2025-12-23T09:14:04Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russia fired more than 650 drones and three dozen missiles at Ukraine in a large-scale attack that began during the night and stretched into daylight hours Tuesday, officials said. At least three people were killed, including a 4-year-old child.The barrage struck homes and the power grid in 13 regions of Ukraine, causing widespread outages in bitter temperatures, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, a day after he described recent progress on finding a peace deal quite solid.The bombardment demonstrated Russian President Vladimir Putins intention of prosecuting the invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Ukrainian and European officials have complained that Putin is not sincerely engaging with U.S.-led peace efforts.The attack is an extremely clear signal of Russian priorities, Zelenskyy said. A strike before Christmas, when people want to be with their families, at home, in safety. A strike, in fact, in the midst of negotiations that are being conducted to end this war. Putin cannot accept the fact that we must stop killing. U.S. President Donald Trump has for months been pressing for a peace agreement, but the negotiations have become entangled in the very different demands from Moscow and Kyiv. U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday he held productive and constructive talks in Florida with Ukrainian and European representatives. Trump was less effusive Monday, saying, The talks are going along. Initial reports from Ukrainian emergency services said the toddler died in Ukraines northwestern Zhytomyr region, while a drone killed a woman in the Kyiv region, and another civilian death was recorded in the western Khmelnytskyi region, according to Zelenskyy.Authorities in the western regions of Rivne, Ternopil and Lviv, as well as the northern Sumy region, reported damage to energy infrastructure or power outages after the attack.In the southern Odesa region, Russia struck energy, port, transport, industrial and residential infrastructure, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.A merchant ship and over 120 homes were damaged, he said.___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine ILLIA NOVIKOV Novikov is an Associated Press reporter covering news in Ukraine since 2022. He is based in Kyiv. instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

In this image provided by Sky Decker Jr., authorities and volunteers respond to a Mexican Navy plane crash near Galveston, Texas, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (Sky Decker Jr. via AP)null2025-12-22T23:35:46Z A small Mexican Navy plane transporting a young medical patient and seven others crashed Monday near Galveston, killing at least five people and setting off a search in waters along the Texas coast, officials said.Four of the people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexicos Navy said in a statement to The Associated Press. Two of the passengers were from a nonprofit that provides aid to Mexican children with severe burns, including transports to a Galveston hospital. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker said at least five aboard had died but did not identify which passengers. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Mexicos Marines said in a statement that it is sending its deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic accident.The crash took place Monday afternoon in Galveston Bay near the base of the causeway that connects Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders and search teams rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination along the Texas coast that is about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of Houston. Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, said he jumped in his boat to see if he could help. He said he picked up two police officers who directed him through thick fog to a nearly completely submerged plane. Decker jumped in the water and found a badly injured woman trapped beneath chairs and other debris. I couldnt believe. She had maybe 3 inches of air gap to breathe in, he said. And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on He said he also pulled out a man sitting in front of her who had already died. He described both of them as dressed in civilian clothes. Mexicos Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation, which provides emergency transports to children with life-threatening burns to Shriners Childrens hospital in Galveston, according to the nonprofits website. The foundation said in a post on social media, We express our deepest solidarity with the families in light of these events. We share their grief with respect and compassion, honoring their memory and reaffirming our commitment to providing humane, sensitive, and dignified care to children with burns.The statement from Mexicos Navy said the plane had an accident during its approach to Galveston but did not elaborate.Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have arrived at the scene of the crash, the Texas Department of Public Safety said on the social platform X.A spokesperson from NTSB said they are aware of this accident and are gathering information about it. The Galveston County Sheriffs Office said officials from its dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol were responding to the crash. Its not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area has been experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility. MEGAN JANETSKY Megan Janetsky covers migration, conflict, human rights and politics in Mexico and Central America for The AP based in Mexico City. Previously, she covered Cuba and the Caribbean for The AP and worked as freelance journalist in Colombia, reporting across South America. twitter instagram facebook mailto

New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns speaks about preposed new legislation in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (Dean Lewins/AAP Image via AP)2025-12-23T06:54:10Z MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) A man accused of shooting dead 15 people at Sydneys Bondi Beach in an antisemitic attack faced a lengthy delay in getting a gun license because of a bureaucratic mishap, not because he raised suspicions, a state government leader said on Tuesday.Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the attack, and his 24-year-old son Naveed Akram are accused of assailing hundreds of Jews celebrating Hanukkah on Dec. 14, in Australias worst mass shooting since 1996.Questions have been raised about how the 50-year-old father came to legally own six rifles and shotguns. Alleged shooter waited 3 years for gun license New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on Tuesday confirmed that the father applied for a state license to own firearms in 2000, three years before it was granted. The process typically takes six to 10 weeks.The latest information that we have is that there was a real mess in relation to the bureaucracy when it comes to gun licenses and the delays related to that not a specific threat posed by the father, Minns told reporters.Reporters asked Minns on Monday why the father was allowed to own guns when he shared his Sydney home with Naveed Akram, who had been investigated in 2019 by the spy agency Australian Security Intelligence Organization over his extremist links. I dont know. Id give anything to go back a week, month, two years, to ensure that didnt happen. But we need to make sure that we take steps so that it never happens again, Minns said.A wide ranging and powerful form of public investigation known as a royal commission will examine circumstances surrounding the massacre and the surge of antisemitism in Australia since the war between Israel and Hamas began in 2023. State leader promises Australias toughest gun laws New South Wales Parliament was asked this week to pass laws that Minns said would provide the state with Australias toughest gun laws.Experts say video of the attack show the gunmen apparently using guns with straight-pull mechanisms, which enable more rapid fire than a comparable bolt-action mechanism.Straight-pull guns would not be available to recreational shooters such as Sajid Akram under the proposed new laws.The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a gun license. That would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa.A government decision to refuse a gun license, for reasons including spy agencies suspicions, could no longer be appealed under the proposed reforms.Recreational shooters would be allowed to own a maximum of four guns. Farmers and sports shooters would be allowed up to 10. There are currently no limits in New South Wales. One individual currently has 298 guns registered in his name. Farmers and rural lawmakers oppose gun reformFarmers groups have complained that 10 guns wont be enough for some. The Nationals party, which represents rural voters, opposed the proposed laws.The NSW Nationals Parliamentary team will not be supporting the Bill that uses gun reforms as a political tool rather than addressing the real issue of antisemitism, a party statement said.Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed with Minns that six guns were too many for anyone living in suburban Sydney.The terrible events at Bondi show that we do need more guns off our streets, Albanese said.There is no reason why someone living in (suburban) Bonnyrigg needs six heavy arms, he added.Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the federal government was drafting national reforms including a gun buy-back scheme for newly restricted weapons and new offenses related to 3D-printed guns.Police allege the day after the massacre, they found in a room rented by Sajid Akram 3D-printed parts for a shotgun speed loader. A speed loader enables a shooter to place multiple cartridges into a shotgun magazine at once rather than loading the cartridges one by one.Police allege in court documents the Akrams adhered to a religiously motivated ideology linked to Islamic State.Police shot Naveed Akram in the abdomen during the massacre. He was in Sydneys Long Bay Correctional Complex on Tuesday after being transferred from a hospital on Monday. He was charged last week with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.Victims funerals continued on Tuesday. A service for Marika Pogany, 82, was held at a Catholic church in Sydney. She was Christian, but her mother was Jewish and she was close to Sydneys Jewish community.The health department said 12 people wounded in the attack remained in hospitals on Tuesday, including four in critical condition.A gunman armed with semiautomatic rifles killed 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania in 1996, leading Australia to make major national gun reforms that drastically reduced the number of rapid-fire weapons in the community. ROD MCGUIRK McGuirk covers Australian and South Pacific news for The Associated Press. He is based in Melbourne. mailto

In August, I traveled to Kakuma, Kenya, to try to understand what happened when the U.S. cut off food to the worlds third-largest refugee camp.Soon after President Donald Trump froze foreign aid on his first day in office, my colleague Brett Murphy and I began hearing from government experts. We learned that despite explicit promises from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that food and other life-saving care would continue during the administrations review of foreign aid, programs were shutting down, putting millions of lives at risk. Ive covered health in the U.S. and abroad for 15 years, and Brett has covered both the State Department and public health in the U.S. Brett and I teamed up, interviewing dozens of government officials and aid workers, and pouring over reams of internal government documents. Then, we traveled to Kakuma (and South Sudan) to see for ourselves how these policies were affecting people.In an investigation we published last week, we wrote about how food rations were slashed throughout the camp of more than 308,000 people. We learned first-hand how the Trump administrations decision to withhold funding for the World Food Programs operations in Kenya led children to starve and forced thousands of families to make impossible decisions. One of the groups hit hardest by the cuts was pregnant women.We arrived on a hot, dry day in August with Kenyan photographer Brian Otieno and went straight to the camps only hospital, which is run by the International Rescue Committee. The only physician working the hospitals wards at the time, Dr. Kefa Otieno (no relation to the photographer), gave us a tour.Dr. Kefa Otieno, right, was the only physician working at the hospital in Kakuma through much of August.Otieno tends to an infant in the maternity ward.As we entered the maternity unit, a large yellow room with around 45 beds, the majority of them occupied, the doctor explained that the aid cuts were causing an epidemic of life-threatening pregnancy complications. Starving women were giving birth to premature babies. Even those who made it to term were often dangerously underweight. The hospital was understaffed, and people in the camp were so anemic that they couldnt get enough blood donations. Otieno had twice donated himself while he was midsurgery in order to save a pregnant womans life.Two women embrace in front of the maternity unit.Otieno performs a cesarean section.Off one side of the maternity ward was a small, stark room with a bench along one wall and two wheeled, metal beds. Otieno called it the kangaroo room. Inside were moms and premature babies too small to safely return home. The hospital had no functional incubators, so medical staff ascribe to a method called kangaroo mother care, where moms hold their babies against their skin to keep them warm and help them grow.Otieno speaks to a patient.There, we met Monica and her baby Mary, and Binti and her son Nuru. Both women had difficult pregnancies that the medical staff ascribed to malnourishment. Both had given birth prematurely to underweight babies. And when we visited, both had been trapped in the room for weeks, desperately trying to help their babies gain weight.Monica feeds Mary.Monica and her husband, Ramazani. They met at church, when she was singing in the choir.Monica, 21, is funny, with a dry, sharp wit. She met her husband Ramazani at church, when she was singing in the choir. Theyd dated for a couple of years before she found out she was pregnant in December last year. They were both scared and excited to be parents, but the timing of the pregnancy was unlucky: As Monicas belly grew, food rations shrank.Monica began struggling with anemia and high blood pressure. Otieno told me the roots of these complications were undernourishment.Monica doesnt remember going into labor. Ramazani found her collapsed on the floor when he returned from one of the camps community showers. She was having seizures, and it took a few hours before they got her to the hospital. Medical staff rushed her in for an emergency cesarean section; she was in such dire shape that staff thought they were going to lose both Monica and her baby. When we met three weeks later, Monica still struggled to speak, her tongue contorted and swollen from biting on it for so long during the seizures.Still, she was able to tell me about her pregnancy, including a time when she was about five months along and hadnt eaten for two days. She went to a nearby vendor to beg for a samosa on loan, promising to pay him back later in the day. She then hid in her house for several days, pretending no one was home when he came by to collect the few cents she owed. (Ramazani eventually paid him back.)At age 28, Nuru was Bintis third child. Shed had no complications with her previous pregnancies, but with Nuru, she barely gained weight. Binti had come to Kakuma in 2016 after fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. When she first arrived at the camp, there was always food.Binti and her son, Nuru. The child, her third, barely gained weight.I had other kinds of stress, but never with food, she said one afternoon while sitting on the floor sewing curtains for the sparse hospital room.But during this pregnancy, she said, food was all she thought about. She was so anemic and hungry that she resorted to eating clay, digging out the top layer of earth to get to the cleaner soil below, and charcoal. Her chart showed she gained fewer than 10 pounds during her entire pregnancy. Her baby, Nuru, was born at 33 weeks, weighing about 3.5 pounds.Otieno wanted the babies to weigh 4 pounds before they went home, enough that theyd have a fighting chance against infection. Hospital staff put the babies on a scale every two days, and before each weigh in, Binti would get herself hyped up: I can feel it, today is the day we are going home, she said one afternoon. Monica tried not to think about what the scale would say. Both she and Mary had dropped weight in the preceding weeks. After so much loss, she didnt want to get her hopes up.Monica feeds Mary. Anna Maria Barry-JesterBut, while Binti and Monica were desperate to get out of the hospital and home to their families Binti to her other children and Monica to her two younger siblings leaving would come at a cost. If and when they went, theyd be cut off from food again.At the hospital, staff brought around three simple meals every day, typically lentils and rice or sorghum porridge. Outside the hospital, theyd have almost nothing.Facing dwindling supplies, WFP, which provides food for the camp, made the dramatic decision to only give rations to about half the camps residents in August. Families were placed into groups based on rough estimates of need. Even though Monica and Binti were stuck in the hospital precisely because they didnt have enough to eat, Binti and Ramazani had both been placed in categories that meant they would get no food. Monica and her younger siblings were set to receive just 420 calories a day each.Women receive porridge for breakfast at the maternity unit.Refugees line up at a World Food Program distribution point in Kakuma in August.In the meantime, Binti and Monica bonded: They told stories and held one anothers babies while they showered or went to the bathroom. They took turns sleeping on the bench so the babies could have one of the beds. Monica and Ramazani, who spent almost every night at the hospital, made sure that a tiny copy of the Bible was always placed next to baby Marys head.Monica places a Bible next to Mary.One Saturday morning, Otieno came in to weigh the babies. Binti bounced back and forth on her feet like a boxer preparing for a bout. Nuru weighed in at just under 4 pounds. Binti raised her arms in victory: They could go home.Binti holds Nuru after Otieno weighs her.Then it was baby Marys turn. This baby is refusing to gain weight, Otieno mumbled, trying to still her wiggly legs to get an accurate measurement. Mary had gained 10 grams, equivalent to two-thirds of a tablespoon of water. After days of losing weight, it was perhaps a small victory, but not one that Monica would celebrate. She picked up Mary, held her against her chest, and sat back down on the bench.I asked Monica about her hopes for the future. She said all she wanted was to be resettled in the U.S. with her siblings and Mary, so they could all go to school and have enough to eat. Fill your notebook with that, she said. Its the only thing I want.Monica and Otieno weigh Mary.At the end of September, the administration gave WFPs Kenya operations $66 million, 40% less than the U.S. gave in 2024 and nine months into the year. WFP has said the funds will be enough to provide food to the camp through March, though rations are still far below what humanitarians consider the daily minimum of calories.In response to a series of questions, a senior State Department official told us that the U.S. still gives WFP hundreds of millions a year and the administration is shifting to investments that will better serve both the U.S. and key allies like Kenya over time.The official also said that the Office of Management and Budget, not the State Department, has ultimate authority to approve new foreign aid money. When we asked OMB about the delays, communications director Rachel Cauley told us: Thats absolutely false. And thats not even how this process works. She did not clarify what was false.The post What I Saw at a Maternity Ward in Kenya After the U.S. Cut Off Food and Foreign Aid appeared first on ProPublica.

A Minnesota senator wants to strengthen state laws meant to hold adults entrusted with childrens safety accountable for failing to report suspected child abuse, after an investigation by the Minnesota Star Tribune and ProPublica found that the leadership of a church in Duluth for years protected a child sex predator.Sen. Erin Maye Quade, a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party from suburban Minneapolis, said shes focused on situations where such an adult has concrete knowledge that a specific person is abusing children and nonetheless stays silent, allowing the abuse to continue.If you know an adult who is committing child sexual abuse, you need to report that, she said. For that, the penalties could be a lot higher.The Star Tribune-ProPublica report found that preachers in Duluths Old Apostolic Lutheran Church knew for years about allegations that a member, Clint Massie, had been sexually abusing young girls in the congregation. Instead of reporting it to police, church leaders encouraged some of the victims to take part in sessions where they were pressured to forgive Massie. They were then told never to speak of the abuse.Read MoreYoung Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget.5 Takeaways From Our Investigation Into How Leaders of a Minnesota Church Community Enabled a Child AbuserIn one case, preacher Daryl Bruckelmyer facilitated a meeting with Massie and a young girl, still in the first years of grade school, in his business office. The girl had recently told her parents that Massie groped under her shirt and touched her genitals, according to her account of the incident to investigators 15 years later. In front of the girl, her father and Bruckelmyer, Massie asked her for forgiveness, she told law enforcement. Then the girls dad and preacher allowed Massie, who had been sexually abusing her since kindergarten, to hug her.Massie, now 50, pleaded guilty last year to four counts of felony criminal sexual conduct with victims under the age of 13 related to abusing girls in the church. In March, a judge sentenced him to 7 1/2 years in prison. Bruckelmyer declined to comment, but a spokesperson for the church has said that its preachers followed the law in the Massie case. In interviews with police, Bruckelmyer said that the church encouraged victims to go to police but that ultimately it was up to them to do that.Under Minnesota law, mandatory reporters including clergy, doctors, teachers and day care providers can already be charged with a misdemeanor if they do not make a report to authorities when they believe a child has been maltreated within the past three years.Some legal experts said the criminal statute has proved an ineffective mechanism for holding accountable people who violate it. Out of 28 people who have been charged with violating the statute over the past 15 years, only six have been convicted, according to data reviewed by the Star Tribune and ProPublica. All but one resulted in probation, suspended jail sentences or options to perform community service and fines of $85 to $385.Whats more, Minnesota courts have repeatedly blocked lawsuits from people whove tried to pursue damage claims from adults or institutions that stayed silent. In one key 2007 case, the state Supreme Court said that even if mandatory reporters are rarely prosecuted, courts cannot create a civil right to sue simply because the criminal law is weakly enforced. We leave it to the legislature with its fact-finding power to determine whether civil liability is appropriate, Justice Paul Anderson wrote in a position adopted by a majority of the justices.The result is a system where the strongest legal motivators for compliance civil liability and the threat of damages simply dont exist.Maye Quade said she is studying changes the Legislature can make this session, beginning in February. She is asking Senate research staff to begin looking into where the gap is occurring in the law.Honestly, we should have looked at it before, she said. These victim survivors coming forward and sharing their stories it would just be wrong to not respond to that.The St. Louis County Courthouse in DuluthLaw Lacks Teeth, Experts SayProsecutors in St. Louis County, where Duluth is located, said the church communitys lack of cooperation was a major factor in the delay in bringing charges against Massie. Yet none of the preachers have been charged for failing to report the abuse, even though clergy are mandatory reporters under state law. Kimberly Lowe, a lawyer for the church, said its preachers are unpaid. She said this raises questions as to whether they are subject to the mandatory reporting law, which specifically cites clergy employees. A prosecutor in the case said his office and police decided instead to try to educate church leaders about their legal responsibility to report sexual abuse.In general, holding people accountable for violating the mandatory reporting statute is challenging, said Robert Small, executive director of the Minnesota County Attorneys Association, which represents county prosecutors across the state. To convict someone, prosecutors must prove the person knew or had reason to believe the child was neglected or sexually abused.In the cases where people in Minnesota have been convicted, the penalties were often minor. In one case in 2022, a police officer in Wright County was convicted of a misdemeanor after a 14-year-old told him and others shed been molested and he didnt report it. He was sentenced to one day of probation and a suspended jail sentence, meaning he didnt have to serve any time.Victor Vieth, a former prosecutor who now trains child-abuse investigators nationwide and is based in Minnesota, said its difficult to know how often mandated reporters stay silent. Many victims delay disclosure for years, and, by then, the three-year statute of limitations usually prevents prosecuting the mandatory reporter who failed to report.When failures do surface, he said prosecutors often face a catch-22. The mandated reporter who didnt report may have critical evidence, and prosecutors may decide they need their cooperation more than they need a low-level conviction for failing to report.Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Mike Ryan, right, talks with George Olson, who works with victims and worked on the Massie case. Ryan was the lead prosecutor on the Massie case.But mandatory-reporting laws have been on the books nationwide since the 1960s. Over the past half-century, reporting duties have been embedded across American life, in schools, hospitals, churches and child care centers, and training on the obligation to report suspected abuse is now routine often required as a condition of employment or licensure. Every state has its own laws to comply with the federal legislation passed in the 1970s that provided funding and guidance for protecting children, said Toby Briggs, co-founder of Simple Learning Systems, a California-based company that creates training software for mandatory reporting.Briggs said he doesnt see a lot of cases for failure to report, but high-profile lawsuits have led to stricter rules and more required training for mandatory reporters.You have these huge, high-profile examples like Boy Scouts and Catholic Church that have been sued and that did not train their folks and the financial cost is enormous, he said.A few states, including Washington, let victims sue people or institutions if they fail to report abuse and the harm continues. This pushes schools and hospitals to train workers better and thoroughly investigate reports.Because Minnesota doesnt allow those civil suits, the state hasnt seen the same attention to the issue, said Jeff Anderson, one of the nations most prominent clergy-abuse attorneys, who is based in St. Paul. He described the statute as a tool nobody uses and said he believes mandated reporters know there is almost no chance of criminal or civil accountability if they stay silent.The post Lawmaker Calls for Stronger Mandatory Reporting Rules Following Our Investigation Into Church Abuse Case appeared first on ProPublica.

As the Connecticut legislature overhauled the states towing laws last spring, lawmakers came up with a hopeful idea: gather towing companies, consumer advocates and state officials to hammer out a few arcane details that could have big implications for some Connecticut drivers whose cars are towed.The ambitions of the task force, convened in response to a Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica investigation, grew quickly as it began to meet in September to come up with recommendations for the legislature. Perhaps they could make it easier for low-income people to get their towed cars back or prevent them from being towed at all. Maybe they could change the administrative process that sometimes made it hard to find owners of the cars, which frustrated drivers and towing companies alike.But with a Feb. 1 deadline looming for its recommendations, the panel has made little progress on reaching a consensus.That could pose hurdles for lawmakers who say towing practices are still unfair and want to pass more reforms during the legislative session that starts in February.Were still anxiously, eagerly awaiting word from the working group on their recommendations, said state Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, who co-chairs the Transportation Committee.Until a few months ago, Connecticut residents cars were towed from their own apartment complexes without warning over minor issues like an expired parking sticker.When those residents went to pick up their vehicles, towing companies often refused to take credit cards or even let owners get their belongings from inside their cars.And if the owners didnt have cash to pay the fees, which mounted every day, towing companies could ask the Department of Motor Vehicles for permission to sell some vehicles after just 15 days.Much of that changed after a new law went into effect in October following the CT Mirror and ProPublica investigation that exposed how the states laws had come to favor towing companies over vehicle owners.Towing companies must now give people warning before removing vehicles from apartment parking lots unless theres a safety issue. The towers must accept credit cards and let people get their belongings. And although the sales process can begin after 15 days for vehicles worth less than $1,500, towers must wait 30 days before selling them.Part of the new law also required that a DMV task force examine the process companies use to get rid of towed cars. Lawmakers said they especially wanted the group to look at what happens to profits from the sales of the towed vehicles. Currently, towing companies are supposed to hold onto proceeds for a year so owners or lenders can claim them. After that, any unclaimed funds, minus the towing costs and fees, are required to be turned over to the state. But CT Mirror and ProPublica found that hasnt happened in part because the DMV never set up a system to collect the money.The working group has met four times. Theyve talked about stopping towing fees from accumulating once vehicle owners indicate they want their cars back. Theyve also debated changing the way towing companies value cars, which determines how soon towers can start the sales process. DMV Commissioner Tony Guerrera proposed scrapping the valuation system and letting companies sell all vehicles after 30 days.And both consumer advocates and towing representatives complained about the process for notifying owners that their cars have been towed or are about to be sold. The system relies on the vehicles registration, which can often have out-of-date addresses. CT Mirror and ProPublica interviewed several people, particularly lower-income residents, who said they were never informed that their cars would be sold.Yet at the most recent meeting Dec. 15, task force members couldnt even agree on how many letters needed to be sent to vehicle owners. The meeting got heated on several occasions even as Guerrera warned the deadline to complete a report was approaching.The working group hasnt discussed how any proceeds should be given to the state.Still, in an interview, Guerrera projected confidence that they would reach a compromise.Youve got two sides here that are very passionate about what they believe in, and like any good piece of legislation that people try to draw up, it takes many times at the table to craft something that you can have individuals sign off at the end, he said.At Mondays meeting, consumer advocate and attorney Raphael Podolsky said he was concerned the committee was missing some key issues including making sure people can get their vehicles back.Im more concerned not how do you sell the car, but how do you make sure it never gets to that point? Podolsky said.Members of the towing industry argued against a DMV proposal that would mandate that companies send car owners a second certified letter when their vehicles are going to be sold, informing them of the date and location of the auction.Eileen Colonese, secretary of the industry group Towing & Recovery Professionals of Connecticut, said more letters wont resolve the issue of addresses being wrong.You have to find out who the owner of the car is, said Colonese of Farmington Motor Sports. If we dont solve that problem, all the rest of this is really a waste of everybodys time and money.Towers and Guerrera proposed creating a DMV portal where towing companies would list every car towed and where it was being held.Colonese said its difficult for the towers to agree to most of the proposals because they would add costs to companies. Transportation Committee ranking member Rep. Kathy Kennedy, R-Milford, is considering this question as well; its their livelihood, she said of the towing companies.Cohen and her co-chair, Rep. Aimee Berger-Girvalo, D-Ridgefield, said they also want to see more transparency from the DMV after the news organizations found that a department employee faced little consequence for five years after an internal investigation found he had abused his power by trading favors for steep discounts on towed cars. The employee was fired last month. He appealed the decision and said he had done nothing wrong.Guerrera said he wants the working group to have at least three recommendations before the legislature begins its three-month session. He said the group may have to meet twice more in January to come to an agreement. He warned if the group doesnt reach a consensus, neither side will be happy with the report he plans to submit and what the legislature does from there.Im going to submit the report after the next meeting or two meetings, and they can come back and go to the legislature and say, I still dont like it, Guerrera said. But I am going to put down what I believe is something that is fair.The post A Connecticut DMV Task Force Was Asked to Develop Towing Reforms. As Deadline Looms, Members Struggle to Agree. appeared first on ProPublica.

The Ukrainian leader cited progress on security guarantees, even as Russia bombed Ukraine overnight, indicating that it is prepared to continue fighting.

In exchange for the land in Texas, the rocket and satellite company would give the government some of its own property nearby, documents show.

For their heroics after a wave of bomb threats in New Jersey on Election Day, more than two dozen dogs were presented with an award from the state attorney general.

YouTubes big streaming lead over Netflix and other competitors stems in large part to its dominance during daylight hours.

The Russian-labeled candy bars are a reminder of how difficult it is to completely disconnect a major economy from the global flow of goods.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adjusts the headphones during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Jerusalem Sunday, Dec. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, Pool, File)2025-12-23T10:45:50Z JERUSALEM (AP) A former close aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that immediately following the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered Israels two-year war in Gaza, the Israeli leader instructed him to figure out how the premier could evade responsibility for the security breach. Former Netanyahu spokesperson Eli Feldstein, who faces trial for allegedly leaking classified information to the press, made the explosive accusation during an extensive interview with Israels Kan news channel Monday night.Critics have repeatedly accused Netanyahu of refusing to accept blame for the deadliest attack in Israels history. But little is known about Netanyahus behavior in the days immediately following the attack, while the premier has consistently resisted an independent state inquiry.Speaking to Kan, Feldstein said the first task he received from Netanyahu after Oct. 7, 2023, was to stifle calls for accountability. He asked me, What are they talking about in the news? Are they still talking about responsibility? Feldstein said. He wanted me to think of something that could be said that would offset the media storm surrounding the question of whether the prime minister had taken responsibility or not. He added that Netanyahu looked panicked when he made the request. Feldstein said he was later told by people in Netanyahus close circle to omit the word responsibility from all statements. On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 hostages back to Gaza. Israel then launched a devastating war in Gaza that has killed nearly 71,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half the deaths were women and children. Netanyahus office called the interview a long series of mendacious and recycled allegations made by a man with clear personal interests who is trying to deflect responsibility from himself, Hebrew media reported. Feldsteins statements come after his indictment in a case where he is accused of leaking classified military information to a German tabloid to improve public perception of the prime minister following the killing of six hostages in Gaza in August of last year. Feldstein is also a suspect in the Qatargate scandal, one of two close aides to Netanyahu accused of accepting money from Qatar while also working for the prime minister. JULIA FRANKEL Frankel, based in Jerusalem, has reported from across Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Her reporting focuses on war, human rights, displacement and criminal justice. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

We examine the Trump administrations approach to the wind industry.

Plus, the biggest lottery jackpots ever.

As funds deliver mediocre returns and sheds investors, the industry is struggling to unload 31,000 investments, an increase over this time last year.

When Dementia Has a Seat at Your Holiday Table

And research shows the less favored children suffer for it.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services building is seen, April 5, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)2025-12-23T12:05:56Z WASHINGTON (AP) Medicaid programs made more than $200 million in improper payments to health care providers between 2021 and 2022 for people who had already died, according to a new report from the independent watchdog for the Department of Health and Human Services. But the departments Office of Inspector General said it expects a new provision in Republicans One Big Beautiful Bill requiring states to audit their Medicaid beneficiary lists may help reduce these improper payments in the future.These kinds of improper payments are not unique to one state, and the issue continues to be persistent, Aner Sanchez, deputy regional inspector general in the Office of Audit Services told The Associated Press. Sanchez has been researching this issue for a decade.The watchdog report released Tuesday said more than $207.5 million in managed care payments were made on behalf of deceased enrollees between July 2021 to July 2022. The office recommends that the federal government share more information with state governments to recover the incorrect payments including a Social Security database known as the Full Death Master File, which contains more than 142 million records going back to 1899. Sharing the Full Death Master File data has been tightly restricted due to privacy laws which protect against identity theft and fraud. The massive tax and spending bill that was signed into law by President Donald Trump this summer expands how the Full Death Master File can be used by mandating Medicaid agencies to quarterly audit their provider and beneficiary lists against the file, beginning in 2027. The intent is to stop payments to dead people and improve accuracy. Tuesdays report is the first nationwide look at improper Medicaid payments. Since 2016, HHS inspector general has conducted 18 audits on a selection of state programs and had identified that Medicaid agencies had improperly made managed care payments on behalf of deceased enrollees totaling approximately $289 million. The government had some success using the Full Death Master File to prevent improper payments earlier this year. In January, the Treasury Department reported that it had clawed back more than $31 million in federal payments that improperly went to dead people as part of a five-month pilot program after Congress gave Treasury temporary access to the file for three years as part of the 2021 appropriations bill. Meanwhile, the SSA has been making unusual updates to the file itself, adding and removing records, and complicating its use. For instance, the Trump administration in April moved to classify thousands of living immigrants as dead and cancel their Social Security numbers to crack down on immigrants who had been temporarily allowed to live in the U.S. under programs started during the Biden administration. FATIMA HUSSEIN Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money. twitter mailto

Debris covers the area of Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas, July 7, 2025, after a flash flood swept through the area. (AP Photo/Eli Hartman, File)2025-12-23T12:12:52Z Patrick Hotzes three daughters made it home safe from Camp Mystic after Julys catastrophic floods that killed 25 campers and two teenage counselors. He attended some of the funerals and says he understands the outrage over the Texas camps plan to partially reopen next year.He also intends to send his girls back.My heart is broken for them, Hotze said of the parents whose girls died, including some he described as close friends. I think its different for each kid and each family.For the first time since the roaring flood, the 100-year-old all-girls Christian sleepaway retreat plans to sign up campers in January, forging ahead with a reopening that has divided families and stunned some lawmakers. Campers will start arriving in May, bunking on higher ground than the area where fast-rising waters on the Guadalupe River swept away two cabins. Some families say the decision to let their daughters return is a vital step in their own healing from the disaster that is still under scrutiny. The floodwaters that worsened with terrifying quickness during the July Fourth holiday weekend killed at least 117 people in Kerr County alone. Two victims have still not been found, including an 8-year-old Camp Mystic camper. Promises of extra safety and preventive measuresNext year, Texas legislators are set to hold investigative hearings into the tragedy but have shown little appetite to assign blame. Local leaders in Kerr County, including two who were asleep when the waters started rising, remain in their jobs after defending their preparations and evacuation efforts. They are now steering a slow recovery while trying to expedite a new flood warning system before campers return.We recognize that returning to Camp Mystic carries both hope and heartache, Camp Mystics owners wrote in a letter to families this month. For many of your daughters, this return is not simple, but it is a courageous step in their healing journey.It is unclear how many girls will return to Camp Mystic when the camp begins enrollment next month, but a spokesperson said there is strong interest. The camps owner, Dick Eastland, died in the flood and his family has vowed to enhance safety measures before reopening, including two-way radios in every cabin and new flood warning river monitors. The devastating July floods were hardly the first to strike the area known as Flash Flood Alley, where the limestone hills quickly gather water and funnel it into narrow river banks. This year was at least the fifth time in a century that flooding near the Guadalupe River has turned deadly. An attorney for Camp Mystic, Mikal Watts, said he and camp officials have contacted several former campers who witnessed previous floods and who told them they were nowhere near as high or as powerful as the flooding this year.Outrage and acceptanceThose assurances have not quieted some parents of the 27 victims, who say the decision to reopen is insensitive and that the Eastland family has refused to take responsibility for its failures.Lawsuits filed by some of the families allege camp operators failed to protect the children and even ordered girls and counselors in the cabins closest to the river to stay inside as floodwaters overwhelmed the property. Hundreds of 911 calls released by authorities this month included a woman who lived a mile downriver and said two of the campers had swept by. As parents of children who were killed at Camp Mystic last summer, we are deeply hurt but, sadly, not shocked by yet another insensitive announcement from Camp Mystic focused on enrollment, the parents of six girls who died said in a public statement this month.Some parents say Camp Mystic has played an instrumental role in their childrens personal and spiritual development, and that eased their decision to allow their girls to return.Liberty Lindleys 9-year-old daughter, Evie, was among those caught in the flooding. She was trapped with her campmates in a cabin dubbed Wiggle Inn, adjacent to the low-lying cabins that were quickly inundated by the flooded river.Many of the girls Evie knew were swept to their deaths. Yet despite the horror Evie endured, floating on mattresses with her friends in the pitch dark before being evacuated by helicopter, Lindley said her daughter didnt hesitate when asked if she wanted to return to Camp Mystic.I know some people dont understand that or think thats crazy, she said of her decision to allow her daughter to go back.She recalled talking with Evie whose twin sister died of leukemia in 2024 while washing her hair in the bathtub, right after her terrifying ordeal.She thought she was going to be seeing her sister that night in heaven, Lindley recalled. And she still looked at me with a smile and said, Mom, I really hope next year at camp we do Mary Poppins again, because I still really want to be Bert. That is just hours after the fact. Some parents remain unsureStill, not all parents are eager to send their daughters back to Camp Mystic.John Ball, an attorney in McAllen, Texas, whose daughter was at Camp Mystic during the flood, said he has serious reservations, especially after the poor communication from camp officials about his daughters whereabouts.Ball said he was out of town and didnt learn that his daughter was safe until more than 12 hours after the flooding, when she was able to borrow a cellphone and call him.That was the hardest part, not knowing, Ball said.I think were going to take this year off and see how it goes and what these changes look like that theyre implementing, he said, and well go from there. SEAN MURPHY Murphy is the statehouse reporter for The Associated Press in Oklahoma City. He has covered Oklahoma news and politics since 1996. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 23 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04068-3Vernon Morris inspires change in the geoscience community by calling on colleagues to commit to anti-racism in their scientific endeavours.

Big Techs huge investment in artificial intelligence is making investors nervous. But the technology continues to advance, buoying the bulls.

Consumers spent 3.9 percent more from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21 this year compared with last year, according to a Mastercard report on holiday spending.

The irony of our secular age is that theology is more powerful than ever.

Mr. Adams will be remembered for the drumbeat of scandals that derailed his mayoralty in New York City, a growing affordability crisis and progress on public safety and housing.

Housing experts and politicians agree that New York City needs to add hundreds of thousands of new homes. The Real Estate Board of New York is keeping tally.

Roofers work atop a house in Anna, Texas, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/LM Otero)2025-12-23T13:41:38Z WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. economy economy expanded at a surprisingly strong 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter as consumer spending, exports and government spending all grew.U.S. gross domestic product from July through September the economys total output of goods and services rose from its 3.8% growth rate in the April-June quarter, the Commerce Department said Tuesday in a report delayed by the government shutdown. Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet forecast growth of 3% in the period.However, inflation remains higher than the Federal Reserve would like. The Feds favored inflation gauge called the personal consumption expenditures index, or PCE climbed to a 2.8% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.1% in the second quarter.Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation was 2.9%, up from 2.6% in the April-June quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70% of U.S. economic activity, rose to a 3.5% annual pace last quarter, up from 2.5% in the April-June period.Within the GDP data, a category that measures the economys underlying strength grew at a 3% annual rate from July through September, up slightly from 2.9% in the second quarter. This category includes consumer spending and private investment, but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending. Exports grew at an 8.8% rate, while imports, which subtract from GDP, fell another 4.7%. Tuesdays report is the first of three estimates the government will make of GDP growth for the third quarter of the year. Outside of the first quarter, when the economy shrank for the first time in three years as companies rushed to import goods ahead of President Donald Trumps tariff rollout, the U.S. economy has continued to expand at a healthy rate. Thats despite much higher borrowing rates the Fed imposed in 2022 and 2023 in its drive to curb the inflation that surged as the United States bounced back with unexpected strength from the brief but devastating COVID-19 recession of 2020. Though inflation remains above the Feds 2% target, the central bank cut its benchmark lending rate three times in a row to close out 2025, mostly out of concern for a job market that has steadily lost momentum since spring.Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a decent 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021.The countrys labor market has been stuck in a low hire, low fire state, economists say, as businesses stand pat due to uncertainty over Trumps tariffs and the lingering effects of elevated interest rates. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said that he suspects those numbers will be revised even lower.

Gross domestic product grew at a 4.3 percent annual rate, faster than the previous three months.

The mayor has kept his vow to lower crime in New York City, but the citys economic recovery has stalled and homelessness has risen.

The president said development of the vessels would help maintain military superiority and improve the industrial base, but analysts suggested they were the wrong approach to current threats.

As warfare is reinvented in Ukraine, and Silicon Valley races to maintain its A.I. lead, Chinas battery dominance is raising alarms far beyond the auto industry.

Fashion, characters, celebrities, scenes and more incredible moments that made you look in 2025.

Its a smart storage solution.READ MORE...

Volunteer soldier Rusya Danylkina, 21, who lost her leg in Russia-Ukraine war, and choreographer Pavlo Semakin perform during the shooting of the Christmas TV show ''Dancing with the Stars'' in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)2025-12-23T13:19:02Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Before the war, Ukraines own Dancing with the Stars was a cherished and popular television show, dazzling the audiences with performances by celebrities and professional dancers. The show is now back on for one special episode this time with Ukrainian wartime heroes as the stars, underscoring the nations resilience in difficult times. Many still remember how President Volodymyr Zelenskyy then an actor won the dance competition in 2006, the year that Tantsi z zirkamy as the show is known in Ukrainian, first debuted. In the new, special episode, the dancers perform with prosthetic limbs, showcasing their strength in overcoming adversity. The lineup of participants includes public figures who rose to prominence since Russias full-out war on Ukraine was launched in February 2022.But like all of present-day Ukraine, the show which is part of an international franchise has had to deal with a multitude of wartime challenges, including frequent power outages. All the proceeds will go to the Superhumans Center, a specialist clinic for the treatment and rehabilitation of war-wounded victims. A new reality During a prerecording last week, dancers spun, leapt and glided under the sparkle of lights, some seamlessly integrating their prosthetic limbs into the choreography.For creative producer Volodymyr Zavadiuk, every segment of the show is precious, creating something special during tough times.Its about our resilience and its about our future, said Zavadiuk, who also heads Big Brave Events and the Big Entertainment Shows department at 1+1 Media.Among the performers was Ruslana Danilkina, a war veteran who lost her leg in combat in 2022 and is now renowned in Ukraine for dedicating herself to helping injured troops adapt to life with prosthetics.She delivered a passionate performance centered on reclaiming her womanhood following the traumatic injury. Also back in the show is beloved dancer Dmytro Dikusar, this time as a competition judge. He juggled filming and serving with his platoon on the front lines.Ukrainian rock musician Yevhen Halych sat in the makeup chair ahead of his number, reflecting on his own determination to bring back the show. We are filming this project in a country where there is a war. ... We have power cuts, we may have an air alert, it could be bombing, he said. What do I feel? I feel a genuine desire to live a full life, no matter what happens.Wartime challengesProducing the shows special episode has been no easy feat in time of war. A live broadcast was impossible a Russian attack can happen at any time. Then there were the technical obstacles: during last weeks recording, a key generator malfunctioned. When the show airs on Sunday, audiences will vote for their favorite. Danilkina, who was only 18 years old when she lost her leg and who today works at the Superhumans Center, enthralled everyone with her passionate performance, her prosthetic limb artfully integrated into her routine. Our dance number is about life. Its about accepting love, she told The Associated Press after her performance. Because in reality, when your body is wounded, its very difficult to love yourself. And allowing someone else to love you is even harder. Her injury was not the end of her life, she said, and now she wants to show thousands of wounded boys and girls who are starting their lives over again that its not the end of theirs. For veteran Ivan Voinov and his wife of three months, Solomiia, the show was more than just a dance performance: it was the second time they had danced together since his injury, the first time was at their wedding.Solomiia Voinov smiled shyly, recounting how she had long tried to persuade Ivan that they should dance until he gave in.We dont take our eyes off each other while dancing, and its a great connection, she said. Im happy.Voinov said he was already planning their next dance a bachata, a fast-paced, hip-swaying style of dance that originated in the Dominican Republic.We will be able to continue dancing, he said. It means that there is a future. SAMYA KULLAB Kullab is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine since June 2023. Before that, she covered Iraq and the wider Middle East from her base in Baghdad since joining the AP in 2019. twitter instagram mailto

There are some possible explanations for whats happening with seemingly conflicting macroeconomic data.

Simple changes can go a long way! READ MORE...

Shoppers wait in line to enter Macy's flagship store on Nov. 28, 2025 in New York. (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis, File)2025-12-23T15:14:45Z WASHINGTON (AP) Consumers confidence in the economy was shaken in December as Americans grow anxious about high prices and the impact of President Donald Trumps sweeping tariffs.The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index fell 3.8 points to 89.1 in December from Novembers upwardly revised reading of 92.9. That is close to the 85.7 reading from April, when Trump rolled out his import taxes on U.S. trading partners.A measure of Americans short-term expectations for their income, business conditions and the job market remained stable at 70.7, but still well below 80, the marker that can signal a recession ahead. It was the 11th consecutive month that reading has come in under 80.Consumers assessments of their current economic situation tumbled 9.5 points to 116.8.Write-in responses to the survey showed that prices and inflation remained consumers biggest concern, along with tariffs, despite repeated claims by President Trump that inflation is a hoax. Perceptions of the job market also declined this month.The conference boards survey reported that 26.7% of consumers said jobs were plentiful, down from 28.2% in November. Also, 20.8% of consumers said jobs were hard to get, up from 20.1% last month. Last week, the government reported that the U.S. economy gained a healthy 64,000 jobs in November but lost 105,000 in October. Notably, the unemployment rate rose to 4.6% last month, the highest since 2021. The countrys labor market has been stuck in a low hire, low fire state, economists say, as businesses stand pat due to uncertainty over Trumps tariffs and the lingering effects of elevated interest rates. Since March, job creation has fallen to an average 35,000 a month, compared to 71,000 in the year ended in March. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said recently that he suspects those numbers will be revised even lower. Despite the broad pessimism, the proportion of those surveyed who think a recession in the next year is is unlikely grew.The December survey showed that respondents views of their familys current financial situation sank into negative territory for the first time in close to four years. On the flip side, expectations about their future financial situation were the most positive since January.Also Tuesday, the government reported that the economy expanded at a 4.3% annual rate in the third quarter, though economists expect a much more sluggish fourth quarter. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

CORRECTS FIRST NAME TO DIANE - Diane West sits with her grandson Paul Quirk as they speak to a reporter, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Marietta, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)2025-12-23T05:01:44Z The oldest baby boomers once the vanguard of an American youth that revolutionized U.S. culture and politics turn 80 in 2026.The generation that twirled the first plastic hula hoops and dressed up the first Barbie dolls, embraced the TV age, blissed out at Woodstock and protested the Vietnam War the cohort that didnt trust anyone over age 30 now is contributing to the overall aging of America. Boomers becoming octogenarians in 2026 include actor Henry Winkler and baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, singers Cher and Dolly Parton and presidents Donald Trump, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The aging and shrinking youth of AmericaAmericas population swelled with around 76 million births from 1946 to 1964, a spike magnified by couples reuniting after World War Two and enjoying postwar prosperity.Boomers were better educated and richer than previous generations, and they helped grow a consumer-driven economy. In their youth, they pushed for social change through the Civil Rights Movement, the womens rights movement and efforts to end the Vietnam War.We had rock n roll. We were the first generation to get out and demonstrate in the streets. We were the first generation, that was, you know, a socially conscious generation, said Diane West, a metro Atlanta resident who turns 80 in January. Our parents played by the rules. We didnt necessarily play by the rules, and there were lots of us. As they got older they became known as the me generation, a pejorative term coined by writer Tom Wolfe to reflect what some regarded as their self-absorption and consumerism. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The thing about baby boomers is theyve always had a spotlight on them, no matter what age they were, Brookings demographer William Frey said. They were a big generation, but they also did important things. By the end of this decade, all baby boomers will be 65 and older, and the number of people 80 and over will double in 20 years, Frey said. The share of senior citizens in the U.S. population is projected to grow from 18.7% in 2025 to nearly 23% by 2050, while children under 18 decline from almost 21% to a projected 18.4%. Without any immigration, the U.S. population will start shrinking in five years. Thats when deaths will surpass births, according to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, which were revised in September to account for the Trump administrations immigration crackdown. Population growth comes from immigration as well as births outpacing deaths.The aging of America is being compounded by longer lives due to better health care and lower birth rates. The projected average U.S. life expectancy at birth rises from 78.9 years in 2025 to 82.2 years in 2055, according to the CBO. And since the Great Recession in 2008, when the fertility rate was 2.08, around the 2.1 rate needed for children to numerically replace their parents, it has been on a steady decline, hitting 1.6 in 2025. Younger generations miss boomer milestonesWomen are having fewer children because they are better educated, theyre delaying marriage to focus on careers and theyre having their first child at a later age. Unaffordable housing, poor access to child care and the growing expenses of child-rearing also add up to fewer kids. University of New Hampshire senior demographer Kenneth Johnson estimates that the result has been 11.8 million fewer births, compared to what might have been had the fertility rate stayed at Great Recession levels.I was young when I had kids. I mean thats what we did we got out of college, we got married and we had babies, said West, who has two daughters, a stepdaughter and six grandchildren. My kids got married in their 30s, so its very different.A recent Census Bureau study showed that 21st century young adults in the U.S. havent been adulting like baby boomers did. In 1975, almost half of 25-to-34-year-olds had moved out of their parents home, landed jobs, gotten married and had kids. By the early 2020s, less than a quarter of U.S. adults had hit these milestones.West, whose 21-year-old grandson lives with her, understands why: They lack the prospects her generation enjoyed. Her grandson, Paul Quirk, said it comes down to financial instability. They were able to buy a lot of things, a lot cheaper, Quirk said. All of her grandchildren are frustrated by the economy, West added.You have to get three roommates in order to afford a place, she said. When we got out of college, we had a job waiting for us. And now, people who have masters degrees are going to work fast food while they look for a real job. Implications for the economyThe aging of America could constrain economic growth. With fewer workers paying taxes, Social Security and Medicare will be under more pressure. About 34 seniors have been supported by every 100 workers in 2025, but that ratio grows to 50 seniors per 100 working-age people in about 30 years, according to estimates released last year by the White House.When West launched her career in employee benefits and retirement planning in 1973, each 100 workers supported 20 or fewer retirees, by some calculations. Vice President JD Vance and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among those pushing for an increase in fertility. Vance has suggested giving parents more voting power, according to their numbers of children, or following the example of Hungarys Viktor Orbn in giving low-interest loans to married parents and tax exemptions to women who have four children or more.Frey said programs that incentivize fertility among U.S. women hardly ever work, so funding should support pre-kindergarten and paid family leave.I think the best you can do for people who do want to have kids is to make it easier and less expensive to have them and raise them, he said. Those things may not bring up the fertility rate as much as people would like, but at least the kids who are being born will have a better chance of succeeding.___Emilie Megnien in Atlanta contributed to this report.___Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social MIKE SCHNEIDER Schneider covers census, demographics and Florida for The Associated Press. Author of 2023 book, Mickey and the Teamsters. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 23 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-10044-8Author Correction: Rolling back human pluripotent stem cells to an eight-cell embryo-like stage

Mr. Sasse, a former senator from Nebraska, wrote on social media that he had received a diagnosis last week for Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

Copies of Jeffrey Epsteins last will and testament show that the convicted sex offender and disgraced financier provide a real-time glimpse of the power players who were part of his life.

A 2020 email noted that Donald Trump was listed as a passenger on Jeffrey Epsteins jet at least eight times from 1993 to 1996.

And its so much cheaper than similar trays online.READ MORE...

Youll save money, and theyre guaranteed to get what they want!READ MORE...

In this image provided by Sky Decker Jr., authorities and volunteers respond to a Mexican Navy plane crash near Galveston, Texas, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025. (Sky Decker Jr. via AP)null2025-12-23T16:05:42Z Air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes with a small Mexican Navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others before it crashed off the Texas coast, killing at least five people, Mexicos president said Tuesday.Authorities initially believed the plane had landed safely at its destination in Galveston, near Houston, before learning it had gone down Monday afternoon, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation. A search-and-resuce operation in waters near Galveston pulled two survivors from the planes wreckage, Mexicos Navy said, while one remained missing.Four of the eight people aboard were Navy officers and four were civilians, including a child, Mexicos Navy said. Two of the passengers were affiliated with a nonprofit that helps transport Mexican children with severe burns to a hospital in Galveston. My condolences to the families of the sailors who unfortunately died in this accident and to the people who were traveling on board, Sheinbaum said in her morning press briefing, without elaborating on a possible cause. What happened is very tragic. U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Luke Baker said at least five aboard had died but did not identify which passengers. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The plane crashed Monday afternoon in a bay near the base of the causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland. Emergency responders rushed to the scene near the popular beach destination about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston. Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives about a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the crash site, said he jumped in his boat to see if he could help. He picked up two police officers who guided him through thick fog to a nearly submerged plane. Decker jumped into the water and found a badly injured woman trapped beneath chairs and other debris. I couldnt believe. She had maybe 3 inches of air gap to breathe in, he said. And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.He said he also pulled out a man seated in front of her who had already died. Both were wearing civilian clothes.Its not immediately clear if weather was a factor. The area has been experiencing foggy conditions over the past few days, according to Cameron Batiste, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He said that at about 2:30 p.m. Monday a fog came in that had about a half-mile visibility. Mexicos Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with the Michou and Mau Foundation. In a social media post, the foundation said: We express our deepest solidarity with the families in light of these events. We share their grief with respect and compassion, honoring their memory and reaffirming our commitment to providing humane, sensitive, and dignified care to children with burns.Teams from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were at the crash site Monday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said, and a spokesperson for the NTSB said the agency was gathering information about the crash. The Galveston County Sheriffs Office said officials from its dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit and patrol responded the crash. MEGAN JANETSKY Megan Janetsky covers migration, conflict, human rights and politics in Mexico and Central America for The AP based in Mexico City. Previously, she covered Cuba and the Caribbean for The AP and worked as freelance journalist in Colombia, reporting across South America. twitter instagram facebook mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

U.S. Delays Tariffs on Chinese Semiconductors

The groups biggest claims were largely incorrect, a New York Times analysis found. And its many smaller cuts added up to few savings.

The measles outbreak in the United States is now in its 11th month, with almost 2,000 cases. The Timmons family were some of the first people to get sick.

From a lone clinic in Texas to an entire school district in North Dakota, the virus is upending daily life and revealing a deeper crisis of belief.

From our favorite bath towels to Oprah-loved sheets.READ MORE...

Fear not, holiday procrastinators theres still time to shine!READ MORE...