A tourist sits at Firostefani as Greek authorities are taking emergency measures in response to intense seismic activity on the popular Aegean Sea holiday island of Santorini, southern Greece, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)2025-02-04T09:31:01Z SANTORINI, Greece (AP) More Greek islands closed schools Tuesday as hundreds of earthquakes ratted the Aegean Sea, while a handful of hardy tourists enjoyed having Santorinis stunning views to themselves.Thousands of residents and seasonal workers have left the Cycladic Islands as hundreds of quakes up to magnitude 5 were recorded in the volcanic region since Friday. Ferry and commercial flight operators added services to accommodate departures.The quakes have caused cracks in some older building but no injuries have been reported so far. On Tuesday, schools were shut on 13 islands, up from four the previous day. Santorini earlier canceled public events, restricted travel to the island and banned construction work in certain areas. Efthimios Lekkas, head of the state-run Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization, said the epicenter of earthquakes in the Aegean Sea was moving northward away from Santorini, emphasizing that there was no connection to the areas dormant volcanoes. This may last several days or several weeks. We are not able to predict the evolution of the sequence in time, Lekkas told state-run television. In Santorinis main town, Fira, the narrow, whitewashed streets along the islands clifftops were deserted a rare sight even in the off season except for small pockets of tour groups, many from Asian countries.Joseph Liu, from Guangzhou in southern China, said he had wanted to visit Santorini for years after seeing it in a documentary. He joined family and tour group members on a balcony deck typically used for high-end wedding receptions. This place is amazing, really beautiful. Just like I saw in the program: the mystery, the scenery, he said. The (group) leader told us about the earthquakes before we came so it was not a surprise.Retired police officer and ship worker Panagiotis Hatzigeorgiou, who has lived on Santorini for more than 30 years, said he has turned down offers to stay with relatives in Athens. Older residents are used to the earthquakes ... But its different this time. Its not the same to have earthquakes every 2-3 minutes. The main thing is not to worry, he said, adding with a laugh: Now we can listen to music alone and have coffee by ourselves.In Athens, government officials are continuing to hold daily high-level planning and assessment meetings with briefings from island officials.

Low quality books that appear to be AI generated are making their way into public libraries via their digital catalogs, forcing librarians who are already understaffed to either sort through a functionally infinite number of books to determine what is written by humans and what is generated by AI, or to spend taxpayer dollars to provide patrons with information they dont realize is AI-generated.Public libraries primarily use two companies to manage and lend ebooks: Hoopla and OverDrive, the latter of which people may know from its borrowing app, Libby. Both companies have a variety of payment options for libraries, but generally libraries get access to the companies catalog of books and pay for customers to be able to borrow that book, with different books having different licenses and prices. A key difference is that with OverDrive, librarians can pick and choose which books in OneDrives catalog they want to give their customers the option of borrowing. With Hoopla, librarians have to opt into Hooplas entire catalog, then pay for whatever their customers choose to borrow from that catalog. The only way librarians can limit what Hoopla books their customers can borrow is by setting a limit on the price of books. For example, a library can use Hoopla but make it so their customers can only borrow books that cost the library $5 per use.On one hand, Hooplas gigantic catalog, which includes ebooks, audio books, and movies, is a selling point because it gives librarians access to more for cheaper price. On the other hand, making librarians buy into the entire catalog means that a customer looking for a book about how to diet for a healthier liver might end up borrowing Fatty Liver Diet Cookbook: 2000 Days of Simple and Flavorful Recipes for a Revitalized Liver. The book was authored by Magda Tangy, who has no online footprint, and who has an AI-generated profile picture on Amazon, where her books are also for sale. Note the earring that is only on one ear and seems slightly deformed. A spokesperson for deepfake detection company Reality Defender said that according to their platform, the headshot is 85 percent likely to be AI-generated.A headshot of Magda Tangy from Amazon.The book, which consists mostly of recipes and includes a disclaimer that the author and publisher are not experts in the discussed topics, didnt include any dangerous information as far as I could tell, but appears to be AI-generated based on its stilted prose and formatting, consisting of summaries broken up with bolded subheadings common in outputs from LLMs like ChatGPT. Are these cookbooks written or reviewed by a dietitian or medical professional? Could a gastric bypass or cancer patient receive cooking instructions to make a meal contraindicated for their medical condition? If I were choosing for a library, Id vet each one. With Hoopla, they are all there. Some might be excellent. Some might be dangerous, Michael Blackwell, director of the St Marys County Library in Leonardtown, MD, told me in an email.It is impossible to say exactly how many AI-generated books are included in Hooplas catalog, but books that appeared to be AI-generated were not hard to find for most of the search terms I tried on the platform. Theres a book about AI Monetization of Your Faceless YouTube Channel, or AI Moniiziization, as it says on its AI-generated cover. Searching for Elon Musk led me to this book for inspiring quotes, fun facts, fascinating trivia, and surprising insights of the technoking. The books cover is AI-generated, its content also appears to be AI-generated, and it was authored by Bill Tarino, another author with no real online footprint who has written around 40 books in the past year about a wide range of subjects including Taylor Swift, emotional intelligence, horror novels, and practical home security.I doubt that most library users of Hoopla are aware that some titles may be AI generated or unedited and of dubious quality, Blackwell said. They may assume that if the library is offering the information, it can be trusted. That is a problem.I also found at least one book on Hoopla that elsewhere admitted it was AI-generated: The Unknown Guest, a mystery novel by Rylie Dark, which on the United States Copyright Office is listed as text generated by artificial intelligence.Investigating these authors, their book covers, their social media, etc takes A LOT OF TIME, especially with the volume of questionable material increasing month to month (and that's not including the sheer amount of legitimate books published each month in adult fiction that I'm looking at), one librarian who asked to remain anonymous so she could talk openly about her job, told me. Is it the best use of my time doing this work on top of my other duties when customers may or may not care? And with the rising multitudes of AI generated content, will there come a point where it just is what it is?My library, like most, does not have the resources to be checking Hoopla on a weekly basis to weed out what we wouldnt want there, Blackwell said. Hoopla is marketed to libraries and should offer material of a quality that libraries want since we are not involved in the selection process, as we are when choosing from other ebook vendors or print.This type of low quality, AI generated content, is what we at 404 Media and others have come to call AI slop. Librarians, whose job it is in part to curate what books their community can access, have been dealing with similar problems in the publishing industry for years, and have a different name for it: vendor slurry. While the term now encompasses what seems like AI-generated content as well, it predates the rise of generative AI, and also refers to the glut of low quality, often self-published ebooks or book summaries that are common on Hoopla. As some librarians told me, the sheer quantity of books in Hooplas service makes it seem more valuable because it offers such a large number of books, but in reality that number is misleadingly inflated by this slurry.What hoopla is offering is this gargantuan amount of books. In actuality, it's padded with this slurry of poor quality materials that people likely don't want at all, Luca Bartlomiejczyk, a librarian at Edith Wheeler Memorial Library in Monroe, CT, told me. If you're going to say, we have 15,000 ebooks on our platform, and 5,000 of those are low quality, AI generated or stuff that's just put on there without any kind of like oversight or selection criteria being followed, what are you actually offering to us?Several librarians pointed me to IRB Media, a publisher with hundreds of books on Hoopla, all of which are seemingly AI-generated summaries of other books. Theoretically theres value in these summaries even if they are AI-generatedthe popular CliffNotes brand which offers summaries of books did the same thing long before generative AIbut the sheer amount of summaries from publishers like IRB Media tend to show up in many search results, making it harder for people to find what they are looking for.If a patron, for example, wants to take out a copy of The Women by Kristin Hannah and what they find is a summary of The Women by Kristin Hannah with the word summary written in a really tiny font, or they just think that it's the thing that they're looking for, and they don't look close enough then it's costing us the money for them to take it out, Bartlomiejczyk told me. It's costing them the time, and they're disappointed.In February 2022, two organizations of librarians, Library Futures and Library Freedom Project, sent Hoopla and OverDrive a letter demanding accountability over fascist propaganda materials being included in their services.These are books that are of such low accuracy and quality that not even Amazon will sell them. This includes materials from white nationalist publishers Arktos Media, Antelope Hill Publishing, and Castle Hill Services, the organizations wrote. In Hoopla, for example, the third search result for the word Holocaust returned a Holocaust denial text not carried by most book distributors.In March, Hoopla Digital CEO Jeff Jankowski replied in a statement that said the books highlighted in the letter were removed and attempted to explain why they were included to begin with.The titles from these five independent publishers came to us from our network of more than 18,000 unique publishers, Jankowski said. They were added within the most recent twelve months and, unfortunately, they made it through our protocols that include both human and system-driven reviews and screening. As a result, we have taken immediate steps to improve our process.The librarian organizations said that they appreciated the response and that Hoopla removed the titles, but said the response was insufficient.Our questions remain about how Hoopla selects and approves materials for their collections. There is still a great deal of disinformation to be found on Hoopla, they said. For instance, when you search for ebooks about homosexuality and abortion, instead of factual informational content, the search results are largely self-published religious texts designed to misinform and scare library readers about sexual and reproductive topics.Several of the librarians I talked to said that they are worried about discussing this problem because of the growing hostility towards libraries and groups like Moms for Liberty demanding that books about LGBTQ rights, race, and ethnicity be removed from libraries. One the one hand, librarians want to curate their collections and make sure their patrons are getting access to quality information. On the other hand, they dont want people to think that they are trying to censor what materials patrons can access in way thats comparable to what organizations like Moms for Liberty want.It's this really fine line. This is not a request to censor materials. This is a request to ask companies that sell materials to the public with taxpayer money to be accountable for what is on their service, and to be transparent, Jennie Halperin, executive director at Library Futures told me.We're always standing directly against censorship at every step of the way. That's what librarians do, Bartlomiejczyk told me. It's part of our code of ethics that we all follow, but professionals trained in best practices in selection of materials, i.e. librarians, to make these decisions would make a huge difference in the stuff that's being selected for these platforms.Hoopla and OverDrive did not respond to a request for comment.None of the librarians I talked to suggested the AI-generated content needed to be banned from Hoopla and libraries only because it is AI-generated. It might have its place, but it needs to be clearly labeled, and more importantly, provide borrowers with quality information. Much like Wikipedia editors, librarians are curators of information for society. Wikipedia editors are unpaid volunteers. Librarians told me they were already understaffed, overworked, and under attack by conservative groups before AI-generated content became an issue. Both groups now face an entirely new threat to their core mission: generative AIs ability to create an infinite amount of low quality information. All librarians are asking for at this point is that Hoopla explain exactly how its selection process work, and hopefully improve it.Platforms like Hoopla should offer libraries the option to select or omit materials, including AI materials, in their collections, Sarah Lamdan, deputy director of the American Library Association, told me. AI books should be well-identified in library catalogs, so it is clear to readers that the books were not written by human authors. If library visitors choose to read AI eBooks, they should do so with the knowledge that the books are AI-generated.

Elon Musk speaks at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)2025-02-04T01:59:29Z WASHINGTON (AP) Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk posted Monday on his social media site that he had deleted 18F, a government agency that worked on technology projects such as the IRS Direct File program. This led to some confusion about whether Direct File is still available to taxpayers, but the free filing program is still available, at least for the coming tax season.While Musks tweet may have intimated that the group of workers had been eliminated, an individual with knowledge of the IRS workforce said the Direct File program was still accepting tax returns. The individual spoke anonymously with The Associated Press because they were not authorized to talk to the press.As of Monday evening, 18Fs website was still operational, as was the Direct File website. But the digital services agencys X account was deleted. The IRS announced last year that it will make the free electronic tax return filing system permanent and asked all 50 states and the District of Columbia to help taxpayers file their returns through the program in 2025. The Direct File trial began in March 2024. But the IRS has face intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have made billions from charging people to use their software and have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing their returns each year. Commercial tax prep companies that have lobbied against development of the free file program say free file options already exist. Several organizations, including private tax firms, offer free online tax preparation assistance to taxpayers under certain income limits. Fillable forms are available online on the IRS website, but they are complicated and taxpayers still have to calculate their tax liability.Last May the IRS announced it would make the Direct File program permanent. It is now available in 25 states, up from 12 states that were part of last years pilot program. The program allows people in some states with very simple W-2s to calculate and submit their returns directly to the IRS. Those using the pilot program in 2024 claimed more than $90 million in refunds, the IRS said in October.During his confirmation hearing Jan. 16, Scott Bessent, now treasury secretary, committed to maintaining the Direct File program at least for the 2025 tax season, which began Jan. 27.Musk was responding to a post by an X user who called 18F far left and mused that Direct File puts the government in charge of preparing peoples taxes. That group has been deleted, Musk wrote. 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 BARBARA ORTUTAY Ortutay writes about social media and the internet for The Associated Press. mailto

Police at the scene of an incident at Risbergska School, in rebro, Sweden, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Kicki Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)2025-02-04T13:07:58Z OREBRO, Sweden (AP) Five people were shot at an adult education center in Sweden on Tuesday, police said. The conditions of the victims werent immediately clear.The Swedish news agency TT reported, without providing its sources, that the perpetrator died by suicide. Police didnt immediately confirm that reporting, but the head of the local police told a news conference that the suspected perpetrator was among the five people shot.The adult education center is on the outskirts of the city of Orebro, which is located about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Stockholm. The school, called Campus Risbergska, serves students who are over age 20, according to its website. Primary and upper secondary school courses are offered, as well as Swedish classes for immigrants, vocational training and programs for people with intellectual disabilities.The violence broke out Tuesday after many students had gone home following a national exam. Police vehicles and ambulances, lights flashing, blanketed the parking lots and streets around the school as a helicopter buzzed overhead.Teacher Lena Warenmark told SVT News that there were unusually few students on the campus Tuesday afternoon because many went home after the exam. She also told the broadcaster that she heard probably 10 gunshots.Students sheltered in nearby buildings. Other parts of the school were evacuated following the shooting, which began at around 12:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT). Police at the scene of an incident at Risbergska School, in rebro, Sweden, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Kicki Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP) Police at the scene of an incident at Risbergska School, in rebro, Sweden, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Kicki Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Andreas Sundling, 28, was among those forced to barricade themselves inside the school. We heard three bangs and loud screams, he told Expressen newspaper while sheltering in a classroom. Now were sitting here waiting to be evacuated from the school. The information we have received is that we should sit and wait.Police said that no officers were shot during the violence.The reports of violence in Orebro are very serious. The police are on site and the operation is in full swing, Justice Minister Gunnar Strmmer told TT.During a news conference on the Swedish employment market, another government official addressed the violence in Orebro, which has a population of around 155,000 people.The government is following developments very closely and has a continuous dialogue with the police about this, Mats Persson, minister for employment and integration, said Tuesday. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

NASA personnel were told to drop everything to scrub public sites of mentions of DEI, indigenous people, environmental justice, and women in leadership, according to a directive obtained by 404 Media.The directive, sent on January 22 and obtained by 404 Media, states:Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on.DEIADiversity (in context of DEIA)Equity ( )Inclusion ( )Accessibility ( )MSIMinority Serving InstitutionIndigenous PeopleEEJEJEnvironmental JusticeUnderrepresented groups/peopleAnything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)Do you have anything to share related to this story, NASA or SpaceX? We would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.By now, Trumps war on DEI is well documented. But the directive shows the specific words that some agencies were asked to delete, providing a clearer picture of how agencies have been asked to scrub information. A NASA employee told 404 Media we were absolutely required to scrub all DEI related or DEI adjacent topics and terms from all external websites by 5pm the 22nd, which was a drop everything and get it done task. 404 Media granted the employee anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.Many of these changes are visible on publicly-available NASA Github repositories, where NASA pages have been edited to change, for example inclusive to fair. Inclusion has also been deleted from promotional materials about competitions.These changes are a result of President Donald Trumps executive order Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing. Civil servants across the federal government have had to divert their attention from normal operations to attempt to comply with Trumps gender- and diversity-obsessed orders the last few weeks, including Social Security Administration sites removing information about sex designations, the Department of Labor sites about discrimination at work, CDC websites, and informational videos about the use of pronouns. The NASA Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity website was taken offline, too.Github repositories have been a public view of many of these removals.In an email to staff after Trumps DEI order, NASA acting administrator Janet Petrothe first woman to hold the position since its founding 67 years agowrote that diversity programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination, and accused some in government of attempting to somehow sneak in diversity and inclusion efforts.As Inc. pointed out, NASA is not an exceptionally diverse workplace: A 2024 report from the NASA Office of Inspector General said that despite diversity efforts, NASA made little progress in increasing the representation of women and minorities in its civilian workforce or leadership ranks. Specifically, over the past decade NASAs overall workforce demographics have stayed roughly the same. At the same time, astronaut selection, which involves sorting through thousands of highly qualified candidates, has in the recent past (and during Trumps first term) attempted to represent what Americans actually look like and the backgrounds they come from, including women and people of color.When Petro took on the role to lead NASA, she wrote on LinkedIn that she would remain steadfast in our commitment to NASA's mission and core values. In 2021, when she was the director of Kennedy Space Center, she spoke at length in an interview about the value of diversity, saying our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility has been paramount to mission success. In that interview, she went on to reflect on how committed she was to making paths for women and minorities in her field: Since the beginning of my professional journey, I have been in the minority of the organization I belonged towhether it was flying helicopters in the Army or working as a mechanical engineer or program manager in a commercial aerospace company, she said. I often found myself either the only female, or only one of a couple. There werent many minorities either. [...] I am, therefore, profoundly committed to promoting opportunities for growth for all. A big part of this is ensuring an environment where everyone feels included, has a voice and feels safe to express their opinions.Jason Koebler contributed reporting to this piece.

A 404 Media reader has reformatted the Simple Sabotage Field Manual to be more legible as a PDF and shared it with us, so were going to share it with you.Last week, I wrote about the Simple Sabotage Field Manual, a World War II era guide to resisting fascism for normal people. At the time, it was the fifth most popular book on Project Gutenberg, a website that hosts public domain books. It had been downloaded 60,000 times over the last month.Currently, the book is by far the most popular on the site and has been downloaded more than 230,000 times in the last 30 days. Project Gutenberg has copies of the book as plaintext, HTML, Kindle, and EPUB formats, but doesnt host a PDF version of the book. The original version the CIA declassified is available as a PDF, but parts of it are blurry and some of the text is difficult to read. Over the weekend, a 404 Media reader made a new layout of the guide as a searchable PDF and sent it to me, which I thought was very cool! They asked that I not identify them, but you can find here:Simple Sabotage Field ManualSabotage.pdf158 KBdownload-circleMay it run wild and free, they said.

A piece of wreckage is lifted from the water onto a salvage vessel near the site in the Potomac River of a mid-air collision between an American Airlines jet and a Black Hawk helicopter, at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-02-04T15:28:03Z ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) Crews worked Tuesday to try to recover the planes cockpit and the rest of the remains of the 67 people who died in the midair collision between a passenger jet and Army helicopter near the nations capital last week.They say their work might depend upon the wind and tidal conditions in the Potomac River, where the aircraft crashed last Wednesday night after colliding as the American Airlines flight was about to land at nearby Ronald Reagan National Airport. All 67 people on both aircraft were killed.As of midmorning Tuesday, they were working to raise another large piece of the plane. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to give a news update later Tuesday.Authorities have recovered and identified the remains of 55 of the 67 people and have said they are confident they will find all of the victims. They are focusing first on the jet. Col. Francis B. Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said salvage crews on Monday were able to pull one of the two jet engines from the river, along with large pieces of the planes exterior. They were also working to recover a wing of the plane, which had flown out of Wichita, Kansas. Sixty passengers and four crew were on the American Airlines flight, including figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita. The Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin OHara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; and Capt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, were aboard. Federal investigators are trying to piece together the events that led to the collision. Full investigations typically take a year or more, but investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.Wednesdays crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood just after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five on the ground.___Dale reported from Philadelphia. MARYCLAIRE DALE Dale covers national legal issues for The Associated Press, often focusing on the federal judiciary, gender law, #MeToo and NFL player concussions. Her work unsealing Bill Cosbys testimony in a decade-old deposition led to his arrest and sexual assault trials. twitter mailto

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)2025-02-04T03:55:23Z NEW YORK (AP) Some calm is returning to Wall Street Tuesday, and U.S. stock indexes are making only modest moves in early trading after much of Europe and Asia rose earlier in the day.The S&P 500 was 0.1% higher, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, a day after swinging sharply on worries that President Donald Trumps tariffs could spark a punishing trade war that would hurt economies around the world, including the United States. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 42 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher. Trump on Monday agreed to delay his taxes on U.S. imports of Canadian and Mexican products for a month, with the announcement on Canada coming after trading closed for the day. That raised Wall Streets longstanding hopes that Trumps tough talk on tariffs is just that, talk. The hope is that Trump sees tariffs as a stick he can use in negotiations with trading partners rather than as a long-term policy. That hope is built in part on traders belief that Trump would be turned off by the damage Wall Street would take if a worst-case, long-term trade war were to occur. Trump has pointed in the past to the stock market as a real-time measure of his approval. But a trade war is still possible, and some analysts say more swings may be ahead because Trumps threats should be taken both seriously and literally.Investors have suggested the equity market is the US administrations scorecard and any policy changes that hurt risk assets will be quickly dialed back, Bank of America strategists led by Mark Cabana wrote in a BofA Global Research report. We advise caution. They say a big takeaway from all the tariff tumult is that the Trump administration is transactional, and nothing is settled until it is final.Trump is pressing ahead with a 10% tax on U.S. companies importing things from China, for example. And China retaliated on Tuesday with its own tariffs on select American imports and an antitrust investigation into Google. The measures were announced just minutes after Trumps tariffs on Chinese products effect. The stock price of Googles parent company, Alphabet, rose 0.9% in early trading. Elsewhere on Wall Street, stocks that had swung sharply a day before when worries were high about tariffs on Mexico and Canada were calmer.Auto makers had dropped because so much of their production occurs in Mexico, for example. But General Motors edged down by just 0.1%, and Ford Motor rose 1.5%. More attention was on earnings reports for U.S. companies, which would likely be in the markets spotlight if not for worries about a potential trade war.Palantir Technologies jumped 24.8% after reporting a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The Denver company also issued strong guidance for the coming year, well ahead of analysts projections. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Alexander Karp said Palantirs revenue from government contracts grew 45% year-over-year in the fourth quarter and called the company he co-founded a software juggernaut. PepsiCo fell 2.5% after it said North American demand for its snacks and drinks remained weak, leading to a second straight quarterly decline in sales. The company has raised prices repeatedly and did so again the most recent quarter, sending some customers in search of cheaper snack brands. Shares of pharmaceutical giant Merck tumbled 11.7% after it beat sales and profit forecasts but issued a tepid outlook.In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.57% from 4.56% late Monday. In stock markets abroad, Londons FTSE 100 sank 0.3%, but other big European markets rose modestly. In Asia, Hong Kongs Hang Seng jumped 2.8%, and South Koreas Kospi rose 1.1%. ___AP Writers Matt Ott and Zen Soo contributed.

This image provided by NASA shows a view from orbit looking obliquely across the surface of the moon, where an ancient asteroid strike carved out a pair of grand canyons on the moons far side. (Ernie T. Wright/NASA via AP)2025-02-04T16:01:45Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) New research shows that when an asteroid slammed into the moon billions of years ago, it carved out a pair of grand canyons on the lunar far side. Thats good news for scientists and NASA, which is looking to land astronauts at the south pole on the near, Earth-facing side untouched by that impact and containing older rocks in original condition.U.S. and British scientists used photos and data from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to map the area and calculate the path of debris that produced these canyons about 3.8 billion years ago. They reported their findings Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.The incoming space rock passed over the lunar south pole before hitting, creating a huge basin and sending streams of boulders hurtling at a speed of nearly 1 mile a second (1 kilometer a second). The debris landed like missiles, digging out two canyons comparable in size to Arizonas Grand Canyon in barely 10 minutes. The latter, by comparison, took millions of years to form. This was a very violent, a very dramatic geologic process, said lead author David Kring of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. Kring and his team estimate the asteroid was 15 miles (25 kilometers) across and that the energy needed to create these two canyons would have been more than 130 times that in the worlds current inventory of nuclear weapons. Most of the ejected debris was thrown in a direction away from the south pole, Kring said. That means NASAs targeted exploration zone around the pole mostly on the moons near side wont be buried under debris, keeping older rocks from 4 billion plus years ago exposed for collection by moonwalkers. These older rocks can help shed light not only on the moons origins, but also Earths. Kring said its unclear whether these two canyons are permanently shadowed like some of the craters at the moons south pole. That is something that were clearly going to be reexamining, he said. Permanently shadowed areas at the bottom of the moon are thought to hold considerable ice, which could be turned into rocket fuel and drinking water by future moonwalkers. NASAs Artemis program, the successor to Apollo, aims to return astronauts to the moon this decade. The plan is to send astronauts around the moon next year, followed a year or so later by the first lunar touchdown by astronauts since Apollo.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A red wolf crosses a road on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, March 23, 2023, near Manns Harbor, N.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)2025-02-04T14:31:28Z ALLIGATOR RIVER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.C. (AP) Hunters were once the greatest human threat to the countrys only unique wolf species. Today, its motorists.That fact was brought home last June, when red wolf breeding male No. 2444 was struck and killed on U.S. 64 near Manns Harbor, North Carolina. His death likely meant five pups hed been providing for died, too.We were hoping the mother would return and resume care, but she never did, Joe Madison, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services red wolf recovery program, said during a recent visit to the site. For decades, conservationists have pushed for changes to U.S. 64, a busy two-lane highway to the popular Outer Banks that runs straight through the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge one of just two places in the world where red wolves run free.They may finally be getting their wish. In this photo provided by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, a coyote walks under U.S. 64 near Creswell, N.C., on March 9, 2023. (NC Wildlife Resources Commission via AP) In this photo provided by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, a coyote walks under U.S. 64 near Creswell, N.C., on March 9, 2023. (NC Wildlife Resources Commission via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Joe Madison, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlifes red wolf program, poses for a photo outside the Red Wolf Center in Columbia, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Joe Madison, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlifes red wolf program, poses for a photo outside the Red Wolf Center in Columbia, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More In late December, the Federal Highway Administration awarded the first grants under a new $125 million Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program. Unless the grants are somehow undone by President Donald Trump, part of the money will help state agencies and nonprofit groups rebuild a 2.5-mile section of the highway with fencing and a series of culverts, or small underpasses, to allow red wolves as well as black bears, white-tailed deer and other animals to pass safely underneath traffic. When you build wildlife bridges or underpasses, you reduce human-wildlife conflict, said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, who studies wildlife migrations but is not directly involved in the project. There is increasing awareness that reducing traffic collisions is smart for wildlife, smart for people too. Other agency grants will support new bridges and underpasses for mule deer in Idaho, pronghorn antelope in New Mexico, and cougars and bears in Oregon, among other projects.But whats notable about the U.S. 64 project is that the goal is twofold: reducing dangerous collisions and roadkill and saving a critically endangered species. There are thought to be fewer than 20 red wolves left in the wild; besides Alligator River, the other remaining habitat is in the nearby Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Madison calculates that No. 2444 represented 7% of the known wild red wolf population. So, every time you get a mortality, thats a significant hit, he said. A sign and map station mark red wolf country in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge near Manns Harbor, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) A sign and map station mark red wolf country in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge near Manns Harbor, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Reducing roadkill and saving a species?Wildlife crossings have proliferated across the U.S. in the past 20 years with broad nonpartisan support. Most often, the objective is safety. One congressional report estimated that dangerous highway collisions with large animals kill hundreds of people and cost more than $8 billion each year.Researchers have learned a lot about what works for different species. Pronghorn dont want to go through tunnels or close spaces, so they avoid underpasses and need bridges, said Arthur Middleton, an ecologist who studies animal migration at the University of California, Berkeley. Whereas deer will go under or over. Male red wolf No. 2444 lies dead along U.S. 64 after being struck by a vehicle near Manns Harbor, N.C., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP) Male red wolf No. 2444 lies dead along U.S. 64 after being struck by a vehicle near Manns Harbor, N.C., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Gray wolves and coyotes and, presumably, red wolves will also use underpasses, or culverts, of 6 or 8 feet in diameter. Fencing is critical to funnel the animals to the structures. Along U.S. 30 in Wyoming, seven small underpasses and fencing cut mule deer collisions by 81%. In Canada, a series of overpasses and underpasses along the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park reduced collisions with hooved animals by 94%.But whether wildlife crossings can help prevent extinctions is a harder question to answer.Conservation was always a part of the story, but now were seeing crossings increasingly pop up that have conservation as a primary rationale, said Ben Goldfarb, author of the book Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet. Some of the most ambitious crossings for conservation have just been built and it will take time to assess the results. This photo shows the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) This photo shows the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing over the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More A construction worker looks over the 101 Freeway from the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) A construction worker looks over the 101 Freeway from the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills, Calif., Oct. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Outside Los Angeles, a wildlife crossing over 10 lanes of U.S. 101 is expected to open in 2026. The primary aim is to help connect the habitat of mountain lions, which need to cross the freeway to find suitable mates. Inbreeding among mountain lions in the LA region has already led to genetic mutations and decreased fertility. In Brazils Rio de Janeiro state, construction of a wildlife bridge spanning BR 101 was finished in 2020, then native seedlings were planted in a soil bed. Once those trees mature, researchers will study if the target species an endangered monkey called a golden lion tamarin uses the bridge regularly. Experts say the trees are necessary for creatures like monkeys or sloths to move across the bridge. Species that scamper on the ground, including foxes, anteaters and armadillos, are already crossing. A vehicle drives under a wildlife crossing that allows animals to go over a highway in Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, July 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Lucas Dumphreys, File) A vehicle drives under a wildlife crossing that allows animals to go over a highway in Silva Jardim, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, July 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Lucas Dumphreys, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Hope at the end of the tunnel underpass for red wolves?While its not certain that a wildlife crossing can save the last red wolves, scientists say that doing nothing will almost certainly hasten their demise.Canis rufus, often called Americas wolf, once roamed from central Texas to southern Iowa and as far east as Long Island, New York. After being declared extinct in the wild, red wolves were reintroduced in North Carolina in 1987. For about 20 years, the population grew steadily to reach around 120 animals. Then their numbers crashed with vehicle collisions a primary culprit. One study found that vehicle strikes had killed about 5% of the red wolf population each year between their reintroduction and 2022. In this frame from video, grass grows tall in a wildlife crossing created by elevating a portion of U.S. 64 near Creswell, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) In this frame from video, grass grows tall in a wildlife crossing created by elevating a portion of U.S. 64 near Creswell, N.C., on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Marcel P. Huijser, a study co-author and a research ecologist at Montana State Universitys Western Transportation Institute, warned that the cost of doing nothing, including losing a wild species, can be far higher than the cost of implementing effective mitigation.In North Carolina, Fish and Wildlife biologists have tried other measures to prevent crashes like flashing road signs and reflective collars without much success.Following No. 2444s death, conservation groups like the Wildlands Network and the Center for Biological Diversity pushed for another solution. A sign warns motorists on U.S. 64 to watch out for crossing red wolves on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, March 22, 2023, near Manns Harbor, N.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) A sign warns motorists on U.S. 64 to watch out for crossing red wolves on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, March 22, 2023, near Manns Harbor, N.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More A red wolf roams across the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge as the sun sets, Thursday, March 23, 2023, near Manns, N.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) A red wolf roams across the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge as the sun sets, Thursday, March 23, 2023, near Manns, N.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More In September, the North Carolina Department of Transportation submitted a grant application for the Red Wolf Essential Survival Crossings Under Evacuation Route or RESCUER project.Plans for the U.S. 64 wildlife crossing call for a series of underpass structures several of them big enough for wolves and other large mammals to pass through and the accompanying fencing. The exact number and size of the underpasses has yet to be determined, said Travis W. Wilson, eastern habitat conservation coordinator for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission.The estimated total cost for the project is about $31.5 million, including $4 million in private donations raised by conservation groups and an anonymous donors matching grant.This is one of the most important wildlife connectivity projects in the country, said Beth Pratt, founder of the nonprofit The Wildlife Crossing Fund, which raised funds for the project. Critically endangered red wolves will disappear if we do nothing. Red wolf pawprints are visible in the dirt beside human footprints on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge near Manns Harbor, N.C., March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Red wolf pawprints are visible in the dirt beside human footprints on the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge near Manns Harbor, N.C., March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More ___The Associated Presss Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. APs climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. ALLEN G. BREED Breed is an Associated Press general assignment/feature writer. He joined the AP in 1988 in Kentucky. twitter mailto CHRISTINA LARSON Larson is a science writer on The Associated Press Global Health & Science team. She has reported on the environment from five continents. mailto

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, shakes hands with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves during a joint news conference at the presidential palace in San Jose, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)2025-02-04T16:06:21Z SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) Secretary of State Marco Rubio will press the Trump administrations priority of cracking down on immigration when he meets Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves on Tuesday, a day after reaching an unusual agreement with El Salvadors leader to accept U.S. deportees of any nationality, including violent American criminals.Rubio met with staffers at the U.S. embassy in San Jose as he faces major upheaval at the U.S. Agency for International Development that has left many at the aid agency and the State Department uneasy and fearful for their jobs.Americas top diplomat is expected to get questions later at a news conference with Chaves about the turmoil at USAID as well as the offer from Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to accept migrant deportees of all nationalities from the United States as well as violent American citizens imprisoned in the U.S. We can send them, and he will put them in his jails, Rubio said Monday of Bukeles offer to accept migrants of all nationalities detained in the U.S. And, hes also offered to do the same for dangerous criminals currently in custody and serving their sentences in the United States even though theyre U.S. citizens or legal residents. Bukele confirmed the offer in a post on X, saying El Salvador has offered the United States of America the opportunity to outsource part of its prison system. He said his country would accept only convicted criminals and would charge a fee that would be relatively low for the U.S. but significant for us, making our entire prison system sustainable. The State Department describes El Salvadors overcrowded prisons as harsh and dangerous. Its country information webpage says, In many facilities, provisions for sanitation, potable water, ventilation, temperature control, and lighting are inadequate or nonexistent. El Salvador has lived under a state of emergency since March 2022, when the countrys powerful street gangs went on a killing rampage. Bukele responded by suspending fundamental rights like access to lawyers, and authorities have arrested more than 83,000 people with little to no due process.In 2023, Bukele opened a massive new prison with capacity for 40,000 gang members and boasted about serving only one meal per day. Prisoners there do not receive visits, and there are no programs preparing them for reinsertion into society after their sentences and no workshops or educational programs.El Salvador, once one of the most dangerous countries in the world, closed last year with a record low 114 homicides, a newfound security that has propelled Bukeles soaring popularity in the country of about 6 million residents.Migration has been the top issue for Rubios five-nation Central American tour spanning Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic following stops in Panama and El Salvador.While Rubio was out of the U.S. this week, USAID staffers and Democratic lawmakers were blocked from its Washington headquarters Monday after Elon Musk, which is running a budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency, announced Trump had agreed with him to shut the aid agency. Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down. Rubio told reporters in San Salvador that he was now the acting administrator of USAID but had delegated that authority so he would not be running its day-to-day operations.In a letter Rubio sent to lawmakers that was obtained by The Associated Press, he said the State Department would work with Congress to reorganize and absorb certain bureaus, offices and missions of USAID.He said the processes at the agency, which has been hit by Trumps freeze on all foreign assistance, are not well coordinated and that undermines the Presidents ability to carry out foreign relations. In consultation with Congress, USAID may move, reorganize, and integrate certain missions, bureaus and offices into the Department of State, and the remainder of the Agency may be abolished consistent with applicable law, Rubio wrote.___AP reporters Christopher Sherman in Mexico City and Farnoush Amiri in Washington contributed to this report.

Hadi Matar, left, charged with severely injuring author Salman Rushdie in a 2022 knife attack, is led into Chautauqua County court by public defender Nathaniel Barone before the start of jury selection in Mayville, N.Y., Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)2025-02-04T05:15:03Z MAYVILLE, N.Y. (AP) In 2022, Salman Rushdie was about to deliver a lecture before a live audience in western New York when a man ran towards him and plunged a knife into the authors hand as he raised it in self-defense.After that there are many blows, to my neck, to my chest, to my eye, everywhere, Rushdie recalled in a memoir that followed. I feel my legs give way, and I fall.In the coming weeks, Rushdie is expected to return to the same New York county to recount the experience as one of the first witnesses in the trial of the man charged with wielding the knife that day, Hadi Matar.Jury selection got underway Tuesday. Matar, 27, of Fairview, New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault.Under different circumstances, Rushdies book, which details his account of that day and his recovery, might offer important evidence in the Aug. 12, 2022, attack that left the 77-year-old blind in his right eye and his hand permanently damaged. But this isnt a back alley event that occurs unwitnessed in a dark alley, said Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt following a pretrial hearing. This is something that was recorded, it was witnessed live by thousands of people. Jurors will be shown video of the attack, as well as photos and documentation, and an estimated 15 witnesses are expected to take the stand. Judge David Foley said once jury selection is complete, the trial would take up to a week and a half. Matars lawyer, Nathaniel Barone, has not explained how he plans to defend his client and has clapped back at critics who question why Matar did not take a plea deal.Thats not what this is about. Its about due process, Barone said. Its about receiving a fair trial ... If someone wants to exercise those rights, theyre entitled to do that.In a separate indictment, federal authorities allege that Matar was motivated by a terrorist organizations endorsement of a fatwa, or edict, calling for Rushdies death. A separate trial on the federal charges terrorism transcending national boundaries, providing material support to terrorists and attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization will be scheduled in U.S. District Court in Buffalo. Foley asked potential jurors Tuesday whether they could fairly consider a case involving someone of Muslim descent or with strong religious beliefs. All indicated they could.But finding jurors who have not already formed an opinion was proving harder. Nearly all of the 27 men and women being screened Tuesday said they knew about what happened to Rushdie, either from news reports or acquaintances, and several said they had formed opinions that are unlikely to change based on what they hear at trialMatars attorney sought unsuccessfully to move the trial out of Chautauqua County last year, citing pretrial publicity and potential prejudice against people of Middle Eastern descent among the small rural countys mostly white residents.Rushdie spent years in hiding after the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the fatwa in 1989 after publication of the novel The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous. In the federal indictment, authorities allege Matar believed the edict was backed by the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah and endorsed in a 2006 speech by the groups then-leader, Hassan Nasrallah. But jurors in the Chautauqua County case are unlikely to hear about the fatwa, according to Schmidt. He has said he doesnt anticipate needing to show Matars possible motive to get a conviction on the state charges.From my standpoint, this is a localized event. Its a stabbing event. Its fairly straightforward, Schmidt said. I dont really see a need to get into motive evidence, whether thats applicable or not applicable and what that consists of. Id like to avoid all of that.Barone, the defense attorney, said jurors should be screened for prejudice nonetheless, given the discussions of the fatwa during previous court proceedings. Theyve talked about the reason why this alleged crime supposedly occurred was because of this book involving Muslims, all that. So its kind of like the barn doors been opened, he said.Matar was born in the U.S. but holds dual citizenship in Lebanon, where his parents were born. Rushdie is a native of India who lived for years in London. He became a U.S. citizen in 2016.Matar has been held without bail since his arrest after being subdued by onlookers who rushed the amphitheater stage. The events moderator, Henry Reese, co-founder of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, was also wounded. CAROLYN THOMPSON Thompson is an Associated Press reporter based in Buffalo, New York. twitter mailto

In this April 17, 2019, photo, reviewed by U.S. military officials, the control tower is seen through the razor wire inside the Camp VI detention facility in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)2025-02-04T18:08:57Z WASHINGTON (AP) The first U.S. military flight to deport migrants from the United States to Guantanamo Bay was set to depart Tuesday, a U.S. official said. It is the first step in what is expected to be a surge in the number of migrants held at the Navy base in Cuba, which for decades was primarily used to detain foreigners associated with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.President Donald Trump has eyed the facility as a holding center and said it has the capacity to hold as many as 30,000. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was assigned to Guantanamo Bay when he was on active duty, has called it a perfect place to house migrants. Additional U.S. troops have arrived at the facility in the past few days to help prepare it. In addition, the U.S. flew Indian migrants back to India on Monday, and that flight was still in progress as of midday Tuesday, the U.S. official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. There had previously been seven deportation flights, to Ecuador, Guam, Honduras and Peru. In addition, Colombian officials flew to the U.S. and took two flights of migrants back to their country.There are approximately 300 service members supporting the holding operations at Guantanamo Bay, and the numbers will fluctuate based on the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the lead federal agency.CNN was first to report on the flights. TARA COPP Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. twitter mailto LOLITA C. BALDOR Baldor has covered the Pentagon and national security issues for The Associated Press since 2005. She has reported from all over the world including warzones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. twitter mailto

Thomas Shedd, a Musk-associate and now head of the General Services Administrations Technology Transformation Services (TTS), told government tech workers in a meeting this week that the administration plans to widely deploy AI throughout the government. Shedd also said the administration would need help altering login.gov, a government login system, to further integrate with sensitive systems like social security to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud, which employees identified on the meeting as an illegal task.Shedd, who is a former Tesla engineer, said the government should try to get consent, regarding login.gov changes but that we should still push forward and see what we can do.WIRED and the New York Times previously reported on aspects of the meeting. 404 Media has now obtained audio of the full meeting and quotes it extensively below. Shedd told TTS workers that the administration would need help making radical changes to various government systems: Things are going to get intense, he said.Are you a current or former worker for 18F, TTS, the GSA, or a similar entity? We would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message Jason securely on Signal at +1 202 505 1702; Joseph on +44 20 8133 5190; and Emanuel on +1 609 678 3204.These potential changes, he said, would include things like creating AI coding agents that would write government software for many different agencies and would be trained in part on existing government contracts, larger scale automations of government, and, critically, changes to Login.govJust like a fun one that we've been thinking through with Login, specifically in TTS is, as most of you know, Login can't access government information on individuals. And so there's no connection that Login has with social security or any other government system, even though we're part of the government, Shedd said. And so part of one of the things to work through is how do we make it so that those agencies that has that information of very secure APIs that can be leveraged by login to further identify individuals and detect and prevent fraud?I'm not saying that this is an easy task, but it is a task that's worth trying to pursue and one that only we can do as an internal team, right? We can't bring a third party in, hire them and have them work on a project like this. It has to be an internal technology team that works on this, Shedd continued.During a question-and-answer session, a government employee told Shedd that The Privacy Act forbids agencies sharing personal information without consent.I think we were on the topic of login aggregating data. It's an illegal task, the employee question, which was read aloud by a woman facilitating the meeting, said. The Privacy Act forbids agencies sharing personal information without consent.The idea would be that folks would give consent to help with the login flow, Shedd said. But again, that's an example of something that we have a vision, that needs worked on, and needs clarified. And if we hit a roadblock, then we hit a roadblock. But we still should push forward and see what we can do.Currently, Login.gov says it is for account access and sign in only. This account does not affect or have any information related to the specific agency you are trying to access. A FAQ about its current integration with the Social Security Administration says a users account does not affect or have any information about your Social Security card, number, or benefits. Please do not send Login.gov sensitive data about yourself or identifying numbers.Throughout the entire meeting, Shedd painted a vision of the federal government where a small group of coders under his leadership would revolutionize the way government works. He said, for example, that he would need help creating AI coding agents that would write software across the entire federal government. He proposed creating a centralized database of contracts that could be analyzed.We want to start implementing more AI at the agency level and be an example for how other agencies can start leveraging AI thats one example of something that were looking for people to work on, Shedd said. Things like making AI coding agents available for all agencies. One that we've been looking at and trying to work on immediately within GSA, but also more broadly, is a centralized place to put contracts so we can run analysis on those contracts.The comments also highlight how Musks allies are treating the federal government as a private company that needs to cut costs to please shareholders.Both what Ive seen, and what the administration sees, is you all are one of the most respected technology groups in the federal government, Shedd told TTS workers. You guys have been doing this far longer than I've been even aware that your group exists.An employee familiar with Shedds comments told 404 Media that the reaction of the team, the whole group of 18F and TTS is pretty unanimously negative. 18F is a group within TTS that helps build software across the government. The employee said that it feels to them like 18F itself is being gutted and that the administration hopes its best coders will work for DOGE or a group that Musk has more control over: The administration views TTS and 18F as a pool of talent that it will draw from, that it will poach from. And it will take the people from TTS that it wants, and then most of the organization will wither away.We should still push forward and see what we can do.They said that the idea of using AI coding agents in the federal government would be a major security risk, and that training them on existing federal contracts raises red flags considering that Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, has billions of dollars worth of federal contracts. 404 Media granted the employee anonymity to talk about sensitive issues in an administration that has targeted those who speak out.The AI-ification of government is contradictory to security practices that have existed up to now, the employee said. Government software is concerned with things like foreign adversaries attempting to insert backdoors into government code. With code generated by AI, it seems possible that security vulnerabilities could be introduced unintentionally. Or could be introduced intentionally via an AI-related exploit that creates obfuscated code that includes vulnerabilities that might expose the data of American citizens or of national security importance.Shedd started the meeting talking about the need to shrink the government workforce, something Trump and Musk has been pushing for. That in turn creates an opportunity for more automation, Shedd said.Because as we decrease the overall size of the federal government, as you all know, there's still a ton of programs that need to exist, which is this huge opportunity for technology and automation to come in full force, which is why you all are so key and critical to this next phase, he said. It is the time to build because, as I was saying, the demand for technical services is going to go through the roof.Which means things are going to get intense. Like across the board in every agency, the demand on all of us is going to go up, he added. One employee asked if it is currently illegal to work more than 40 hours a week. Is that going to change?Unclear at this point, Shedd said. I think, yeah, this goes back to HR. HR guidance is the best to follow in terms of rules and official guidance.Other parts of the meeting focused on the now-infamous Fork in the Road email sent to all members of the federal government, in which the Office of Personnel Management offered buyouts that may or may not have funding. Many members of 18F and TTS work entirely remotely and near no major government office, and so workers were worried about whether they would be forced to move or would lose their jobs. The deadline to take the buyout is Thursday, a date Shedd referenced multiple times.The work will be intense and it will be in person, Shedd said. And so please think deeply about this coming Thursday and what that means for you.Musk is now in charge of the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, which was formerly the United States Digital Service, a group established to help the government modernize its technology under Barack Obama. Since Trump took office, several media outlets reported that Musk and a small group of young engineers from Musks private companies have seized control of Federal infrastructure, gaining access to the Treasury Departments payment system, classified information at USAID, and have removed several programs or mere mentions of DEI across a number of government agencies and websites. 404 Media previously reported that DOGE brought in an HR consultant focused on non-woke DEI she says is more consistent with Christianity.GSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-02-04T18:29:32Z Seven families with transgender or nonbinary children filed a lawsuit Tuesday over President Donald Trumps executive order to halt federal support for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.PFLAG, a national group for family of LGBTQ+ people; and GLMA, a doctors organization, are also plaintiffs in the court challenge in a Baltimore federal court.It comes one week after Trump signed an order calling for the federal government to stop funding the medical care through federal government-run health insurance programs including Medicaid and TRICARE.Kristen Chapman, the mother of one of the plaintiffs in the case, said her family moved to Richmond, Virginia, from Tennessee in 2023 because of a ban on gender-affirming care in their home state. Her 17-year-old daughter, Willow, had an initial appointment scheduled for last week with a new provider who would accept Medicaid. But Trump signed his order the day before and the hospital said it could not provide care. I thought Virginia would be a safe place for me and my daughter, Kristen Chapman said in a statement. Instead, I am heartbroken, tired, and scared. The ACLU and Lambda Legal, who are representing the plaintiffs, want a judge to put the order on hold. In a court filing Tuesday, they said Trumps executive orders are unlawful and unconstitutional because they seek to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress. The challenge also says that the law infringes on the rights of parents. Like other legal challenges to bans on gender-affirming care, they also argue that the policy discriminates because it does not prohibit federal funds for the same treatments when theyre not used for gender transition.Some health providers immediately paused providing the coverage while they assess how the order affects them. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has repeatedly battled Trump in court, told hospitals in her state Monday that it would violate the law to stop offering gender-affirming care to people under 19. Trumps approach on transgender policy represents an abrupt change from the Biden administration, which sought to explicitly extend civil rights protections to transgender people.Trump has used strong language, asserting in the order on gender-affirming care that medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a childs sex.Alex Sheldon, executive director of GLMA, the doctors group in the legal challenge, said there are established medical standards for caring for transgender youth. Now, an extreme political agenda is trying to overrule that expertise, putting young people and their providers in danger, Sheldon said in a statement. We are confident that the law, science, and history are on our side.In addition to the order on health care access, Trump has also signed orders that narrowly define the sexes as unchangeable, open the door to banning transgender people from military service and set up new rules about how schools can teach about gender. Legal challenges have already been filed on the military order and a plan to move transgender women in federal prisons to mens facilities. Others are expected to be filed, just as there have been challenges to a variety of Trumps policies.Researchers have found that fewer than 1 in 1,000 adolescents receive the care, which includes treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgeries though surgery is rare for children.As transgender people have gained visibility and acceptance in some ways, theres been vehement pushback. At least 26 states have passed laws to restrict or ban the care for minors. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last year but has not yet ruled on whether Tennessees ban on the care is constitutional. GEOFF MULVIHILL Mulvihill covers topics on the agendas of state governments across the country. He has focused on abortion, gender issues and opioid litigation. twitter mailto

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) headquarters is seen in Washington, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)2025-02-04T18:05:56Z WASHINGTON (AP) FBI agents who participated in investigations related to President Donald Trump have sued over Justice Department efforts to develop a list of employees involved in those inquiries that they fear could be a precursor to mass firings.The class-action complaint, filed Tuesday in federal court in Washington, seeks an immediate halt to the Justice Developments plans to compile a list of investigators who participated in probes of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol as well as Trumps hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.The lawsuit notes that Trump on the campaign trail repeatedly stated that he would personify the vengeance or the retribution, for those whom he called political hostages, for their actions during the Jan. 6 attack.The agents contend the very act of compiling lists of persons who worked on matters that upset Donald Trump is retaliatory in nature, intended to intimidate FBI agents and other personnel and to discourage them from reporting any future malfeasance and by Donald Trump and his agents. The complaint also cites the Justice Departments firing last week of prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smiths team as proof that the effort to compile the list is rooted in a desire for retribution. Donald Trump has made repeated public pronouncements of his intent to exact revenge upon persons he perceives to be disloyal to him by simply executing their duties in investigating acts incited by him and persons loyal to him, the complaint says. Whatever the Trump administration believes about Plaintiffs political affiliation, it clearly believes that persons who were involved in the investigation and prosecution of Jan. 6 and Mar-a-Lago cases are insufficiently politically affiliated with Donald Trump to be entitled to retain their employment. A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department and the special counsel cases against former President Donald Trump. twitter mailto ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer is an Associated Press reporter covering the Justice Department and legal issues from Washington. twitter mailto

Inmates attend a class on social behavior from inside their shared cell during a press tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecololuca, El Salvador, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)2025-02-04T19:41:43Z SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) The Trump administration and the president of El Salvador said Monday that theyd struck a deal allowing the U.S. to ship both detained migrants and imprisoned citizens to the tiny Central American nation, which has suspended some basic rights as it battles powerful street gangs. The U.S. government cannot deport American citizens and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that there are obviously legalities involved. We have a Constitution, he acknowledged. But its a very generous offer ... obviously, the administration will have to make a decision.Bukele has made El Salvadors stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his aggressive fight against crime. Since March 2022, more than 84,000 people have been arrested, many with little to no due process.Even before the campaign against gangs, El Salvadors prisons were notoriously violent and overcrowded but the crown jewel of Bukeles fight is the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, he opened in 2023. A body screening device used to register inmates is displayed during a media tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) A body screening device used to register inmates is displayed during a media tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More In slickly produced videos, prisoners in boxer shorts are marched into prison yards and made to sit nearly atop each other. They are packed into cells without enough bunks for everyone. At the time, Bukele tweeted: El Salvador has managed to go from being the worlds most dangerous country, to the safest country in the Americas. How did we do it? By putting criminals in jail. Is there space? There is now. Even before his announcement with Rubio, Bukele had planned to put more people in prison. The Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) The Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Prison guards stand outside holding cells during a media tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Prison guards stand outside holding cells during a media tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More What is the CECOT?Bukele ordered the mega-prison built as he began his campaign against El Salvadors gangs in March 2022. It opened a year later in the town of Tecoluca, about 45 miles east of the capital.Able to hold 40,000 inmates, the CECOT is made up of eight sprawling pavilions. Its cells hold 65 to 70 prisoners each. They do not receive visits. There are no programs preparing them to return to society after their sentences, no workshops or educational programs. They are never allowed outside.The exceptions are occasional motivational talks from prisoners who have gained a level of trust from prison officials. Prisoners sit in rows in the corridor outside their cells for the talks or are led through exercise regimens under the supervision of guards.Bukeles justice minister has said that those held would never return to their communities.The prisons dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards. Inmates exercise under the watch of prison guards during a press tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecololuca, El Salvador, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Inmates exercise under the watch of prison guards during a press tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecololuca, El Salvador, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More How many prisoners does El Salvador hold?In April 2021, a year before the start of the state of emergency, the government reported nearly 36,000 prisoners.The government doesnt regularly update the figure but the human rights organization Cristosal reported that in March 2024 El Salvador population 6.36 million held 110,000 people, including those sentenced to prison and those still awaiting trial. The Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, late Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) The Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, stands in Tecoluca, El Salvador, late Feb. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More What do human rights advocates say?Cristosal reported last summer that at least 261 people had died in El Salvadors prisons during the gang crackdown. The group and others have cited cases of abuse, torture and lack of medical attention. Inmates attend class on social behavior during a press tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecololuca, El Salvador, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Inmates wear masks as a precaution to not spread COVID-19. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Inmates attend class on social behavior during a press tour of the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, in Tecololuca, El Salvador, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. Inmates wear masks as a precaution to not spread COVID-19. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More AP writer Matthew Lee in San Salvador contributed to this report.

Tulsi Gabbard, President Donald Trump's choice to be the Director of National Intelligence, arrives to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee for her confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, Jan. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/John McDonnell)2025-02-04T19:38:47Z WASHINGTON (AP) Tulsi Gabbards nomination to be President Donald Trump director of national intelligence cleared a key Senate committee Tuesday despite concerns raised about her past comments sympathetic to Russia and a meeting with Syrias now-deposed leader.A former Democratic congresswoman, Gabbard is one of Trumps most divisive nominees, with lawmakers of both parties also pointing to her past support for government leaker Edward Snowden. But the Senate Intelligence Committee advanced her nomination in a closed-door 9-8 vote, and it now heads to the full Senate for consideration. A vote has not been scheduled yet.Following a contentious confirmation hearing last week, where some Republican senators questioned Gabbard harshly, GOP support for her fell into place following a pressure campaign over the weekend unleashed by Trump supporters and allies, including Elon Musk. Until three GOP members seen as swing votes announced their support, it wasnt clear her nomination would advance beyond the Intelligence Committee. Given strong Democratic opposition and thin Republican margins, Gabbard will need almost all GOP senators to vote yes to win confirmation to the top intelligence job. Given the sensitive nature of the work it does, the Intelligence Committee regularly meets privately, and Tuesdays vote on Gabbard was held during such a session. While the votes of members of the committee were not released, support for Gabbard has fallen along party lines, with no Democrats expressing support. Gabbard is a lieutenant colonel in the National Guard who deployed twice to the Middle East and ran for president in 2020. She has no formal intelligence experience, however, and has never run a government agency or department. Gabbards past praise of Snowden drew particularly harsh questions during the nomination hearing. The former National Security Agency contractor fled to Russia after he was charged with revealing classified information about surveillance programs. Gabbard said that while Snowden revealed important facts about surveillance programs she believes are unconstitutional, he violated rules about protecting classified secrets. Edward Snowden broke the law, she said.A 2017 visit with Syrian President Bashar Assad is another flash point. Assad was recently deposed following a brutal civil war in which he was accused of using chemical weapons. Following her visit, Gabbard faced criticism that she was legitimizing a dictator and then more questions when she said she was skeptical that Assad had used chemical weapons.Gabbard defended her meeting with Assad, saying she used the opportunity to press the Syrian leader on his human rights record.She has also repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine and in the past opposed a key U.S. surveillance program. In the latest instance of the Make America Great Again base pressuring senators to support Trumps nominees, Musk blasted Republican Sen. Todd Young of Indiana as a deep-state puppet in a now-deleted social media post before the two men spoke and Musk later called him an ally. Young, whose critical questioning of Gabbard had prompted speculation he might oppose her, confirmed Tuesday he would back Gabbard. Young said his tough questions for Gabbard were just part of the process. I have done what the framers envisioned for senators to do: use the consultative process to seek firm commitments, in this case commitments that will advance our national security, he wrote in statement announcing his support for Gabbard. FARNOUSH AMIRI Amiri covers Congress for The Associated Press, with a focus on foreign policy and congressional investigations. She previously covered politics for AP as a statehouse reporter based in Columbus, Ohio. twitter mailto

Elon Musk arrives before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)2025-02-04T20:16:45Z OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Elon Musks lawyers faced off with OpenAI in court Tuesday as a federal judge weighed the billionaires request for a court order that would block the ChatGPT maker from converting itself to a for-profit company.U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said it was a stretch for Musk to claim he will be irreparably harmed if she doesnt intervene to stop OpenAI from moving forward with its transition from a nonprofit research laboratory to a for-profit corporation. But the judge also raised concerns about OpenAI and its relationship with business partner Microsoft and said she wouldnt stop the case from moving to trial as soon as next year so a jury can decide.It is plausible that what Mr. Musk is saying is true. Well find out. Hell sit on the stand, she said.Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company last year, first in a California state court and later in federal court, alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good. Musk had invested about $45 million in the startup from its founding until 2018, his lawyer said Tuesday. Musk escalated the legal dispute late last year, adding new claims and defendants and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAIs plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. Musk also added his own AI company, xAI, as a plaintiff. Also targeted by Musks lawsuit is OpenAIs close business partner Microsoft and tech entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, a former OpenAI board member who also sits on Microsofts board. Gonzalez Rogers said she has a high bar for approving the kind of preliminary injunction that Musk wants but hasnt yet ruled on the request. She has handled a number of tech industry cases including Apples fight with Epic Games, though she said Tuesday that Musks case is nothing like that one. Then-President Barack Obama appointed her to the federal bench in 2011. Tuesdays hearing was originally set for January but was postponed after Musks attorney Marc Toberoff said his house was destroyed in the Pacific Palisades wildfire. Musk, who did not attend the hearing, has alleged in the lawsuit that the companies are violating the terms of his foundational contributions to the charity.OpenAI has said Musks requested court order would debilitate OpenAIs business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company and is based on far-fetched legal claims. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAIs CEO.Emails disclosed by OpenAI show Musk had also sought to be CEO and grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO and has remained so except for a period in 2023 when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced.OpenAI has sought to demonstrate Musks early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs.Musk is not the only one challenging OpenAIs for-profit transition. Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms has asked Californias attorney general to block it, and the office of Delawares attorney general has said it is reviewing the conversion.OBrien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.-The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI access to part of APs text archives. BARBARA ORTUTAY Ortutay writes about social media and the internet for The Associated Press. mailto MATT OBRIEN OBrien covers the business of technology and artificial intelligence for The Associated Press. mailto

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-02-04T20:21:32Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said Tuesday that hes given his advisers instructions to obliterate Iran if it assassinates him.If they did that they would be obliterated, Trump said in an exchange with reporters while signing an executive order calling for the U.S. government to impose maximum pressure on Tehran. Ive left instructions if they do it, they get obliterated, there wont be anything left.Federal authorities have been tracking Iranian threats against Trump and other administration officials for years. Trump ordered the 2020 killing of Qassem Soleimani, who led the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.A threat on Trumps life from Iran prompted additional security in the days before a July campaign rally in Pennsylvania where Trump was shot in the ear, according to U.S. officials. But officials at the time said they did not believe Iran was connected to that assassination attempt. The Justice Department announced in November that an Iranian plot to kill Trump before the presidential election had been thwarted.The department alleged Iranian officials had instructed Farhad Shakeri, 51, in September to focus on surveilling and ultimately assassinating Trump. Shakeri is still at large in Iran. Iranian officials, at the time, dismissed the allegation, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei calling the report a plot by Israel-linked circles to make Iran-U.S. relations more complicated. Investigators were told of the plan to kill Trump by Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintained a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots, according to the complaint.Shakeri, an Afghan national living in Iran, told the FBI that a contact in Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him last September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan. Trump recently revoked government security protection for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his top aide, Brian Hook, as well as his former national security adviser John Bolton, who have all faced threats from Iran after they took hardline stances against the Islamic Republic during Trumps first administration. MICHELLE L. PRICE Price is a national political reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in New York. twitter mailto AAMER MADHANI Aamer Madhani is a White House reporter. twitter mailto ZEKE MILLER Zeke is APs chief White House correspondent twitter mailto

The Aga Khan, spiritual head of Ismaili Muslims, listens to a speech during the inauguration of the restored 16th century Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi, India, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup, File)2025-02-04T22:08:11Z PARIS (AP) The Aga Khan, who became the spiritual leader of the worlds millions of Ismaili Muslims at age 20 as a Harvard undergraduate and poured a material empire built on billions of dollars in tithes into building homes, hospitals and schools in developing countries, has died. He was 88.His Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community announced that His Highness Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, died Tuesday in Portugal surrounded by his family.His successor was designated in his will, which will be read out in the presence of his family and senior religious leaders in Lisbon before the name is made public. A date has not been announced. The successor is chosen from among his male progeny or other relatives, according to the Ismaili communitys website. Considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV was a student when his grandfather passed over his playboy father as his successor to lead the diaspora of Shia Ismaili Muslims, saying his followers should be led by a young man who has been brought up in the midst of the new age. Over decades, the Aga Khan evolved into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly and mixing them with ease.Treated as a head of state, the Aga Khan was given the title of His Highness by Queen Elizabeth in July 1957, two weeks after his grandfather the Aga Khan III unexpectedly made him heir to the familys 1,300-year dynasty as leader of the Ismaili Muslim sect. He became the Aga Khan IV on Oct. 19, 1957, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the spot where his grandfather once had his weight equaled in diamonds in gifts from his followers.He had left Harvard to be at his ailing grandfathers side, and returned to school 18 months later with an entourage and a deep sense of responsibility. I was an undergraduate who knew what his work for the rest of his life was going to be, he said in a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair magazine. I dont think anyone in my situation would have been prepared.A defender of Islamic culture and values, he was widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim societies and the West despite or perhaps because of his reticence to become involved in politics.The Aga Khan Development Network, his main philanthropic organization, deals mainly with issues of health care, housing, education and rural economic development. It says it works in over 30 countries and has an annual budget of about $1 billion for nonprofit development activities.A network of hospitals bearing his name are scattered in places where health care had lacked for the poorest, including Bangladesh, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, where he spent tens of millions of dollars for development of local economies.His eye for building and design led him to establish an architecture prize, and programs for Islamic Architecture at MIT and Harvard. He restored ancient Islamic structures throughout the world. Accounts differ as to the date and place of Prince Karim Aga Khans birth. According to Whos Who in France, he was born on Dec. 13, 1936, in Creux-de-Genthod, near Geneva, Switzerland, the son of Joan Yarde-Buller and Aly Khan.The extent of the Aga Khans financial empire is hard to measure. Some reports estimated his personal wealth to be in the billions.The Ismailis a sect originally centered in India but which expanded to large communities in east Africa, Central and South Asia and the Middle East consider it a duty to tithe up to 10% of their income to him as steward.We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil, he told Vanity Fair in 2012. The Islamic ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society.He is survived by three sons and a daughter.The Aga Khan will be buried in Lisbon. The date was not released.

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-02-04T21:06:11Z WASHINGTON (AP) When Donald Trump started the biggest trade war since the 1930s in his first term, his impulsive combination of threats and import taxes on U.S. trading partners created chaos, generated drama -- and drew criticism from mainstream economists who favor free trade.But it didnt do much damage to the U.S. economy. Or much good. Inflation stayed under control. The economy kept growing as it had before. And Americas massive trade deficits, the main target of Trumps ire, proved resistant to his rhetoric and his tariffs: Already big, they got bigger.The trade war sequel that Trump has planned for his second term if it unfolds the way hes described it would likely be a different matter altogether. Trump appears to have grander ambitions and is operating in a far more treacherous economic environment this time.His plans to plaster tariffs of 25% on goods from Mexico and Canada and 10% on China and to follow those up by targeting the European Union would threaten growth, and push up prices in the United States, undermining his campaign pledge to eliminate the inflation that plagued President Joe Biden. The tariffs would be paid by U.S. importers, who would then try to pass along the higher costs to consumers through higher prices. Trump himself has warned of possible fallout. WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN? YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!), Trump said in a social media post Sunday. BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID. For now, some of the hostilities are on hold. Trump on Monday paused the tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days to allow more negotiations after those countries agreed to do more to stop the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented workers into the United States.But he went ahead with the 10% tariffs on China Tuesday. Beijing promptly retaliated by imposing tariffs on U.S. products, including coal and big cars. It also is restricting exports of critical minerals and launching an antitrust investigation into Google. Trump views tariffs taxes on imports as an economic elixir that can restore factories to the American heartland, raise money for the government and pressure foreign countries to do what he wants. During his first term, Trump put tariffs on most Chinese goods and on imported solar panels, washing machines, steel and aluminum. The tax increases might have raised prices on those items, but they had little or no impact on overall inflation, which remained modest. Nor did they do much to restore factory jobs.Economists agree that a second Trump trade war could be far costlier than the first.That was then. This is now, said trade analyst William Reinsch of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. That is why the stock market briefly fell sharply Monday on anticipation of the tariffs, before rebounding on news of the pause with Mexico and Canada.During Trumps first term, his trade team carefully focused its tariff hit list to avoid or at least delay the impact on consumers. They targeted industrial products and not those that would show up on Walmarts shelves, said Reinsch, a former U.S. trade official. That tamped down the impact. This time, by contrast, the tariffs are across the board although the tariffs Trump had planned and then paused would have limited the levy on Canadian energy to 10%, showing that he was mindful of how much Americans in northern and midwestern states depend on oil and electricity from north of the border.In Boca Raton, Florida, the toy company Basic Fun is preparing to raise prices and absorb a hit to profits when the tariffs land. Ninety percent of Basic Funs toys come from China, including Tonka and Care Bears. CEO Jay Foreman says the price on the Tonka Classic Steel Mighty Dump Truck is likely to rise later this year from $29.99 to as much as $39.99.Five years ago, the Trump administration spared toys, exempting them from its China tariffs. This time, Foreman said, we are now just going to forecast a lot of money draining out of the company.' In addition to the threats to Canada, Mexico and the EU, Trump has threatened a worldwide tariff of 10% to 20%. The breadth of his potential targets means it will be much harder for companies to escape his tariffs.In his first term, many companies dodged his China tariffs by moving production to Mexico or Vietnam. Now, suppliers anywhere could wind up in Trumps crosshairs. It sends the signal that no place is safe, said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.Also worrying, economists say, is a retaliation clause the Trump team inserted in the tariff orders he signed Saturday.If other countries retaliate against Trumps tariffs with tariffs of their own as China did and Canada and Mexico have threatened -- Trump will lash back with still more tariffs. That risks setting off a spiraling trade war of tit-for-tat tariffs and counter-tariffs, said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University. But the biggest difference is the economic backdrop Trump must contend with this time.Six years ago, inflation was low maybe even too low, the Federal Reserve fretted. Trumps first-term tariffs didnt make a dent. Inflation isnt so benign anymore. Prices surged in the unexpected boom that followed the end of COVID-19 lockdowns. Inflation has come down from the four-decade high it hit in mid-2022, but its still stuck above the Feds 2% target and hasnt shown much improvement since summer. Trumps tariffs could rekindle the inflationary trend and convince the Fed to cancel or postpone the two interest rate cuts it had anticipated this year. That would risk keeping interest rates at their current elevated level for a longer period in 2025. That will push up mortgage and loan borrowing rates ... and reduce real growth, said Boston College economist Brian Bethune.For now, businesses, investors and U.S. trading partners are waiting to see what the unpredictable Trump will do next. Will he re-impose the tariffs on Canada and Mexico after 30 days? Will he really go after the EU? Or make good on his threat of a universal tariff?Outside a Harris Teeter supermarket near downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, Jacobs Ogadi had in his shopping bag an avocado, which almost certainly came from Mexico. The 62-year-old mechanic said it doesnt take a rocket scientist to know that Trumps tariffs run counter to his promises to rein in inflation. If it goes up 25%, its not the government, its not the Mexican people paying for it, he said. Who pays for it? Us.____AP writers Anne DInnocenzio in New York and Gary Robertson in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this story.

Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Justice Department as attorney general, appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee for her confirmation hearing, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)2025-02-04T23:24:03Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate was heading towards a confirmation vote for Pam Bondi as U.S. attorney general Tuesday evening, potentially putting a longtime ally of Donald Trump at the helm of a Justice Department that has already been rattled by the firings of career employees seen as disloyal to the Republican president. Bondi, a former Florida attorney general and corporate lobbyist, is expected to oversee a radical reshaping of the department that has been the target of Trumps ire over the criminal cases it brought against him. She would enter with the FBI, which she would oversee, in turmoil over the scrutiny of agents involved in investigations related to the president, who has made clear his desire to seek revenge on his perceived adversaries.Republicans have praised Bondi as a highly qualified leader they contend will bring much-needed change to a department they believe unfairly pursued Trump through investigations resulting in two indictments. But Bondi has faced intense scrutiny over her close relationship with the president, who during his term fired an FBI director who refused to pledge loyalty to him and forced out an attorney general who recused himself from the Justice Departments investigation into potential ties between Russia and his 2016 presidential campaign. While Bondi has sought to reassure Democrats that politics would play no part in her decision-making, she also refused at her confirmation hearing last month to rule potential investigations into Trumps adversaries. And she has repeated Trumps claims that the prosecutions against him amounted to political persecution, saying the Justice Department had been weaponized for years and years and years, and its got to stop. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., praised Bondi as accomplished and competent but said his grave concern is really about President Trump and what he is clearly demanding. That clearly is a loyalty oath to him as opposed to a demand for straightforward, candid advice, including if the president is asking for something to be done like the prosecution of a political adversary, Welch said.Bondis confirmation vote comes hours after FBI agents sued the Justice Department over efforts to develop a list of employees involved in the Jan. 6 prosecutions, which agents fear could be a precursor to mass firings.Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove last week ordered the acting FBI director to provide the names, titles and offices of all FBI employees who worked on the Jan. 6 cases which Trump has described as a grave national injustice. Bove, who defended Trump in his criminal cases before joining the administration, said Justice Department officials would carry out a review process to determine whether any additional personnel actions are necessary. Justice Department officials have also recently forced out senior FBI executives, fired prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smiths team who investigated Trump and terminated a group of prosecutors in the D.C. U.S. attorneys office who were hired to help with the massive Jan. 6 investigation. Bondi repeatedly stressed at her confirmation hearing that she would not pursue anyone for political reasons, and vowed that the public, not the president, would be her client. But her answers at times echoed Trumps campaign rhetoric about a politicized justice system. They targeted Donald Trump, Bondi told lawmakers. They went after him actually starting back in 2016, they targeted his campaign. They have launched countless investigations against him. She added, If I am attorney general, I will not politicize that office.Bondi has been a fixture in Trumps orbit for years, and a regular defender of the president-elect on news programs amid his legal woes. In a 2023 Fox News appearance, she suggested that bad Justice Department prosecutors would be investigated under the Trump administration. The investigators will be investigated, she said. Smith has said politics played no part in his decisions and the evidence his team gathered was sufficient for Trump to have been convicted at trial on charges of scheming to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Smith dropped that case and a separate one charging Trump with illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, after Trumps election win in November, citing longstanding Justice Department policy prohibiting criminal cases against a sitting president. ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer is an Associated Press reporter covering the Justice Department and legal issues from Washington. twitter mailto STEPHEN GROVES Groves covers Congress for The Associated Press. twitter mailto

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio meets with President Nayib Bukele at his residence at Lake Coatepeque in El Salvador, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool)2025-02-04T22:29:00Z SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) El Salvador has offered to take in people deported from the U.S. for entering the country illegally and to house some of the countrys violent criminals even if theyre American citizens.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after a meeting Monday with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, proclaimed it the most unprecedented, extraordinary offer the country has yet received during the ongoing wave of global migration.Details on the deal are scant, and immigration and constitutional experts question its legality. Heres what you need to know:Whats El Salvador offering? Bukele, who took office in 2019, says hes offering a release valve for Americas vast prison system.Writing on X, he said the Central American nation will allow the U.S. to outsource part of its inmate population, but it will only take in convicted criminals.The U.S. would have to pay El Salvador to house the prisoners, though he did not disclose an asking price.Bukele said the going rate would be relatively low for the U.S., but significant for his country enough to make its entire prison system sustainable. Where do they want to house U.S. criminals? Bukele has proposed housing U.S. criminals in the mega-prison his administration opened in 2023 to tame MS-13 and other powerful street gangs.The maximum-security facility is about 45 miles (72 kilometers) southeast of the capital city of San Salvador and is known as CECOT, a Spanish acronym that translates to terrorism confinement center.The facility can house up to 40,000 people across eight sprawling pavilions, where each cell holds up to 70 prisoners.Human rights organizations say the bare-bones setting is overly harsh. Inmates are not allowed visitors or time outside.They are served just one meal a day and are not offered educational or reintegration programs typically found at other prisons, save for the occasional motivational talk or exercise regimen under strict supervision.The prisons dining halls, break rooms, gym and board games are for guards only, and administration officials have said inmates will never return to their communities. Is this even legal?Deporting foreign nationals to countries other than their native land is legal, but deporting American citizens is almost certainly not.Under U.S. immigration law, a country such as El Salvador can accept someone deported from the U.S. who isnt a citizen of that country if the persons homeland refuses to accept them, says Theresa Cardinal Brown, a former homeland security official under the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.Whats more, she noted, deportation is a legal term that applies only to someone physically removed from the country because they have violated some provision of the immigration act, which applies only to aliens.So what about American citizens? Naturalized U.S. citizens, in rare cases, can be denaturalized and revert to green-card status, such as if they lied on their initial immigration forms or committed a serious crime such as funding a terrorist group, according to Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration law expert and retired Cornell Law School professor.Green card holders can then be deported if theyre convicted of any number of crimes, including murder, assault, burglary, tax evasion, domestic violence and illegal firearms possession, he said.Natural-born U.S. citizens, however, maintain their citizenship through the U.S. Constitutions 14th Amendment, which outlines the rights guaranteed to all citizens, such as due process and equal protection under the law.So, just as President Trump cant eliminate birthright citizenship by himself, so too the U.S. government cannot deport U.S. citizens, even if they have committed crimes, Yale-Loehr said.Why is El Salvador doing this?El Salvador is attempting to turn the page on decades of civil war and violence from MS-13 and other street gangs that long made it one of the most dangerous countries in the world.Under Bukele, the country of 6 million residents declared a state of emergency in 2022, suspending constitutional rights and launching a fierce crackdown on gangs thats led to the arrest of more than 80,000 people.Bukeles popularity has soared as crime plummeted to a record low of 114 homicides last year, but human rights groups have complained that many people are being unjustly detained without due process rights. Has this been done before elsewhere?The U.S. and other nations have reached deals to deal with migrants but nothing quite like what El Salvadors leader proposes.Britain has an agreement with Rwanda to send asylum-seekers to the East African country, though the accord has been stymied in the U.K. courts.Trump also struck agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to take in U.S. asylum seekers in 2019, during his first term as president.Guatemala was the only one of the three agreements that took effect. More than 900 people from El Salvador and Honduras were sent, but few sought asylum and instead continued on to their own countries in what became known as deportation with a layover.President Joe Biden canceled the three agreements in 2021. What are the next steps?Trump praised the offer Tuesday, saying it would serve as great deterrent but acknowledged it might not pass legal muster.Im just saying if we had a legal right to do it, I would do it in a heartbeat, he said in the Oval Office. I dont know if we do or not. Were looking at that.Rubio similarly called El Salvadors offer generous, but stressed that the Republican administration will need to study the proposal before making any commitments.There are obviously legalities involved, he said Tuesday at a news conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, with Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves. We have a constitution. We have all sorts of things.That hasnt stopped Bukele from making the most of the renewed attention.Hes joked El Salvador would even take in disgraced former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who was sentenced last week to 11 years in federal prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt.Yes, Bukele wrote on X, well gladly take him in.___Marcelo reported from New York. Associated Press reporters Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Matthew Lee in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Michelle L. Price in Washington contributed to this story.___Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo. PHILIP MARCELO Marcelo is a general assignment reporter in the NYC bureau. He previously wrote for AP Fact Check and before that was based in Boston, where he focused on race and immigration. twitter mailto

Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks after taking the oath of office at the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)2025-02-04T23:05:34Z WASHINGTON (AP) A Treasury Department official wrote a letter Tuesday to federal lawmakers saying that a tech executive working with Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency will have read-only access to the governments payment system.The official sent the letter out of concerns from members of Congress that DOGEs involvement with the payment system for the federal government could lead to security risks or missed payments for programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Lawmakers are also concerned that Musk, an unelected citizen, wields too much power within the U.S. government and states blatantly on his social media platform that DOGE will shut down payments to organizations.DOGE, a Trump administration task force assigned to find ways to fire federal workers, cut programs and slash federal regulations, has raised concerns about its intentions and overruling of career officials at multiple agencies. Democratic lawmakers have voiced frustration over the lack of transparency and public accountability, saying that Musks people might illegally withhold payments to suit their political agenda. The Treasury official said that the ongoing review has not caused payments for obligations such as Social Security and Medicare to be delayed or re-routed. The letter said that Tom Krause, who is also listed online as the CEO of Cloud Software Group, was working at Treasury as a special government employee, which subjects him to less stringent rules on ethics and financial disclosures than other workers. The letter also said that Krause is conducting the effort in coordination with career treasury officials. Krause did not respond to an Associated Press phone call request for comment on his involvement with DOGE and the Treasury Department. Treasurys payments are managed by the Fiscal Service, which conducts over 1.2 billion transactions annually and accounts for 90% of federal disbursements. The official said the review is about payment integrity. However, some Democrats are not convinced about the notion that DOGE, Musk and Krause have read-only access. Some Republicans are trying to suggest that Musk only has viewing access to Treasurys highly sensitive payment system as if thats acceptable either, said Sen. Patty Murray, (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, in a statement. But why on earth should we believe that particularly when he is saying the exact opposite loudly and repeatedly for everyone to see?For instance, Musk has tweeted on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that DOGE has shut down payments to a Lutheran charity. The corruption and waste is being rooted out in real-time, Musk said on X, adding that DOGE is rapidly shutting down payments to the charity. At least one lawsuit has been filed, by a group of labor unions and advocates, seeking to stop Treasury from giving DOGE and Musk access to the payment systems. DOGEs access to the agencys payment systems came after Treasurys acting Deputy Secretary David Lebryk resigned from his position at Treasury after more than 30 years of service. The Washington Post on Friday reported that Lebryk resigned from his position after Musk and his DOGE organization requested access to sensitive Treasury data. The Fiscal Service performs some of the most vital functions in government, Lebryk said in a letter to Treasury employees. Our work may be unknown to most of the public, but that doesnt mean it isnt exceptionally important. I am grateful for having been able to work alongside some of the nations best and most talented operations staff.The letter to lawmakers was sent Tuesday afternoon, while hundreds of demonstrators appeared in front of U.S. Treasury, held signs, pounded drums and chanted slogans protesting the Treasury Departments decision to hand over access to sensitive payment systems to DOGE.People chanted Deport Musk, Down with Trump and Do your Job Congress! More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers spoke to the crowd. Elon musk is seizing power from the American people, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said. Hes here to seize power for himself, we are here to fight back.Maureen Jais-Mick, a Montgomery County resident showed up to the event to protest the blatant power grab by Musk and the DOGE committee. This amounts to a coup, she said. ___

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-02-04T23:25:23Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is preparing to gut the U.S. Education Department to the full extent of his power, directing his administration to slash spending while pressuring employees to quit. Yet his promise to close the department is colliding with another reality: Most of its spending and its very existence is ordered by Congress.An executive order in preparation by the White House appears to recognize the limits of the presidents power. The planned order would direct his education chief to start winding down the agency but urge Congress to pass a measure abolishing it, according to sources familiar with the plan.Trump has yet to sign such an order. But at a White House press conference Tuesday, Trump quipped about the first task for Linda McMahon, his nominee for education secretary.I want Linda to put herself out of a job, Trump said. Trump campaigned on a pledge to close the department, saying it has been infiltrated by radicals, zealots and Marxists. In the nearly five decades since the agency was created, conservatives have made occasional attempts to shut it down, with critics saying it wastes taxpayer money and inserts the federal government into local education decisions. Trump is expected to give his education chief a deadline to deliver a plan for the agencys winddown. Yet even some of his allies question how far he can go without Congress. Some of the departments most significant programs are required by federal legislation, including Title I money for low-income schools and federal student loans. That was a source of frustration during Trumps first term in office, when his education chief repeatedly sought budget cuts but instead saw Congress increase the agencys spending each year.Whats more, Trumps quest to shut down the department could be complicated by his own agenda. Already, he has created new work for the department, including plans to promote patriotic education and efforts to go after schools that teach controversial lessons on race and gender. The agency also has opened new investigations into colleges, after Trump ordered a crackdown on campus antisemitism. What Trump can actually do to cut spending could be limited to tiny fractions of the budget, according to one source with knowledge of the plan. It would hardly dent the departments $79 billion annual budget.The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the plan publicly.Getting support from Congress would provide another test of Trumps sway. Some Republicans have raised doubts about the popularity of closing the department or slashing its programs, which support Republican and Democratic states alike.The House considered amending a bill to close the agency in 2023, but 60 Republicans joined Democrats in opposing it. Last week Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, against introduced legislation to close the agency. The one-sentence proposal said the Education Department shall terminate on December 31, 2026. Yet there are signs that Trump is determined to deliver his promise.Dozens of Education Department employees were put on paid leave on Friday in response to an executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the federal government. Most of the workers dont work in DEI but had taken an optional diversity course promoted by the department, according to a union that represents department staff. Trumps order called for government DEI officials to be fired to the maximum extent allowed by law.The White House has also pressured federal workers to quit. Education Department workers were among those who received an offer to leave their jobs by Feb. 6 and receive a buyout worth seven months of salary.A fresh wave of angst enveloped the agency when a team from Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency showed up at the departments offices this week. An Education Department spokesperson confirmed a team was on site Monday but did not provide details on the nature of its work. Musks colleagues have already sought to close the U.S. Agency for International Development and to gain access to sensitive payment systems at the Treasury Department. Trumps comments at his press conference raised alarms among schools and states that rely on federal money. Federal funding makes up a small portion of public school budgets roughly 14% but it adds targeted support for low-income schools and special education, among other grant programs.In Minnesota, Democrats in the state assembly warned about the potential impact of Trumps order on Tuesday. Sen. Mary Kunesh said she was worried the order could disrupt funding and called for more clarity on the plan.Imagine if we have billions of dollars frozen at the federal level, Kunesh said at a press conference. How are we going to make sure they have the curriculum they have to learn? Some Republicans in Minnesotas Legislature said there was no reason to panic without full details of the order.Those details are expected to be sorted out by Trumps education chief, and the president didnt immediately say whether he would look to preserve the departments core work.One potential model is found in Project 2025, a blueprint for Trumps second term created by the conservative Heritage Foundation. The proposal calls for many of the departments biggest programs to be parceled out to other agencies.Under the Project 2025 plan, Title I funding, the largest source of federal money to public schools, would be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services and given as block grants to states for them to spend as they please, with no strings attached. The Education Departments Office for Civil Rights would shift to the Justice Department.Trump has sought distance from Project 2025, though he has hired some of the staff behind it, and on some issues theres considerable overlap with his own platform.Democrats in Congress were quick to jump on Trumps plan. Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, called it an attack on educators, families and students. He vowed to fight it.Trumps plan could complicate the confirmation hearing for McMahon, a billionaire professional wrestling mogul and longtime Trump ally. Some advisers had asked the White House to keep the order quiet to avoid thorny questions, and others are pushing for it to be signed after her confirmation. No date has been set yet for her Senate hearing.___Associated Press writer Steve Karnowski contributed from Minneapolis.___The Associated Press education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find the APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. COLLIN BINKLEY Binkley covers the U.S. Education Department and federal education policy for The Associated Press, along with a wide range of issues from K-12 through higher education. twitter mailto BIANCA VZQUEZ TONESS Vzquez Toness is an Associated Press reporter who writes about the continuing impact of the pandemic on young people and their education. twitter mailto

President Donald Trump holds an executive order regarding withdrawing from the United Nationals Human Rights Council in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-02-05T00:34:28Z UNITED NATIONS (AP) President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the top U.N. human rights body and will not resume funding for the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees.The U.S. left the Geneva-based Human Rights Council last year, and it stopped funding the agency assisting Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, after Israel accused it of harboring Hamas militants who participated in the surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, which UNRWA denies.Trumps announcement came on the day he met with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country has long accused both the rights body and UNRWA of bias against Israel and antisemitism.Trumps executive orders also call for a review of American involvement in the Paris-based U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, known as UNESCO, and a review of U.S. funding for the United Nations in light of the wild disparities in levels of funding among different countries. The United States, with the worlds largest economy, pays 22% of the U.N.'s regular operating budget, with China the second-largest contributor. Ive always felt that the U.N. has tremendous potential, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Its not living up to that potential right now. ... Theyve got to get their act together.He said the U.N. needs to be fair to countries that deserve fairness, adding that there are some countries, which he didnt name, that are outliers, that are very bad and theyre being almost preferred. Before Trumps announcement, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated the Human Rights Councils importance and UNRWAs work in delivering critical services to Palestinians. Trump also pulled the U.S. out of the Human Rights Council in June 2018. His ambassador to the U.N. at the time, Nikki Haley, accused the council of chronic bias against Israel and pointed to what she said were human rights abusers among its members. President Joe Biden renewed support for the Human Rights Council, and the U.S. won a seat on the 47-nation body in October 2021. But the Biden administration announced in late September that the United States would not seek a second consecutive term.Trumps order on Tuesday has little concrete effect because the United States is already not a council member, said council spokesperson Pascal Sim. But like all other U.N. member countries, the U.S. automatically has informal observer status and will still have a seat in the councils ornate round chamber at the U.N. complex in Geneva.UNRWA was established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1949 to provide assistance for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israels establishment, as well as for their descendants. It provides aid, education, health care and other services to some 2.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. Before the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, UNRWA ran schools for Gazas 650,000 children as well as health facilities, and helped deliver humanitarian aid. It has continued to provide health care and been key to the delivery of food and other aid to Palestinians during the war.The first Trump administration suspended funding to UNRWA in 2018, but Biden restored it. The U.S. had been the biggest donor to the agency, providing it with $343 million in 2022 and $422 million in 2023.For years, Israel has accused UNRWA of anti-Israeli bias in its education materials, which the agency denies.Israel alleged that 19 of UNRWAs 13,000 staff in Gaza participated in the Hamas attacks. They were terminated pending a U.N. investigation, which found nine may have been involved.In response, 18 governments froze funding to the agency, but all have since restored support except the United States. Legislation ratifying the U.S. decision halted any American funding to UNRWA until March 2025, and Trumps action Tuesday means it will not be restored.. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A Waffle House sign is shown in Indianapolis Feb. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Isabella Volmert, File)2025-02-04T14:47:44Z NEW YORK (AP) The Waffle House restaurant chain is putting a 50 cent per egg surcharge in place because of the biggest bird flu outbreak in a decade.The 24-7 restaurant said that the resulting egg shortage has led to a dramatic increase in its costs. Bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. And it appears there may be no relief in sight with Easter approaching.The average price per dozen eggs nationwide hit $4.15 in December. That is not quite as high as the $4.82 record set two years ago, but the Agriculture Department predicts egg prices are going to soar another 20% this year.The Waffle House, a reliable source of a cheap breakfast, said that its egg surcharge became effective this week and that it applies to all of its menus. The restaurants two-egg breakfast, which comes with toast and a side, was listed at $7.75 on Tuesday. While we hope these price fluctuations will be short-lived we cannot predict how long this shortage will last, the company said. The company continues to monitor egg prices and said that it will adjust or remove the surcharge as market conditions allow. Last month, the first U.S. human fatality linked bird flu was reported in Louisiana. There have been 67 confirmed bird flu infections of humans in the U.S. since 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry, cows and other animals. Its growing presence in the environment increases the chances that people will be exposed, and potentially catch it, officials have said, though it remains rare. Health officials urge anyone who has contact with sick or dead birds to take precautions, including respiratory and eye protection and gloves when handling poultry. Waffle House, based in Georgia, has more than 1,900 locations in 25 states.Pete & Gerrys Organics also faced a difficult situation with its eggs in Antrim Township, Pennsylvania, when 100,000 of them were stolen from the back of its distribution trailer Saturday night, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Law enforcement are investigating the theft of roughly $40,000 worth of eggs.___Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden contributed reporting.

A polling officer checks the identity cards of people before they cast their votes for the capitals state legislature election at a polling booth in New Delhi, India, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Shonal Ganguly)2025-02-05T03:10:09Z NEW DELHI (AP) Thousands begin voting in the Indian capitals state legislature election on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modis Hindu nationalist party trying to unseat a powerful regional group that has ruled New Delhi for over a decade.Voters walked to polling booths on a cold, wintry morning to cast their ballots across the sprawling capital. Manish Sisodia, a key Aam Aadmi Party leader, and others offered prayers in a temple before voting.Modis Bharatiya Janata Party is up against the AAP, led by Arvind Kejriwal, which runs New Delhi and has built a vast support base on its welfare policies and an anti-corruption movement. Kejriwal, a popular crusader against corruption, suffered a setback as he himself faced graft allegations.The AAP won 62 out of 70 seats in a landslide victory in the last election, held in 2020. leaving BJP with only eight and the Congress party with none. The AAP had also swept the 2015 state elections, winning 67 seats, with the BJP taking three. Modi and Kejriwal have both campaigned vigorously in roadshows with thousands of supporters tailing them. They have offered to revamp government schools and provide free health services and electricity, and a monthly stipend of over 2,000 rupees ($25) to poor women. Voting ends later Wednesday, with results due on Saturday. More than 15 million people are eligible to vote in New Delhis election. Arati Jerath, a political commentator, predicted a tight contest between the two parties, saying, Even since the AAP rose to prominence, it has been a one-sided contest.Delhi, a city of more than 20 million people, is a federal territory that Modis party has not won for over 27 years despite having a sizable support base there.Kejriwal and other AAP leaders recently faced graft allegations in a liquor license case.Neerja Chowdhury, a political analyst, said the liquor policy case in which several AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, went to jail had dented Kejriwals clean image. Kejriwal was arrested last year along with two key leaders of his party ahead of national elections on charges of receiving bribes from a liquor distributor. They have consistently denied the accusations, saying they are part of a political conspiracy. The Supreme Court allowed the release of Kejriwal and other ministers on bail.Kejriwal later relinquished the chief ministers post to his most senior party leader.The BJP, which failed to secure a majority on its own in last years national election but formed the government with coalition partners, has gained some lost ground by winning two state elections in northern Haryana and western Maharashtra states.Modis party hopes to benefit after last weeks federal budget slashed income taxes on the salaried middle class, one of its key voting blocks.Opposition parties widely condemned Kejriwals arrest, accusing Modis government of misusing federal investigation agencies to harass and weaken political opponents, and pointed to several raids, arrests and corruption investigations of key opposition figures in the months before the national election. Kejriwal vowed to be an anti-corruption crusader and formed the AAP in 2012 after tapping into public anger against the then-Congress party government over a series of corruption scandals. His pro-poor policies have focused on fixing state-run schools and providing cheap electricity, free health care and bus transport for women.The BJP was voted out of power in Delhi in 1998 by the Congress party, which ran the government for 15 years. In the 2015 and 2020 elections in Delhi, the AAP won landslide victories.

A housing construction site is seen at the West Bank Jewish settlement of Eli, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)2025-02-04T20:03:21Z BEIT EL, West Bank (AP) The Jewish population in the West Bank grew at twice the rate of the general Israeli population last year, according to an advocacy group that hopes the Trump administration will support policies that help accelerate the growth of settlements in the occupied territory.The West Banks Jewish-settler population rose by roughly 2.3% over 12,000 people last year, reaching 529,450, according to a report by WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com, based on official government figures.That was a slight dip from the 2.9% growth rate in 2023, but roughly double the 1.1% population growth rate inside Israel proper. The number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank could grow much higher under the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, Baruch Gordon, the director of the group that publishes the data, said Tuesday. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war and has built about 130 settlements and dozens of settlement outposts in a bid to cement its control over the territory. The Palestinians seek the area as the heartland of a future state and say the presence of settlements makes independence impossible. Nearly all of the international community, including the former Biden administration, opposes the settlements as obstacles to peace.The International Court of Justice ruled in July that the occupation of the West Bank was illegal and said that it violated Palestinians right to self-determination. It said Israeli policy in the territories constituted systemic discrimination based on religion, race or ethnic origin, and that Israel had already effectively annexed large parts of the territory. During his first term, Trump broke with the international community and years of American policy. He developed close ties with settler leaders and presented a peace plan that would allow Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank and keep all of its settlements. That track record has raised hopes among Israels settlers that they could be entering a new period of rapid growth. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus coalition is dominated by settler supporters and he has placed a prominent settler leader, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, in charge of settlement planning.I think youre going to see an explosion of the construction here, Gordon said.Gordons group projects the Jewish population in the West Bank will surpass 600,000 by 2030. There are roughly 3 million Palestinians living in the West Bank.The report does not include east Jerusalem, where it estimates 340,000 Jewish settlers live. Israel says these settlers are residents of neighborhoods of its capital, while the international community considers these areas to be settlements.Inside the gated settlement of Beit El, on a hilltop abutting several Palestinian villages in the central West Bank, construction is continuing apace. Its a rapidly developing community, where high-rise luxury condominiums finished last year can now house 300 families and construction workers are working on a new dormitory for a Jewish seminary. Settlers like Gordon say Israel must keep the territory for security and spiritual reasons. This is our biblical heartland, he says.But critics say the settlement expansion is a recipe for continued conflict. The military last month launched a large-scale operation in the northern West Bank last month, in part as a response to militant attacks on settlements.The United Nations says over 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, triggered Israels war in Gaza. It also has reported a jump in settler attacks on Palestinians.Israel says its military offensives are aimed at militants, but stone throwers and uninvolved civilians have also been killed in the crackdown. JULIA FRANKEL Frankel is an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Packages are seen stacked on the doorstep of a residence, Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021, in Upper Darby, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)2025-02-04T23:54:48Z A sweeping new U.S. tariff on products made in China is expected to increase the prices American consumers pay for a wide array of products, from the ultra-cheap apparel sold on online shopping platforms to toys and electronic devices such as computers and cellphones. An additional 10% tariff on all Chinese goods took effect Tuesday, a day after President Donald Trump agreed to pause his threatened tariffs against Mexico and Canada for 30 days. The delay followed negotiations on Trumps demands for the North American nations to take steps to reduce illegal immigration and the flow of drugs such as fentanyl into the U.S. After failing to get a similar White House reprieve, China struck back with retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. goods that are set to begin next week. The sheer volume and variety of the China-made merchandise sold in the U.S. means residents would probably see the prices of many typically inexpensive items tick higher if the tit-for-tat tariffs persist. These are some of the products most likely to be impacted: Electronics, home supplies and car partsThe U.S. imported about $427 billion worth of goods from China in 2023, the most recent year with complete data, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Consumer electronics, including cellphones, computers and other tech accessories, make up the biggest import categories. China is a dominant production engine for tech gear, including for American companies like Apple that have their products assembled in the country. In 2023, China accounted for 78% of U.S. smartphone imports and 79% of laptop and tablet imports, the Consumer Technology Association trade group reported. The tariffs also may affect how much consumers pay for typically inexpensive clothing, shoes and kitchen items like pots and pans, as well as the big-ticket items, such as appliances, furniture and auto parts. Jay Salaytah, 43, who runs his own auto repair shop in Detroit, said he bought some pieces of equipment sooner than he might have, anticipating they would cost more if Trump implemented his campaign promise to use import tariffs as a tool to promote U.S. manufacturing. I knew the costs were going to go up, and these are manufactured in China, Salaytah said of a probe test light he purchased before Tuesdays tariff went into effect. Low-cost apparel and accessoriesIn addition to imposing a new tariff on Chinese imports, Trumps executive order also suspended a little-known trade exemption that allowed goods worth less than $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free. The order left open the possibility for the loophole to still be used with shipments from other countries.The trade rule, known as de minimis, has existed for nearly a century. It came under greater scrutiny in recent years due to the rapidly growing number of low-cost items coming into the U.S. from China, mainly from prominent China-founded online retailers such as Shein, Temu and Alibabas AliExpress. Former President Joe Bidens administration proposed a crackdown on the loophole in September, but the rules did not take effect before Biden left office. Shein and Temu have gained global popularity by offering a quickly updated assortment of ultra-inexpensive clothes, accessories, gifts and gadgets shipped mostly from China, allowing the two e-commerce companies to compete on the home turf of American companies.Seattle-based Amazon is trying to compete with them through an online storefront that mimics their business model by offering cheap products shipped directly from China.Chinese exports of low-value packages soared to $66 billion in 2023, up from $5.3 billion in 2018, according to report released last week by the Congressional Research Service. In the U.S., Temu and Shein comprise about 17% of the discount market for fast fashion, toys and other consumer goods, the report said. How much will prices go up?Its unclear. Under de minimis, Shein, Temu and AliExpress could bypass taxes collected by customs authorities. But under the changes effective Tuesday, company shipments from China will now be subject to existing duties plus the new 10% tariff imposed by Trump, analysts said.The vast majority of these orders are valued less than $800, which means all or virtually all of them are going to get caught in that, Youssef Squali, an analyst at Truist Financial, said. Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, said he thinks the price increases on platforms like Shein and Temu will be pretty small and the products they sell will remain cheap. However, the rule change is likely to result in delivery delays since the packages now have to go through customs, Kaziukenas said.The new tariffs will also hit third-party sellers on Amazon that import products from China, according to Squali. He expects sellers to eat some of the costs and pass the rest onto customers, which he thinks could result in percentage price increases in the mid-single digits. Other e-commerce sites that host businesses, such as Etsy, are also going to be impacted, Squali said. Temu, which is owned by Chinas PDD Holdings, has previously said its growth did not depend on the de minimis policy. Though most of its products are shipped from China, Temu has been recruiting Chinese merchants to store inventory in the U.S., a move that experts said would allow it to not be as exposed to changes around the trade rule. In January, China also introduced measures to help cross-border e-commerce build overseas warehousing by offering them tax rebates or tax exemptionsWhat are US retailers saying?The day after Novembers U.S. presidential election, Brieane Olson, CEO of teen clothing chain PacSun, went to Hong Kong to meet with factory executives to figure out ways to prepare for Trumps tariff plan. Roughly 35% to 40% of PacSuns garments are made in China, even as the chain has accelerated moves to diversify with suppliers in countries like Cambodia and Vietnam.But Olson said Trumps 10% tariff on Chinese goods was less extreme than the company anticipated. For now, PacSun doesnt plan to increase prices on its products or move its manufacturing of knitwear and denim out of China. Toys are another category of consumer products that relies heavily on imports from China. Greg Ahearn, the president and CEO of The Toy Association trade group, said he thinks toy companies that source in China are going to absorb the cost of the new tariff in the short term.Eventually, those price hikes will be moved onto the consumer, Ahearn said. ___Associated Press writers Anne DInnocenzio in New York, and Christopher Rugaber and Didi Tang in Washington contributed to this report. HALELUYA HADERO Haleluya covers Amazon, retail and technology. twitter mailto

Red Cross personnel load bodies of victims of the fighting between Congolese government forces and M23 rebels in a truck in Goma, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, as the U.N. health agency said 900 died in the fight. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)2025-02-04T20:27:29Z GOMA, Congo (AP) Congos government on Tuesday described the unilateral ceasefire declared by Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern Congo as false communication, while the United Nations noted reports of heavy fighting with Congolese forces in the region.The M23 rebels on Monday announced the ceasefire on humanitarian grounds after pleas for the safe passage of aid and hundreds of thousands of displaced people.But all we are waiting for is the withdrawal of the M23, Congos government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya told journalists.The M23 last week seized control of Goma, a city of 2 million people at the heart of a region home to trillions of dollars in mineral wealth. It remains under rebel control.The M23 had been reported to be gaining ground in other areas of eastern Congo and advancing on another provincial capital, Bukavu, in South Kivu. On Tuesday, U.N, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told journalists they had reports of heavy fighting in South Kivu, though we dont have any reports of the M23 moving closer to Bukavu.The M23 rebels are backed by some 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts. Thats far more than in 2012, when they briefly captured Goma then withdrew after international pressure. The M23 are the most potent of the more than 100 armed groups active in Congos east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the worlds technology. Congos government has said it is open to talks to resolve the conflict, but that dialogue must occur within the context of previous peace agreements. Rwanda and the rebels have accused Congo of defaulting on previous agreements. Regional leaders are meeting Friday and Saturday in Tanzania to discuss the conflict.Also Tuesday, Congos interior minister, Jacquemain Shabani, said the death toll in last weeks fighting had reached 2,000, asserting that bodies had been put into one or more mass graves. Shabani called them victims of massacres perpetrated by the Rwandan occupation army. There was no immediate Rwanda comment.On Monday, the U.N. health agency said at least 900 people had been killed in the fighting in Goma between the rebels and Congolese forces.Residents continued to bury bodies.I just saw the conditions in which our Congolese brothers were buried, our children who were shot during the events in Goma, Elisha Dunia, the father of one victim, told The Associated Press at a cemetery in the city. We are heartbroken, and we ask for peace to return to our country.Debors Zuzu, also at the cemetery, said he lost three family members, two in a bomb explosion while another was shot. He said he was devastated.Our biggest plea is for the leaders to ensure that the war ends because war has no value. We want peace in Goma, Zuzu said. If everyone dies, I dont know who the leaders will govern.The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Congo, Bruno Lemarquis, called for the urgent reopening of the airport in Goma, calling it a lifeline for the evacuation of wounded people and the delivery of aid.___Kamale reported from Kinshasa, Congo. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed.

Solar panels system funded by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are seen in the Lebanese-Syrian border town of Majdal Anjar, eastern Bekaa valley, Lebanon, Nov. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)2025-02-05T02:33:59Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration is placing U.S. Agency for International Development direct-hire staffers around the world on leave except those deemed essential, upending the aid agencys six-decade mission overseas.A notice posted online Tuesday gives the workers 30 days to return home. The move had been rumored for several days and was the most extreme of several proposals considered for consolidating the agency into the State Department. Other options had included closures of smaller USAID missions and partial closures of larger ones.Thousands of USAID employees already had been laid off and programs worldwide shut down after President Donald Trump imposed a sweeping freeze on foreign assistance. In the space of a few weeks, Trump political appointees and Elon Musks budget-slashing Department of Government Efficiency have dismantled the aid agency despite outcry from Democratic lawmakers. They have ordered a spending stop that has paralyzed U.S.-funded aid and development work around the world, gutted the senior leadership and workforce with furloughs and firings, and closed Washington headquarters to staffers Monday. Lawmakers said the agencys computer servers were carted away. Spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper, Musk boasted on X.Musks teams had taken USAIDs website offline over the weekend and it came back online Tuesday night, with the notice of recall or termination for global staffers its sole post. The decision to withdraw direct-hire staff and their families earlier than their planned departures will likely cost the government tens of millions of dollars in travel and relocation costs.Staff being placed on leave include both foreign and civil service officers who have legal protection against arbitrary dismissal and being placed on leave without reason.The American Foreign Service Association, the union which represents U.S. diplomats, sent a notice to its members denouncing the decision and saying it was preparing legal action to counter or halt it. Locally employed USAID staff, however, do not have much recourse and were excluded from the federal governments voluntary buyout offer.USAID staffers abroad have been fearing the move, packing up household belongings over the past week. Families faced wrenching decisions as the move loomed, including whether to pull children out of school midyear. Some gave away pet cats and dogs, fearing the Trump administration would not give them time to complete the paperwork to bring the animals with them.The announcement came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on a five-nation tour of Central America and met with embassy and USAID staff at two of the regions largest USAID missions: El Salvador and Guatemala on Monday and Tuesday.Journalists accompanying Rubio were not allowed to witness the so-called meet and greet sessions in those two countries, but had been allowed in for a similar event in Panama on Sunday in which Rubio praised employees, particularly locals, for their dedication and service. Democratic lawmakers and others say the USAID is enshrined in legislation as an independent agency and cannot be shut down without congressional approval.The online notice says those who will exempted from leave include staffers responsible for mission-critical functions, core leadership and specially designated programs and would be informed by Thursday afternoon.Thank you for your service, the notice concluded.___Lee reported from Guatemala City. ELLEN KNICKMEYER Knickmeyer covers foreign policy and national security for The Associated Press. She is based in Washington, D.C. twitter

Tuskegee Airmen Detroit Chapter President Arthur Green, left, of Farmington Hills, holds a P-51 D model plane as Lt. Col. Harry Stewart, Jr., center, and Col. Charles McGee, right sign their autographs on the model for the 127th Mission Support Group, June 19, 2012, at Selfridge Air National Guard Base. (Todd McInturf/Detroit News via AP, File)2025-02-05T05:23:00Z Retired Lt. Col. Harry Stewart Jr, a decorated World War II pilot who broke racial barriers as a Tuskegee Airmen and earned honors for his combat heroism, has died. He was 100. Stewart was one of the last surviving combat pilots of the famed 332nd Fighter Group also known as the Tuskegee Airmen. The group were the nations first Black military pilots.The Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum confirmed his death. The organization said he passed peacefully at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on Sunday.Stewart earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for downing three German aircraft during a dogfight on April 1, 1945. He was also part of a team of four Tuskegee Airmen who won the U.S. Air Force Top Gun flying competition in 1949, although their accomplishment would not be recognized until decades later. Harry Stewart was a kind man of profound character and accomplishment with a distinguished career of service he continued long after fighting for our country in World War II, Brian Smith, president and CEO of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historical Museum, said. Born on July 4, 1924, in Virginia, his family moved to New York when he was young. Stewart had dreamed of flying since he was a child when he would watch planes at LaGuardia airport, according to a book about his life titled Soaring to Glory: A Tuskegee Airmens Firsthand Account of World War II. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, an 18-year-old Stewart joined what was then considered an experiment to train Black military pilots. The unit sometimes was also known as the Tuskegee Airmen for where they trained in Alabama or the Red Tails because of the red tips of their P-51 Mustangs.I did not recognize at the time the gravity of what we are facing. I just felt as though it was a duty of mine at the time. I just stood up to my duty, Stewart said of World War II in a 2024 interview with CNN about the war. Having grown up in a multicultural neighborhood, the segregation and prejudice of the Jim Crow-era South came as a shock to Stewart, but he was determined to finish and earn his wings according to the book about his life. After finishing training, the pilots were assigned to escort U.S. bombers in Europe. The Tuskegee Airmen are credited with losing significantly fewer escorted bombers than other fighter groups. I got to really enjoy the idea of the panorama, I would say, of the scene I would see before me with the hundreds of bombers and the hundreds of fighter planes up there and all of them pulling the condensation trails, and it was just the ballet in the sky and a feeling of belonging to something that was really big, Stewart said in a 2020 interview with WAMC. Stewart would sometimes say in a self-effacing way that he was too busy enjoying flying to realize he was making history, according to his book. Stewart had hoped to become a commercial airline pilot after he left the military, but was rejected because of his race. He went on to earn a mechanical engineering degree New York University. He relocated to Detroit and retired as vice president of a natural gas pipeline company. Stewart told Michigan Public Radio in 2019 that he was moved to tears on a recent commercial flight when he saw who was piloting the aircraft. When I entered the plane, I looked into the cockpit there and there were two African American pilots. One was the co-pilot, and one was the pilot. But not only that, the thing that started bringing the tears to my eyes is that they were both female, Stewart said.The Air Force last month briefly removed training course s with videos of its storied Tuskegee Airmen and the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs in an effort to comply with the Trump administrations crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The materials were quickly restored following a bipartisan backlash.

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speak during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-02-05T05:02:13Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump offered a jaw-dropping performance during his joint news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggesting that Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip could be permanently resettled elsewhere and that the U.S. might stage a long-term takeover of the vacated region even leading redevelopment efforts to make it a seaside paradise in waiting. He refused to rule out sending U.S. troops in to seal the deal, and said he himself ever the real estate developer might pay a personal visit. Here are some takeaways from Trumps remarks: Trumps comments could upend the ceasefire in GazaNegotiations to sustain the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and secure the liberation of the remaining living hostages in captivity there, including at least one American are set to begin in earnest this week. Trumps audacious proposal to relocate roughly 1.8 million Palestinians from the land they have called home, and look to as part of a future state, could completely upend those negotiations.The framework for the talks calls for surging humanitarian and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover after more than 15 months of devastating conflict between Israel and Hamas. It was always going to be a challenge for mediators to try to win Hamas agreement to be uprooted as the governing authority in the territory. Trumps suggestions that the U.S. take ownership of the area and redevelop it, with the possible support of American troops, is a sure non-starter for the militant group. It is also likely to put new stress on Qatar and Egypt, the other mediators in the talks, who have long advocated for Palestinian statehood.A breakdown in the negotiations could see the return to fighting in Gaza jeopardizing the fates of the remaining living hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups in the territory. The suggestions were quickly panned in the Middle EastTrumps comments were immediately repudiated by Saudi Arabia, whose foreign ministry issued a sharply worded statement that the nations long call for an independent Palestinian state was a firm, steadfast and unwavering position.Saudi Arabia has been in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to diplomatically recognize Israel in exchange for a security pact and other terms. But the ministrys statement noted Saudi Arabias absolute rejection of efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land.The duty of the international community today, the statement added, is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it.Hamas, in its own statement said, We reject Trumps statements in which he said that the residents of the Gaza Strip have no choice but to leave, and we consider them a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region. An isolationist president is open to sending US troops to GazaTrump has built a political persona around an America first mantra that promotes isolationism, and is proud of the fact that the U.S. is currently not engaged in any foreign military conflicts. So the fact that he might be ready to dispatch U.S. troops to Gaza is nothing short of stunning.The president said he wants the U.S. to take long-term ownership of the Gaza and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. Asked if that might involve American military forces, Trump replied, As far as Gaza is concerned, well do what is necessary. If its necessary, he added, Well do that.Trump is in real estate developer modeTrump, who became famous as a 1980s New York real estate developer, still often gleefully looks at the world that way and it showed on Tuesday.The president said he envisions the worlds people living in a redeveloped Gaza that he said could look like the Riviera of the Middle East.This could be something that could be so valuable. This could be so magnificent, Trump said, adding that most importantly, the people that live there would be able to live in peace and, Well make sure that its done world-class.Trump said that eventually he envisioned Palestinians, mostly living in the region but also described his vision for Gaza as an international, unbelievable place. The president also said he planned to visit Israel during his second term in office and even suggested he might go to Gaza a trip that would present unprecedented logistical and security challenges. Trump keeps expressing reluctance about his own Iran stanceAmid precarious ceasefire and hostage negotiations, Trump has also begun expressing reluctance about the pressure his administration is seeking to put on Iran. Trump made it clear he would like to negotiate with one of Americas top adversaries to allow it to prosper as long as Iran commits to not developing a nuclear weapon. He twice said he hated signing an executive order earlier Tuesday instructing the U.S. to impose maximum pressure on Tehran.I want Iran to be peaceful and successful. I hated doing it, the president said. Trump then sought to address the people of Iran directly by saying he would love to be able to make a great deal, a deal where you can get on with your lives. Youll do wonderfully.That tone was a noticeable departure from unapologetically tough words Trump offered about some of Americas allies in recent days threatening tariffs against Canada and Mexico and suggesting that similar levies could be coming against the European Union.Trump praised the Iranians as industrious, beautiful and incredible people, and said his one requirement as he seeks a deal with them is that they dont obtain a nuclear weapon. He also said if Iran can convince the U.S. that they wont, I think theyre going to have an unbelievable future.I hope were going to be able to do something so that it doesnt end up in a very catastrophic situation. I dont want to see that happen, Trump said. I really want to see peace.Trumps takeover list is growing And now its designs on Gaza. Trumps suggestions that the U.S. could occupy Gaza, with the possible support of U.S. troops, follows his threatening to take the Panama Canal by military force. And that came after his repeated insistence the U.S. can somehow wrest control of Greenland from Denmark, and that Canadians would like to become the 51st state. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., didnt mince words when asked about Trumps suggestions for Gaza: Hes completely lost it. He wants a U.S. invasion of Gaza, which would cost thousands of American lives and set the Middle East on fire for 20 years? asked the Democrat from Connecticut. Its sick. ___Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. WILL WEISSERT Weissert covers national politics and the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto MICHELLE L. PRICE Price is a national political reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in New York. twitter mailto ZEKE MILLER Zeke is APs chief White House correspondent twitter mailto

A view of an area in Gaza City destroyed during fightings between the Israeli army against Hamas, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Feb.4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)2025-02-05T04:50:39Z JERUSALEM (AP) Gaza has long been a powder keg, and it exploded after Hamas fighters stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and began killing and abducting people, sparking a crushing Israeli military operation there thats only recently reached an uneasy ceasefire.President Donald Trump s suggestion Tuesday that that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and the U.S. take ownership may spark new tension over the enclave on the Mediterranean Sea.Heres a look at the troubled modern history of the Gaza Strip: 1948 - 1967: Egyptian rule of GazaBefore the war surrounding Israels establishment in 1948, present-day Gaza was part of the large swath of the Middle East under British colonial rule. After Israel defeated the coalition of Arab states, the Egyptian army was left in control of a small strip of land wedged between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.During the war, some 700,000 Palestinians either fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel a mass uprooting that they call the Nakba, or catastrophe. Tens of thousands of Palestinians flocked to the strip. Under Egyptian military control, Palestinian refugees in Gaza were stuck, homeless and stateless. Egypt didnt consider them to be citizens and Israel wouldnt let them return to their homes. Many were supported by UNWRA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, which has a heavy presence in Gaza to this day. Meanwhile, some young Palestinians became fedayeen insurgency fighters who conducted raids into Israel. 1967 - 1993: Israel seizes controlIsrael seized control of Gaza from Egypt during the 1967 Mideast war, when it also captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem areas that remain under Israeli control. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority, which administers semi-autonomous areas of the occupied West Bank, seeks all three areas for a hoped-for future state.Israel built more than 20 Jewish settlements in Gaza during this period. It also signed a peace treaty with Egypt at Camp David a pact negotiated by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has referenced this 40-year old treaty when he declined to permit Palestinian refugees from Gaza into Egypt, saying the potential entrance of militants into Egypt would threaten longstanding peace between Israel and Egypt.The first Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in Gaza in December 1987, kicking off more than five years of sustained protests and bloody violence. It was also during this time that the Islamic militant group Hamas was established in Gaza. 1993 - 2005: The Palestinian Authority takes chargeFor a time, promising peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders made the future of Gaza look somewhat hopeful. Following the Oslo accords a set of agreements between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat that laid the groundwork for a two-state solution control of Gaza was handed to the fledgling Palestinian Authority. But the optimism was short lived. A series of Palestinian suicide attacks by Hamas militants, the 1995 assassination of Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist opposed to his peacemaking and the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister the following year all hindered U.S.-led peace efforts. Another peace push collapsed in late 2000 with the eruption of the second Palestinian uprising. As the uprising fizzled in 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon led a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, uprooting all of Israels troops and roughly 9,000 settlers in a move that bitterly divided Israel. 2005 - 2023: Hamas seizes powerJust months after Israels withdrawal, Hamas won parliamentary elections over Fatah, the long-dominant Palestinian political party. The following year, after months of infighting, Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority.Israel and Egypt imposed a crippling blockade on the territory, monitoring the flow of goods and people in and out. For nearly two decades, the closure has crippled the local economy, sent unemployment skyrocketing, and emboldened militancy in the region, which is one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Through previous wars and countless smaller battles with Israel that devastated Gaza, Hamas has only grown more powerful. In each subsequent conflict, Hamas has had more rockets that have traveled farther. The group has displayed a growing array of weapons. Its top leaders have survived, and ceasefires have been secured. In the meantime, it has built a government, including a police force, ministries and border terminals equipped with metal detectors and passport control. 2023 Hamas attack sparks the Israel-Hamas warThe Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 250 people taken hostage. Over 100 hostages were freed during a weeklong ceasefire in November 2023, eight have been rescued alive and dozens of bodies have been recovered by Israeli forces.Israels air and ground war has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities, who do not say how many of the dead were fighters. The war has left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90% of Gazas population of 2.3 million people.Under the first phase of the latest ceasefire, which went into effect on Jan. 19, Hamas is to release a total of 33 hostages, eight of whom Hamas says are dead, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces have pulled back from most areas and allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to return to devastated northern Gaza while aid flows in.Negotiations on the second phase, which would end the war and see the remaining 60 or so hostages returned, are set to begin Monday. If mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt are unable to broker an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the war could resume in early March.___The Associated Press is republishing this story from Oct. 21, 2023, to update with the ceasefire and President Donald Trumps comments about the Gaza Strip. JULIA FRANKEL Frankel is an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem. twitter mailto

Palestinians carry defaced pictures of U.S. President Donald Trump while protesting against his latest statements regarding the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza, in the West Bank city of Ramallah Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)2025-02-05T05:55:42Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) President Donald Trumps proposal that the United States take over the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents was swiftly rejected and denounced on Wednesday by American allies and adversaries alike.Trumps suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take ownership in redeveloping the war-torn territory into the Riviera of the Middle East.The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too, Trump said. Well own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs. The comments came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which the militant group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel. Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region.Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trumps expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a firm, steadfast and unwavering position. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land, the statement said. Similarly, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra, Australia, that his country has long supported a two-state solution in the Middle East and that nothing had changed. Australias position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, as it was 10 years ago, he said. Trump has already made waves and upset longtime allies suggesting the purchase of Greenland, the annexation of Canada and the possible takeover of the Panama Canal. It was not immediately clear whether the idea of taking over the Gaza Strip was a well thought out plan, or an opening gambit in negotiations. Albanese, whose country is one of the strongest American allies in the Asia-Pacific region, seemed frustrated to even be asked about the Gaza plan, underscoring that his policies will be consistent.Im not going to, as Australias prime minister, give a daily commentary on statements by the U.S. president, he said. My job is to support Australias position.New Zealands Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its long-standing support for a two-state solution is on the record and added that it, too, wont be commenting on every proposal that is put forward. Hamas, which sparked the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, said Trumps proposal was a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished, the militant group said in a statement. In its attack on Israel, Hamas killed some 1,200 people, primarily civilians, and took about 250 hostages. Israels ensuing air and ground war has has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities who do not say how many of the dead were fighters. The war has left large parts of several cities in ruins and displaced around 90% of Gazas population of 2.3 million people.In the U.S., opposition politicians quickly rejected Trumps idea, with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons calling his comments offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish. The idea risks the rest of the world thinking that we are an unbalanced and unreliable partner because our president makes insane proposals, Coons said, noting the irony of the proposal coming shortly after Trump had moved to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development.Why on earth would we abandon decades of well-established humanitarian programs around the world, and now launch into one of the worlds greatest humanitarian challenges? Coons said. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American member of Congress from Michigan, accused Trump in a social media post of openly calling for ethnic cleansing with the idea of resettling Gazas entire population. ___Rising reported from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Zeke Miller in Washington and Charlotte McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report. DAVID RISING Rising covers regional Asia-Pacific stories for The Associated Press. He has worked around the world, including covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, and was based for nearly 20 years in Berlin before moving to Bangkok. twitter mailto JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

A U.S. Postal Service employee loads parcels outside a post office in Wheeling, Ill., on Jan. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)2025-02-05T08:29:52Z HONG KONG (AP) Americans are likely to pay more for products from popular Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu as the U.S. Postal Service said it would stop accepting parcels from China and Hong Kong.The move was announced Tuesday, coming after the U.S. imposed an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods and ended a customs exception that allowed small value parcels to enter the U.S. without paying tax. Canada and Mexico managed to negotiate a month-long reprieve from 25% tariffs threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.It will likely impact online shopping destinations like Shein and Temu, popular with younger shoppers in the U.S. for cheap clothing and other products, usually shipped directly from China.Cheap, direct postal service helps these companies keep costs low, as did the de minimis exemption that previously allowed shipments to go tax-free if their value is under $800.The temporary suspension by USPS is likely to delay shipments and could mean higher prices in the long term. What exactly did the USPS announce?The U.S. Postal Service said in a notice that it would temporarily stop accepting inbound parcels from the China and Hong Kong Posts until further notice.Letters and flats mail that measures up to 15 inches (38 centimeters) long or 3/4 inches (1.9 centimeters) thick are not affected. Why did it happen?The USPS did not state a reason in a brief announcement, but the suspension came after Trump closed the de minimis customs exemption this week that allowed shoppers and importers to avoid duties on packages worth below $800.The exemption was removed as part of an executive order to levy a 10% tariff on Chinese goods.U.S. Customs and Border Protection previously stated that it processes an average of over four million de minimis imports each week. What is the impact and who is most affected?Consumers and companies alike will no longer be able to send parcels to the U.S. from Hong Kong or China.This move is likely to impact Chinese e-commerce firms like Shein and Temu, although Shein is likely to be more affected, according to Jacob Cooke, CEO of e-commerce marketing agency WPIC Marketing + Technologies.Both companies have significant market share in the U.S.Compared to Temu, Shein relies more heavily on USPS for direct-to-consumer shipping from China, and without this channel, it will have to rely more on private carriers, said Cooke.That will increase logistics costs, which along with the recent scrapping of the de minimis exemption for most products from China, could erode its price advantage.Cooke said Temu operates on a semi-consignment model and often ships bulk orders to the U.S. before fulfilling orders domestically.Temus model of sourcing low-cost goods should also enable the platform to absorb higher logistics costs and remain price competitive, he said.Shein and Temu did not immediately comment.Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China would take necessary measures to protect its companies, and urged the U.S. to stop politicizing economic and trade issues and using them as a tool, and to stop unreasonably suppressing Chinese companies. What are possible ways for companies to work around the issue?It is unclear how long the USPS suspension will last, but the effort to crack down on the de minimis excemption seems like a longer-term shift in policy, Cooke said.Shein and Temu will simply need to rely more on private carriers as a workaround to the USPS suspension, he said.In the long term, Shein could accelerate its warehouse expansion in the U.S., while Temu can double down on its semi-consignment model. By shipping in bulk to the U.S. and fulfilling orders domestically, logistics cost can be reduced, Cooke said.Shipping in bulk to the U.S. and fulfilling domestically can reduce logistics costs, but for Shein, this poses a longer-term disruption to their business model which has depended on rapidly developing new SKUs and shipping them directly to consumers, Cooke said. ZEN SOO Soo reports on technology and business in China and across Asia for The Associated Press. She is based in Hong Kong. twitter mailto

Police officers stand guard near the scene of a shooting at an adult education center on the outskirts of Orebro, Sweden, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)2025-02-05T06:57:46Z OREBRO, Sweden (AP) Swedens worst mass shooting left at least 11 people dead, including the gunman, at an adult education center west of Stockholm as officials warned that the death toll could rise.The gunmans motive, as well as the number of wounded, hadnt been determined by early Wednesday as the Scandinavian nation where gun violence at schools is very rare reeled from an attack with such bloodshed that police early on said it was difficult to count the number of dead among the carnage.The school, called Campus Risbergska, offers primary and secondary educational classes for adults age 20 and older, Swedish-language classes for immigrants, vocational training and programs for people with intellectual disabilities. It is on the outskirts of Orebro, which is about 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Stockholm.Justice Minister Gunnar Strmmer called the shooting an event that shakes our entire society to its core. King Carl XVI Gustaf and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson ordered flags to be flown at half-staff at the Royal Palace and government buildings. The Swedish news agency TT reported that officials have planned a news conference for Wednesday morning. The shooting started Tuesday afternoon after many students had gone home following a national exam. Students sheltered in nearby buildings, and other parts of the school were evacuated following the shooting. Authorities were working to identify the deceased, and police said the toll could rise. Roberto Eid Forest, head of the local police, told reporters that the suspected gunman was among the dead. There were no warnings beforehand, and police believe the perpetrator acted alone. Police havent said if the man was a student at the school. They havent released a possible motive, but authorities said there were no suspected connections to terrorism at this point. Police raided the suspects home after Tuesdays shooting, but it wasnt immediately clear what they found. Today, we have witnessed brutal, deadly violence against completely innocent people, the prime minister told reporters in Stockholm late Tuesday. This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history. Many questions remain unanswered, and I cannot provide those answers either. But the time will come when we will know what happened, how it could occur, and what motives may have been behind it. Let us not speculate, he said.While gun violence at schools is very rare in Sweden, people were wounded or killed with other weapons such as knives or axes in several incidents in recent years.___Stefanie Dazio reported from Berlin. Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Kwiyeon Ha in London, contributed to this report.

A view of an area in Gaza City destroyed during fightings between the Israeli army against Hamas, in Gaza City, Tuesday, Feb.4, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)2025-02-05T08:50:07Z JERUSALEM (AP) Palestinians will mark this year the 77th anniversary of their mass expulsion from what is now Israel, an event that is at the core of their national struggle. But in many ways, that experience pales in comparison to the calamity now faced in the Gaza Strip particularly as President Donald Trump has suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and that the United States take ownership of the enclave.Palestinians refer to their 1948 expulsion as the Nakba, Arabic for catastrophe. Some 700,000 Palestinians a majority of the prewar population fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israels establishment.After the war, Israel refused to allow them to return because it would have resulted in a Palestinian majority within its borders. Instead, they became a seemingly permanent refugee community that now numbers some 6 million, with most living in slum-like urban refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Gaza, the refugees and their descendants make up around three-quarters of the population. Israels rejection of what Palestinians say is their right of return to their 1948 homes has been a core grievance in the conflict and was one of the thorniest issues in peace talks that last collapsed 15 years ago. The refugee camps have always been the main bastions of Palestinian militancy. Now, many Palestinians fear a repeat of their painful history on an even more cataclysmic scale.All across Gaza, Palestinians in recent days have been loading up cars and donkey carts or setting out on foot to visit their destroyed homes after a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war took hold Jan. 19. The images from several rounds of mass evacuations throughout the war and their march back north on foot are strikingly similar to black-and-white photographs from 1948. Mustafa al-Gazzar, in his 80s, recalled in 2024 his familys monthslong flight from their village in what is now central Israel to the southern city of Rafah, when he was 5. At one point they were bombed from the air, at another, they dug holes under a tree to sleep in for warmth.Al-Gazzar, now a great-grandfather, was forced to flee again in the war, this time to a tent in Muwasi, a barren coastal area where some 450,000 Palestinians live in a squalid camp. He said then the conditions are worse than in 1948, when the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees was able to regularly provide food and other essentials.My hope in 1948 was to return, but my hope today is to survive, he said. The war in Gaza, which was triggered by Hamas Oct. 7 attack into Israel, has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, making it by far the deadliest round of fighting in the history of the conflict. The initial Hamas attack killed some 1,200 Israelis.The war has forced some 1.7 million Palestinians around three quarters of the territorys population to flee their homes, often multiple times. That is well over twice the number that fled before and during the 1948 war. Israel has sealed its border. Egypt has only allowed a small number of Palestinians to leave, in part because it fears a mass influx of Palestinians could generate another long-term refugee crisis.The international community is strongly opposed to any mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza an idea embraced by far-right members of the Israeli government, who refer to it as voluntary emigration.Israel has long called for the refugees of 1948 to be absorbed into host countries, saying that calls for their return are unrealistic and would endanger its existence as a Jewish-majority state. It points to the hundreds of thousands of Jews who came to Israel from Arab countries during the turmoil following its establishment, though few of them want to return.Even if Palestinians are not expelled from Gaza en masse, many fear that they will never be able to return to their homes or that the destruction wreaked on the territory will make it impossible to live there. One U.N. estimate said it would take until 2040 to rebuild destroyed homes. The Jewish militias in the 1948 war with the armies of neighboring Arab nations were mainly armed with lighter weapons like rifles, machine guns and mortars. Hundreds of depopulated Palestinian villages were demolished after the war, while Israelis moved into Palestinian homes in Jerusalem, Jaffa and other cities.In Gaza, Israel has unleashed one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history, at times dropping 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) bombs on dense, residential areas. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to wastelands of rubble and plowed-up roads, many littered with unexploded bombs. Yara Asi, a Palestinian assistant professor at the University of Central Florida who has done research on the damage to civilian infrastructure in the war, says its extremely difficult to imagine the kind of international effort that would be necessary to rebuild Gaza.Even before the war, many Palestinians spoke of an ongoing Nakba, in which Israel gradually forces them out of Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories it captured during the 1967 war that the Palestinians want for a future state. They point to home demolitions, settlement construction and other discriminatory policies that long predate the war, and which major rights groups say amount to apartheid, allegations Israel denies.Asi and others fear that if another genuine Nakba occurs, it will be in the form of a gradual departure.It wont be called forcible displacement in some cases. It will be called emigration, it will be called something else, Asi said.But in essence, it is people who wish to stay, who have done everything in their power to stay for generations in impossible conditions, finally reaching a point where life is just not livable.___Associated Press reporters Wafaa Shurafa and Mohammad Jahjouh in Rafah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.___The Associated Press is republishing this story from May 14, 2024, to update with the ceasefire and President Donald Trumps comments about the Gaza Strip.

This image taken from video provided by WSYX shows police responding to an active shooter early Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in New Albany, Ohio. (WSYX via AP)2025-02-05T06:44:55Z NEW ALBANY, Ohio (AP) One person has died and five others were wounded in a shooting Tuesday night at a cosmetics warehouse in Ohio, officials said.The victims have been transported to hospitals and the suspect is no longer believed to be at the building, said Josh Poland, a spokesperson for the city of New Albany. New Albany Police Chief Greg Jones described the shooting just before 11 p.m. as a targeted type of attack and said officials dont believe the suspect poses a general threat to the public. We have a person of interest and were looking to locate them and bring them into custody, he said during a press conference. A firearm was found at the scene.The shooting happened at the warehouse for a company that makes products including cosmetics and toiletries. Police did not immediately provide a motive for the shooting or the conditions of those wounded. About 150 people were evacuated to a neighboring building, according to Jones.

This image from video provided by UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences shows Doug McCullough, who has spinal muscular atrophy, during tests of experimental spinal cord stimulation to improve muscle function in Pittsburgh, on March 14, 2023. (UPMC, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences via AP)2025-02-05T10:01:13Z WASHINGTON (AP) Three people with a muscle-destroying disease destined to worsen got a little stronger able to stand and walk more easily when an implanted device zapped their spinal cord.On Wednesday, researchers reported what they called the first evidence that a spine-stimulating implant already being tested for paralysis might also aid neurodegenerative diseases like spinal muscle atrophy by restoring some muscle function, at least temporarily.These people were definitely not expecting an improvement, said Marco Capogrosso, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who led the research. Yet over the month-long pilot study, they were getting better and better.Spinal muscle atrophy or SMA is a genetic disease that gradually destroys motor neurons, nerve cells in the spinal cord that control muscles. That leads muscles to waste away, especially in the legs, hips and shoulders and sometimes those involved with breathing and swallowing. There is no cure. A gene therapy can save the lives of very young children with a severe form of the disease, and there are some medicines to slow worsening in older patients. Stimulating the spinal cord with low levels of electricity has long been used to treat chronic pain but Capogrossos team also has tested it to help people paralyzed from strokes or spinal cord injury move their limbs unaided. While turned on, it zaps circuits of dormant nerves downstream of the injury to activate muscles. Then Capogrosso wondered if that same technology might help SMA in a similar way by revving up related sensory nerves so they wake up damaged muscle cells, helping them move to combat wasting. The Pitt researchers implanted electrodes over the lower spinal cord of three adults with SMA and tested their muscle strength, fatigue, range of motion and changes in gait and walking distance when the device was firing and when it was turned off. It didnt restore normal movement but with just a few hours of spinal stimulation a week, all quickly saw improvements in muscle strength and function, researchers reported in the journal Nature Medicine.With a progressive disease you never get any better, said study participant Doug McCullough, 57, of Franklin Park, New Jersey. Either youre staying stable or getting worse. So having any improvement is just a really surreal and very exciting benefit.All three participants significantly increased how far they could walk in six minutes, and one who initially couldnt stand from a kneeling position could by the studys end, Capogrosso said. And McCulloughs gait changed so that each step was about three times longer.They get less fatigued so they can walk for longer, Capogrosso said. Even a person this many years into the disease can improve.Intriguingly, researchers found the improvements didnt disappear as soon as the stimulator was switched off, though they did fade as participants were tracked after the study ended.McCullough said even when the stimulator was turned off, some nights his legs would just feel supercharged. While he understood that the device had to be removed at the studys end, he was disappointed. He said there were some lingering benefits at his six-week checkup, but none after six months. Neuroscientist Susan Harkema, who led pioneering studies of stimulation for spinal cord injuries while at the University of Louisville, cautioned the new study is small and short but called it an important proof of concept. She said its logical to test the technique against a list of muscle-degenerating diseases.Human spinal circuitry is very sophisticated its not just a bunch of reflexes controlled by the brain, said Harkema, now with the Kessler Foundation, a rehabilitation research nonprofit. This is a very solid study, an important contribution to move forward.At Pitt, Capogrosso said some small but longer studies are getting underway.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Police personnel redirect traffic near the international airport, before the arrival of a US military plane carrying deported Indian immigrants, in Amritsar, India, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Prabhjot Gill)2025-02-05T09:21:46Z AMRITSAR, India (AP) A U.S. military plane carrying 104 deported Indian migrants arrived in a northern Indian city on Wednesday, the first such flight to the country as part of a crackdown ordered by the Trump administration, airport officials said.The Indians who returned home had illegally entered the United States over the years and came from various Indian states.The move came ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Washington, which is expected next week. U.S. President Donald Trump and Modi discussed immigration in a phone call last week and Trump stressed the importance of India buying more American-made security equipment and fair bilateral trade.India has cooperated with the U.S. and said it is ready to accept the deported Indians after verification.New Delhi says it is against illegal immigration, mainly because it is linked to several forms of organized crime, and it has not objected to the U.S. deporting its citizens. For Indians, not just in the United States but anywhere in the world, if they are Indian nationals, and they are overstaying or they are in a particular country without proper documentation, we will take them back, provided documents are shared with us so that we can verify their nationality that they are indeed Indians, Indias External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said last month. If that happens to be the case, then we will take things forward. We will facilitate the return to India, Jaiswal said. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this week the deportation flights were an effective way to stem the flow of illegal migration, which he said is destructive and destabilizing.The State Department said such deportations send a message of deterrence to other people considering migrating illegally.Indias junior External Affairs Minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told Indias Parliament that 519 Indian nationals were deported to India between November 2023 and October 2024, citing U.S. government data. The U.S. government carries out deportations through commercial and chartered flights, he added.Media reports say there are about 7,25,000 undocumented Indians in the U.S., mainly from Punjab and Gujarat states, and that Indians comprised about 3% of all illegal border crossings in the U.S. in 2024.The Indian Express newspaper said there were 20,407 undocumented Indians as of November last year who are either facing final removal orders or are currently in detention centers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce, right, greets Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris, left, after an NFL football game Dec. 16, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker, File)2025-02-05T11:00:07Z ASHBURN, Va. (AP) Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin paused for a moment to think while speaking to a reporter after a practice this season.Now that you mention it, McLaurin said, Ive never had a Black head coach in high school, college or the NFL. Coordinators and position coaches only.McLaurin, like the majority of NFL players, is Black, and, like some of his colleagues, harbors concerns about the lack of Black head coaches. The Associated Press surveyed more than 65 Black players from 25 teams about the topic, and more than a third about 36% were discouraged or disappointed by the number of Black coaches.Until you see more coaches, Dolphins linebacker Anthony Walker Jr. said, were all going to look at it the same way: There arent enough Black coaches.For Sundays Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, both starting quarterbacks are Black. Neither coach is. Panthers safety Nick Scott sees a parallel with how long it took clubs to discard biases about Black QBs.They were labeled as not as cerebral. That was the narrative. But I dont know how you go about changing that (for coaches), Scott said. I would hate for it to turn into some affirmative action thing, where people are getting pushed into a job whether they are qualified or not. So its a tricky balance, right? ... But I think there are plenty of guys who are qualified. At a time when President Donald Trump has moved to end federal government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and a number of prominent companies scaled back DEI initiatives, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday the league will continue its diversity efforts. Several players the AP interviewed noted the gap between the proportion of Black athletes in the NFL 53.5% in 2023, according to The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) and that of Black head coaches, 22% to start this season. That might drop to 19% next season (six of 32), depending on the New Orleans Saints pick for the last opening. You cant just overlook that discrepancy, McLaurin said. Obviously, you want the best candidate for the job, whether its someone who is Black, white, Asian or whoever. However, when you have a big representation of African-American players that are in your league, you would like to see that represented in coaching, as well.How many NFL teams never had a full-time head coach who is Black?Setting aside interim hires, McLaurins Commanders is one of 11 clubs that never employed a full-time head coach who is Black, joining the Bills, Cowboys, Giants, Jaguars, Panthers, Rams, Ravens, Saints, Seahawks and Titans. Thats about a third of the NFL.No! Are you saying most Southern teams have never? Thats crazy! How many have never drafted a Black quarterback? Have you done that one? Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said. Theres obvious franchises that wont hire a Black coach.Over 25 seasons from 2000 through 2024, an AP count shows, 31 of 173 new NFL coaches 18% are Black.Youd be blind not to be discouraged, Cowboys special teams player C.J. Goodwin said. Black coaches can do it, can get the job done. ... You dont want to have the glass ceiling.Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce spoke for the 58% of surveyed players who answered No to that question (6% werent sure how they felt) by responding: Its, like, eyebrow-raising when you actually hear the number, but its not discouraging. Two of three new full-time NFL coaches who are Black got firedThis season began with seven Black head coaches: holdovers Mike McDaniel of the Dolphins, Todd Bowles of the Buccaneers, DeMeco Ryans of the Texans and Mike Tomlin of the Steelers, and newcomers Antonio Pierce of the Raiders (who began on an interim basis the prior season), Jerod Mayo of the Patriots and Raheem Morris of the Falcons.Pierce and Mayo were fired in January. One of six hires this offseason is Black, Aaron Glenn of the Jets. Its still like, Oh, wow, its a Black coach! Jets defensive lineman Solomon Thomas said. In a league thats predominantly Black, I definitely believe there should be more. Brandon Brown, the director of TIDES, said it makes sense players would feel that way.We always need to continue the upward progress. Anytime you see downward progress, its a bit discouraging, Brown said. In talking to people at the NFL, there is no lack of trying to be diverse in their hires. What that eventually looks like is one thing.How many Black coaches are in the NBA, MLB and NHL?In the NBA, where about 70% of players are Black, 11 of 30 teams 37% have a Black coach. In Major League Baseball, three of 30 teams have a Black manager. In the 30-team NHL, theres been one Black coach, Dirk Graham, who was fired by the Blackhawks during his only season. Nearly 40% of the NFL players who participated in the AP survey would like to be a head coach in the league; others are more likely to try to be an assistant or work in college, high school or youth football. More than 90% were encouraged by the number of Black head coaches getting new full-time positions last offseason. Those three hires tied for the most since 2000. What is the NFLs Rooney Rule? The NFLs Rooney Rule was created in 2003 named for Steelers owner Dan Rooney, who died in 2017 to increase diversity among coaches (and, later, front-office executives) by making clubs interview minority candidates. The Rooney Rules a great rule, Washingtons McLaurin said, but ... from what Ive heard, some teams kind of use that to check a box, which is unfortunate, instead of using the rule the way it was intended.That is one of the elements in the 2022 lawsuit filed by former Dolphins head coach now Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores, who accused the NFL and three teams of racist hiring practices.I knew what Mr. Rooney was trying to accomplish with that, Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward said. And so to see people work around it and say, Well, this guy was already getting the job; were just (talking to a Black candidate) to appease the many I dont think thats right.Recent searches by the Patriots and Jaguars, for example, raised eyebrows with interviews perceived by some as merely aimed at satisfying the Rooney requirements.We follow up with the candidates, Goodell said. We speak about the sincerity and the thoroughness of an interview to make sure that were doing that in the proper fashion.Why are there so few Black head coaches in the NFL?As for underlying causes, some, like Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton, pointed to networking and nepotism.For Black people in this league, its an uphill battle. ... Theres been a plethora of white head coaches over the course of the history of the NFL. Those coaches have sons who get into coaching, Hamilton said. Look at the big Shanahan tree. No disrespect to them, but they have a step up in the business. Its not about what you know; its about who you know. ... Black people have kind of been behind.Others found connections to larger issues.Its just American society, the Cowboys Goodwin said. Thats more of a societal question than it is a question about the NFL.___AP Sports Writers Mark Anderson, David Brandt, Dave Campbell, Tom Canavan, Schuyler Dixon, Josh Dubow, Dan Gelston, Will Graves, Kyle Hightower, Larry Lage, Mark Long, Brett Martel, Steve Megargee, Charles Odum, Steve Reed, Joe Reedy, Andrew Seligman, Dave Skretta, Arnie Stapleton, Alanis Thames, Teresa M. Walker, Dennis Waszak Jr., John Wawrow and Tom Withers contributed to this report.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl HOWARD FENDRICH Fendrich is an Associated Press national writer based in Washington, D.C. He reports on tennis and other sports. twitter mailto

A man accused of being an Islamic State (ISIS) fighter as others stand inside a cell at the Syrian Democratic Forces-run Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama, in Hassakeh, northeastern Syria, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)2025-02-05T05:02:01Z HASSAKEH, Syria (AP) Men of various ages and nationalities sit silently in their cells, a small window in the metal doors their only opening to the world. All are alleged members of the Islamic State group, captured during the final days of the extremists so-called caliphate declared in large parts of Iraq and Syria.The Gweiran Prison, now called Panorama has held about 4,500 IS-linked detainees for years. The Associated Press was given an exclusive visit to the prison, nearly two months after the fall of the 54-year Assad dynasty in Syria an upheaval the detainees might not even know about as prison officials try to limit outside information.Syrian President Bashar Assads ouster during a lightning insurgent offensive in December has led to new attention, and new pressures, on such detention centers in the countrys northeast that have been holding some 9,000 IS members without trial. The centers are guarded by members of the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that in March 2019 captured the last sliver of land that IS members once held, the eastern town of Baghouz. SDF chief commander Mazloum Abdi told the AP that after the fall of Assad, IS members captured large amounts of weapons in eastern Syria from posts abandoned by forces loyal to the former president. An SDF security official warned that the extremists might attack detention facilities and try to free their comrades. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The detainees are a literal and figurative ISIS army in detention, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command, said during a visit to Syria last month.The prison visit occurred in a corridor with six cells on each side and with masked guards holding clubs. A window in a cell door was opened, and the detainees were told they could speak briefly to journalists. A young man moved forward and identified himself as Maher, a nurse from Melbourne, Australia. Prison authorities asked that only first names be used.Id love to go back to Australia, the man said, adding that he was not arrested in 2019 in Baghouz but gave himself up when the U.S.-led coalition opened a humanitarian corridor.I didnt do anything to anyone. Ive been here for seven years without judgement. Without anything, he said, and expressed regret for a lot of things.Maher said he married a Syrian woman and has two sons, and they are at one of the camps housing families of IS members in northeast Syria. He said he has not had information about them, and that he sent a letter to his parents via the International Committee of the Red Cross and never received an answer.The security of the detention centers is a growing question since Assads fall.One of the most serious threats to the centers came in January 2022 when IS gunmen stormed the prison, leading to 10 days of battles with the SDF that left nearly 500 people dead.The prison, formerly the classrooms of a technical school, was later renovated with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Security was tight when the AP visited, with armed fighters stationed on roads leading to the facility. But SDF officials have said that recent clashes between their fighters and Turkey-backed gunmen in northern Syria, which coincided with the insurgent offensive that led to Assads fall, are affecting their ability to protect the prisons.During a visit to Turkey last month by Syrias foreign minister, Asaad al-Shibani, his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan told reporters that Ankara was ready to help Syrian authorities manage the detention centers as well as the camps where more than 40,000 people, many of them women and children, with alleged IS links are held.But the SDF chief commander didnt welcome the idea.The way Turkey can help is to stop its attacks on us so that we concentrate on the protection of al-Hol and the prisons, Abdi said.He added that the fate of al-Hol and other prisons can be solved within Syria. The countrys future is being discussed in talks between the SDF, which controls nearly 25% of Syria, and the new government in Damascus led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group. Inside the cells, the men wait for word on their own fate.A British prisoner from London who asked that his name not be made public said he wants to return to Britain and stand trial there. He was 18 when he came to Syria a decade ago after seeing media reports on the killings of kids by Assads government forces during a popular uprising that turned into civil war.He said he later wanted to leave Syria but could not.Once you enter (IS) its hard to leave, he said.He claimed he had not been a fighter but bought and sold cars while living in IS-held areas. He said all men captured by the SDF in the Baghouz area in early 2019 were classified as IS members.Seven years have passed in detention.To survive a day in this place is a miracle, he said, adding that he and fellow detainees know nothing of the world now, not even the date.Asked what day it was, he replied: We are in early 2025.

The former president of Spain's soccer federation Luis Rubiales sits in a courtroom on the outskirts of Madrid, Monday Feb. 3, 2025 where he goes on trial for his unsolicited kiss on forward Jenni Hermoso. (Chema Moya, Pool photo via AP)2025-02-05T12:40:08Z MADRID (AP) The brother of Jenni Hermoso and one of her teammates told a judge Wednesday there were attempts to pressure the player into downplaying the unsolicited kiss by former Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales in the awards presentation ceremony following the 2023 Womens World Cup.Rafael Hermoso said in court that former womens national team coach Jorge Vilda asked him to tell Jenni to record a video together with the former president to show she was OK with the kiss. Former teammate Misa Rodrguez said Jenni told the other players that she was being coerced and that she was not well after what happened.Rubiales is on trial for sexual assault for kissing Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup won by Spain in Sydney, as well as for coercion for allegedly trying to convince the player to support his version of the kiss. Vilda and two other former members of the federation are also on trial for coercion. All four deny wrongdoing.Jenni Hermoso says she did not consent to the kiss while Rubiales says it was consensual. The kiss marred the title celebrations and sparked outrage in Spain about the prevalence of sexism in sports and beyond. Rafael Hermoso said his sister told him she was pressurised several times by members of the Spanish federation.She came to us half-crying and told us that they were pressuring her to take a stance downplaying the kiss, Rafael said. Rodrguez said Jenni told them about the kiss and that she did not know how to react to it. She also said that Jenni told them she was being pressurised to record a video and downplay the kiss.She told us that she didnt want to do it and we supported her decision, Rodrguez said. We told her that she should not talk to anybody anymore and should try to get some rest, because we noticed that she was not well. Rafael Hermoso said Vilda came to him on the plane returning from the final in Australia to ask him to talk to his sister. We were talking about soccer and the achievement of the team and suddenly he mentioned the kiss, Rafael said. He said that the president wanted me to talk to Jenni to ask her to record the video together downplaying the kiss, because that would be the best thing for everyone.Rafael added that Vilda told him that Rubiales daughters were crying and that the president was worried about losing his job because of what happened. He said Vilda told him that he had already talked to Jenni and that she had not agreed to do the video.I told him that I was not going to try to convince her to do something that I also dont agree with, Rafael said.Rafael said he felt Vilda threatened his sister by hinting that things would not be good for her in the federation if she decided not to help. He also said Vilda implied that Jenni owed that to Rubiales daughters and the president himself.Jenni Hermoso was not called up to the national team immediately after the World Cup, with new coach Montse Tom saying she wanted to protect the player. Rubiales has yet to testify and denied the charges. He resigned under pressure three weeks later and was banned by FIFA for three years. He said he was the victim of a witch hunt by false feminists. Prosecutors, Hermoso and the Spain players association want Rubiales jailed for two and a half years, fined 50,000 euros ($51,800) for damages, and banned from working as a sports official. They want the other three defendants sentenced to one and a half years in prison.The trial is expected to last at least 10 days. Rubiales attended the first day on Monday. The coach of the mens national team, Luis de la Fuentes, testified on Tuesday.___AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer TALES AZZONI Azzoni is a sports reporter based in Madrid in charge of Spain and Portugal for The Associated Press. He has covered multiple World Cups and Olympic Games for the AP, as well as other major sporting events worldwide. twitter mailto

A cleric walks in front of a shopping center in northern Tehran, Iran, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)2025-02-05T05:08:16Z TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Irans government seems to be welcoming some recent decisions by the United States even though they happen to come from a man Iranian operatives have allegedly been plotting to assassinate. President Donald Trumps moves to freeze spending on foreign aid and overhaul, maybe even end, the U.S. Agency for International Development have been lauded in Iranian state media. The reports say the decisions will halt funding for opponents of the countrys Shiite theocracy pro-democracy activists and others supported through programs as part of U.S. governments efforts to help democracy worldwide. At the same time, Iranian officials appear to be signaling that they are waiting for a message from Trump on whether he wants to negotiate over Tehrans rapidly advancing nuclear program. At stake are potentially billions of dollars withheld from Iran through crushing sanctions and the future of a program on the precipice of enriching weapons-grade uranium. And even when signing an executive order to reimpose his maximum pressure on Iran on Tuesday, Trump suggested he wanted to deal with Tehran. Meanwhile, ordinary Iranians worry what all this could mean for them. On Wednesday, Irans currency, the rial, plunged to a record low of 850,000 to $1 after Trumps order, showing the ongoing economic volatility they face. A decade ago, it stood at 32,000 rials to $1.It encourages hard-liners inside Iran to continue repressions because they feel the U.S. would have less capability in supporting Iranian people who seek freedom, said Maryam Faraji, a 27-year-old waitress in a coffee shop in northern Tehran. Iranian media say Trumps cuts could stop the opposition in IranThe state-run IRNA news agency said that cutting the budget of foreign-based opposition could affect the sphere of relations between Tehran and Washington.Newspapers, like the conservative Hamshhari daily, described Irans opposition as counterrevolutionaries who had been celebrating Trumps election as heralding the last days of life of the Islamic Republic.They then suddenly faced the surprise of cut funding from their employer, the newspaper crowed. Even the reformist newspaper Hammihan compared it to a cold shower for opponents of Irans theocracy abroad, an idea also expressed by the Foreign Ministry. Those financial resources are not charity donations, Esmail Bagahei, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a briefing with reporters on Monday. They are wages paid in exchange for services.This is a clear sign of Americas interventionist policy particularly during the Biden administration, which tried to pressure Iran and meddle in its domestic affairs through financial aid, Bagahei added.It remains unclear how funding for Iranian activists and opposition figures would be affected by the USAID decision. The lions share of money for civil society in Iran has come through the U.S. State Departments Near East Regional Democracy fund, known by the acronym NERD, which grew as an American response to the Green Movement protests in 2009. In 2024, the Biden administration requested $65 million for NERD after over $600 million had been appropriated by Congress for the fund, according to the Congressional Research Service. That money and other funding had gone in the past toward training journalists and activists on how to report on human rights abuses, funding access to the internet amid government shutdowns and other issues.The State Department did not respond to a request for comment over the NERD funding and its future. American officials for years have kept the awardees of NERD grants secret due to what they describe as the risk activists face from Iran, particularly after Iranian intelligence officers have allegedly targeted in kidnapping or assassination plots, U.S. prosecutors say. Iran repeatedly hints its ready to talk to TrumpIran also noticed that the U.S. avoided direct criticism of the Islamic Republic during a review by the United Nations Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva last week. For those in Irans government, theres anticipation this could mean that Trump is willing to negotiate, something he repeatedly brought up in his election campaign as a possibility. Even Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, in a speech in September opened the door to talks with the U.S., saying there is no harm in engaging with the enemy. More recently, he tempered that, warning that sinister plots could still be concealed behind diplomatic smiles.We must be careful about who we are dealing with, who we are negotiating with, and who we are speaking to, Khamenei said last week.While Bagahei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, acknowledged Iran hasnt seen any green light yet for talks, Iran is trying to do everything it can to signal it wants them. The countrys reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who campaigned on outreach to the West, urged officials on Monday to listen to dissent from the Iranian people and avoid further crackdowns like those that followed the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini. The enemies are hoping that by stirring up disputes within the country, they will throw people into the streets and then ride the wave of protests themselves, Pezeshkian said.As he signed the executive order on Iran on Tuesday, Trump warned the country would be obliterated if he was assassinated by Tehran. The order calls for putting Irans export of oil to zero, including to China, which buys Tehrans crude at a discount. It also seeks a so-called snapback of United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.However, Trump still left the door open for talks. Im going to sign it, but hopefully were not going to have to use it very much, he said from the Oval Office. We will see whether or not we can arrange or work out a deal with Iran.We dont want to be tough on Iran. We dont want to be tough on anybody, Trump added. But they just cant have a nuclear bomb.Trump followed with another online message on Wednesday, saying: Reports that the United States, working in conjunction with Israel, is going to blow Iran into smithereens, ARE GREATLY EXAGGERATED.I would much prefer a Verified Nuclear Peace Agreement, which will let Iran peacefully grow and prosper, he wrote on Truth Social. We should start working on it immediately, and have a big Middle East Celebration when it is signed and completed.He did not elaborate. However, factions within Irans theocracy are still likely to oppose talks, whether out of their own self interest or over anger that Trump ordered the 2020 drone strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the countrys top general and a revered figure. That killing fueled Iranian calls for Trumps assassination and alleged plots against him. In November, the Justice Department disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Trump. While Iran denied being involved, Tehran has a history of plotting the killing of opponents abroad.This will not have any impact on the factions that oppose talks with the U.S. but maybe some moderates find it as an excuse to say that Trump is taking some steps, Iranian political analyst Ahmad Zeiabadi said.For now though, much of this can seem as conjecture and theorizing to many of Irans over 80 million people who continue to struggle in the grips of the countrys ailing economy.Tehran taxi driver Gholanhossein Akbari, 27, insisted Iranians like him never benefitted from U.S. support of Irans pro-democracy activists abroad.We did not see any result from the funds the U.S. paid to foreign-based Iranian activists who only make comments in the media, Akbari said.___Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. NASSER KARIMI Karimi reports and writes from Tehran, Iran, on various topics for The Associated Press. He began working for AP in 2003. twitter instagram mailto JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu take questions during a news conference in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-02-05T13:10:05Z President Donald Trumps stunning proposal to forcibly transfer hundreds of thousands of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and develop it as a tourist destination faces major obstacles.The Palestinians and many others view such plans as ethnic cleansing, an attempt to drive them from their homeland after Israels 15-month offensive against Hamas rendered much of it uninhabitable. It was also seen as an attempt to liquidate their decades-long struggle for a state, which has wide international support.Arab countries, including Egypt and Jordan close U.S. allies at peace with Israel have condemned such plans and roundly rejected Trumps suggestion that they take in more Palestinian refugees. Saudi Arabia issued a rare overnight statement rejecting the idea of transfer and reiterating that it wont normalize relations with Israel a key goal of the Trump administration without the establishment of a Palestinian state including Gaza.The proposal also risks undermining the ceasefire in Gaza and the continued release of hostages taken in Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war. Trump has claimed credit for brokering the truce, but its future is now more uncertain. The Palestinians dont want to leavePalestinians view Gaza as an integral part of their national homeland and aspire to an independent state in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.Most of Gazas population are descendants of refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israels creation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel. They were not allowed to return because they would have outnumbered the new states Jewish population. The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, suggested that if Trumps goal is to send the Palestinians to a happy, nice place, they should return to their ancestral homes in Israel. The ideal of remaining on ones land despite threats of expulsion is at the heart of the Palestinians struggle and self-identity, and was on vivid display last week when hundreds of thousands returned to northern Gaza despite its near-total destruction.Both Hamas and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which recognizes Israel and cooperates with it on security, have vehemently condemned Trumps proposal.Arab countries will not accept Palestinian refugeesEgypt and Jordan, which made peace with Israel decades ago, have repeatedly rejected previous proposals to resettle Palestinians within their borders.They too fear that Israel would never allow the Palestinians to return, and that a mass influx of Palestinian refugees would once again destabilize the region, as it did in the decades after 1948, when it was a key factor in Lebanons civil war and Israels two invasions of that country. Both countries also have struggling economies that would have a hard time absorbing large numbers of refugees.Trump suggested that wealthy Gulf countries could pay to resettle the Palestinians, but that appears unlikely.Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have joined Egypt and Jordan in rejecting any transfer plans, and the Saudis repudiated the plan almost immediately. The Saudi statement reiterated remarks made in September by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who said Saudi Arabia would not normalize relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.The kingdom said its unwavering position is non-negotiable and not subject to compromises.Trump has leverage, but so do Mideast leadersTrump seems to relish using tariffs, sanctions and aid cutoffs to pressure allies and adversaries alike, and could apply economic pressure on countries like Egypt and Jordan, which have long relied on American aid.But those countries have levers of their own in the face of what they see as a major threat to their national security. And wealthy Gulf countries, which have also historically provided aid to Egypt and Jordan, could help cushion any economic blow.Egypt has already warned that any mass transfer of Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula bordering Gaza could undermine its peace treaty with Israel a cornerstone of regional stability and American influence for nearly a half-century.Egypt and Qatar have also served as key mediators with Hamas in the talks that led to the ceasefire, and both are working with Trumps Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, to try to extend it. Israelis welcome the plan, but hostages are a priorityThe idea of mass transfer has historically been confined to the far-right in Israel, but on Wednesday, mainstream leaders said Trumps plan was worth considering.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at the press conference with Trump, acknowledged that jaws drop when the U.S. president proposes unorthodox ideas, but then people scratch their heads and they say, You know, hes right.Benny Gantz, a centrist politician and former general long seen as a more moderate alternative to Netanyahu, said Trumps proposal showed creative, original and intriguing thinking, and should be studied alongside other war goals, prioritizing the return of all the hostages. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, a fierce critic of Netanyahu who has voiced support for a two-state solution in the past, did not object to the idea. Instead, he said in an interview with local media that it was too early to react to Trumps proposal since there are no concrete details, and that returning the hostages was most important. The current phase of the Gaza ceasefire, in which Hamas is to release 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, ends in early March. The second phase, in which the remaining 60 or so hostages would be freed in exchange for more prisoners, is being negotiated.Hamas has said it will not release the remaining hostages without an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal which would likely preclude any forcible transfer.Israels far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who supports what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of large numbers of Palestinians and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza, has threatened to leave Netanyahus coalition if he doesnt resume the war after the first phase, which would likely lead to early elections. He welcomed Trumps proposal.The resumption of the war would put the remaining hostages lives at risk, and theres no guarantee it would eliminate Hamas, which still controls most of Gaza. It would also undo what Trump has portrayed as a major accomplishment and further delay any normalization with Saudi Arabia.An opening gambit?Theres another possibility: That Trumps proposal is an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at eventually securing the kind of Middle East mega-deal he says he is seeking.It was only last week that Trump was threatening major tariffs against Canada and Mexico, Americas two biggest trading partners, before putting them on hold after their leaders took steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking. During his first term, Trump flirted with the possibility of Israel annexing parts of the occupied West Bank before the idea was shelved as part of a normalization agreement with the United Arab Emirates.Trump could ultimately pare down his proposal or put it on hold in exchange for concessions from Arab leaders, perhaps on Gazas reconstruction or on normalization with Israel though the Saudi statement appeared to rule that out.There could be more clarity when the shock wears off, and when Trump meets with Jordans King Abdullah II at the White House next week.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

We dedicate the whole free section of this episode to Musks takeover of the federal government. We got audio from a meeting in which a Musk ally laid out their plans for AI across the government, and revealed who is now the head of HR for DOGE. In the subscribers only section, we talk about how your public library probably already has a bunch of AI slop.Listen to the weekly podcast onApple Podcasts,Spotify, orYouTube. Become a paid subscriber for access to this episode's bonus content and to power our journalism.If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. It will also be in the show notes in your podcast player. Things Are Going to Get Intense: How a Musk Ally Plans to Push AI on the GovernmentMusks DOGE Brings in HR Consultant Focused on Non-Woke DEI 'Aligned With Our FaithAI-Generated Slop Is Already In Your Public Library

A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati)2025-02-05T14:31:26Z WELLFLEET, Mass. (AP) The waters of Cape Cod Bay are coming for the big brown house perched on the edge of a sandy bluff high above the beach. Its just a matter of when.Erosion has marched right up to the concrete footings of the multimillion-dollar home where it overlooks the bay. Massive sliding doors that used to open onto a wide deck, complete with hot tub, are now barricaded by thin wooden slats that prevent anyone from stepping through and falling 25 feet to the beach below. A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More The owner knew it. He removed the deck and other parts of the house, including a small tower that held the primary bedroom, before stopping work and falling into a standoff with the town. Hes since sold the place to a salvage company that says it wont pay for work.Officials in Wellfleet worry the homes collapse will damage delicate beds in their harbor where farmers grow oysters that are among New Englands most prized. A report commissioned by the town projects if nothing is done, the 5,100-square-foot home will tumble into the bay within three years and possibly much sooner. Its certain fate is a reminder of the fragility of building along the cape, where thanks to climate change sea level rise has accelerated in recent years. I mean, the cape has always been moving, said John Cumbler, a retired environmental history professor who also serves on the Wellfleet Conservation Commission. The sand is moving. A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More History of the home The house was built in 2010 on Cape Cod on the bay side of the peninsula. Its original owners, Mark and Barbara Blasch, sought permission from the commission in 2018 to build a 241-foot-wide seawall to stave off erosion. The commissions seven members all volunteers rejected the seawall on the grounds that it might have unintended effects on the beach and the way water carries nutrients in the bay. They also questioned whether it would actually save the house. The property is within Cape Cod National Seashore. The National Seashore Administration supported rejection of the seawall because of the critical location within the seashore and Wellfleet Harbor area, including critical habitat and valuable shellfish operations.The Blasches appealed the rejection in state district court and lost. An appeal to the states Superior Court is pending.A New York man, attorney John Bonomi, bought the house in 2022 for $5.5 million, even as its future was in doubt. Bonomis attorneys declined to comment for this story. A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A home sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Threat to the bay and oyster bedsA report prepared for Wellfleet last year by Bryan McCormack, a coastal processes specialist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant, estimates that the bluffs are eroding at a rate of 3.8 to 5.6 feet a year. The report estimated collapse in up to three years, but likely sooner.The report said a collapse could send debris into Wellfleet Harbor, where the towns namesake oysters, well known to shellfish lovers, take two to three years to reach maturity.The house has a lot of fiberglass insulation in it. It has toxic material in it, Cumbler said. If that toxic material gets into Wellfleet Harbor, which is where the currents will take it, it could endanger the oyster industry in Wellfleet, our major industry outside of tourism. A sign in front of a home that sits atop a sandy bluff reads keep off the dunes, in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A sign in front of a home that sits atop a sandy bluff reads keep off the dunes, in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Standoff over what to do with the houseBonomi came to us back in October and said, yes, we understand the house is in danger of falling into the sea, and we will give you a plan by January for what we will do with the house, Cumbler said. We asked for a plan to remove it from the danger.That plan was supposed to be presented at the commissions January meeting. But Bonomis attorney, Tom Moore, wrote to the town in December to say Bonomi had sold the house to CQN Salvage, a company incorporated in October, that Moore was also representing. Moore wrote that the town is on notice to take whatever steps it deems prudent to prevent the collapse of the embankment and the other consequences of further erosion. CQN Salvage is ready to work alongside the town in such efforts but will not fund them.Its not clear who owns CQN Salvage. Its incorporation records in New York state dont list any officials. Moore declined to speak with The Associated Press. A home, center left, sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A home, center left, sits atop of a sandy bluff overlooking a beach in Wellfleet, Mass., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More At the January meeting, Moore appeared by video and told the commission that the bare minimum estimate to remove the house was at least $1 million.So, you plan to do nothing and allow it to fall into the water? Lecia McKenna, the towns conservation agent, asked Moore.I plan to ask you to not let it fall into the water, Moore responded.The commission voted to extend to June 1 the deadline to comply with its enforcement order. A home sits atop of a sandy bluff in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) A home sits atop of a sandy bluff in Wellfleet, Mass., Monday, Jan. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Muggiati) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Wellfleet is left to watch and waitFor now, the town is left to simply watch the house. When the AP recently visited the site, 20 mph winds were hitting the bluffs and sand could be seen trickling down.The sea level at nearby Falmouth has risen 11 inches (about 28 centimeters) in the past 90 years, but the pace is accelerating. An AP analysis of data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found the sea level around Cape Cod between 1995 and 2024 was rising at an annual rate of 0.16 inch (about 4 millimeters) faster than the prior 30-year period. McCormack, the Woods Hole specialist who prepared the report for the town, said its difficult to attribute erosion at a single property to climate change and sea level rise. And he said Cape Cod has been eroding for tens of thousands of years.But he said the bluffs have receded 54 feet since 2014, and the erosion rate over the last decade has exceeded long-term rates published by the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management.___AP data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed.___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.