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Jim Troupis reads a statement after his court appearance outside a Dane County courtroom Dec. 12, 2024, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)2025-12-15T04:39:03Z MADISON, Wis. (AP) Two attorneys and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trumps 2020 campaign appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.The Wisconsin case was filed a year ago but has been tied up as the Trump aides have fought, unsuccessfully so far, to have the charges dismissed.The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who the other two defendants joined in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judges law clerk, a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion. Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he cant get a fair trial. Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland said he and a staff attorney alone wrote the order. Hyland also said Troupis presented no evidence to back up his claims of bias and refused to step down or delay the hearing. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the allegations. The same judge will determine at Mondays hearing whether theres enough evidence to proceed with the charges against the three.The former Trump aides face 11 felony charges each related to their roles in the 2020 fake elector scheme. In addition to Troupis, the other defendants are Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised Trumps campaign, and Mike Roman, Trumps director of Election Day operations in 2020. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, headed by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, brought the felony forgery charges in 2024, alleging that the three defrauded the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.Prosecutors contend the three lied to the Republicans about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year. The complaint said a majority of the 10 Republicans told investigators that they were needed to sign the elector certificate indicating Trump had won only to preserve his legal options if a court changed the outcome of the election in Wisconsin. A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said. Federal prosecutors who investigated Trumps conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot said the fake electors scheme originated in Wisconsin. The Trump associates have argued that no crime took place. But the judge in August rejected their arguments in allowing the case to proceed to Mondays preliminary hearing.Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to have the defeat overturned. He won the state in both 2016 and 2024.The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them seeking damages.___This story has been corrected to show that the attorneys who are charged formerly worked on Trumps campaign, but are still practicing attorneys. SCOTT BAUER Bauer is the APs Statehouse reporter covering politics and state government in Madison, Wisconsin. He also writes music reviews. twitter mailto

(AP Illustration / Peter Hamlin)2025-12-15T13:38:11Z TOKYO (AP) I speak decent Spanish, picked up working several decades ago as a news and sports reporter in Spain, Mexico and Argentina.Now I report from Tokyo. After seven years, I still cant grasp Japanese. My weekly language classes have taught me humility more than anything else.Ayaka Ono, my current Japanese teacher, estimates shes tutored about 600 students over 15 years. Theyve been mostly between 20 and 50. Im more than a decade beyond her eldest. I find older students take tiny, tiny steps and then they fall back, Ono-san san is an honorific in Japanese to show respect tells me. They cant focus as long. I teach something one minute and they forget the next.Its well established that children have an easier time learning second languages. In recent years, scientists have studied whether being bilingual may help ward off the memory lapses and reduced mental sharpness that come with an aging brain. Much of the research on the potential benefit involved people who spoke two or more languages for most of their lives, not older adult learners. The science shows that managing two languages in your brain over a lifetime makes your brain more efficient, more resilient and more protected against cognitive decline, said Ellen Bialystok, a distinguished research professor emeritus at York University in Toronto who is credited with advancing the idea of a possible bilingual advantage in the late 1980s. Theres good news for older adults like me: Attempting to acquire a new language is worthwhile, and not just because it makes reading a menu easier while traveling abroad. Bialystok, a cognitive neuroscientist, recommends studying a new language at any age, comparing the challenge to word puzzles and brain-training games that are promoted to slow the onset of dementia. This article is part of APs Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well. Trying to learn a language late in life is a great idea, but understand it wont make you bilingual and is probably too late to provide the protective effects of cognitive aging that come from early bilingualism, she told The Associated Press. However, learning a new language is a stimulating and engaging activity that uses all of your brain, so it is like a whole-body exercise. The latest researchA large study published by the science journal Nature Aging in November suggests that speaking multiple languages protects against more rapid brain aging, and that the effect increases with the number of languages. The findings, based on research involving 87,149 healthy people ages 51 to 90, underscore the key role of multilingualism in fostering healthier aging trajectories, the authors wrote.Researchers acknowledged the studys limitations, including a sample population drawn only from 27 European countries with diverse linguistic and sociopolitical contexts.Bialystok was not involved in the project but has researched second-language acquisition in children and adults, including whether being bilingual delays the progression of Alzheimers disease or aids in multi-tasking and problem-solving. She said the new study ties all the pieces together. Over the lifespan, people who have managed and used two languages end up with brains that are in better shape and more resilient, she said. Judith Kroll, a cognitive psychologist who heads the Bilingualism, Mind and Brain Lab at the University of California, Irvine, used the expressions mental athletics and mental somersaults to describe how the brain juggles more than one language. She said there have been several efforts to examine language learning in older adults and the ramifications.I would say there are probably not enough studies to date to be absolutely definitive about this, she told The AP. But the evidence we have is very promising, suggesting both that older adults are certainly able to learn new languages and benefit from that learning.More studies are needed on whether language lessons help people in midlife and beyond maintain some cognitive abilities. Kroll compared the state of the field to the late 20th century, when the dominant thinking was that exposing infants and young children to two or more languages put them at a educational disadvantage. What we know now is the opposite, she said. Learning a language later in life I visited Spains Mediterranean coast in the 1990s when I worked in Madrid. I was shocked by how many non-Spaniards there had lived in the country for years and could say only a few words in Spanish. Now I get it. When I attempt Japanese, the reaction is often an incredulous, And youve been here how long?I have workarounds to navigate my hostile linguistic environment. One is saying itsumono. It means the same as always, or the usual. Its enough to order morning coffee at a neighborhood cafe or lunch at several regular stops.As an aside, Japanese is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers to master, along with Arabic, Cantonese, Korean and Mandarin. Romance languages such as French, Italian or Spanish are easier. My once-a-week class is grueling, and one hour is my limit. I use this analogy: my brain is a closet without enough empty hangers, and Japanese doesnt go with anything in my wardrobe. The writing system is intimidating for an English speaker, the word order is flipped, and politeness is valued more than clarity.During the 4 1/2 years I spent reporting from Rio de Janeiro, I got by with Portuol an improvised blend of Spanish and Portuguese and the patience of Brazilians. There is no such halfway house for Japanese. You either speak it or you dont.Ill never progress beyond preschool level in Japanese, but overloading my brain with lessons might work in the same way that my regular weight-training sessions help maintain physical strength.Ono-san, my Japanese teacher, called language-learning apps better than nothing. Bialystok said technology can be a useful learning tool, but progress of course requires using the language in real situations with other people.If old folks try to learn a new language, you are not going to be very successful. You are not going to become bilingual, Bialystok said. But the experience of trying to learn the language is good for your brain. So what I say is this. Whats hard for your brain is good for your brain. And learning a language, especially in later life, is hard but good for your brain. STEPHEN WADE Wade has written about sports and the politics of sports around the globe for The Associated Press. He has covered nine Olympics and five soccer World Cups and has been based for AP in Madrid, London, Beijing, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, before moving to Tokyo. twitter mailto

This photo provided by Doug Sovern shows him during his last KCBS-AM broadcast in San Francisco, on April 30, 2025. (Sara Newmann via AP)2025-12-15T13:29:56Z Before Jimmy Kimmel, there was KCBS.Just six days into President Donald Trumps new administration, the San Francisco Bay-area radio station KCBS-AM reported that immigration agents were in the area driving unmarked vehicles including a black Dodge Durango, a gray Nissan Maxima and white Nissan truck.The brief story also reported by other outlets quickly drew the ire of conservative influencers who attacked KCBS report as endangering agents lives, sparking a deluge of complaints from listeners and callers.That was just the start of KCBS troubles. The Trump administrations top broadcast regulator, Brendan Carr, soon accused KCBS of failing to operate in the public interest and said he was opening an investigation.By targeting KCBS, Carr revealed his willingness to expand the Republican administrations offensive on perceived media foes beyond major broadcasters like ABC, CBS and NPR. In KCBS case, the radio station took steps to mitigate the potential of drawing further attention from conservative influencers or Carr, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, according to eight current and former station employees who insisted on anonymity out of fear of reprisal. KCBS demoted a well-liked anchor and dialed back on political programming, people said. For months, reporters were dissuaded from pursuing political or controversial topics and instead encouraged to focus on human interest stories, according to the current and former staffers. When journalists were given permission to pursue politics or Trump administration policies, some of the staffers said, the tone of the stories was heavily scrutinized. Doug Sovern, a veteran political journalist at the station, said he was sidelined after Carr announced his investigation. Chilling effect does not begin to describe the neutering of our political coverage, said Sovern, who retired in April. He said his retirement was not related to the controversy. FCC scrutiny has eased in recent months, and the station has been increasingly willing to tackle more topics that might draw attention from the administration and conservative critics, the staffers said. The station, for example, assigned a reporter in October to cover the No Kings Day protests of the Trump administration, which the staffers described as a welcome change. In a statement, KCBS said it would not comment on internal personnel matters.There has been no change in policy or editorial direction at KCBS, the station added. We remain committed to providing our Bay Area listeners with trusted news, including our political coverage, that is balanced and objective.The FCC did not respond to a request for comment. Trumps enforcerIn Trumps second term, Carr has emerged as a top enforcer of Trumps agenda, using his perch to take on one of the presidents favorite targets: media outlets.His threat to ABC in September that we can do this the easy way or the hard way led to Kimmel, a late-night host and comedian, being briefly pulled off the air by parent company Disney over statements in one of his monologues about the political reaction to the slaying of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist. ABC and CBS settled what some experts said were long-shot libel lawsuits by Trump at the same time their parent companies had significant interests before the FCC. NPR and PBS affiliates came under scrutiny over whether they were crossing the line into commercial advertising. When the FCC later approved a merger involving CBS parent company, the networks new owners committed to making significant changes at the broadcast network a move the FCC chairman praised in his statement approving the deal. And in November, Carr reshared a Trump social media post that called for comedian Seth Meyers to be fired from NBC. Have a news tip?Contact APs global investigative team at [emailprotected]. For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app +1 (202) 281-8604. Al Sikes, a Republican former FCC chairman who served under President George H.W. Bush, said Carr was using mobster tactics.What were seeing right now is new boundaries that are being set on the exercise of authority: punishing those that you dont like and ensconcing those that you do, Sikes said in an interview. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS and NPR did not respond to requests for comment. Since February, the White House has blocked The Associated Press access to events after the wire service said it would continue referring to the Gulf of Mexico in some of its copy. Trump had signed an executive order renaming the body of water the Gulf of America. The AP filed suit over the restrictions, and a federal judge ordered the White House in April to restore the APs full access to cover presidential events as part of the press pool. The judges order was put on hold while the White House appeals it. KCBS in the crosshairsKCBS has a storied history. It was one of the earliest radio stations ever licensed. Owned by CBS for nearly 70 years, it helped pioneer the 24-hour news radio format. CBS sold its radio properties in 2017 to Entercom, which later renamed itself Audacy. KCBS remains a broadcast affiliate of CBS News Radio. The proliferation of digital content has hit the radio industry hard. Audacy recently survived Chapter 11 bankruptcy and had only been saved by a major investment from a firm owned by George Soros, a liberal donor and frequent Republican target. That investment was approved by the FCC under President Joe Bidens Democratic administration. Some conservatives, including Carr, had criticized the previous FCC leadership for failing to scrutinize the deal more closely.In going after KCBS, Carr relied on a letter of inquiry, the first formal step in opening an FCC investigation. Broadcasters are regulated by the agency, and it has the authority to issue admonitions, or fines. In rare cases, it can revoke broadcast licenses.After Carrs threat, staffers involved in the story were summoned to meetings with lawyers hired by Audacy. The attorneys scoured employee social media posts and grilled some on whether they had any political bias, current and former staff said.The stations news director, Jennifer Seelig, sits on the board of the Radio Television Digital News Association, which gives out a prominent First Amendment award. She told people that business considerations required the station to avoid angering the FCC, current and former staffers said.Seelig did not respond to requests for an interview.Veteran reporter demotedBret Burkhart, who first read the report on the immigration action over the air, was demoted from his anchor position to a less prestigious reporting gig. After a few months, he left the station for a new job, according to current and former staffers. Burkhart was a well-regarded Bay Area radio personality, with more than a dozen top journalism awards over the course of his long career.Burkharts colleagues were perplexed that the station would discipline anyone for reporting on the raids, especially because the federal agents were not operating undercover and the information they based the report on came from several local politicians.The description of immigration agents in unmarked cars is newsworthy, particularly since Trumps administration has a history of sending in federal agents while disguising what agencies theyre with, said Mark Feldstein, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and former on-air correspondent at CNN and ABC.Sovern, an award-winning political reporter who worked for The New York Times and the AP, said he struggled to get stories published.In the weeks after the immigration story, Seelig asked Sovern to cancel an interview he had set up with California gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter out of fear she would say something negative about Trump, he said. Im disappointed that a news organization once renowned and acclaimed for its diligent pursuit of the truth, no matter where it led and no matter whose feathers it ruffled, backed away from its core mission out of fear and economic insecurity, Sovern said. Thats not the KCBS I knew, and gave 35 years of my professional life to, and its a shame the last months had to end in such ignoble fashion.___AP writers Brian Slodysko and Michael Biesecker contributed reporting. BYRON TAU Tau is an investigative reporter in the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Associated Press. He focuses on reporting stories about national security, law enforcement, technology and government accountability. He can be reached on Signal at byrontau.01 twitter mailto

People hold candles during a vigil, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025, in Providence, R.I., for those injured or killed during the Saturday shooting on Brown University campus. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)2025-12-15T14:58:52Z PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) Police renewed their search Monday for the gunman who killed two Brown University students and wounded nine others, a day after they released a person of interest after determining the evidence pointed in a different direction.Authorities announced the mans release at news conference late Sunday, marking a setback in the investigation into Saturdays attack on the Ivy League schools campus. It unraveled progress authorities thought they had made at the start of the day when they announced they had detained him at a Rhode Island hotel in connection with the attack and lifted a campus lockdown.Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he understands that the community is anxious, but that there have been no credible threats of further violence since the shooting. No current suspect in deadly shootingThe release of the person of interest left law enforcement without any known suspect, with officials pledging to redouble their efforts by canvassing for video surveillance that could help pinpoint the killers identity.We have a murderer out there, said Attorney General Peter Neronha.On Sunday morning, officials took into custody a person of interest at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Rhode Island, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Providence. Two people familiar with the matter identified that individual as a 24-year-old man from Wisconsin, though authorities never released his name. Ive been around long enough to know that sometimes you head in one direction and then you have to regroup and go in another, and thats exactly what has happened over the last 24 hours or so, Neronha said. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on He said there was some evidence that pointed to the man authorities detained, but that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction. Authorities believe they are looking for a person shown in a small, short clip of video footage walking away, the mayor said. The persons back is to the camera. Right now, we dont have any evidence to suggest that it was more than that individual, Smiley said Monday on ABCs Good Morning America. Despite an enhanced police presence at Brown, officials are not recommending another shelter-in-place order like the one that followed the Saturday afternoon shooting, when hundreds of officers searched for the attacker and urged students and staff to remain indoors.Shooting happened at a busy time on campusThe shooting occurred as final exams were underway. The gunman opened fire inside a classroom in the engineering building, getting off more than 40 rounds from a 9 mm handgun, a law enforcement official told AP. Two handguns were recovered when the person of interest was taken into custody and authorities also found two loaded 30-round magazines, said the official, who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke to AP on the condition of anonymity.Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom in a seven-story complex that houses the School of Engineering and physics department. The attack set off hours of chaos on campus and in the surrounding neighborhoods, as hundreds of officers searched for the shooter. One video showed students in a library shaking and wincing as they heard loud bangs just before police entered the room to clear the building.During the lockdown, which wasnt lifted until Sunday, after the person of interest was taken into custody, many students remained barricaded in rooms while others hid behind furniture and bookshelves as police searched for the shooter. One of the nine wounded students has been released from the hospital, Paxson said Sunday. Seven others were in critical but stable condition, and one was in critical condition.On Sunday evening, city leaders, residents and others gathered at a park to honor the victims. The event originally was scheduled as a Christmas tree and Hanukkah menorah lighting.Smiley said he visited some wounded students and was inspired by their courage, hope and gratitude. The resilience that these survivors showed and shared with me, is frankly pretty overwhelming, he said. Brown, the seventh-oldest higher education institution in the U.S., is one of the nations most prestigious colleges, with roughly 7,300 undergraduates and more than 3,000 graduate students. The school canceled all remaining classes and exams for the semester. ___Contributing were Associated Press journalists Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Jennifer McDermott in Providence; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and Alanna Durkin Richer, Mike Balsamo and Eric Tucker in Washington AMANDA SWINHART Swinhart is a video journalist for The Associated Press based in Vermont. instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

FILE -California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a session at the We Mean Business Pavilion during the COP30 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, in Belem, Brazil. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)2025-12-15T13:58:28Z LOS ANGELES (AP) The fight over Californias new congressional map designed to help Democrats flip congressional House seats will go to court Monday as a panel of federal judges considers whether the district boundaries approved by voters last month can be used in elections. The hearing in Los Angeles sets the stage for a high-stakes legal and political fight between the Trump administration and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, whos been eyeing a 2028 presidential run. The lawsuit asks a three-judge panel to grant a temporary restraining order by Dec. 19 the date candidates can take the first official steps to run in the 2026 election.Voters approved Californias new U.S. House map in November through Proposition 50. Its designed to help Democrats flip as many as five congressional House seats in the midterm elections next year. It was Newsoms response to a Republican-led effort in Texas backed by President Donald Trump. The redistricting showdown between the nations two most populous states has spread nationally, with efforts aiming to determine which party controls Congress for the second half of Trumps term. Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio have adopted new district lines that could provide a partisan advantage. Some plans are facing legal challenges, but the Supreme Court ruled earlier this month to allow Texas to use its new map for the 2026 election. The Justice Department has only sued California. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on The U.S. Justice Department, joining a case brought by the California Republican Party, has accused California of gerrymandering its map in violation of the Constitution by using race as a factor to favor Hispanic voters. Republicans want the court to prohibit California from using the new map. Voters approved the map for the 2026, 2028 and 2030 elections. State Democrats said theyre confident the lawsuit will fail. In letting Texas use its gerrymandered maps, the Supreme Court noted that Californias maps, like Texass, were drawn for lawful reasons, Newsoms spokesperson Brandon Richards said in a statement. That should be the beginning and the end of this Republican effort to silence the voters of California. New U.S. House maps are drawn across the country after the Census every 10 years. Some states like California rely on an independent commission to draw maps, while others like Texas let politicians draw them. The effort to create new maps in the middle of the decade is highly unusual.Paul Mitchell, a redistricting consultant who drew the map for Democrats, is expected to offer testimony. The Justice Department alleges that Mitchell and state leaders admitted that they redrew some districts to have a Latino majority. The lawsuit cites a news release from state Democrats that says the new map retains and expands Voting Rights Act districts that empower Latino voters while making no changes to Black majority districts in the Oakland and Los Angeles areas. The federal Voting Rights Act, passed in the 1960s, sets rules for drawing districts to ensure minority groups have adequate political power. The lawsuit also cites a Cal Poly Pomona and Caltech study that concludes the new map would increase Latino voting power. Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Proposition 50 the recent ballot initiative that junked Californias pre-existing electoral map in favor of a rush-job rejiggering of Californias congressional district lines, the lawsuit said.House Democrats need to gain just a handful of seats next year to take control of the chamber, which would imperil Trumps agenda for the remainder of his term and open the way for congressional investigations into his administration. Republicans hold 219 seats, to Democrats 214._____Nguyn reported from Sacramento. MICHAEL R. BLOOD Blood is a political writer for The AP. Over the years he has filed stories under datelines from Wasilla, Alaska, to Tel Aviv, but he has spent most of his career anchored in AP bureaus in Washington, D.C., New York City and - for the last two decades - Los Angeles. twitter mailto TRN NGUYN Nguyn is an Associated Press reporter covering California government and politics. mailto

The woman who helped coerce other women into the clutches of sex trafficking ring GirlsDoPorn will spend two years in prison, a federal judge ordered on Friday.GirlsDoPorn operated for almost a decade; its owners and co-conspirators were indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in October 2019. Over the years, its content became wildly popular on some of the worlds biggest porn tube sites, including PornHub, where the videos generated millions of views.Valorie Moser was the bookkeeper for GirlsDoPorn and met victims as they arrived in San Diego to be filmedand in many cases, brutally abusedby sex traffickers Michael Pratt, Matthew Wolfe, and their co-conspirators. More than 500 women were coerced into filming sex scenes in hotel rooms across the city after responding to modeling ads online. When they arrived, many testified, they were pressured into signing convoluted contracts, given drugs and alcohol, told the content they were filming would never appear online or reach their home communities, and were sexually abused for hours while the camera rolled.GirlsDoPorn edited those hours of footage into clips of the women seeming to enjoy themselves, according to court documents. Many of the women were college agedone celebrated her 18th birthday on camera as part of her GirlsDoPorn appearanceand nervous or inexperienced.During Mosers sentencing, U.S. District Judge Janis Sammartino told Moser, You provided them assurances and comfort, Courthouse News reported from the courtroom. Much of that comfort was false assurances, and assurances you knew to be false. The court does believe you were involved in the fraud and took part in the fraud.Michael Pratt, GirlsDoPorn Ringleader, Sentenced to 27 Years in PrisonMichael James Pratt was sentenced to federal prison on charges of sex trafficking connected to the GirlsDoPorn crime ring. He turned my pain into profit, my life into currency, said one victim.404 MediaSamantha ColeMoser was charged with federal sex trafficking counts in 2019 alongside Pratt, Wolfe, and several other co-conspirators. According to prosecutors, Pratt instructed Moser to deceive women about the scheme and how she was involved. Moser worked for GirlsDoPorn from 2015 to 2018. Pratt instructed Moser not to tell the women the truth about their videos distribution as she drove the young women to and from the video shoots, prosecutors wrote in 2021 after she pleaded guilty to charges of sex trafficking. Moser was to tell the women that she was just an Uber driver. Later, Pratt told Moser to tell the women that she was bound by a non-disclosure agreement and could not discuss it. After the videos were posted on-line and widely available, many women contacted Moser to ask that their videos be taken down. Pratt, Wolfe and co-defendant Ruben Garcia all told Moser to block any calls from these women.Moser wept during the sentencing and was unable to read her own statement to the victims, according to Courthouse News; her attorney Anthony Columbo read it on her behalf. I want you to know that I hurt you, she wrote. I want you to know that I listened and I learned so much. I feel disgusted, shameful and foolish [] I failed and I am truly sorry.US Attorney Alexandra Foster read impact statements from victims, according to the report. Valorie Moser was the one who picked me up and drove me to the hotel where I was trafficked, an anonymous victim wrote, as read by Foster. Her role was to make me feel more comfortable because women trust other women. She reassured me on the way to the hotel that everything would be OK... She wasnt just a bookkeeper, she was a willing participant. She deserves to be sentenced to jail.She Turned Ghost White: How a Ragtag Group of Friends Tracked Down a Sex Trafficking RingleaderMichael Pratt hid a massive sex trafficking ring in plain sight on PornHub. On the run from the FBI, an unexpected crew of ex-military, ex-intelligence officers and a lawyer tracked him down using his love of rare sneakers and crypto. For the first time, the group tells their story.404 MediaSamantha ColeMoser is ordered to self surrender to start her sentence at noon on January 30.Judge Sammartino sentenced Pratt to 27 years in prison in September; Andre Garcia, the main actor in GirlsDoPorn videos, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 14, 2021; Theodore Gyi, the primary cameraman for the ring, was sentenced to four years on November 9, 2022 and ordered to pay victims $100,000; Wolfe was sentenced to 14 years on March 20, 2024; Douglas James Wiederhold, who performed in videos before Garcia and was the co-owner of MomPOV.com with Pratt, is set to be sentenced in January.

Nature, Published online: 15 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-03078-5Olivier Chastel travels to Svalbard in northern Norway to study the impact of contaminants such as mercury on black-legged kittiwakes.

The New York Jets have fired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks and have turned play calling over to interim DC Chris Harris, who has served as the passing game coordinator.

Packers receiver Christian Watson did not sustain a long-term injury and it's not out of the realm of possibility that he could play in the next game on Saturday against the Bears, a source told ESPN.

Put it on your countertop or in your fridge itll work double time.READ MORE...

The new head of Britain's MI6 Blaise Metreweli makes her first public speech in London, Monday, Dec. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth,pool)2025-12-15T08:17:30Z LONDON (AP) President Vladimir Putin is stalling efforts to end Russias war on Ukraine, and is testing the West with tactics that fall just below the threshold of war, the head of Britains MI6 spy agency said Monday.Blaise Metreweli said Putin is dragging out negotiations on stopping the conflict, and remains determined to subjugate Ukraine and harass NATO members.We are now operating in a space between peace and war, Metreweli said in her first public speech since becoming chief of Britains foreign intelligence agency two months ago, Russia accused of exporting chaosMetreweli accused Moscow of sponsoring cyberattacks on other countries critical infrastructure, drone incursions around European airports, campaigns of arson, sabotage and disinformation, and aggressive activities in our seas, above and below the waves.The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug, in this Russian approach to international engagement, and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus, she said.Metreweli is the first woman to head the U.K.s 116-year-old foreign intelligence service. She gave reporters a rare glimpse inside MI6 headquarters in London, which she noted was familiar to movie fans everywhere from the James Bond spy thrillers. Speaking inside the spy chiefs wood-paneled dining room overlooking the River Thames, she said rapidly evolving technology is rewriting the rules of conflict, while hybrid threats from states and extremist groups mean the front line is everywhere. The speech made a brief reference to Chinas implications for national security, but Metreweli focused on the threat from an aggressive, expansionist and revisionist Russia.Russia is testing us in the gray zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war, she said. Warning comes amid Ukraine peace talksThe warning came amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings aimed at ending the almost four-year war sparked by Russias invasion of its neighbor.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Berlin Monday to meet U.S. envoys, and will meet later with the leaders of Germany, France and Britain. Kyivs allies are trying to bolster support for Ukraine amid Washingtons pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.The MI6 chief, known as C, is the only employee of the secretive agency whose name is made public. In a speech that, unusually, touched on her personal backstory, Metreweli said that coming from a family shaped by devastating conflict, I grew up with a deep sense of gratitude for the U.K.s precious democracy and freedom.After Metrewelis appointment was announced in June, media reported that her grandfather, Constantine Dobrowolski, had been a Nazi spy in Ukraine during World War II.MI6 said Metreweli never met her grandfather. Spies must master technologyMetreweli, who has almost three decades of clandestine service and a background in anthropology, psychology and AI, was previously the MI6 director of technology and innovation the real-world equivalent of the fictional Bond gadget-master Q.She said technological savvy and human intelligence are both key to combating an interlocking web of security threats, and MI6 officers must be as comfortable with lines of code as we are with human sources, as fluent in Python as we are in multiple languages.Our world is more dangerous and contested now than it has been for decades, she said, adding that we are being contested from sea to space, from the battlefield to the boardroom and even our brains, as disinformation manipulates our understanding of each other and ourselves.The foundations of trust in our societies are eroding. Information, once a unifying force, is increasingly weaponized, she added.We are now operating in a space between peace and war, Metreweli saidAnd in a warning to Britains adversaries, she said MI6 will sharpen our edge and impact and take calculated risks.We will never stoop to the tactics of our opponents. But we must seek to outplay them, she said. A series of security warningsThe speech is the latest in a series of warnings by Western defense and security authorities about the growing hybrid threat from states such as Russia, Iran and to an extent China, whose use of cyber tools, espionage and influence operations they say threatens global stability.Last week, the U.K. imposed sanctions on several Russian media outlets for alleged information warfare and two Chinese tech firms for vast and indiscriminate cyberactivities.In a separate speech, the head of the British military, Air Chief Marshal Richard Knighton, will say Monday that Putins aim is to challenge, limit, divide and ultimately destroy NATO.The war in Ukraine shows Putins willingness to target neighboring states, including their civilian populations ... threatens the whole of NATO, including the U.K., Knighton plans to say, arguing that Britain needs both a stronger military and more resilient infrastructure to meet the evolving threat. JILL LAWLESS Lawless is an Associated Press reporter covering U.K. politics and more. She is based in London. twitter mailto

2025-12-15T15:57:47Z LOS ANGELES (AP) Federal authorities on Monday announced the arrests of four alleged members of an extremist group who are suspected of planning coordinated bombing attacks on New Years Eve across Southern California.The suspects were arrested last week in Lucerne Valley, a desert city east of Los Angeles, where they were suspected of preparing to test improvised explosive devices ahead of the planned bombings, according to the federal criminal complaint filed Saturday. They are members of an offshoot of a pro-Palestinian group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front, the complaint said.They each face charges including conspiracy and possession of a destructive device, court documents show.The group is alleged to have been plotting to set off a series of bombings at multiple targets in California beginning on New Years Eve and also planned to target Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles Attorney General Pam Bondi said on social media. Evidence photos included in the court documents show a desert campsite with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables. The suspects all brought bomb-making components to the campsite, including various sizes of PVC pipes, suspected potassium nitrate, charcoal, charcoal powder, sulfur powder, and material to be used as fuses, among others, the complaint states.Federal authorities planned a Monday morning news conference to discuss the arrests.

Specialists Alex Weitzman, left, and Meric Greenbaum work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)2025-12-15T04:16:33Z NEW YORK (AP) Wall Street is drifting in mixed trading on Monday at the start of a week full of economic reports that could drive where interest rates, and thus stock prices, go.The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in morning trading, coming off its first losing week in the last three. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 5 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% lower. Helping to keep the overall market in check were stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry, which were mixed following their scary swings last week. Nvidia, the chip company thats become the face of the AI boom, rose 1.1%. It was one of the strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500 Monday after dropping 4.1% last week. But Oracle sank another 4.3% following its 12.7% tumble last week, which was its worst in more than seven years. Broadcom fell 2.7%. AI stocks have been shaky on worries that all the billions of dollars flowing into chips and data centers may not produce a big-enough payoff of profits and productivity to make it worth it. The doubts are causing cracks for the industry, whose earlier surges was the main driver for the U.S. markets rally to records. Besides AI, the main focus on Wall Street this week will be what several big updates on the U.S. economys health say. On Tuesday will come the jobs report for November, and economists expect it to show employers added 40,000 more jobs than they cut during the month. Thursday will bring an update on the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling, and economists expect it to show inflation was at 3.1% last month, still higher than households and policymakers would like. Such data is under the microscope because the Federal Reserve is trying to figure out if a slowing job market or high inflation is the bigger problem for the economy. The Fed is in a potentially tough spot because fixing one of those problems by moving interest rates would likely worsen the other in the short term. The hope on Wall Street is that the job market weakens, but only by a little: enough to get the Fed to lower interest rates but not so much that a recession swamps the economy. Wall Street loves lower rates because they can give the economy and prices for investments a boost, even if they also may worsen inflation.With the Fed still appearing to be more focused on labor-market weakness than inflation, were likely facing a bad news is good scenario for the jobs report, according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.As long as the numbers dont suggest employment is falling off a cliff, that would mean the market would likely welcome soft numbers, he said. The spotlight will be brightest on the unemployment rate, not the overall job growth numbers, because the latter is feeling downward pressure from a drop-off in immigrant workers. Economists expect Tuesdays report to show the unemployment rate at 4.4%, which would keep it near its highest and worst level since 2021. Treasury yields eased in the bond market ahead of the updates. A report earlier on Monday morning also said that a measure of manufacturing strength in New York state unexpectedly weakened, when economists expected to see continued growth. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.15% from 4.19% late Friday.Elsewhere on Wall Street, shares of iRobot tumbled 66.8% after the maker of Roomba vacuums said holders of its stock will likely face a total loss after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the weekend. The company has reached an agreement with its primary contract manufacturer, Picea, to buy it through a court-supervised process. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe following weaker finishes in Asia. Indexes fell 1.3% in Hong Kong and 0.6% in Shanghai after the Chinese government reported a drop in investment in factory equipment, infrastructure and other fixed assets. Its the latest signal that demand in the worlds second-largest economy remains weak. Japans Nikkei 225 sank 1.3% after a quarterly survey of big manufacturers by the central bank showed a slight improvement in sentiment. That could encourage the Bank of Japan to go ahead with a hike to interest rates. ___AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Former United States men's national team captain Michael Bradley has been named as the next coach of the New York Red Bulls.

Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons' home was broken into while the team was in Santa Clara, California, to face the 49ers on Sunday.

After three seasons, the NBA is considering moving the location of the NBA Cup away from Las Vegas next season, sources told ESPN.

All the free agent options worth adding as we dive into Week 16 and the fantasy football playoffs.

Video of Ahmed el Ahmed disarming one of the gunmen has gone viral, and officials around the world have hailed his bravery.

He and his father, the director Rob Reiner, also worked together on a film that was loosely inspired by the sons early life.

In her first public speech as head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli said Russia was attempting to export chaos to Europe through hybrid attacks and disinformation.

The shooting attack in Palmyra, Syria, on Saturday struck troops deployed as part of an antiterrorism mission. Two were killed, along with an American civilian interpreter; three others were wounded.

The data centers used for work on artificial intelligence can cost tens of billions to build. Tech giants are finding ways to avoid being on the hook for some of those costs.

PROVIDENCE, RIIn the hours following a violent rampage in Rhode Island in which a lone attacker killed at least two individuals and injured several others, citizens living in the only country where this kind of mass killing routinely occurs reportedly concluded Monday that there was no way to prevent the massacre from taking place. This was a terrible tragedy, but sometimes these things just happen and theres nothing anyone can do to stop them, said Idaho resident Kathy Miller, echoing sentiments expressed by tens of millions of individuals who reside in a nation where over half of the worlds deadliest mass shootings have occurred in the past 50 years and whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. Its a shame, but what can we do? There really wasnt anything that was going to keep this individual from snapping and killing a lot of people if thats what they really wanted. At press time, residents of the only economically advanced nation in the world where roughly two mass shootings have occurred every month for the past eight years were referring to themselves and their situation as helpless.The post No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens appeared first on The Onion.

In-N-Out Burger quietly removed 67 from its order call-out system nationwide, apparently to deter youths from erupting into cheers when the number was announced. What do you think?Im proud of the younger generation for forcing company higher-ups to have a conversation that stupid.Adam Thach, Lunch OrdererBut that was my order.Zach Cabralda, Holiday DesignatorA shrewd marketer would take the opportunity to embrace the meme and ruin it forever.Kara Ripner, Jar SealerThe post In-N-Out Removes 67 From Ordering System appeared first on The Onion.

Theyre perfect for cozy winter vibes.READ MORE...

This courtroom sketch depicts Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan in court on Monday, Dec. 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wis. (Adele Tesnow via AP, Pool)2025-12-15T04:40:45Z MADISON, Wis. (AP) A prosecutor told jurors Monday that a Wisconsin judge said she would take the heat for directing an immigrant to dash through a private courtroom door while federal agents were trying to arrest him.Opening remarks by Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Alexander kicked off an extraordinary trial for a public official. Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan is charged with obstruction and concealment for her actions this spring during President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown.The trial in federal court in Milwaukee will center on what happened when Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, reported to the county courthouse in April for a hearing on a state crime.Authorities say Dugan led him out through a back door that led to a public corridor after she told immigration agents to speak with the chief judge about trying to arrest people at the courthouse. They did not expect a judge, sworn to uphold the law, would divide their arrest team and impede their efforts to do their jobs, Alexander told the jury.He said Dugan informed her court reporter that she would take the heat for helping Flores-Ruiz. The governments case is expected to run through at least Thursday, with roughly two dozen witnesses lined up to testify. Dugan faces up to six years in prison if convicted on both counts. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on During his opening remarks, defense attorney Steven Biskupic said the judge had no intention of obstructing agents. He said Dugan was following policy when she directed federal agents to Chief Judge Carl Ashleys office. Biskupic said other agents still in the courthouse hallway decided not to arrest Flores-Ruiz when he emerged through the door and instead followed him outside the building.Now, after the fact, everyone wants to blame Judge Dugan, Biskupic said.Flores-Ruiz was arrested after a foot chase. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced in November that he had been deported after he pleaded no contest in the local battery case and was sentenced to time served. Ahead of the trial, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman declined to dismiss the charges, saying there was no firmly established immunity for Dugan. Democrats say Trump is looking to make an example of Dugan to blunt judicial opposition to immigration arrests. Dugan told police she and her family found threatening flyers at their homes this spring. The administration has branded her an activist judge. Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a fierce Trump loyalist running for Wisconsin governor next year, urged authorities to lock her up in a recent tweet. TODD RICHMOND Richmond is an Associated Press reporter covering Wisconsin politics and courts as well as environmental issues and breaking news across the Great Lakes region. He is based in Madison. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 15 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04066-5Policies should reflect the new reality of researchers increasing reliance on tools that can summarize manuscripts and draft reports.

Nature, Published online: 15 December 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-04067-4Agency staff members say that the changes are reasonable, but they are worried about the potential effects on review.

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SNAP EBT information sign is displayed at a gas station in Riverwoods, Ill., Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, file)2025-12-15T17:47:41Z President Donald Trump s administration is talking tough about SNAP, saying the governments biggest food aid program is riddled with fraud that must be stopped.His appointees are looking at Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program from an enforcement perspective, seeing fraud as a major and expensive problem, perpetrated by organized criminal organizations, individual recipients and retailers willing to break the laws for profit.We know there are instances of fraud committed by our friends and neighbors, but also transnational crime rings, Jennifer Tiller, a senior advisor to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, said in an interview.Some experts agree that SNAP fraud is a major problem. But there is little publicly available data showing the extent of it, and others who study the program are skeptical about the scale.It youre spending $100 billion on anything, youre going to have some leakage, said Christopher Bosso, a professor of public policy and politics at Northeastern University who published a book on SNAP. The administration leans into fraud allegationsOf the $100 billion spent on SNAP a year, about $94 billion goes to benefits and the rest to administrative costs.About 42 million people or 1 in 8 Americans receive SNAP benefits averaging about $190 per person per month. The number of recipients is in the same ballpark as the number of people in poverty 36 million by the traditional measure and 43 million under a more nuanced one also used by the federal government. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Under federal law, most households must report their income and basic information every four to six months and be fully recertified for SNAP at least every 12 months. The Trump administration has demanded that states turn over data on individual SNAP recipients including Social Security numbers, dates of birth and immigration status as part of its effort to root out fraud. States with Republican governors, plus North Carolina, have complied. Most led by Democrats are pushing back in court, arguing that providing the data would violate recipients privacy. The USDA says that from the records that have been shared, it found 186,000 deceased people about 1% of participants in those states receiving benefits and about 500,000 people about 2.7% receiving benefits in more than one jurisdiction.The USDA has not made public detailed reports on the data and has not broken down the estimates by type of alleged fraud. The department also hasnt answered questions about what portion of any improperly awarded benefits was actually spent and how much sat unclaimed on EBT cards after recipients moved or died.The department estimated in a letter to the states that have refused to turn over data that the nationwide total combining fraud and undetected errors could be $9 billion a year or more. Democratic-led states responded in a letter last week that states already have systems to catch wrongdoing and that USDA isnt explaining how its crunching the numbers.Program participants can be perpetrators or victims of fraudThere are a lot of forms of wrongdoing. SNAP benefits are put on EBT cards that recipients swipe in stores like debit cards. Organized crime groups put skimmers on EBT readers to get information used to make copies of the benefit cards and steal the allotments of recipients or to use stolen identity information to apply for benefits for fictitious people. A Romanian man who was in the U.S. illegally pleaded guilty last year to skimming cards in California. Authorities say he took more than 36,000 numbers over three years. A USDA employee pleaded guilty this year to accepting bribes in exchange for providing registration numbers for EBT card readers placed illegally in several New York delis. Authorities said more than $30 million passed through those terminals.And three people were charged this year in Franklin County, Ohio, accused of using stolen benefits to order big quantities of energy drinks and candy apparently to resell it. Mark Haskins, who worked on USDA investigations from 2013 until leaving the department in August as branch chief of a special investigations unit, said there have been cases of retailers running similar operations. Several states are barring using SNAP for some junk food products with policies that kick in as soon as Jan. 1. Haskins also says some legitimate recipients buy non-grocery items with SNAP benefits by persuading a store employee to ring up the wrong item generally one that costs more than whats being bought or to sell benefit cards. He said he thinks those forms of fraud are more costly than the ones run by organized criminal groups.Haskins and Haywood Talcove, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions Government, which helps create fraud prevention strategies, both believe fraud costs significantly more than the USDAs $9 billion estimate.The system is corrupt. It doesnt need a fix here and there, it needs a complete overhaul, said Haskins, who would like to see fewer retailers in the network and participants having to reapply, even if that makes it harder for qualified people to access benefits. Advocates and researchers see a different systemThe USDA last published a report on SNAP fraud in 2021. It covered what happened in from 2015 through 2017 and found that about 1.6% of benefits were stolen from recipients accounts.The government replaced benefits that were stolen between Oct. 1, 2022 and Dec. 20, 2024. The value of replaced benefits over that time was $323 million or about 24 cents for every $100 in SNAP benefits, though thats believed to be an undercount.Its reports like those that lead advocates and academics who research SNAP to see fraud, while troublesome, as less than the massive problem the USDA makes it out to be.Dartmouth College economist Patricia Anderson, who studies food insecurity, said in an email that the maximum benefits for a family of four are about $1,000 a month. It really takes organized crime that is either stealing from the EBT cards or creating a lot of fake recipients out of whole cloth before the gain for the fraudster really starts to be worth it, she said.Jamal Brown, a 41-year-old food stamp participant who lives in Camden, New Jersey, said hes witnessed people selling benefits to bodegas to get cash. And hes had his benefits stolen by a skimmer.He also said he had to deal with benefits being cut off after being told he missed an interview to recertify his need when a county welfare worker didnt call him as planned.Its always something that goes wrong, Brown said, unfortunately. 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

This photo provided by Ah Louis Store shows the store decorated for the holidays on Nov. 24, 2025 in San Luis Obispo, Calif. (Ah Louis Store via AP)2025-12-15T10:05:06Z NEW YORK (AP) The Ah Louis Store in San Luis Obispo, California, turns into a winter wonderland every holiday season.Green garlands, giant nutcrackers, baubles and bows go up in early November on the historic downtown building that houses the gift shop. Inside, customers can choose from over 500 different types of ornaments and a variety of holiday gift baskets.We really just make it a magical spot, co-owner Emily Butler said. Whether you come in or not, we want to make sure that were spreading that holiday joy.But Butler says she and her twin sister-business partner had to work harder this year to turn browsers into buyers and to make a profit. Many of the decorations and stocking stuffers they sell are made overseas and either did not arrive or got more expensive when President Donald Trump imposed unusually high taxes on imported goods, she said. In response, the sisters focused their selection on more profitable items like nutcrackers and gift baskets. Theyve also noticed customers cutting back, selecting a $100 gift basket over the $150 version, or buying one ornament instead of several, Butler said..Were definitely seeing more cautious spending this year, she said. Along with the unpredictable tariffs, stubborn inflation and weak hiring have shaken consumer confidence in the U.S. economy. The vast majority of U.S. adults say theyve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts in recent months, according to a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A Gallup index that summarizes Americans assessments of current economic conditions fell to a 17-month low in November. Consumers also indicated less enthusiasm for spending money on holiday gifts; their estimated gift budgets decreased $229 between October and November, the largest drop Gallup has recorded at that point of the holiday shopping season. The survey was conducted in November, partially during the government shutdown, which might have tempered spending plans.However, the worst-case impact on consumer prices that many economists foresaw from the Trump administrations tariff policies hasnt materialized. Some products have been affected more than others. Heres a look at what has happened with supplies and prices in popular gifting categories. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Games and toysGame and toys were particularly susceptible to tariff-related price increases since the majority of the ones sold in the U.S. are made in China, according to industry trade group The Toy Association. The tariff rate the Trump administration imposed on Chinese goods became a rollercoaster that started at an additional 10%, peaked at 145% and ended up at 47%. The uncertainty made it hard for toy shops to decide what to order for the holidays. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said the manufacturers in China that he buys toys from did not pass on their tariff costs all at once but he has seen their prices inch higher with every reorder. Co-owners Dean Smith, left, and Joanne Farrugia pose for a photograph in JaZams, one of their toy stores Friday, June 27, 2025, in Princeton, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Co-owners Dean Smith, left, and Joanne Farrugia pose for a photograph in JaZams, one of their toy stores Friday, June 27, 2025, in Princeton, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Smith estimated that wholesale prices for 80% of his inventory went up anywhere from 5% to 20%. Some shoppers who dont buy toys regularly might be surprised by price increases he adopted in turn, Smith said. A doll that sold for $20 to $25 last year now costs $30 to $35 at JaZams, he said.For folks with marginal incomes, this is going to be a very difficult holiday, Smith said. ElectronicsConsumer electronics are mostly made in China and other Asian countries. In 2023, China accounted for 78% of U.S. smartphone imports, and 79% of laptop and tablet imports, according to the Consumer Technology Association trade group. Best Buy said in May that it was raising prices due to tariffs. But CEO Corie Barry said late last month that the consumer electronics chain made sure to stock computers, phones and other products at different price levels, a decision she credited with helping Best Buy attract more lower-income shoppers. The consumer is not a monolith, Barry told reporters. Game consoles are always a popular holiday item, and console makers made news earlier this year when they announced price increases. Sony raised the price of the PlayStation 5 by $50 to $550 in August, following Microsoft and Nintendo raising prices for their game consoles. JewelryJewelry shoppers will likely see higher prices, but that has more to do with the soaring price of gold than tariffs so far, according to David Bonaparte, president & CEO of trade group Jewelers of America. The varying tax rates Trump set for countries that import American goods with a total value less than their exports to the U.S. affected jewelry in various ways. Watches from Switzerland, for example, were subject to a 39% tariff from July 31 until the country struck a deal with the Trump administration last month to lower the import tax rate on its products to 15%. India, which refines many of the diamonds sold in the U.S., rushed in shipments of the gemstones before a 50% tariff on the countrys products took effect on Aug. 27. Higher prices for jewelry made with diamonds shipped from India will likely start to be felt in 2026, Bonaparte said. Its really a matter of what happens after Jan. 1, he said. If these tariffs are still in place, then prices will probably increase.Holiday decorHoliday decorations are yet another category that mostly comes from overseas, particularly China. Jeremy Rice co-owns House, a home-dcor shop in Lexington, Kentucky, that specializes in artificial flowers, wreaths and table decorations. He said the tariffs slowed down production of much of his fall stock and seasonal merchandise like ribbon. Some larger and more expensive items he didnt order at all because they would have been too expensive to retail. This undated photo provided by Jeremy Rice shows Rice at House, a home-dcor shop that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. in Lexington, Ky. (Jeremy Rice via AP) This undated photo provided by Jeremy Rice shows Rice at House, a home-dcor shop that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home. in Lexington, Ky. (Jeremy Rice via AP) Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Rice raised prices on the products he did get. The popular red berry stems that House long has carried increased from $8.95 last year to $10.95 due to higher import costs, he said. We sell thousands of these berry stems, and every time we sold one, I flinched from knowing what it should have been, knowing that our supplier paid more for them, which made us pay more for them, which made our customer pay more for them, Rice said.Shopping strategicallyFor those looking to avoid tariff-related price increases, John Harmon, managing director of technology research at technology consulting company Coresight Resarch, recommends checking out secondhand stores and discount retailers like T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods. The off-price chains buy much of their inventory from leftover stock that would have entered the U.S. before new tariffs kicked in. Joe Adamski, senior director at procurement services company ProcureAbility, said books, food and beverages are some of the domestically produced goods that make good gifts. MAE ANDERSON Anderson reports for The Associated Press on a wide range of issues that small businesses face. She is based in New York. twitter mailto

Alabama forward Amari Allen (5) shoots and hits a three-point shot over the defense of Alabama forward Taylor Bol Bowen (7) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)2025-12-15T18:01:14Z No. 1 Arizona and No. 2 Michigan remained locked in place atop The Associated Press mens college basketball poll released Monday while No. 15 Nebraska jumped to its highest Top 25 ranking in nearly 35 years.The Wildcats had 42 of 61 first-place votes to hold the top spot while the Wolverines received 15 to keep the teams at 1-2 for a second consecutive week. The top 10 was largely unchanged, with No. 7 Gonzaga and No. 8 Houston swapping spots from last week the only new wrinkle. No. 3 Duke (three) and No. 4 Iowa State (one) were the only other teams to earn first-place votes.UConn and Purdue were next after the Cyclones, and Michigan State and BYU rounded out the top 10.The Cornhuskers (11-0) had the weeks biggest jump of eight spots after Saturdays win at then-No. 13 Illinois on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer. That marked the highest ranking for the program since it was No. 11 in March 1991 for the final poll of that season. The now-No. 18 Illini and 23rd-ranked Florida had the weeks biggest slides, with each falling five spots.Georgia was the lone new addition to the poll, moving in at No. 25 to replace UCLA.___Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball AARON BEARD Beard covers sports in North Carolina for The Associated Press with an emphasis on college basketball. His coverage includes ACC sports and the NHLs Carolina Hurricanes. twitter mailto

The sixth in-season women's AP Top 25 poll is out. Here's what's next for every team in the standings.

The sixth in-season edition of the men's poll is out. Arizona retains the No. 1 spot amid a mostly unchanged top 10.

An MRI confirmed that Packers star pass rusher Micah Parsons suffered a season-ending torn ACL, a source told ESPN.

Nebraska QB Dylan Raiola, son of former NFL OL Dominic Raiola, plans to enter the transfer portal, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel.

Coach Steve Kerr said "I'm not doing my job well this year" after the Warriors fell to 13-14 despite continued outstanding play from star Steph Curry.