who advocate for slightly more government involvement communists is typical misleading political rhetoric that, unfortunately, works really well with busy voters who do not have a lot of time to think about technical definitions and economic paradigms, he said in an email. It is also really helpful (to Trump) because it is inflammatory, making people angry, which can be addictive. LAURIE KELLMAN Kellman has covered U.S. politics and foreign affairs for the Associated Press, including 23 years reporting from Washington and three from Jerusalem. She is based in London. twitter facebook mailto

The main building of the UNESCO headquarters is seen through the Globe in Paris, France, Friday, Oct. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, file)2025-05-04T13:36:22Z PARIS (AP) The United Nations agency that promotes education, science and culture and also works for the preservation of outstanding cultural and natural heritage around the world is abruptly losing one of its 194 member states. It marks a blow to the Paris-based body that is also in U.S. President Donald Trump s crosshairs.Nicaragua angrily announced its withdrawal from the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in a letter that UNESCOs director general, Audrey Azoulay, said she received Sunday morning.In the letter seen by The Associated Press, Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Valdrack Jaentschke denounced the awarding of a UNESCO press freedom prize to a Nicaraguan newspaper, La Prensa.The prize jury hailed the newspapers work in the face of severe repression and reporting from exile that courageously keeps the flame of press freedom alive in the Central American country. Nicaraguas government, led by President Daniel Ortega and his wife and co-president, Rosario Murillo, has been cracking down on dissent since it violently repressed protests in 2018, claiming they were backed by foreign powers that sought his overthrow. In his letter to UNESCO, Jaentschke claimed La Prensa is a pro-U.S. media and represents the vile betrayal against our Motherland. Heres a look at the dispute: UNESCOs Guillermo Cano PrizeUNESCO member states created the World Press Freedom Prize in 1997. The only U.N. prize awarded to journalists, it is named after Colombian newspaper journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, who was assassinated in Colombias capital, Bogota, in 1986. An international jury of media professionals that recommended La Prensa for the 2025 award on Saturday said through its chairman that the newspaper, founded almost a century ago in 1926, has made courageous efforts to report the truth to the people of Nicaragua.UNESCO said that since 2021, following the imprisonment and expulsion of its leaders from the country as well as the confiscation of its assets, La Prensa has continued to inform the Nicaraguan population online, with most of its team in exile and operating from Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Germany and the United States. Some other recent laureates included Belarus top independent journalists organization, recognized in 2022, and, in 2019, journalists Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone who were jailed in Myanmar for their reporting on the militarys brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims. Nicaraguas furyJaentschkes letter said UNESCO recognition for La Prensa was undeserved and that the agencys actions were unacceptable and inadmissible.The minister alleged, without offering evidence, that La Prensa has promoted U.S. military and political intervention in Nicaragua.It is deeply shameful that UNESCO appears as the promoter, and obviously as an accomplice, of an action that offends and attacks the deepest Values of Nicaraguas National Identity and Culture, his signed and stamped letter said.UNESCOs regretIn a statement announcing Nicaraguas decision to leave, Azoulay said UNESCO is fully within its mandate when it defends freedom of expression and press freedom around the world. I regret this decision, which will deprive the people of Nicaragua of the benefits of cooperation, particularly in the fields of education and culture, she said. Trumps UNESCO review In his first presidency, Trump looked dimly on Ortegas rule. In 2018, Trump signed into law a bill to cut off resources to the government of Nicaragua.But hes also not been much of a fan of UNESCO. In an executive order in February, Trump called for a review of American involvement in the agency. In his first presidency, Trumps administration in 2017 announced that the U.S. would withdraw from UNESCO, citing anti-Israel bias. That decision took effect a year later.The United States formally rejoined UNESCO in 2023 after a five-year absence, under the presidency of Joe Biden.

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A woman adjusts a photo of the late Pope Francis in cafe in front of San Paolo Della Croce parish church in Corviale neighbourhood, in Rome, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)2025-05-04T19:31:46Z ROME (AP) At Masses in Romes housing projects and in the heart of its tourist district, the faithful prayed Sunday for the upcoming conclave that will elect Pope Francis successor.Whether in the squat 1980s concrete church of San Paolo della Croce, next to a notorious public housing project, or facing millennium-old golden mosaics in Santa Maria in Trastevere, Catholics shared two main hopes for the churchs future.Young and old, Romans and migrants alike said they would like the next pontiff to make faith accessible to those on the margins and help bring peace to a world they see as teeming with dangers.Next pope should focus on poorMichele Cufaro said he prays the next pope will focus on the poor, poverty, eliminate hatred, meanness and wars, and re-educate the youth who are getting totally lost.The glass and metalworker first lived in the Corviale projects across the street a multistory grey public housing block that snakes on a hilltop for more than 3,100 feet (1 km) when it was built in the early 1980s. He said he knows firsthand the reality of poverty, addiction and exclusion that continues to plague many of its residents. I come to entrust myself to a higher power, for the things that I cant solve myself, Cufaro said after Mass at San Paolo as tears welled in his eyes remembering Francis outreach.The pontiff, who died on April 21 at age 88, visited the parish in 2018, and comforted a child worried about whether his recently deceased atheist father would be in in heaven. We need a pope who comes to visit usWe need a pope who comes to visit us, to see the situation, said Ida Di Giovannantonio, who recalled meeting Francis on that visit.She said she cried every day when she moved to the projects four decades ago, when she was in her 40s, and only felt safe going to the parish.Its been a place of refuge. The poor need welcoming and love, said Di Giovannantonio, whos also volunteered with the churchs food bank. On Sunday, a shopping cart stood by the churchs entrance with a sign encouraging the faithful to leave food donations. Continuing Francis legacyLess than 10 kilometers (6 miles) away but in a different socioeconomic world, at Santa Maria in the riverside neighborhood of Trastevere, Lisa Remondino said she hopes the next pope will continue Francis legacy, especially in helping migrants.I hope it will be a welcoming pope, and also a pope who has the courage to fight for peace. He was the only voice we had against war, the powerful, and arms, said the kindergarten teacher, who belongs to the Catholic charity SantEgidio that has worked closely with Francis to help migrants and refugees.One of the cardinals considered top contenders to succeed him, the Rev. Matteo Zuppi of Rome, has served in various capacities both at SantEgidio and close-by Santa Maria, whose foundation dates to the 3rd century.In the outside portico decorated with ancient marble inscriptions and swarming with tourists, Marta Finati said she hoped that the church would continue to respect dogmas, but also be open to the wider society.The next pope should embrace a moral and political leadership for peace that would provide a reference point for non-Catholics too, she added. Rushing to change into an altar server robes at Sunday afternoons Mass at Santa Maria, Mathieu Dansoko, who came to Italy from Mali a decade ago, said coming to church is like being with your family.The next pope should have the basic courage to bring the neediest from the peripheries to the center, he said.Losing Francis a big blowBack on the periphery of Corviale, the parish priest, the Rev. Roberto Cassano, said losing Francis was a big blow for his congregation because Pope Francis visit had interrupted for a moment the marginalization of these people.We need to get back a bit to God, he added in the tidy rose garden between the church and the housing block that packs in more than 1,500 families. So much meanness, so much egoism, so much selfishness is the fruit also of the lack of Gods presence in peoples lives. Different social problems would still exist, but a little less acute. At Sunday morning Mass, several faithful stopped by the last pew to greet an occasional visitor Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India, who was in Rome for the conclave gatherings, though having turned 80 at the end of last year, he can no longer cast a vote.Upon election, each cardinal gets a titular parish in Rome, and on Sunday many celebrated Mass at theirs. In his homily, Gracias mentioned the different legacies of the last three popes St. John Paul IIs world-changing geopolitical impacts, Benedict XVIs scholarship, and Francis pastoral care. He urged the more than 100 faithful to pray that the Holy Spirit may give us a pope who meets the needs of the times. Elisabetta Bonifazi, who finds in San Paolo her point of reference, said in a world rife with wars and contradictions, the new pope will need all the divine guidance and prayers. He will have to keep carrying this burden forward, she said. Were in an extremely difficult moment.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Rapper Sean "Puffy" Combs, center, speaks to the media outside of court in New York after his assault case was postponed on June 24, 1999. (AP Photo/Lynsey Addario, File)2025-05-04T11:50:49Z For more than two decades, Sean Diddy Combs was one of hip-hops most opportunistic entrepreneurs, spinning his hitmaking talents into a broad business empire that included a record label, a fashion brand, a TV network, deals with liquor companies and a key role in a reality TV show.But U.S. prosecutors say that behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.Combs has pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations. Jury selection for his trial starts Monday.Here is a timeline of major events in his rise and fall:1990: Combs, then a student at Howard University, gets his start in the music business with an internship at Uptown Records in New York.Dec. 28, 1991: Nine people die at a celebrity basketball game promoted by Combs and the rapper Heavy D when thousands of fans try to get into a gym at the City College of New York. A mayoral report lays part of the blame for the catastrophe on poor planning by Combs. 1992: Combs is one of the executive producers on Whats the 411?, the debut album by Mary J. Blige. 1993: After being fired by Uptown, Combs establishes his own label, Bad Boy, which quickly cuts a lucrative deal with Arista Records.1994: Bad Boy releases Notorious B.I.G.s album Ready to Die. Two months later, Tupac Shakur survives a shooting in New York and accuses Combs and Biggie of having prior knowledge of the attack, which they deny. Shakur was later killed in a 1996 shooting in Las Vegas. 1996: Combs is convicted of criminal mischief after he allegedly threatened a photographer with a gun.1997: Biggie is killed in Los Angeles. Combs, then known as Puff Daddy, releases Ill be Missing You in honor of his slain star.1998: Combs wins two Grammys, one for best rap album for his debut No Way Out and another for best rap performance by a duo or group for Ill Be Missing You with Faith Evans. Also that year, Combs Sean John fashion line is founded. April 16, 1999: Combs and his bodyguards are charged with attacking Interscope Records music executive Steve Stoute in his New York office in a dispute over a music video. Combs is sentenced to an anger management course.Dec. 27, 1999: Combs is arrested on gun possession charges after he and his girlfriend at the time, Jennifer Lopez, fled a shooting that wounded three people at a New York City nightclub. Some witnesses tell police Combs was among the people shooting in the club. He is later charged with offering his driver $50,000 to claim ownership of the 9 mm handgun found in his car.March 17, 2001: Combs is acquitted of all charges related to the nightclub shooting. One of his rap proteges, Jamal Shyne Barrows, is convicted in the shooting and serves nearly nine years in prison. Two weeks after the trial, Combs announces he wants to be known as P. Diddy.2002: Combs becomes the producer and star of Making the Band, a talent-search TV show.Feb. 1, 2004: Combs performs at the Super Bowl halftime show along with Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and others. A week later, Combs, Nelly and Murphy Lee win a Grammy for best rap performance by a duo or group for Shake Ya Tailfeather. April, 2004: Combs makes his Broadway acting debut in A Raisin in the Sun.2005: Combs announces he is changing his stage name to Diddy, getting rid of the P.March, 2008: Combs settles a lawsuit brought by a man who claims Combs punched him after a post-Oscar party outside a Hollywood hotel the previous year. In May, Combs is honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.2015: Combs is arrested after a confrontation at UCLA in Los Angeles, where one of his sons played football. Assault charges are later dropped.2016: Combs launches the Capital Preparatory School charter school in Harlem. Also that year, he announces he is donating $1 million to Howard University.2017: Combs is named the top earner on Forbes list of the 100 highest-paid celebrities, which says he brought in $130 million in a single year. 2018: Kim Porter, Combs former girlfriend and mother of three of his children, dies from pneumonia at age 47.2022: Combs receives a lifetime honor at the BET Awards.September, 2023: Combs releases The Love Album Off the Grid, his first solo studio project since 2006s chart-topping Press Play.Nov. 16, 2023: R&B singer Cassie sues Combs, alleging he subjected her to years of abuse, including beatings and rape. A day later, the lawsuit is settled under undisclosed terms. Combs, through his attorney, denies the accusations.Nov. 23, 2023: Two more women accuse Combs of sexual abuse in lawsuits. Combs attorneys call the allegations false. Dozens of additional lawsuits follow by women and men who accuse Combs of rape, sexual assault and other attacks. Plaintiffs include singer Dawn Richard, a Making the Band contestant who alleged years of psychological and physical abuse. Combs denies all the allegations. March 25, 2024: Federal agents search Combs homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida.May 17, 2024: CNN airs video that shows Combs attacking and beating Cassie in a hotel hallway in Los Angeles in 2016. Two days later, Combs posts videos on social media apologizing for the assault.Sept. 16, 2024: Combs is arrested at his Manhattan hotel. A sex trafficking and racketeering indictment unsealed the next day accuses him of using his business empire to coerce women into participating in sexual performances. Combs denies the allegations. His attorney calls it an unjust prosecution of an imperfect person.May 5, 2025: Jury selection is scheduled to begin for Combs trial.

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A hacker has breached and stolen customer data from TeleMessage, an obscure Israeli company that sells modified versions of Signal and other messaging apps to the U.S. government to archive messages, 404 Media has learned. The data stolen by the hacker contains the contents of some direct messages and group chats sent using its Signal clone, as well as modified versions of WhatsApp, Telegram, and WeChat. TeleMessage was recently the center of a wave of media coverage after Mike Waltz accidentally revealed he used the tool in a cabinet meeting with President Trump.The hack shows that an app gathering messages of the highest ranking officials in the governmentWaltzs chats on the app include recipients that appear to be Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard, and JD Vancecontained serious vulnerabilities that allowed a hacker to trivially access the archived chats of some people who used the same tool. The hacker has not obtained the messages of cabinet members, Waltz, and people he spoke to, but the hack shows that the archived chat logs are not end-to-end encrypted between the modified version of the messaging app and the ultimate archive destination controlled by the TeleMessage customer.Data related to Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the cryptocurrency giant Coinbase, and other financial institutions are included in the hacked material, according to screenshots of messages and backend systems obtained by 404 Media.Do you know anything else about TeleMessage? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at signalaccount.05 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.The breach is hugely significant not just for those individual customers, but also for the U.S. government more widely. On Thursday, 404 Media was first to report that at the time U.S. National Security Advisor Waltz accidentally revealed he was using TeleMessages modified version of Signal during the cabinet meeting. The use of that tool raised questions about what classification of information was being discussed across the app and how that data was being secured, and came after revelations top U.S. officials were using Signal to discuss active combat operations.The hacker did not access all messages stored or collected by TeleMessage, but could have likely accessed more data if they decided to, underscoring the extreme risk posed by taking ordinarily secure end-to-end encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and adding an extra archiving feature to them.I would say the whole process took about 15-20 minutes, the hacker said, describing how they broke into TeleMessages systems. It wasnt much effort at all. 404 Media does not know the identity of the hacker, but has verified aspects of the material they have anonymously provided.A screenshot provided by the hacker. Redactions by 404 Media.The data includes apparent message contents; the names and contact information for government officials; usernames and passwords for TeleMessages backend panel; and indications of what agencies and companies might be TeleMessage customers. The data is not representative of all of TeleMessages customers or the sorts of messages it covers; instead, it is snapshots of data passing through TeleMessages servers at a point in time. The hacker was able to login to the TeleMessage backend panel using the usernames and passwords found in these snapshots.A message sent to a group chat called Upstanding Citizens Brigade included in the hacked data says its source type is Signal, indicating it came from TeleMessages modified version of the messaging app. The message itself was a link to this tweet posted on Sunday which is a clip of an NBC Meet the Press interview with President Trump about his memecoin. The hacked data includes phone numbers that were part of the group chat.One hacked message was sent to a group chat apparently associated with the crypto firm Galaxy Digital. One message said, need 7 dems to get to 60.. would be very close to the GD Macro group. Another message said, Just spoke to a D staffer on the senate side - 2 cosponsors (Alsobrooks and gillibrand) did not sign the opposition letter so they think the bill still has a good chance of passage the senate with 5 more Ds supporting it.This means a hacker was able to steal what appears to be active, timely discussion about the efforts behind passing a hugely important and controversial cryptocurrency bill; Saturday, Democratic lawmakers published a letter explaining they would oppose it. Bill cosponsors Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand did not sign that letter.One screenshot of the hackers access to a TeleMessage panel lists the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of CBP officials. The screenshot says select 0 of 747, indicating that there may be that many CBP officials included in the data. A similar screenshot shows the contact information of current and former Coinbase employees.Another screenshot obtained by 404 Media mentions Scotiabank. Financial institutions might turn to a tool like TeleMessage to comply with regulations around keeping copies of business communications. Governments have legal requirements to preserve messages in a similar way.Another screenshot indicates that the Intelligence Branch of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police may be using the tool.A screenshot provided by the hacker. Redactions by 404 Media.The hacker was able to access data that the app captured intermittently for debugging purposes, and would not have been able to capture every single message or piece of data that passes through TeleMessages service. However, the sample data they captured did contain fragments of live, unencrypted data passing through TeleMessages production server on their way to getting archived.404 Media verified the hacked data in various ways. First, 404 Media phoned some of the numbers listed as belonging to CBP officials. In one case, a person who answered said their name was the same as the one included in the hacked data, then confirmed their affiliation with CBP when asked. The voicemail message for another number included the name of an alleged CBP official included in the data.404 Media ran several phone numbers that appeared to be associated with employees at crypto firms Coinbase and Galaxy through a search tool called OSINT Industries, which confirmed that these phone numbers belonged to people who worked for these companies.The server that the hacker compromised is hosted on Amazon AWSs cloud infrastructure in Northern Virginia. By reviewing the source code of TeleMessages modified Signal app for Android, 404 Media confirmed that the app sends message data to this endpoint. 404 Media also made an HTTP request to this server to confirm that it is online.TeleMessage came to the fore after a Reuters photographer took a photo in which Waltz was using his mobile phone. Zooming in on that photo revealed he was using a modified version of Signal made by TeleMessage. The photograph came around a month after The Atlantic reported that top U.S. officials were using Signal to message one another about military operations. As part of that, Waltz accidentally added the editor-in-chief of the publication to the Signal group chat.TeleMessage offers governments and companies a way to archive messages from end-to-end encrypted messaging apps such as Signal and WhatsApp. TeleMessage does this by making modified versions of those apps that send copies of messages to a remote server. A video from TeleMessage posted to YouTube claims that its app keeps intact the Signal security and end-to-end encryption when communicating with other Signal users.The only difference is the TeleMessage version captures all incoming and outgoing Signal messages for archiving purposes, the video continues.It is not true that an archiving solution properly preserves the security offered by an end-to-end encrypted messaging app such as Signal. Ordinarily, only someone sending a Signal message and their intended recipient will be able to read the contexts of the message. TeleMessage essentially adds a third party to that conversation by sending copies of those messages somewhere else for storage. If not stored securely, those copies could in turn be susceptible to monitoring or falling into the wrong hands.That theoretical risk has now become very real.A Signal spokesperson previously told 404 Media in email We cannot guarantee the privacy or security properties of unofficial versions of Signal.White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly previously told NBC News in an email: As we have said many times, Signal is an approved app for government use and is loaded on government phones.The hacker told 404 Media that they targeted TeleMessage because they were just curious how secure it was. They did not want to disclose the issue to the company directly because they believed the company might try their best to cover it up.If I could have found this in less than 30 minutes then anybody else could too. And who knows how long its been vulnerable? the hacker said.404 Media is not explaining in detail how the hacker managed to obtain this data in case others may try to exploit the same vulnerability.According to public procurement records, TeleMessage has contracts with a range of U.S. government agencies, including the State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Guy Levit, CEO of TeleMessage, directed a request for comment to a press representative of Smarsh, TeleMessages parent company. That representative did not immediately respond to an email or voicemail.Recently, after the wave of media coverage about Waltzs use of the tool, TeleMessage wiped its website. Before then it contained details on the services it offers, what its apps were capable of, and in some cases direct downloads for the archiving apps themselves.Neither CBP, Coinbase, Scotiabank, Galaxy Digital, nor Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police responded to a request for comment.

Beyond the politics is a brew of resentment and reverence that the president, an Ivy League graduate himself, has long harbored for a club that has never accepted him.

Shabbos Kestenbaum sued Harvard over accusations that it had ignored antisemitism when he was a student. His criticism has taken him to the White House and all over the world.

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia stands on top of his car after winning the Formula One Miami Grand Prix auto race Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Miami Gardens. Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)2025-05-04T21:41:49Z MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) Oscar Piastri maintained his advantage in the Formula 1 championship fight by winning the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday for his fourth win through six races this season.Piastri has now won three consecutive F1 races for McLaren Racing, where he and teammate Lando Norris are trying to dethrone four-time defending champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull. Piastri is the first McLaren driver to win three consecutive F1 races in 28 years; Mika Hakkinen did it with a win in the 1997 season finale and then victories in the first two races of 1998.He widened his lead over Norris in the driver standings to 16 points, while Verstappen trails Piastri by 32 points.Norris earned his first Grand Prix victory last year at Miami when he snapped Verstappens two-year winning streak at the course surrounding Hard Rock Stadium. Norris also won the sprint race on Saturday Piastri dominated but a late safety car cost him the victory but Verstappen won the pole in qualifying. Verstappen, who announced the birth of his first child Friday morning, has been determined to disprove the myth that fatherhood would make him a more conservative driver. It was evident as he darted away at the start and then aggressively held off Norris challenge for the lead. The Red Bull and McLaren were side-by-side and Norris was trying to edge ahead of the Dutchman, but he ran off track and lost four spots. Norris said Verstappen forced him off track and there was nothing he could do but try to avoid running into a wall but F1 took no action against Verstappen. What can I say? If I dont go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, Norris said. You cant win. But it really just how it is with Max its crash or their pass.Norris recovered and picked his way back toward the front, but not before Piastri took control away from Verstappen on the 14th of 57 laps. McLaren has decided it will allow Piastri and Norris to race each other cleanly without team orders, and Norris was cleared to challenge his Australian teammate for the victory. In the waning laps, Norris was able to close the gap but could never catch Piastri and settled for second in a 1-2 finish for McLaren. The two held a nearly 40-second advantage over George Russell of Mercedes, who finished third.Verstappen faded to fourth.Its just incredible, the hard work thats gone in, Piastri said of McLaren. I remember two years ago here in Miami, we were genuinely the slowest team. I think we got lapped twice and to now have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result of the hard work of every single person.Alex Albon of Williams was fifth, Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes was sixth and Charles Leclerc was seventh after Ferrari ordered Lewis Hamilton to give his teammate the position in the closing laps. Hamilton was eighth.Carlos Sainz Jr. was ninth for Williams and Yuki Tsunoda was 10th for Red Bull. Doohan in doubtJack Doohan ran into another car on the opening lap and then crashed on the second lap a showing that wont quiet chatter the rookie is on the verge of being replaced at Alpine by Franco Colapinto.There have been media reports in Argentina that Colapinto will replace Doohan at F1s next race, later this month in Italy. It was dismissed at the start of the Miami weekend by Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes, who indicated as it is today the Australian would still be in the seat at Imola.I think it was a sponsor from Argentina off-camera giving his view on Franco, when hes going to be in the car. Im sure theres a lot of people in Argentina whod like him in the car this Sunday, Oakes said about the speculation. Weve been pretty open as a team that thats just noise. Jack needs to continue doing a good job. But its natural that theres always speculation there.As it is today, Jack is our driver along with Pierre (Gasly), he continued. Weve been pretty clear on that. We always evaluate, but today that is the case.Doohan, who didnt complete two laps Sunday and finished last, has yet to score a point this season through six races. His best finish was 13th at the Chinese Grand Prix.___AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Thousands of migrants from Venezuela and other countries are stranded in southern Mexico, forbidden to travel or work, but lacking the papers or money to go back to their home countries.

For nearly four decades the prop house History for Hire has helped filmmakers recreate the past. But with fewer films shot in Los Angeles, they are not sure how much longer they can hang on.

George Simion bucked a recent trend of voters around the world punishing candidates seen as friendly to President Trump.

In voting in Canada and Australia, right-wing parties that borrowed from the MAGA playbook were punished. Elsewhere, President Trump is having a more complex impact.

A boat makes its way toward Alcatraz Island with the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the background in this view from Sausalito, Calif., Dec. 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)2025-05-04T23:18:30Z NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump says he is directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the notorious former prison on a hard-to-reach California island that has been closed for more than 60 years.In a post on his Truth Social site Sunday evening, Trump wrote that, For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering. When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm. Thats the way its supposed to be.That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house Americas most ruthless and violent Offenders, he wrote, adding: The reopening of ALCATRAZ will serve as a symbol of Law, Order, and JUSTICE. The prison infamously inescapable due to the strong ocean currents and cold Pacific waters that surround it was known as the The Rock and housed some of the nations most notorious criminals, including gangster Al Capone and George Machine Gun Kelly. It has long been part of the cultural imagination and has been the subject of numerous movies, including The Rock starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage. Still in the 29 years it was open, 36 men attempted 14 separate escapes, according to the FBI. Nearly all were caught or didnt survive the attempt.The fate of three particular inmates John Anglin, his brother Clarence and Frank Morris is of some debate and was dramatized in the 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz starring Clinton Eastwood. Alcatraz Island is now a major tourist site that is operate by the National Parks Service and is a designated National Historic Landmark. The closure of the federal prison in 1963 was attributed to crumbling infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying the island facility, because everything from fuel to food had to be brought by boat.A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement that the agency will comply with all Presidential Orders. The spokesperson did not immediately answer questions from The Associated Press regarding the practicality and feasibility of reopening Alcatraz or the agencys role in the future of the former prison given the National Park Services control of the island.The island serves as a veritable time machine to a bygone era of corrections. The Bureau of Prisons currently has 16 penitentiaries performing the same high-security functions as Alcatraz, including its maximum security facility in Florence, Colorado, and the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, which is home to the federal death chamber.The order comes as Trump has been clashing with the courts as he tries to send accused gang members to a notorious prison in El Salvador, without due process. Trump has also directed the opening of a detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,to hold up to 30,000 of what he has labeled the worst criminal aliens. The Bureau of Prisons has faced myriad crises in recent years and has been subjected to increased scrutiny after Jeffrey Epsteins suicide at a federal jail in New York City in 2019. An AP investigation uncovered deep, previously unreported flaws within the Bureau of Prisons. AP reporting has disclosed widespread criminal activity by employees, dozens of escapes, chronic violence, deaths and severe staffing shortages that have hampered responses to emergencies, including assaults and suicides.The APs investigation also exposed rampant sexual abuse at a federal womens prison in Dublin, California. Last year, President Joe Biden signed a law strengthening oversight of the agency after AP reporting spotlighted its many flaws.___ Sisak reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York. mailto MICHAEL R. SISAK Sisak is an Associated Press reporter covering law enforcement and courts in New York City, including former President Donald Trumps criminal and civil cases and problems plaguing the federal prison system. twitter mailto

Mr. Deepfakes, the go-to site for nonconsensual deepfake porn, says its shutting down and not coming back because it lost a service provider and data.A critical service provider has terminated service permanently. Data loss has made it impossible to continue operation, a notice that appears when visitors go to the site now says. The site's forums and videos are no longer available at the time of writing. We will not be relaunching. Any website claiming this is fake. This domain will eventually expire and we are not responsible for future use. This message will be removed around one week.We dont know why Mr. Deepfakes was shut down, which service it was cut from, and why. The person behind the site is also still anonymous, though in January the German newspaper Der Spiegel said it was able to identify them as a 36-year-old in Toronto who has been working at a hospital for several years.While this is an important victory for victims of non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII), it is far too little and far too long in the making, Hany Farid, a professor at UC Berkeley and one of the worlds leading experts on digitally manipulated images, told us in an email. The technology, financial, and advertising services that continue to profit from and enable sites like mrdeepfakes have to take more responsibility for their part in the creation and distribution of NCII. While this takedown is a good start, there are many more just like this one, so lets not stop here.Shortly after we first reported about the emergence of deepfake videos in 2017, named after the pseudonymous Reddit user of the same name who first started sharing videos that face swapped female celebrities into existing porn videos, the practice quickly spread to other corners of the internet. But no site was as central to the development, distribution, and monetization of deepfake porn videos like Mr. Deepfakes, which quickly gained popularity after Reddit, Pornhub, and other sites banned deepfake porn and other forms of nonconsensual media following our reporting.Do you know anything else about the people behind Mr. Deepfakes? We would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message Emanuel securely on Signal at (609) 678-3204. Otherwise, email him emanuel@404media.co. Using a non-work device, you can message Sam securely on Signal at +1 646 926 1726. Otherwise, send her an email at sam@404media.co.Mr. Deepfakes allowed users to upload videos to its site like other porn tube sites, and also connected users with creators, who sold their services and created videos per request. These creators were often paid via cryptocurrency. While other porn tube sites, social media, and various internet platforms gradually banned nonconsensual synthetic sexual media over the years and have successfully moderated against it to various degrees of success, Mr. Deepfake kept hosting these videos the entire time.More importantly, the Mr. Deepfakes forums became an important resource for people who created nonconsensual media. Users on the site flocked to the forums to develop new techniques with each other, link to apps and tools that helped them create deepfakes, and shared datasets designed to recreate the likeness of specific real people.In 2022 we reported that DeepFaceLab, one of the most advanced and popular open-source projects for creating deepfake videos, was developed in large part by users on the Mr. Deepfakes forums. A research paper presenting the DeepFaceLab method originally credited Mr. Deepfakes (Mr. Dpfks) for providing the forums where much of its development happened. Mr. Deepfakes name was taken off the paper after our story.While Mr. Deepfakes is gone, at least for now, unfortunately its toxic legacy will likely live on forever. The community that it built has since connected on Telegram, where much of that same kind of development of techniques and sharing of nonconsensual media happens now. The tools and apps that it popularized have also spread far and wide across the internet, with even companies like Apple and Google struggling to keep it off its platforms, and social media like Instagram struggling to stop them from advertising there.

The authorities arrested Jacob Henriques, 29, after he had tried to solicit prospective and admitted students for sex, the Justice Department said. He worked for Emmanuel College in Boston.

He starred in one of the westerns that dominated TV in the late 1950s. After losing traction in Hollywood, he became a traveling clown.

President Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had raised the idea with his Mexican counterpart, Claudia Sheinbaum, who rejected it.

President Trump repeatedly said he didnt know when asked in a TV interview whether every person on American soil was entitled to due process, as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

In a lawsuit, the condo board at 432 Park Avenue says the city and potential residents were not told about the severity of early cracks in the supertall buildings exterior.

The patriotic response to todays threat to American democracy is to oppose Trump soberly and strategically.

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after disembarking Marine One upon arrival on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2025-05-05T02:22:36Z NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump is opening a new salvo in his tariff war, targeting films made outside the U.S.In a post Sunday night on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he has authorized the Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to slap a 100% tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death, he wrote, complaining that other countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw filmmakers and studios away from the U.S. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!It wasnt immediately clear how any such tariff on international productions could be implemented. Its common for both large and smaller films to include production both in the U.S. and other countries. Big-budget movies like the upcoming Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning, for instance, are shot around the world. Incentive programs for years have influenced where movies are shot, increasingly driving film production out of California and to other states and countries with favorable tax incentives, like Canada and the United Kingdom. Yet tariffs are designed to lead consumers toward American products. And in movie theaters, American-produced movies overwhelming dominate the domestic marketplace. China has ramped up its domestic movie production, culminating in the animated blockbuster Ne Zha 2 grossing more than $2 billion this year. But even then, its sales came almost entirely from mainland China. In North America, in earned just $20.9 million.The Motion Picture Association didnt immediately respond to messages Sunday evening.The MPAs data shows how much Hollywood exports have dominated cinemas. According to the MPA, the American movies produced $22.6 billion in exports and $15.3 billion in trade surplus in 2023. Trump has made good on the tariff man label he gave himself years ago, slapping new taxes on goods made in countries around the globe. That includes a 145% tariff on Chinese goods and a 10% baseline tariff on goods from other countries, with even higher levies threatened.By unilaterally imposing tariffs, Trump has exerted extraordinary influence over the flow of commerce, creating political risks and pulling the market in different directions. There are tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, with more imports, including pharmaceutical drugs, set to be subject to new tariffs in the weeks ahead.Trump has long voiced concern about movie production moving overseas.Shortly before he took office, he announced that he had tapped actors Mel Gibson, Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone to serve as special ambassadors to Hollywood to bring it BACKBIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER BEFORE!U.S. film and television production has been hampered in recent years, with setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hollywood guild strikes of 2023 and the recent wildfires in the Los Angeles area. Overall production in the U.S. was down 26% last year compared with 2021, according to data from ProdPro, which tracks production. The groups annual survey of executives, which asked about preferred filming locations, found no location in the U.S. made the top five, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Toronto, the U.K., Vancouver, Central Europe and Australia came out on top, with California placing sixth, Georgia seventh, New Jersey eighth and New York ninth.The problem is especially acute in California. In the greater Los Angeles area, production last year was down 5.6% from 2023 according to FilmLA, second only to 2020, during the peak of the pandemic. Last, October, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed expanding Californias Film & Television Tax Credit program to $750 million annually, up from $330 million. Other U.S. cities like Atlanta, New York, Chicago and San Francisco have also used aggressive tax incentives to lure film and TV productions. Those programs can take the form of cash grants, as in Texas, or tax credits, which Georgia and New Mexico offer. Other nations have been stealing the movie-making capabilities from the United States, Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday night after returning from a weekend in Florida. If theyre not willing to make a movie inside the United States we should have a tariff on movies that come in.___Associated Press writer Gary Field contributed to this report from Washington. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York. mailto JAKE COYLE Coyle has been a film critic and covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) and Draymond Green celebrate after Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets Sunday, May 4, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)2025-05-05T03:15:10Z HOUSTON (AP) Stephen Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, Buddy Hield made nine 3-pointers and scored 33 points, and the Golden State Warriors advanced to the Western Conference semifinals with a 103-89 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 7 Sunday night.The Warriors will face the Timberwolves Tuesday night in Minnesota.Hield had a scorching first half with six 3-pointers and 22 points to carry the Warriors to a 12-point lead, with Curry scoring just three points before the break. Then Curry took over in the closing minutes and performed his signature night night gesture as the Warriors put the Rockets away.The Warriors became the seventh No. 7 seed in NBA history to advance to the semifinals and eliminated Houston in the playoffs for a fifth time. They sent the James Harden-led Rockets squads packing four times between 2015 and 2019. Hield was 9 of 11 from 3-point range, setting an NBA record for a Game 7 and making more 3s than the Rockets, who were 6 of 18 from long range.Amen Thompson scored 24 points to lead Houston, which forced Game 7 with two straight wins but couldnt put away the experienced Warriors.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

As a U.S. tax loophole ends, the apparel makers that sell to America are forced to consider alternative markets or cheaper locations in and outside China.

U.S. oil prices fell to around $56 a barrel after the OPEC Plus cartel said it would bring more oil to market.

Declaring foreign film production a national security threat, the president said he had asked his top trade official to start the process of imposing a tax on Hollywood.

America must discard the belief that it is beating China in the innovation race.

The army chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, who usually works behind the scenes, has been shaping Pakistans tone in the crisis over Kashmir with his own tough talk.

Her free concert on Rio de Janeiros Copacabana Beach was not disrupted. The police said a group had planned to attack it with improvised explosives.

An Israeli army tank maneuvers in the Gaza Strip is seen from southern Israel, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)2025-05-05T05:26:52Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Israeli Cabinet ministers approved plans to intensify military operations in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli official said on Monday.The official said the plan was gradual and involved claiming more territory in the Palestinian enclave, where Israel already controls roughly half of the land. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the influential security Cabinet, a gathering of top ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, approved the decision early Monday. The approval comes a day after Israel announced it was calling up tens of thousands of reserve soldiers for the expanded operations in Gaza, which Israel says are meant to increase pressure on Hamas to negotiate a ceasefire that better aligns with Israels terms.An eight-week ceasefire with the Hamas militant group collapsed in March when Israel resumed strikes in Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians, many of them women and children. Israel also captured swaths of territory and before the ceasefire crumbled, halted all entry of aid into Gaza. It says these were means to get Hamas to show more flexibility in ceasefire talks.The barring of aid has plunged the territory of 2.3 million people into what is believed to be the worst humanitarian crisis of the war. Hunger has been widespread, and shortages have set off looting.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war TIA GOLDENBERG Goldenberg is an Associated Press reporter and producer covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. She previously reported on East and West Africa from Nairobi. twitter mailto

Cardinals attend a mass on the fifth of nine days of mourning for late Pope Francis, in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)2025-05-05T05:16:52Z VATICAN CITY (AP) There is no rule that cardinals electing a new pope vote a certain way according to their nationality or region. But understanding their makeup in geographic terms can help explain some of their priorities as they open the conclave Wednesday to choose a new leader of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.A cardinal who heads the Vaticans liturgy office might have a very different set of concerns than the archbishop of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. A cardinal who runs a large European archdiocese with hundreds of priests likely has other priorities than the Vatican ambassador ministering to war-torn Syria or the archbishop of Managua, Nicaragua whose church has been under siege by the government. There are currently 135 cardinals who are under age 80 and eligible to vote in the conclave, hailing from 71 different countries in the most geographically diverse conclave in history. Already two have formally told the Holy See that they cannot attend for health reasons, bringing the number of men who will enter the Sistine Chapel down to 133. A two-thirds majority is needed to be elected pope, meaning that if the number of electors holds at 133, the winner must secure 89 votes. Here is a regional breakdown of the full 135 cardinal electors, according to Vatican statistics and following the Vaticans geographic grouping. Europe: 53 (of whom 17 are Italian, the most of any country.) One of the electors who says hes skipping the conclave is from Spain, so the actual number of Europeans is expected to be 52. Asia (including Middle East): 23Africa: 18. One of the electors who says hes skipping the conclave is from Kenya, so the actual number of Africans is expected to be 17.North America: 16 (of whom 10 are American, 4 are Canadian and 2 are Mexican)South America: 17Central America: 4Oceania: 4 (one each from Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga)___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Supporters of Muttahida Qabail Federation party burn a rendition of the Indian flag and poster with the picture of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a demonstration in Quetta, Pakistan, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Arshad Butt)2025-05-05T05:44:15Z ISLAMABAD (AP) Irans foreign minister was in Pakistan on Monday to try and mediate in the escalation between Islamabad and New Delhi after last months deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled section of Kashmir.The visit by Abbas Araghchi was the first by a foreign dignitary since tensions flared in the wake of a deadly attack on tourists in the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistans Foreign Ministry said. The visit comes just days after Tehran offered to help ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.Araghchi was welcomed by senior Pakistani officials after landing at an airport near Islamabad. He is to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar, as well as President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the ministry said. It gave no further details.Pakistans armed forces have been on high alert since last week, after Cabinet minister Attaullah Tarar said Islamabad had credible intelligence that India could attack Pakistan in response to the April 22 assault in the resort town of Pahalgam that killed 26 tourists mostly Hindus in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan has denied any role in the attack, and offered to have a credible international probe. New Delhi has so far not accepted the offer and several world leaders, including officials from the United States, have urged both sides to exercise restraint and avoid further escalation. Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region and their ties have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, mostly due to their competing claims over Kashmir.The latest flare-up led the two countries to expel each others diplomats and nationals, as well as the shuttering of airspace. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A view taken from a Cub artillery observation plane on July 10, 1945, shows vast areas of destruction in Berlin, after repeated Anglo-American air raids on the German capital. Seen on the left, center, is the heavily damaged building of the German Reichstag with its distinct cupola, in the background center are the remains of Lehrter Bahnhof, one of the city's train stations. (AP Photo, File)2025-05-05T05:00:07Z BERLIN (AP) Central Berlin was in ruins after the Red Army completed the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in an intense fight for the capital in May 1945.After decades of division and its revival as the capital of a reunited, democratic Germany, the city is now transformed, blending painstakingly restored buildings with modern architecture. But the scars of the past remain visible in many places: facades riddled with holes from bullets and shrapnel, or gaps in rows of houses sometimes plugged by new buildings.An Associated Press story from May 9, 1945, painted a stark picture. It read: This town is a city of the dead. As a metropolis it has simply ceased to exist. Every house within miles of the center seems to have had its own bomb.Berlin, the epicenter of Adolf Hitlers power, was the ultimate prize as the Allies closed in from east and west on the disintegrating German defenses in the final stage of World War II. We all had a little case next to the bed, even the children, recalled Eva-Maria Kolb, now 89, of the constant aerial bombing in the last six months of the war. When there was an air raid warning you had to pull something on quickly and then go down to the basement. The final Battle of Berlin in late April and early May 1945 reduced much of what was left of the city to rubble. The Soviet military attacked from several directions with an enormous concentration of troops, who faced a struggle to cross rivers and canals and an intensifying street fight as they moved deeper and deeper into the city. On April 25, Berlin was encircled. Hitler killed himself in his bunker on April 30; and on May 2, the commander of German military forces in Berlin, Gen. Helmuth Weidling, capitulated to Soviet forces. Berlin was a heap of rubble because of these last 10 days, almost everything in the center was ruined, said Jrg Morr, the director of the Museum Berlin-Karlshorst, located in the building where Germanys final surrender was signed. But the infrastructure could be repaired relatively quickly the sewerage system wasnt so badly damaged. They managed to get the water supply and pipes going again. A lot of old Berliners are still familiar with hand pumps ... electricity came, so that the trams starting running again, and the commuter trains.Kolb said: It was, of course, a great relief in 45 that the war was over and Hitler was no longer alive ... everyone who wasnt a Nazi was very, very grateful that the war was over.She recalled that parts of the city were rubble, but she went to a school in the Tempelhof district, south of the center, that was only half-ruined. It no longer had a roof and the second or third floor was missing but we had lessons. Only when it rained were lessons canceled. This marked the endPost-war Berlin was divided into sectors controlled by the wartime allies. That hardened into a Cold War division that saw two separate German states founded in 1949 and ultimately led to the building in 1961 of the Berlin Wall, which fell 28 years later as communist rule collapsed in East Germany. Germany was reunited in 1990 and the national government moved to Berlin in 1999. Parliament now meets in the restored Reichstag, where the raising of the Soviet Unions red flag in 1945 was emblematic of the victory over Nazi Germany. Graffiti left by Soviet troops at the Reichstag has been preserved at several places in the building.The military surrender of Berlin on May 2, 1945, wasnt quite the end of the war. Hitlers successor, Grand Adm. Karl Dnitz, tried to fight on but was quickly forced to negotiate Germanys surrender. Germanys unconditional capitulation was signed at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, on May 7 and came into effect the following day. But the Soviet Union had only a liaison officer at the ceremony and fighting against the Red Army continued in the east, so a second ceremony was agreed at Soviet headquarters in Berlin on May 8, Morr said. As a result, the West and Russia mark the end of the war in Europe on May 8 and May 9, respectively.In this room, World War II ended in Europe, he said, in the preserved hall where the capitulation was signed in Berlin. This marked the end.___Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)2025-05-05T04:43:47Z BAGHDAD (AP) As a general amnesty law takes effect in Iraq, the countrys prisons are facing a crisis of overcrowding, housing more than double their intended capacity, the countrys justice minister said in an interview.Justice Minister Khaled Shwani told The Associated Press on Saturday that Iraqs 31 prisons currently hold approximately 65,000 inmates, despite the system being built to accommodate only half that number. He acknowledged that the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison healthcare and human rights standards.When we took office, overcrowding stood at 300%, he said. After two years of reform, weve reduced it to 200%. Our goal is to bring that down to 100% by next year in line with international standards.Thousands more detainees remain in the custody of security agencies but have not yet been transferred to the Ministry of Justice due to lack of prison capacity. Four new prisons are under construction, Shwani said, while three have been closed in recent years. Two others have been opened and six existing prisons expanded. The general amnesty law passed in January had strong support from Sunni lawmakers who argue that their community has been disproportionately targeted by terrorism charges, with confessions sometimes extracted under torture. But opponents say the law would allow the release of people involved in public corruption and embezzlement as well as militants who committed war crimes. The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, said in a statement that the current version of the general amnesty law raises deep concerns over its potential legal and security consequences.Shwani said 2,118 prisoners have been released from the justice ministrys prisons since the amnesty law took effect, while others had been released from the custody of security agencies before being transferred to the Ministry of Justice. We have a committee studying the status of inmates and identifying those who may qualify for release, but the vision is not yet final, he said. The minister said he expects a good number to be released but cannot specify an exact percentage until we receive clarity from the judiciary on who qualifies for the amnesty.Iraqs prisons house hundreds of foreign nationals, most of them convicted of terrorism-related charges or affiliation with the al-Qaida and Islamic State militant groups. The inmates hail from countries including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Egypt, North African nations, and several European states, as well as a handful of U.S. citizens. Shwani said discussions are underway with several governments to repatriate their citizens, excluding those sentenced to death.He said inmates have been repatriated under existing agreements with Iran, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, including 127 Iranian inmates who were recently transferred back to Tehran.An Iranian who was convicted in the 2022 killing of a U.S. citizen in Baghdad remains in custody, however, Shwani said.Stephen Edward Troell, 45, a native of Tennessee, was fatally shot in his car in November by assailants as he pulled up to the street where he lived in Baghdads central Karrada district with his family. Iranian citizen Mohammed Ali Ridha was convicted in the killing, along with four Iraqis, in what was described as a kidnapping gone wrong. All executions have been halted following the issuance of the general amnesty law, Shwani said.Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups over its application of the death penalty and particularly over mass executions carried out without prior notice to lawyers or family members of the prisoners.Shwani pushed back against the criticisms of prison conditions and of the executions.There are strict measures in place for any violations committed against inmates, he said. Many employees have been referred for investigation, dismissed, and prosecuted.He insisted that the number of executions carried out is limited not as high as reported in the media and said the death penalty is only applied in crimes that severely threaten national security and public safety, including inmates convicted in a 2016 bombing attack in Baghdads Karrada district that killed hundreds of people, as well as cases of child rape and high-ranking IS leaders.Executions have been paused to reassess cases under the new amnesty law, he said.

Tazz Webster, who ultimately wound up homeless after an apartment manager allegedly ridiculed and shoved him because he is transgender, poses for a photo, April 9, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)2025-05-05T05:24:15Z As a transgender man, the words youre a girl gutted Tazz Webster, a taunt hurled at him from the day he moved into his St. Louis apartment.The government-subsidized buildings manager also insisted on calling Webster by the wrong name, the 38-year-old said, and ridiculed him with shouts of, Youre not a real man! I just felt like I was being terrorized, Webster told The Associated Press. I felt that I was being judged and mistreated, like I was less of a human being.Then one day in March 2022, the manager shoved Webster so hard he stumbled backward. After regaining his balance, Webster said he pushed the manager back. Four months later he was homeless. Webster filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developments Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office, the agency tasked with investigating housing discrimination and enforcing the landmark Fair Housing Act that guarantees equal access to housing for all Americans. Websters harassment allegation was serious enough that it was investigated for more than two years, until the office suddenly notified him in February it was dropping his case without a finding, citing lack of jurisdiction. The timing of the closure was not a coincidence.In the months since President Donald Trump took back the White House and installed a loyalist to lead the federal housing department, HUD Secretary Scott Turner and his team have moved swiftly and strategically to undo, uproot and remake the agencys decades of work and priorities. In the crosshairs is an intense focus on transgender people, as HUD retreats from long-established fair-housing protections by closing their discrimination complaints and, more broadly, moving to undo the Obama-era Equal Access Rule that cemented transgender peoples rights to discrimination protection in housing.Its time to get rid of all the far-left gender ideology and get government out of the way of what the Lord established from the beginning when he created man in his own image male and female, Turner said in announcing in February that he was halting enforcement of the Equal Access Rule.Sex discrimination in the Fair Housing ActAt issue is the fact that discrimination against LGBTQ+ people wasnt specifically cited in the Fair Housing Act. But the Equal Access Rule enacted in 2012 under former President Barack Obama further defined sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity.The policy was expanded in 2016 to cover transgender people seeking help at federally funded emergency shelters, escalating opposition from the right. In 2020, the first Trump administration unsuccessfully moved to relieve shelters of any obligation to serve transgender people. Now, advocates fear an emboldened Trump will go further and forbid shelters from accommodating gender identity altogether, as his administration announces unspecified revisions to the Equal Access Rule. Our protections cant be a pingpong ball that changes every four years, said Seran Gee, an attorney for Advocates for Trans Equality. Have a news tip?Contact APs global investigative team at [emailprotected]. For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app +1 (202) 281-8604. Everything Webster owned was trashedAfter being left with permanent injuries in a car crash, Webster, who survives on disability payments, was grateful to move in April 2021 into an apartment near the citys 1,300-acre (526-hectare) Forest Park, scene of the 1904 Worlds Fair and home to museums and a zoo. His rent was initially less than $200 per month, he said. That is because Branscome Apartments had a contract with the federal government to provide subsidized housing to people with disabilities and low-income seniors.But the HUD money also comes with strings, said Linda Morris, staff attorney for the ACLUs Womens Rights Project, who leads the organizations housing discrimination work. The Equal Access Rule applies to HUD-funded programs and shelters, said Morris, who doesnt represent Webster. If an entity is going to accept federal funding they have to comply. Under the rule, HUD-funded housing and programs must provide equal access to everyone regardless of gender identity, and cant require intrusive questioning.Four months after the shoving incident, Webster found his door kicked in and his belongings trashed, even though, he said, he was up to date on his rent and never received an official eviction notice. Gone were his king-size bed, dishes, Social Security card and birth certificate. Even worse was the loss of the obituary for his mother, who died when he was 12, and her necklace, a treasured memento.I had nothing, said Webster, who had been mostly staying away from the apartment for fear of another run-in with the manager. I was so afraid to be there, I would go to my friends house and spent nights at a time and then come back, switch my clothes, and leave.Court records in an eviction case filed against Webster in April 2022 cited repeated unsuccessful efforts to serve him. After he was gone, the case was dropped. Last August, Webster filed a lawsuit in Missouri state court alleging he was illegally evicted. There was never a court order allowing them to change the locks, allowing them to throw away his belongings, said attorney KB Doman of Arch City Defenders, an advocacy group representing Webster. The suit seeks $25,000 in property damage and for severe emotional stress and trauma. The apartment has denied the allegations in court filings.Stephen Strum, the attorney representing the building, declined the APs requests for comment on the HUD case and said the pending lawsuit merely alleges that my client did not properly follow the steps for evicting.To Doman, Websters case reflects a larger trend. A lot of people that would have some recourse, at least through HUD investigating, really are just out on their own now, she said. Its going to be harder for trans people to find safe, stable housing, and its very hard already.Closure of Websters case is just one of many, HUD attorneys saySince Turner took the helm at HUD, the Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity has instructed staff to pause investigations of all gender identity discrimination cases, according to two HUD attorneys who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs or benefits. One said letters were then issued closing the cases for lack of jurisdiction. HUD has not disclosed how many cases have been dropped. Websters letter and another provided to the AP cite Trumps executive order calling for the federal government to define sex as only male or female. Morris, of the ACLU, said she has never seen an executive order cited in a jurisdictional closure of a complaint. So thats really alarming, said Morris, who described the closures as very much consistent with this administrations broader attacks on trans people and on civil rights more broadly. Asked about policy changes concerning transgender discrimination, HUD spokesperson Kasey Lovett said the agency was enforcing the Fair Housing Act while implementing Trumps executive order restoring biological truth to the federal government. In a statement citing Trumps order, she said government policy recognizes two sexes that are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.A nationwide federal push to erase trans identityBea Gonzalez, a transgender man, was kicked out of a suburban St. Louis domestic violence shelter on a chilly night in November 2021, along with his three children, then 2, 5 and 7. The family was just settling into a room after filling out paperwork at Bridgeway Behavioral Health Womens Center when Gonzalez was told they had to go because he disclosed he was a transgender man. I wasnt about to go back into the closet, the 33-year-old said of his insistence on telling the truth even after it was suggested he keep his trans identity secret. He needed a domestic violence shelter, he said, for greater security for the children and because he feared for his safety as a trans man in a mens shelter, some of which dont accept children anyway.The city had no domestic violence shelters for men, said his attorney Kalila Jackson. In the St. Louis metropolitan area, there was no place else for him to go. There were no other options. The family was sent to a motel, but when they arrived they discovered it hadnt been paid for, and the organization that sent them there was closed. So I was stranded, said Gonzalez, who did not have a car. I had to call a friend who was able to let us stay for the night.Jackson said Bridgeway received HUD funding and that its policy of barring transgender men was a violation of the Equal Access Rule and straight up sex discrimination. Jackson said the message the shelter sent was this: Youre biologically a girl, you should dress as a girl. Since you say that you are a man, we are not going to accept you here.HUD didnt address Gonzalezs or Websters complaints when the AP sought comment on their cases. HUD investigated Gonzalezs complaint for 2 1/2 years until it suddenly notified him in March the agency was dropping it without a finding. The company operating the shelter, Preferred Family Healthcare, did not respond to the APs requests for comment.After 455 days of being shuttled between six shelters in six cities in two states Missouri and Illinois Gonzalez ultimately found stable housing, where his children live with him part time.He sees what happened as part of what he describes as a nationwide federal push to erase trans identity.Shelters struggle to comply with Trump directivesAdvocates are concerned by HUDs shift, noting high rates of discrimination and homelessness among people who are LGBTQ+. Nearly one-third of trans people say they have been homeless at some point in their lives, while 70% who stayed in a shelter reported being harassed, assaulted or kicked out because of their gender identity, according to an Advocates for Trans Equality survey released in 2015, a year before Obama expanded protections for trans people in shelters. Teens who come out to families who arent accepting are particularly at risk, said Ann Olivia, CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Some shelters that might have served them in the past are becoming less welcoming now amid upheaval with the Equal Access Rule, Olivia said.Folks who are trans just wont go if they dont think that theyre going to be treated with respect, she said, adding that is particularly problematic for young people who are vulnerable to sex traffickers and to other types of abuse.Further complicating the situation are seemingly contradictory requirements in new HUD contracts with nonprofits that find permanent housing and run shelters for the homeless. One section stipulates they cant promote gender ideology while another requires compliance with anti-discrimination law, according to a copy provided to the AP.Organizations say they are confused.What is promoting gender ideology? What does that mean? asked Jeannette Ruffins, CEO of Homeward NYC, a nonprofit that runs three permanent housing sites for LGBTQ+ young adults, as well as a homeless shelter. Does housing LGBTQ young adults promote gender identity? she asked. You know, theyre coming to us. This is already their gender identity. Like Im not promoting it. Ruffins called a board meeting to discuss potential vulnerabilities on their website, something she said most New York City nonprofits were doing as well.Her organization made small changes to their website, saying they were LGBTQ+ affirming and friendly in a few places rather than LGBTQ+ serving, hoping that will make them less of a target. In Memphis, Tennessee, a nonprofit that provides emergency shelter for transgender people is looking to increase capacity because of the uncertainty. Kayla Gore, executive director of My Sistahs House, said it can do that because it doesnt take federal funding.People are confused, Gore said. They dont know what to do because they want to protect their bottom line.This is the world Nearly three years after losing his apartment, Webster remains homeless, staying with friends and sometimes sleeping on the floor. He is on a waiting list for subsidized housing because he cant afford rent otherwise. But he expects the massive federal funding cuts and Trump administration directives banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives will make the wait even longer.Lets be honest. This is the world, he said. People, they do hateful things. If you legalize them to hating, then they feel like they have a right. SALLY HO Ho is an investigative and business news reporter for The Associated Press. Shes filed public records requests in all 50 U.S. states and covered a range of major world events. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr calls out to his players in the first half of Game 7 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Houston Rockets in Houston, Sunday, May 4, 2025. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)2025-05-05T05:47:11Z HOUSTON (AP) With a chance to close out their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets instead delivered a playoff flop to end their season Sunday night.The Rockets won consecutive games to claw back from a 3-1 deficit and force a Game 7 but played their worst game of the series to be sent packing with a 103-89 loss.We had our chances in this series, coach Ime Udoka said. We all expected to continue to be playing so its a letdown. Its going to sting now but use it as motivation and lets all come back better. Dont be satisfied.Houston won 52 games to capture the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference and return to the postseason for the first time since 2020. The seven seed Warriors eliminated the Rockets in the playoffs for a fifth time after doing so four times between 2015 and 2019. We had whatever amount of wins and second place and all that, but nobody cares about that right now, Udoka said. Its about where we finished.Stephen Curry scored 14 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter and Buddy Hield made nine 3-pointers and finished with 33 points to lead Golden State to the win. Hield was 9 of 11 from 3-point range, setting an NBA record for a Game 7 and making more 3s than the Rockets, who were 6 of 18 from long range.They didnt lead after the first quarter and allowed Curry to get going in the second half to put the game away after Hield carried the team in first two quarters. Fred Vleet scored a combined 55 points in the last two games to help Houston extend the series. But he was limited to 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting Sunday as the Rockets were sent home early.He was far from the only Rockets player who struggled. Big man Alperen Sengun had 21 points and 14 rebounds. But he missed several easy shots on a 9-of-23 night.Despite the loss, Sengun was proud to see the growth of the team which won just 22 games in the 2022-23 season. We learned how to play together, he said. We talk every day. It was a hard series for us. Obviously, were upset right now, but its going to be a great offseason for us and its going to make us better next year.Jalen Green, who had 38 points to lead Houston to a Game 2 win, finished with eight points.First playoffs is no excuse, he said. Ive got to be better.Green, who was the second overall pick in the 2021 draft, was criticized during this series for not doing more to lead the team after scoring fewer than 10 points in four of the seven games.But VanVleet took up for his teammate.Everybodys journey is different, he said. The weight of the world seems to be on his shoulders at times, but he played well. We knew they were going to load up on him. On the path to greatness, theres going to be stumbles and failures.___AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

Folklorico dancers from the group Viva Mexico perform their routine during a Cinco de Mayo celebration and mixer hosted by the Odessa Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, May 5, 2021, in Odessa, Texas. (Eli Hartman/Odessa American via AP, File)2025-05-05T05:09:37Z AUSTIN, Texas (AP) Cinco de Mayo festivities are taking place across the U.S. with music, tacos, tequila and colorful displays of Mexican culture even if theyre not always the most authentic.The day falls on a Monday this year, meaning the bulk of the celebrations took place over the weekend. In California, a state with a large Mexican American population, there was a mix of art displays, classic car shows, parades and food truck offerings. In Austin, Texas, events included an opportunity for children to get their photo taken with characters from the Disney animated musical Encanto, which is itself a celebration of Mexican culture. A luncheon with speakers talking about the significance of the Mexican holiday and Mexican Americans in Austin was planned for Monday.Heres a look at the celebration and its roots: What the day celebratesCinco de Mayo marks the anniversary of the 1862 victory by Mexican troops over invading French forces at the Battle of Puebla. The triumph over the better-equipped and much larger French troops was an enormous emotional boost for Mexican soldiers led by Gen. Ignacio Zaragoza.In Mexico, historical reenactments are held annually in the central city of Puebla to commemorate the victory. Participants dress as Mexican and French troops, and as Zacapoaxtlas the Indigenous and farmer contingent that helped Mexican troops win.In the United States the date is seen as a celebration of Mexican American culture, stretching back to the 1800s in California. Festivities typically include parades, street food, block parties, mariachi competitions and baile folklrico, or folkloric ballet, with whirling dancers wearing bright, ruffled dresses and their hair tied with shiny ribbons. Latino activists and scholars say that disconnect in the U.S. is bolstered by the hazy history of Cinco de Mayo, and marketing that plays on stereotypes that include fake, droopy mustaches and gigantic, colorful sombreros. The day often is mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, which is in September. Its not all about tequila and tacosFor many Americans with or without Mexican ancestry, the day is an excuse to toss back tequila shots and gorge on tortilla chips, nachos and tacos. The celebrations in the U.S. started as a way for Mexican Americans to preserve their cultural identity, said Sehila Mota Casper, director of Latinos in Heritage Conservation. Since then weve seen a shift to more commercialization and commodification and mockery over the years, Mota Casper said. I think that has a lot to do with the commercialization of products and especially Latino heritage.Mota Casper encourages people to learn about that day in history and its importance in Mexico. Jacob Troncoza, 49, said he celebrates Cinco de Mayo in his household because hes proud of his Mexican ancestry. I try to make sure that the kids understand what its about, which was the revolution, the war, and the battles that our grandfathers fought on, said Troncoza, who was born in east Los Angeles. Others, like Andrea Ruiz dont because her Mexican dad never did. But she noted what she deemed the irony in widespread celebrations.I think its funny Trump and all of his supporters want to get Mexicans out, call them criminals, but then on Cinco de Mayo, they want to go and eat tacos and drink tequila, the 23-year-old Ruiz said. Political rhetoric Since returning to the White House, Trump has continued to label Mexican immigrants as criminals and gang members. Hes also sought to end birthright citizenship, renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and ended the federal governments diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Trump acknowledged Cinco de Mayo during his first term, posting on X, Happy #CincoDeMayo! and I love Hispanics! as he sat with a taco bowl. In the last presidential election, data showed more young Hispanic men moved to the right and voted for Trump.Its unclear if the current administration will acknowledge Cinco de Mayo designated a holiday in Mexico but not in the United States. The Associated Press sent an email to the White House Press Office late Friday seeking comment. Trumps handling of immigration remains a point of strength as he ramps up deportations and targets people living in the U.S. without legal status, according to a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. While Trumps actions remain divisive, theres less of a consensus that the Republican president has overstepped on immigration than on other issues, the poll found.Organizers of Chicagos Cinco de Mayo parade said they canceled it because the city has become a target for immigration agents. ___Associated Press writer Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles contributed to this report. FERNANDA FIGUEROA Figueroa reports on Latino/Hispanic affairs as a member of the APs Race & Ethnicity team. twitter mailto

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers conduct a search and rescue operation at one of the two passenger boats capsized in Qianxi City, southwest China's Guizhou Province on Monday, May 5, 2025. (Liu Xu/Xinhua via AP)2025-05-04T13:18:13Z BEIJING (AP) Four boats capsized in a sudden storm at a tourist spot in southwestern China, killing 10 people, state media said Monday.More than 80 people fell into a river when strong winds hit the scenic area in Guizhou province late Sunday afternoon, state broadcaster CCTV said.The boats capsized after a sudden rain and hail storm on the upper reaches of the Wu River, a tributary of the Yangtze, Chinas longest river. In one video shared by state media, a man could be seen performing CPR on another person, while one of the vessels drifted upside down.Initial reports said two tourist boats had capsized, but state media said on Monday that four boats were involved. The other two boats had no passengers, and the seven crew members were able to save themselves, CCTV said.Guizhous mountains and rivers are a major tourism draw, and many Chinese were traveling during a five-day national holiday that ended Monday. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all-out efforts to find the missing and care for the injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Sunday. Seventy people were sent to a hospital, most with minor injuries. Noting a recent series of fatal accidents, Xi underscored the importance of strengthening safety at tourist attractions, large public venues and residential communities, as well as for the rush of people returning at the end of major holidays. CCTV said the capsized boats had a maximum capacity of about 40 people each and were not overloaded.An eyewitness told state-owned Beijing News the waters were deep but that some people had managed to swim to safety. However, the storm had come suddenly and a thick mist obscured the surface of the river.

by Adam Friedman, Tennessee Lookout This article was produced for ProPublicas Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Tennessee Lookout. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. We are continuing to report on flex loans. Have you been sued by Advance Financial, Harpeth Financial or another flex loan lender? To share your experience, call or text reporter Adam Friedman at 615-249-8509. Rosita Hansen was working an evening shift at a tubing factory in 2023 when a sheriffs deputy showed up and handed her a court summons. She was being sued for failing to pay off a loan of $2,050. What confused Hansen was she had already paid a couple thousand more than she borrowed. But now the company, Advance Financial, said she owed more. Between what shed already paid the company and the lawsuit, Advance stood to receive over $12,500 from Hansen, records show.Hansen, 57, had taken out the loan in 2021 after her mortgage company threatened to foreclose on her modest three-bedroom house outside Morristown, a small city in East Tennessee. Hansen made enough money to support herself, but after taking in her four grandchildren, she struggled to cover the costs of extra food and school supplies, and she stopped paying her mortgage. Thats when she turned to Advance. I was providing for all of them, Hansen said. Financially, it was rough.Like most borrowers, Hansen could not afford an attorney to handle the suit, but she hoped to work out a payment plan with Advance. When she arrived at the Hamblen County courthouse in Morristown in May 2023, she was directed to a line of half a dozen people waiting to meet with an attorney representing the company. Across Tennessee, Advance has sued over 110,000 people since 2015, significantly more than any other payday lender, making it one of the largest plaintiffs of any Tennessee-based company collecting debt. In Hansens Appalachian county of 66,000, where nearly half the households make less than $50,000, the company has filed one case per every 32 residents over that time, the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica found.Advance began filing thousands of lawsuits soon after Tennessee lawmakers approved the Flex Loan, a product pioneered by Advance in Tennessee. The loans $4,000 cap is nine times higher than the limit for most payday loans, and the company charges the equivalent of a 279.5% annual interest rate. Before Flex Loans became legal in 2015, payday lenders could only lend $425, and the borrower could never be required to pay back more than $500. Since then, those protections have been eliminated and thousands of borrowers have been defaulting. Flex Loans only stop growing when theyre completely paid off, when a flex lender declares the loan is in default or when it sues the borrower. If the loans do end up in court, the law allows lenders to recoup attorneys fees which cant be done with payday loans a practice that can add up to a third of the loan amount. Court judgments against customers are often thousands of dollars, with some exceeding $10,000, records show. About 40% of all cases end up with a wage garnishment, court records show. The consequences of Flex Loans were predicted when the Tennessee legislature legalized them 10 years ago, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau wanted to regulate products like Flex Loans when Congress created the agency in 2011. The Trump administrations efforts to dismantle the CFPB are currently being reviewed by the courts. Advance has argued that the new product would help consumers by offering them loans that are technically cheaper than a payday loan. It downplayed concerns from consumer advocates that these high-interest loans targeted and trapped low-income borrowers in debt they could never pay off. The companys leaders made their case just as federal regulators planned to crack down on other Tennessee lenders for making different high-interest loans to people they knew could not pay them back.After just a few years, evidence started mounting that the loans were exacting a high toll on low-income borrowers while generating huge profits for lenders. Since then, the Flex Loan has buried tens of thousands of Tennesseans such as Hansen in a deep financial hole.Gabe Kravitz, a consumer finance researcher at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said loans above $1,000 paired with triple-digit interest rates are hard to pay off. It gets very expensive very quickly, he said. Only a few other states have approved products similar to the Flex Loan but, unlike Tennessee, when other states saw problems with the loans, they acted to rein them in. Virginia allowed banks to make line-of-credit loans but had never seen the need to cap interest rates as banks competed for customers. But soon after Advance showed up, regulators noticed the company filing thousands of lawsuits. The state attorney generals office investigated the company for deceptive practices in 2020, ultimately labeling the company as predatory and helping to pass legislation to shut down Flex Loan-like products in the state. Advance declined to answer a question about the Virginia attorney generals investigation. California and North Dakota also passed bills capping interest rates on open-ended lines of credit after Advance and other companies began to operate in those states. The Lookout and ProPublica sent Advance Financial detailed questions about its operations, including each of the cases cited in the article. Cullen Earnest, the senior vice president of public policy at Advance Financial, declined to answer specific questions and said he could not discuss individual cases due to privacy concerns. Earnest said in an email that the company has an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau. He added that the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions has received just 91 complaints on flexible credit lenders since 2020, representing less than 0.001% of all new flex loan agreements, and that this data reflects the satisfaction of the vast majority of Advances customers.Company records show Hansen made her twice-a-month payments on time, paying over $6,600 in 10 months. The required minimum monthly payments are supposed to act like a safety net, ensuring borrowers pay enough to cover the interest, fees and 3% of the principal. But many times after Hansen made a payment, the company allowed her to immediately borrow the principal back, which she often did, extending the time it would take to pay off the loan. After almost a year of payments, she still owed more than $3,000. One Borrower Owed Over $8,000 in Interest and Court Fees Sources: Rosita Hansens loan billing statements and court records. (Lucas Waldron/ProPublica) Hansen said she knew the loan was costly every loan statement warns, This is an expensive form of credit. Only borrow what you can afford to pay back but she didnt realize how hard it would be to keep up with the interest and fees. The loan from Advance only made Hansens financial situation worse. As the payments became too much to handle, she lost the house. But the Flex Loan continued to grow, almost doubling in size by the time she received a court summons a year later. Who Is Advance?Michael and Tina Hodges started their payday lending business in the 1990s with a few stores in Nashville. The company, then called Advance Pay Day, steadily expanded, making payday loans and offering products like bus passes, check cashing and money transfers. In 2009, the Hodges told a local news outlet that they wanted to shed the image of a simple payday advance company, so the company took on a new name, Advance Financial. By 2010, Advance had generated a modest $15 million in revenue from about two dozen stores, according to statements it made in news reports at the time.Not long after, the growing business collided with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal regulator Congress created after the banking crisis. The CFPB had started to take aim at high-interest payday lenders, releasing a 2013 report on the dangers of the loans as debt traps. A subsequent agency report found that payday lenders, particularly in Tennessee, relied heavily on offering loans to those who couldnt afford them. Advance declined to respond to a question about the CFPB report. Advance Financial lobbied Tennessee lawmakers to approve bigger loans that accumulate higher fees, saying the new offering would be a little bit more expensive but arguing it would be good for consumers. (Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica) Looking for an alternative product that wouldnt fall under the CFPBs looming regulations, Advance turned to Tennessee lawmakers, who have power over statewide interest rates. The company hired Earnest, the former top aide for the Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions, which regulates payday lenders. It also opened up a political action committee and began to push lawmakers to allow it to create the Flex Loan. In a hearing discussing the Flex Loan legislation before its passage, Earnest told a Tennessee Senate committee the new loan was like a line of credit you could get at a bank, acknowledging it would be a little bit more expensive.But the proposal added significant potential costs. To allow lenders to circumvent the states interest rate cap, the legislature simply called the interest something else: a customary fee. The law would permit flex lenders to charge 24% interest plus a daily fee until the loan is paid off. The fee is calculated by multiplying the loan amount by 0.7%. Over 365 days the fee adds 255.5% to the cost of the loan. Advances own documentation tells borrowers that although the state and Advance call it a fee, the federal government sees it for what it is, an interest rate. The bill passed the state Senate without opposition. In the House, only Democratic state Rep. Mike Stewart spoke against the bill, which passed overwhelmingly and was later signed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.Stewart pointed out the new law allowed companies to recoup attorneys fees in court, something payday lenders had not been allowed to do, and a practice he knew as a lawyer would likely increase the number of lawsuits. The legislation was structured to maximize the amount of money they could extract from these debtors, Stewart, who has since left the legislature, said in an interview. After legalization of the Flex Loan, Advance Financials business boomed. The company expanded to all corners of Tennessee, growing to 105 locations by the end of the 2010s. As a private company, Advance is not required to release financial information. But Advance and the Hodges were vocal about their success, at least at first. The company self-reported to the Nashville Business Journal in 2019 that it made $392 million, quintupling its revenue from the year before it started offering the Flex Loan, and making more than 25 times as much as it had at the start of the decade. Advances revenue no longer appeared on any of the business journals lists after 2019. Those numbers parallel the growth of the flex loan industry in Tennessee. By 2019, all flex lenders across the state had generated about $730 million in operating income, a number that has continued to grow, according to state records. In 2022, the latest available year of data, flex lenders earned $880 million in operating income. The company is one of the top campaign donors to Tennessee politicians, having spent roughly $2.5 million since 2014. Advance has also spent over $3 million lobbying state lawmakers over the past decade. The Hodges have also made roughly $10 million in political donations to federal candidates since 2014, including over $3 million to support President Donald Trumps campaigns. In a 2019 recording obtained by The Washington Post, Hodges told a payday lending industry group his political donations granted him better access to Trump. Hodges told the Post he was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump and never used his status to ask the Trump administration for help.A Trump-appointed CFPB director rescinded most of the payday lending regulations in 2020. The new Trump administration has tried to gut the CFPB, but an appeals court on April 28 upheld a lower court ruling preventing the acting CFPB director from firing about 90% of the departments employees.Today, Advances only product is the Flex Loan.A Wave of LawsuitsBefore the Flex Loan, court records show that payday lenders like Advance rarely took borrowers to court. The low $500 cap on loan amounts and the prohibition on collecting attorneys fees often made suing people unprofitable. The Flex Loan law changed all that, unleashing a wave of lawsuits. Across the 59 counties where electronic court records are available home to over four-fifths of the states roughly 7 million people Advance has brought one lawsuit for every 50 residents since 2015, according to a data analysis by the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica. For Tonya Davis, a single mother who works at a local hospital, Advance waited six years to sue. Tennessees debt collection law allows lenders to file a suit within six years and, if the company wins a judgment in court, to pursue the debt for another decade. Davis lives in Davidson County, where Advance operates more stores than in any other county in Tennessee. Advance has filed over 22,000 lawsuits in Davidson over the decade since it began offering Flex Loans, its highest county total. Its stores in Nashville, which is located in that county, are generally in neighborhoods where households have lower incomes. Davis said Advance contacted her in 2018, claiming she owed money on a Flex Loan taken out the previous year. Davis said she never borrowed the money and was the victim of identity theft, a claim the company told her it would look into after she told Advance in a phone call that the Social Security number on the account wasnt hers.The company never reached back out to her, she said, and for years, she heard nothing from Advance, but in 2024, she received a summons declaring it was suing her for almost $4,800. Tonya Davis says she never borrowed money from Advance and was a victim of identity theft. The company told her it would look into the matter and then, almost six years later, sued her for $4,785. (Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica) At the time Davis was caring for her dying mother and missed her court hearing. Because she didnt appear, Advance won a default judgment against her for the full amount. Davis could not afford an attorney, so she filed an appeal on her own, but she never got a chance to challenge the judgment. Soon after the hearing began, attorneys for Advance noted that Davis had filed her appeal one day past the filing deadline and the judge denied her appeal. The companys default judgment means Davis is required to pay Advance $175 a month.Im not a lawyer, Davis said in an interview. Im trying to do the best I can with what I have. I dont know anything about this, or I would have paid, but they didnt even give me the opportunity to present my information.Challenging Advance in court can be daunting. When Advance goes to court for a Flex Loan, it wins a majority of the time, in part because borrowers often fail to show up and in part because the company has more legal resources. The company has won over $200 million in judgments since the start of 2015. Mandy Spears, the deputy director of the Tennessee-based think tank The Sycamore Institute, said in court that lenders have all the advantages because they have lawyers with vast experience in the system. Its just complicated for the average person versus a more sophisticated business or law firm, she said. Its really a gap in knowledge and expertise. Many defendants dont realize that when they fail to appear in court, the company doesnt have to provide detailed documents proving what a borrower owes. Tessa Shearon, a 27-year-old mother in McMinnville, thought she paid off her loan with Advance Financial in 2020. When the company sued her almost three years later, she missed her court hearing because she was eight months pregnant and on bed rest. A judge ruled her in default and Advance won a judgment for $4,700. Tessa Shearon thought she paid off her loan with Advance in 2020. The company sued her three years later. (Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica) Shearon didnt keep any documentation after paying off her loan, but she said she reached out to Advances lawyer to dispute the lawsuit. The company has not sought to garnish her wages. But she remains in limbo: Under the law, the company can choose to file a wage garnishment any time in the next 10 years to recover the judgment amount. My only worry is them attempting to collect, Shearon said. I dont have anything.Marla Williams, a consumer law attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee, is one of a handful of lawyers whove helped defend borrowers against Advance.In several cases, Williams has been able to block wage garnishments and reduce the customary fee the company charges. Marla Williams is a lawyer who has helped defend borrowers against Advance. (Stacy Kranitz for ProPublica) Williams said that in a 2024 case, she was able to lower the payments from an unaffordable several hundred dollars a month to around $50 per month, which her client could afford. Advance fought the reduction, but a judge ruled in her favor. In another case, Williams said Advance tried to charge a borrower thousands of dollars in additional fees months after he stopped paying the loan. After a hearing, which most borrowers without lawyers dont ask for, a judge reduced the fees, calling the added charges unconscionable and unjust, court records show. Williams said the company often uses aggressive tactics in court, something that shes observed over the past decade. This is their business model, she said.Advance declined to discuss its business model or legal strategy.Sometimes Advance has already made money off the borrower before suing them, as in the case of Hansen. Over 10 months, Hansen paid Advance nearly $2,200 more than she borrowed, records show.She still owed almost $3,000 when she stopped paying Advance. The company waited around three months before declaring her in default, letting her debt grow before it sued her several months later. With the addition of attorneys fees and court-added interest, the company sued her for $6,000. Hansen, who asked to use her maiden name because shes no longer married, lost her home in 2022, moving into an apartment, which she said costs more than her mortgage had.Hansen said she plans to pay Advance by the summer. A February bonus check, which the company garnished 25% of, has helped. I understand its every person for themselves, and theyre out to make a buck, Hansen said about Advance. But you know what, people out there are struggling every single day, and thats what they take advantage of. How We Tracked Advance Financials LawsuitsFor this story, the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica used online portals to find civil cases in Tennessee General Sessions Courts for the 59 counties where electronic court records are available. More than four-fifths of the states population lives in these counties. Our analysis included cases filed and uploaded to the online portals from 2009 through 2024. We filtered the data for cases brought by payday lenders in Tennessee, using company names, and found that Advance was filing significantly more suits than any other payday lender, according to court records. Advance Financial often uses a related company called Harpeth Financial Services to file lawsuits against borrowers. Not every case listed the type of loan behind the lawsuit, but a pattern emerged: After Advance started offering Flex Loans in 2015, the number of lawsuits it filed significantly increased.Of the cases in our data that were filed by Advance, over half had a judgment amount awarded, indicating the company won its lawsuit. About three-quarters of the cases filed had information on whether a wage garnishment was or wasnt filed against a borrower. Our analysis found that among cases where that information was available, 40% included wage garnishment. Have you taken out a flex loan and struggled to pay it back? Have you been sued by Advance Financial, Harpeth Financial or another flex loan lender?Reporters at the Tennessee Lookout and ProPublica want to hear from you as they investigate flex loan lenders, who have sued more than 100,000 Tennesseans.To share your experience, call or text reporter Adam Friedman at 615-249-8509. Mollie Simon contributed research and Joel Jacobs contributed data reporting.