Elon Musk speaks at a presidential inauguration event on behalf of President-elect Donald Trump in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)2025-02-07T18:08:56Z WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic lawmakers are seeking a Treasury Department investigation of the access that Elon Musks team was given to the governments payment system, citing threats to the economy and national security, and the potential violation of laws protecting Americans privacy and tax data.The lawmakers sent letters Friday to Treasurys deputy inspector general and the acting inspector general for tax administration, in addition to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., writing to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The letters laid out their concerns over a lack of transparency and public accountability about the access being granted to the federal governments financial plumbing. The payments system handles trillions of dollars over the course of a year, including tax refunds, Social Security benefits and much more. That raises questions about whether the review by the tech billionaire Musks Department of Government Efficiency is legal. The lead writers of the inspectors general letter, Warren and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have sounded multiple alarms about a review that largely remains shrouded from public scrutiny. Democrats efforts to push back against spending cuts that President Donald Trump is seeking through DOGE could lead to a Washington showdown with possible broader repercussions. Any breakdown in the system could mean missed payments to people or even the sharing of sensitive personal data. In Warrens letter to Bessent, she says the secretary has deflected and avoided key questions so far and provided information that appears to be flatly contradicted by new public reports.The American people including millions of families who are worried that you have jeopardized their Social Security payments, their Medicare payments, their local programs, and their economic security deserve straight answers, Warren wrote. A letter requesting an investigation would typically be sent to Treasurys inspector general. However, Trumps recent firing of about 17 independent inspectors general at government agencies leaves an oversight hole.The Treasury Department has maintained that the review is merely about assessing the integrity of the system and that no changes to it are being made. But according to two people familiar with the process, Musks team began its inquiry looking for ways to suspend payments made by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which Trump and Musk are attempting to shutter.Separately, labor unions and advocacy groups have sued to block the payments system review from proceeding because of concerns about its legality. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Thursday restricted DOGEs read-only access of Treasurys payment systems to two workers, one of them Tom Krause, who now appears on the Treasury Department website as performing the functions of fiscal assistant secretary.Also signing the letters were Democratic Sens. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. JOSH BOAK Boak covers the White House and economic policy for The Associated Press. He joined the AP in 2013. twitter mailto 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

A Thai hostage who was freed from Hamas, Pongsak Thaenna, center, hugs a relative upon arrival at Suvarnabhumi International Airport, in Samut Prakarn Province, Thailand, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)2025-02-09T01:42:57Z BANGKOK (AP) Five Thai workers released after being held hostage for over a year in Gaza arrived in Bangkok on Sunday.Sarusak Rumnao, 32, Watchara Sriaoun, 33, Sathian Suwannakham, 35, Pongsak Thaenna, 36, and Bannawat Saethao, 27, were freed on Jan. 30 as part of an exchange arrangement.They were embraced by family members, some of whom cried, in the arrivals hall at Suvarnabhumi airport. Thai Foreign Minister Maris Sagniampongsa and the Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv were both at the airport to welcome home the freed hostages.We are all very grateful and very happy that we get to return to our homeland. We all would really like to thank you. I dont know what else to say, Pongsak told a news conference at the airport.Maris said the Thai government never gave up hope and here is the result today. The tears of joy are our encouragement. He added that Bangkok would continue working to secure the release of the remaining Thai hostage. The group quickly left the news conference to return to their hometowns in Thailands northern and northeastern regions.They were the second batch of Thai hostages released since the war broke out. During an earlier ceasefire in November 2023, 23 Thai nationals were released in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with assistance from Qatar and Iran. All five men were assessed at a hospital outside Tel Aviv prior to their return. Four of them were joined by one relative each earlier this week. The trip was sponsored by the Israeli government, according to the Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv. Hamas militants kidnapped 31 Thai nationals during the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel, making them the largest group of foreigners held captive. Many of the Thai agricultural workers lived in compounds on the outskirts of southern Israeli kibbutzim and towns, and Hamas militants overran those places first. A total of 46 Thais have been killed during the conflict, including two Thai citizens who were killed during the attack and their bodies taken into Gaza, according to Thailands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.There was no immediate information available about Nattapong Pingsa, who is the last Thai hostage left in Gaza, nor the two Thai workers whose bodies were taken into Gaza.Maris, the Thai foreign minister, traveled to Israel to visit the five freed men shortly after their release. Maris met with his Israeli counterparts seeking support to secure the release of the remaining Thai hostage and retrieve the bodies of the two deceased Thais.Thai workers remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel. The countries implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago specifically easing the way for Thai agricultural workers. Many Palestinian workers had since returned, and before the Hamas attack about half of Israels workforce was made up of foreign and Palestinian laborers.

Vicky Lazo, a teacher with Southwest Miami Senior High School, speaks Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in Miami during a Hispanic Federation event where they announced a new investment from Google.org to provide workforce development workshops to help Latinos learn digital skills. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)2025-02-09T04:48:28Z As jobs become more reliant on technology some Latino workers can be left behind due to a lack of digital skills exacerbated by a lack of accessibility. Latinos remain an integral part of jobs in agriculture, construction, retail and food services but these jobs are also at risk of automation, leaving some Latinos unprepared for a changing role that relies more on technology, according to a new report by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.Analysis from the UCLA Latino Policy Institute shows Latinos are overrepresented in fields at risk of automation. The report also provides some suggestions on how to improve Latino economic mobility. This report sheds light on a critical but often overlooked reality: Automation is not just a technological issue but an equity issue, said Misael Galdmez, co-author of the report, On the Frontlines: Automation Risks for Latino Workers in California. Latino workers are on the frontline of automation risk, facing barriers like limited English proficiency, low digital access and educational gaps, Galdmez said.Valerie Gills, 32, spent three years as a receptionist at a hotel in Phoenix, but in 2023, the hotel set up self-check kiosks and installed AI-powered chatbots on its website to handle reservations and requests. The changes made it clear that Gills was no longer essential. I knew businesses were always trying to improve efficiency, she said, but it seemed to me as though technology was taking opportunities away from us. Gills eventually lost her job. She found temporary positions but nothing as stable as her hotel job had been. Her employment troubles weighed on her mental health and reminded me how weak workers like me can be when industries get everything automated.Ramiro Cavazos, president and CEO of the United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, said that while automation displaces those with limited skills, it can also create new roles, provide better working conditions and prevent burnout. Automation affects people that dont have access to the Internet, Cavazos said. Latinos, who traditionally are the ones impacted, have made great progress as we become more educated, more skilled.As Gills looked for a new job, the reality set in: She would need to learn a new skill to stay ahead of the curve. Ultimately she was able to get an internship as a blog editor, but she is actively looking for a tech-study program in data analytics and software development, including boot camps online, so she can be a competitive candidate.Cavazos said the Hispanic Chamber works with over 500 foundations to ensure corporations contribute to providing skills training that Latinos need to compete in the current job market. He has seen a lot of investment to ensure Latino workers have the skills they need to succeed.During former President Joe Bidens administration, the U.S. Department of Labors division on employment and training focused on providing Latinos a pathway to learn new skills through apprenticeship programs, said Manny Lamre, then deputy assistant secretary for employment and training. According to Lamare, the apprenticeships were perfect for Latinos as they met their needs to have high-paying, family-supporting careers. We do think its really important to continue to engage individuals and meet them where they are, Lamarre said at the time. Quite frankly the Biden-Harris Administration has been intentional about making investments supporting Latino and Hispanic communities. We are hopeful those investments continue.Department of Labor officials under President Donald Trump, who has issued several orders targeting diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, did not immediately confirm whether the apprenticeship programs are still active.Carlos Vasquez, founder of Miami Ed Tech, a nonprofit focused on providing skills Latino students need for upward mobility, said apprenticeships are extremely favorable to Latinos as they are paying jobs from day one with a promise of training from an organization. Miami Ed Tech offers two apprenticeships in AI, data science and web design.Everyone thinks its only for like, the trades, Vazquez said. But that was the other thing that the Biden administration really pushed, is building more apprenticeships in nontraditional and emerging sectors. So we are kind of like, trying to also emulate that by offering in our community any employer who doesnt know but wants to get involved, because theres a lot of benefits. So its a win-win for everyone.Historically, Latinos have always been impacted by automation due to their relation to labor-intensive roles, especially in retail and food service. Cavazos said it is crucial to teach Latinos more digital skills to evolve with the workforce.A study by UCLA this year found that in California, 2.3 million Latinos are employed in roles most at risk of becoming automated. Of the Latinos working in automation, 21% of them do not have access to high-speed internet at home, a hindrance to digital upskilling, the study found. A 2021 Pew Research study also found that only 67% of Hispanic adults reported owning a desktop or laptop computer, compared with 8 in 10 white adults. Diana Caba, vice president for community and economic development at the Hispanic Federation, said that as the world becomes more digital, it can become a huge obstacle for Latinos who do not have digital skills. Therefore the nonprofit has partnered with over 50 community-based organizations to decrease the digital divide by providing Latinos training, including access to technology.Caba said that of the 35,000 people theyve trained, 70% have completed the training. She said 6,000 have gone on to new jobs, and about 10,500 have gotten a six-figure salary.Automation is a big threat for our community, considering that we are in these low-paying sectors that are actually very vulnerable and dont really offer much opportunities for economic mobility, Caba said. Its been really exciting to take this approach and meet the needs of increasing the digital acumen of the Latino community.Dylan Pravia started as an intern with Miami Ed Tech, which he said provided him the opportunity to use computers and learn about AI and programming. He is now able to use what he learned there as a mechanical engineering student at Florida International University.I really like what Miami Ed Tech is doing, Pravia said. They are providing that training, that opportunity, to students. Talent is everywhere, and we should give (Latino) students as much training as they can, all those opportunities, so we can see the talent and their skills in the world.Gills, the former hotel receptionist, said she understands technology is the future but automation feels like a double-edged sword. While it can open opportunities for high-skilled labor, it also diminishes the number of low-skill jobs that many Latinos need, she said.Ive seen firsthand how many co-workers were swapped for kiosks or chatbots, Gills said. Retraining workers and preparing them for new jobs needs to be better supported by the system. To be honest, these times with automation and AI feel very unreliable and constantly changing, but I guess we just have to learn how to adapt.___The Associated Press received financial support from the Sony Global Social Justice Fund to expand certain coverage areas. 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. FERNANDA FIGUEROA Figueroa reports on Latino/Hispanic affairs as a member of the APs Race & Ethnicity team. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump arrives to meet British Prime Minister Theresa May before their meeting at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, England, July 13, 2018. (Jack Taylor/Pool Photo via AP, File)2025-02-09T05:03:46Z LONDON (AP) Ever since Winston Churchill coined the phrase in the wake of World War II, politicians have extolled the special relationship between the United States and Britain.Under President Donald Trumps second administration, Britain will settle for a merely functional relationship with its former colony turned most important ally. As Trump threatens to slap tariffs on Americas neighbors, mulls buying Greenland and suggests the U.S. could take over and reconstruct Gaza,Prime Minister Keir Starmers government is racing to bolster its diplomatic and economic defenses for a turbulent new transatlantic era.Were in such uncharted waters that anyone who claims to know what in the hell is going on is just lying, said Kathleen Burk, emeritus professor at University College London and an expert on U.S.-U.K. relations. High stakes for Britains Washington envoyBritish officials say Starmer hopes to visit Washington in the coming weeks, but he has yet to receive an invitation from Trump.In the meantime, a heavy burden rests on Britains new ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson. A towering figure in Starmers Labour Party who served in the governments of former Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, Mandelson replaces veteran diplomat Karen Pierce, who was widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans in Washington. Its rare for a politician, rather than a career civil servant, to be given a key U.K. ambassadorial post. The center-left former lawmaker is not an obvious emissary to the Trump administration. Mandelson once called Trump a danger to the world words he now says were ill-judged and wrong. But some analysts see Mandelson as a canny choice. A controversial figure who twice resigned from government over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety, he has like Trump repeatedly bounced back. His mastery of political intrigue brought him the nickname Prince of Darkness. Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government, said Mandelson is a considerable political talent with economic expertise from his time as the EUs trade commissioner between 2004 and 2008.Hes also very comfortable with very rich people, Rutter said. Hes very well connected. He will give very classy parties.In addition to diplomatic clout, Britain plans to deploy another key asset: the royal family. Trump, whose mother was born on Scotlands remote Isle of Lewis, owns two Scottish golf courses and is a fan of the royals. He praised the late Queen Elizabeth II, who hosted him at Buckingham Palace during a 2019 state visit, and said he had a great talk with Prince William when the two men met in December.A return visit to the U.K. for Trump, replete with pomp and pageantry, seems likely. Stuck in the middle with EUSome politicians on the right of U.K. politics see Trumps return as an opportunity for deeper U.K.-U.S. trade ties, maybe even a long-elusive free trade agreement.Talks on a trade deal started after Britain left the European Union in 2020 but foundered on issues including agriculture, with strong opposition in Britain to importing chlorine-rinsed chicken or hormone-treated beef.A further complication is Starmers desire for closer trade with the EU as part of a reset with the bloc after years of acrimony over Brexit. Sandwiched between the U.S. and the EU, Britain could face pressure to pick a side.Surely the choice is obvious, Conservative Party lawmaker John Cooper said during a recent debate in Parliament. Under President Trump, the American eagle is starting to spread its wings. Europe is fading, with sclerotic growth amid political turmoil.But Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and the Americas program at the international affairs think-tank Chatham House, said choosing between Europe and America was a ridiculous proposition. While the U.S. is Britains biggest individual trading partner, half of Britains trade is with the 27 EU members.They cant choose, Vinjamuri said. At the end of the day, Europe, the U.S. and the U.K. are in this together, and so they have to find different ways of working together. Pressure over trade and defenseTrump has already ratcheted up pressure on longstanding allies, announcing he would impose tariffs on all goods from Canada and Mexico, then postponing them after getting pledges from the two counties to beef up border security.Trump has suggested Britain could escape similar tariffs. I think that one can be worked out, he said.Britain is helped by the fact that, according to official U.S. statistics, the U.S. sells more goods to the UK. than it imports.Britain is also facing pressure from Trump to increase defense spending. Trump has long questioned the value of NATO and threatened not to defend members of the alliance that fail to meet defense-spending goals.The president has said NATO countries should spend at least 5% of their income on defense, up from the current 2% target. Britain spends 2.3% of GDP on defense and says it will increase that figure to 2.5%. The one thing that the Americans will pay attention to is the defense budget, because Britain started losing leverage with the U. S. when its army and its navy started going down in the 1970s, Burk said.Britain is one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine in its war against Russias invasion a war Trump wants to end, on terms that remain unclear. Starmer and his officials hope to press the U.S. government not to abandon Ukraine or back a deal favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin.British diplomats and spies are also trying to assess what the new U.S. government means for vital intelligence-sharing. Britain and the U.S. share top-secret intelligence as members of the Five Eyes group with Canada, Australia and New Zealand.U.K. officials were somewhat relieved by the appointment of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an experienced politician and a known quantity. They have little acquaintance with, and some concerns about, Trumps nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, and his pick to oversee national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard has repeatedly echoed Russian propaganda used to justify the Kremlins invasion of Ukraine and in the past opposed a key U.S. surveillance program.Expect the unexpectedIts impossible to prepare for everything the next four years could bring.Rutter said ministers and civil servants need to think about the unthinkable. For instance, what happens if deep cuts to regulation and the machinery of government mean parts of the U.S. start failing?When do you start having to give people warnings not to fly to the U.S. because we dont trust your aviation regulation anymore? she said.Vinjamuri said the coming years will test to the limit Britains historic strength of quiet diplomacy, working very pragmatically below the headline to try and get things done.The challenge is, we have some known unknowns, (like) what will happen when it comes to Americas support for Ukraine and for Europes security, she said. But we have a lot of unknown unknowns, too. And that, I think, is going to be the much trickier part. JILL LAWLESS Lawless is an Associated Press reporter covering U.K. politics and more. She is based in London. twitter mailto

President Donald Trump arrives to meet British Prime Minister Theresa May before their meeting at Chequers, in Buckinghamshire, England, July 13, 2018. (Jack Taylor/Pool Photo via AP, File)2025-02-09T00:13:26Z MEXICO CITY (AP) A magnitude-7.6 earthquake shook the Caribbean Sea south of the Cayman Islands Saturday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Several islands and countries urged people near the coastline to move inland but authorities in most places later lifted the tsunami alerts. The quake struck at 6:23 p.m. local time in the middle of the sea and had a depth of 10 kilometers, the USGS said. Its epicenter was located 130 miles (209 kilometers) south-southwest of George Town in the Cayman Islands. The U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center said there was no tsunami alert for the U.S. mainland but issued a tsunami advisory for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was later cancelled. Hazard Management Cayman Islands urged residents near the coast to move inland and to higher ground, warning that wave heights of 0.3 to 1 meter were expected. The Cayman Islands government later issued on all clear on its Facebook site. Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer Gonzlez Coln said in a statement she is in contact with emergency agencies after the tsunami advisory, but did not recommend anyone leave the coast.The sounding of alarms in Puerto Ricos northwest region had caused people to leave coastal areas and caused heavy traffic, according to local media.The Dominican government also issued a tsunami alert and recommended residents on the coast move to high areas of more than 20 meters of altitude and 2 kilometers inland. But it later canceled the alert. Honduran authorities said there are no immediate reports of damages, but urged its residents to stay away from beaches.The Cuban government requested people to leave beachfront areas. The U.S. governments National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said tsunami waves reaching 1 to 3 meters above the tide level are possible along some coasts of Cuba. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Mellisa Sachitongo, 65, exercises with the Commandos Fitness Club at the Warren Hills cemetery in Harare, Zimbabwe, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. ( AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli)2025-02-09T04:03:33Z HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) At dawn, 65-year-old Nelly Mutandwa swapped her pajamas for leggings, a T-shirt and sneakers. She grabbed a bottle of water before heading to an unconventional workout spot: a cemetery in Zimbabwes capital, Harare.Surrounded by rows of graves, she joined other members of the Commandos Fitness Club in an hour-long session of squats, lunges and stretches as upbeat music blared. For Mutandwa, the daily routine is more than exercise. Its her lifeline in managing diabetes.They are resting, she said, pointing to the graves. I just dont want to join them yet. That means I have to do the hard work here.With limited fitness facilities such as gyms in their neighborhoods, older Zimbabweans are exercising wherever they can to combat Africas growing problem of non-communicable diseases like heart problems, high blood pressure and diabetes. Other groups exercise along highways or disused railway lines. Globally, non-communicable diseases, which are conditions that cannot be directly passed from person to person, are the leading cause of death, responsible for 41 million, or 74%, of annual fatalities, according to the World Health Organization. Non-communicable diseases currently account for about 40% of deaths annually in Zimbabwe, according to its ministry of health and child care.In Zimbabwe and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, non-communicable diseases are set to overtake communicable diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and cholera as the leading cause of death or illness by 2030, according to WHO. Previously associated with older people, non-communicable diseases are increasingly spreading to children and young adults due to smoking, frequent alcohol use, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity.This has sparked huge concern among experts and governments on a continent that is experiencing the worlds fastest population growth and is home to its youngest population. Dr. Johannes Marisa, a public health specialist in Harare and president of the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners of Zimbabwe Association, said doctors are witnessing a rapid change as more children and young people are diagnosed with NCDs.He attributed it partly to sedentary lifestyles as many people spend much of their time glued to their smartphone screens at the expense of physical movement, as well as growing substance abuse and unhealthy diets.While climate change-induced droughts have left many rural people in Zimbabwe scrounging for food, traders in urban areas are racing to get a piece of the fast food market thats widely blamed for obesity.In Harare and other urban areas, franchises such as KFC compete with a mushrooming number of cheaper local restaurants and informal roadside stalls, public markets and even homes where one can grab a fried piece of chicken, a burger or a fries-and-sausage combo for a dollar.In response, Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube in the 2025 national budget imposed a modest 0.5% tax on sales of doughnuts and other foods including tacos, pizza, hot dogs, shawarma, fries, chicken and burgers by retailers to encourage healthier dietary choices and mitigate the prevalence of non-communicable diseases. Meanwhile, some older Zimbabweans are taking up physical exercise.For Mutandwa and her Commandos Fitness Club crew, the surroundings of the cemetery suffice. Coached by Joseph Nekati, whose mothers stroke in 2023 inspired him to help others, the free club has become a sanctuary for older fitness buffs. Eight of the clubs roughly 20 members are older people, Nekati said.I weighed 86 kilograms (189 pounds) and struggled to stand up. I would struggle to breathe just walking in my house. Now, Im down to 76 kilograms (167 pounds) and I can walk long distances, said Susan Gomo, a 64-year-old grandmother managing high blood pressure and arthritis.The group exercise is also meant to encourage other older people to work out. Some of my age mates are reluctant, Gomo said. They end up just eating and sitting at home. They might change their minds when they see me in great shape. Mutandwa said she picked up the habit of power walks when she visited her daughter in the United Kingdom in 2022. She decided to try it back home in Zimbabwe, but the roads in her township were potholed and crowded. She went for solo walks on a nearby hill, but she felt unsafe.Last year, she noticed the fitness club in the cemetery, where a wide and well-maintained path provides a convenient workout spot. With three of her neighbors, she approached the coach, who happily took them in.Now the cemetery has come to symbolize Mutandwa and others quest to live healthier and outpace death one step at a time.Its serene, its safe and we have a lot of space with minimal disturbances. Hopefully the (local) council can build proper facilities for us, she said, preparing to stroll back home. ___For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse___The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. 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. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Namibian and ruling Swapo party President Sam Nujoma speaks during an election rally in Windhoek, Namibia, Nov. 13, 2004. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)2025-02-09T04:51:27Z WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) Sam Nujoma, the fiery freedom fighter who led Namibia to independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 and served as its first president for 15 years, and was known as the father of the nation, has died. He was 95.Nujomas death was announced Sunday by current Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba. Mbumba said Nujoma died on Saturday night after being hospitalized in the capital, Windhoek.The foundations of the Republic of Namibia have been shaken, Mbumba said in a statement. Over the past three weeks, the Founding President of the Republic of Namibia and Founding Father of the Namibian Nation was hospitalized for medical treatment and medical observation due to ill health.Unfortunately, this time, the most gallant son of our land could not recover from his illness, Mbumba added.Nujoma was revered in his homeland as a charismatic father figure who steered his country to democracy and stability after long colonial rule by Germany and a bitter war of independence from South Africa. He spent nearly 30 years in exile as the leader of its independence movement before returning to be elected his countrys first democratic leader in 1990. Nujoma, with his trademark white beard, was the last of a generation of African leaders who brought their countries out of colonial or white minority rule that included South Africas Nelson Mandela, Zimbabwes Robert Mugabe, Zambias Kenneth Kaunda and Mozambiques Samora Machel. Many Namibians credited Nujomas leadership for the process of national healing and reconciliation after the deep divisions caused by the independence war and South Africas policies of dividing the country into ethnically based regional governments, with separate education and health care for each race. Even his political opponents praised Nujoma who was branded a Marxist and accused of ruthless suppression of dissent while in exile for establishing a democratic Constitution and involving white businessmen and politicians in government after independence. Despite his pragmatism and nation-building at home, Nujoma often hit foreign headlines for his fierce anti-Western rhetoric. He claimed AIDS was a man-made biological weapon and also occasionally waged a verbal war on homosexuality, calling gays idiots and branding homosexuality a foreign and corrupt ideology.Nujoma built ties with North Korea, Cuba, Russia and China, some of which had supported Namibias liberation movement by providing arms and training.But he balanced that with outreach to the West, and Nujoma was the first African leader to be hosted at the White House by former U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1993. Clinton called Nujoma the George Washington of his country and a genuine hero of the worlds movement toward democracy.Nujoma grew up in a rural, impoverished family, the eldest of 11 children. His early life revolved around looking after his parents cattle and the cultivation of land. He attended a mission school before moving to Windhoek and working for South African Railways. He was arrested following a political protest in 1959 and fled the territory shortly after his release. In exile, he helped establish the South West African Peoples Organization and was named its president in 1960. SWAPO has been Namibias ruling party since 1990.When South Africa refused to heed a 1966 U.N. resolution ending its mandate over the former German colony of South West Africa, Nujoma launched SWAPOs guerrilla campaign.We started the armed struggle with only two sub-machine guns and two pistols, Nujoma once said. I got them from Algeria, plus some rounds of ammunition.___AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)2025-02-09T08:29:32Z MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip (AP) Israeli forces began withdrawing from a key Gaza corridor on Sunday, Israeli officials said, part of Israels commitments under a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead but faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension.Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south that Israel used as a military zone during the war. At the start of the ceasefire last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north, sending hundreds of thousands streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. The withdrawal of forces from the area will fulfill another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war. However, the sides appear to have made little progress on negotiating the deals second phase, which is meant to extend the truce and lead to the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it wont lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce. Netanyahu is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal.Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a 23-year-old Palestinian woman who was eight months pregnant was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation. The ceasefire is fragile and its extension is not guaranteedSince it began on Jan. 19, the ceasefire deal has faced repeated obstacles and disagreements between the sides, underscoring its fragility. But it has held, raising hopes that the devastating war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.On Sunday, cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses Netzarim. Under the deal, Israel is supposed to allow the cars to cross through uninspected, and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road. Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had forced the enemy to submit to our demands and that it thwarted Netanyahus illusion of achieving total victory.The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss troop movement with the media, did not disclose how many soldiers were withdrawing. Troops currently remain along Gazas borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the truce.During the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza. The deal also stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor. In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a sustainable calm. But details beyond that are unclear and repeated stumbling blocks throughout the first phase and the deep mistrust between the sides have cast doubt on whether they can nail down the extension.The truce faces many challenges, including Trumps Gaza proposalIsrael has said it wont agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it wont hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.Netanyahu meanwhile is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated. He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home and want to deal to continue, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed on Saturday stunned the nation. Complicating things further is a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Palestinian territory. Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world have rejected it outright.The suggested plan is saddled with moral, legal and practical obstacles. But it may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic by Trump, to try to ratchet up pressure on Hamas or as an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. That grand deal appeared to be rattled on Sunday as Saudi Arabia condemned remarks by Netanyahu who said Palestinians could create their state in that territory. Saudi Arabia said his remarks aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.In an interview Thursday with Israels Channel 14, Netanyahu said: The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.Violence surges in the occupied West BankThe war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians according to local health authorities who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Vast parts of the territory have been obliterated in the fighting, leaving many Palestinians returning to damaged or destroyed homes. Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the war and has intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation in the north of the territory. The shooting of the pregnant woman, Sundus Shalabi, happened in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations against Palestinian militants in the territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry also said that Shalabis husband was critically wounded by the gunfire. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israels Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday the expansion of the Israeli military operation, which started in the city of Jenin several weeks ago. He said the operation was meant to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold in the occupied West Bank.___Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war TIA GOLDENBERG Goldenberg is an Associated Press reporter and producer covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. She previously reported on East and West Africa from Nairobi. twitter mailto

People attend a rally calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip, in front of the U.S. Embassy branch office in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, ahead of the planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)2025-02-07T19:25:41Z JERUSALEM (AP) Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire during which Hamas is releasing dozens of the hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire went into effect last month, freeing 21 hostages and over 730 prisoners. Hamas has agreed to release 33 Israeli hostages for nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees during this first phase of the ceasefire. Five Thai hostages have also been released during the ceasefire period in a separate deal.The sides have also begun negotiations on a second phase aimed at returning the remaining hostages, releasing additional prisoners and ending the war. Here is a breakdown of the hostages taken on Oct. 7, 2023:Total captured: 251Hostages freed in exchanges or other deals: 130 Bodies of dead hostages retrieved by Israeli troops: 40Hostages rescued alive: 8Hostages still in captivity: 73, of whom Israel has declared 34 to be dead.Of those still being held:Women and children: 3 ( A mother and her two young sons.)Israeli soldiers: 13, of whom 6 are still believed to be alive. Non-Israelis: 5 (3 Thais, 1 Nepalese, 1 Tanzanian), of whom 2 (1 Thai and 1 Nepalese) are believed to still be alive.Separately:Israelis in Gaza since before the Oct. 7 attack: 3 (body of one soldier killed in 2014 war, and two civilians who entered Gaza on their own in 2014 and 2015 and are believed alive)

Thai citizens, who were released from Hamas captivity in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal, leave Shamir Medical Center (Assaf Harofeh) in Be'er Ya'akov, Israel, Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)2025-01-30T11:32:43Z BANGKOK (AP) Five Thai nationals held hostage by Hamas since its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel returned home on Sunday after their release from captivity. They were among 31 Thais taken by the militant group, of whom 23 have already been released. Another two have been confirmed dead, and the status of one remaining person is not clear. According to Thailands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 46 Thais have been killed during the conflict, including the two who died in Hamas captivity.They were among tens of thousands of Thai workers in Israel. Heres a look at what they were doing there. Why are there so many Thais in Israel? Israel once relied heavily on Palestinian workers, but it started bringing in large numbers of migrant workers after the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, known as the first Intifada.Most came from Thailand, and Thais remain the largest group of foreign agricultural laborers in Israel today, earning considerably more than they can at home. Thailand and Israel implemented a bilateral agreement a decade ago to ease the way for workers in the agriculture sector.Israel has come under criticism for the conditions under which the Thai farm laborers work. A Human Rights Watch report in 2015 said they often were housed in makeshift and inadequate accommodations and were paid salaries significantly below the legal minimum wage, forced to work long hours in excess of the legal maximum, subjected to unsafe working conditions and denied their right to change employers. A watchdog group found more recently that most were still paid below the legal minimum wage. How many Thai nationals work in Israel?There were about 30,000 Thai workers, primarily working on farms, in Israel prior to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.In the wake of the October 2023 attack, some 7,000 returned home, primarily on government evacuation flights, but higher wages have continued to attract new arrivals. Thai ambassador to Israel Pannabha Chandraramya recently said there are now more than 38,000 Thai workers in the country. What happened after they left? Faced with a labor shortage in the wake of the exodus after the Hamas attack, Israels Agriculture Ministry announced incentives to try and attract foreign workers back to evacuated areas.Among other things, it offered to extend work visas and to pay bonuses of about $500 a month.Thailands Labor Ministry granted 3,966 Thai workers permission to work in Israel in 2024, keeping Israel in the top four destinations for Thais working abroad last year. Thai migrant workers generally come from poorer regions of the country, especially the northeast, and even before the bonuses the jobs in Israel paid many times what they could make at home. ___Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul contributed to this story. 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

Philadelphia Eagles' Cooper DeJean walks off the field before the NFC Championship NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)2025-02-09T04:50:58Z OMAHA, Neb. (AP) In the farm town where Cooper DeJean drew up football plays in elementary school and taught classmates to run them at recess, residents plan a huge party to watch the towns native son in the Super Bowl.The Philadelphia Eagles defensive back has lifted spirits in Odebolt, Iowa, a town of 920 people once known as the Popcorn Capital of the World.Residents say hes also inspired children in the four towns that make up the local school district in this remote region of Western Iowa, where he played quarterback in stadiums carved out of cornfields.On Sunday theyll gather in the Odebolt Community Building for a Super Bowl watch party theyre calling the Cooper Bowl. Many plan to wear special Eagles green T-shirts printed up for the occasion that feature DeJeans No. 33. Its also a birthday party for DeJean, who turns 22 on Super Bowl Sunday. The whole town is just ecstatic, said Cory Duff, who owns The Bolt Drive-In, a local restaurant.I would say it has brought a renewed energy back to the community, he said. It has definitely uplifted everybody around here.Duff said hes a die-hard Denver Broncos fan and I even bought his jersey. Everybody around here has their own team, but whenever the Eagles are playing, everyones watching, Duff said. AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards DeJeans father, Jason, said he was touched by a video that school employees made featuring dozens of children and teachers wishing his son the best in the Super Bowl. They all got on the playground and spelled out Cooper, Jason DeJean said. The nearly 5-minute video is infused with cuteness, with one scene showing elementary school students making hand motions to imitate birds as they sing the teams fight song, Fly Eagles Fly.Ever since DeJean began flying around the football field at the University of Iowa, the support around this community has been just crazy, Jason DeJean said. Now you see Eagle jerseys and 33 and all that stuff. Its great to see, and you couldnt ask for any more support than what this community gives. After winning back-to-back state football championships in his final two years of high school, DeJean went on to a stellar career at the University of Iowa where he was named an All-American. In the 2024 NFL draft, the Eagles selected him in the second round.Only a handful of athletes from the small towns of the Western Valley Activities Conference go on to compete in any sport at a major university, making DeJeans path from Odebolt to the Iowa Hawkeyes and now the Philadelphia Eagles one of the most improbable ever taken in this part of Western Iowa.Its not very often a kid from a town of less than 1,000 people gets to go to the Super Bowl, Duff said.DeJeans intense work ethic is a common thread that ties him to legendary athletes from other parts of the state such as former Iowa Hawkeye and WNBA star Caitlin Clark, from West Des Moines, and Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, from Burlington, who played in high school in Cedar Rapids.DeJeans path to the Super Bowl has cast a spotlight on Odebolt, but it was the dirt he played on that helped put the town and its surrounding farmland on the map. A two-lane highway winds down from the Loess Hills on Iowas western edge, past giant wind turbines and fields of corn and soybeans to get to Odebolt.A 20-mile (32-kilometer) stretch of the road, Iowa Highway 175, connects the towns that send students to DeJeans old high school: Battle Creek, Ida Grove, Odebolt and blink-and-you-miss-it Arthur, population 222. In this wide-open area, farm animals outnumber people by a wide margin. The county that includes Odebolt is home to about 46,000 cattle more than four times the human population of 9,800, according to numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The rich, black soil surrounding Odebolt was seen as ideal for growing popcorn and led Chicagos Cracker Jack Co. to choose it to supply the popcorn for its Cracker Jack snacks.Cracker Jack Co. Executive Vice President E.R. Shields praised Odebolts early pioneers, who created the town from wilderness. And their descendants were shining examples of strength, fortitude and foresight that has made your community The Popcorn Center of the World, he wrote in 1938 in the Odebolt Chronicle.Residents who know DeJean say they see that same strength and fortitude in him. They speak highly of his work ethic in sports, but also his personality traits in life.The kid is insanely humble, and hes not going to forget where he comes from, Duff said. JEFF MARTIN Martin covers breaking news in the southeastern U.S. for The Associated Press. He is based in Atlanta. mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

The South Dakota Capitol stands in Pierre, S.D., Jan. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jack Dura, File)2025-02-09T04:57:10Z PHOENIX (AP) South Dakotas constitution refers to the governor as a he.But for the past six years, the governor was a she Kristi Noem, the first female to hold the position there. The conservative Republican pushed a constitutional amendment to change the gendered language. But voters rejected the measure in the 2024 general election that also would have been inclusive of nonbinary people.Across the nation, state constitutions presume officeholders are male, and they increasingly are outdated. This year, a record of 13 women were serving as governor before Noem stepped down to serve in President Donald Trumps Cabinet. In state legislatures, 2,469 women are serving, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.Most states havent modernized their constitutions to reflect the rise of women in politics. Among those that have are New Yorks, which became gender-neutral in 2001, and Vermonts, where voters approved a change from men to persons in 1994. An effort in Washington state to update the states constitution died in a legislative committee in 2023. In Connecticut, state Sen. Mae Flexer says shell make another run at revising the constitution in this years legislative session. Some states, like Nevada and California, have made changes within their legislatures to refer to lawmakers as assemblymembers instead of assemblymen or assemblywomen. Language matters, it conveys a message about values, it conveys a message about who belongs, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics. Noem began her 2023 State of the State address with a call to update the states constitution, which was created in 1889. The South Dakota state constitution requires the governor to begin each legislative session by giving the Legislature information concerning the affairs of the state and recommending the measures he considers necessary, Noem said. Notice I didnt say she. The constitution doesnt say she, and maybe we should fix that sometime. A few months later, Noem signed a bill to update male references to more gender-neutral language in state law, such as changing he shall deem to the Governor deems. But amending the states founding document requires voter approval and South Dakotans didnt go for it.The bills sponsor, Republican state Sen. Erin Tobin, saw it as a way to reflect the states progress in electing women and celebrating them. She said the amendment failed partly because of the word pronoun in the ballot question. It entangled the effort with the broader conservative sentiment that nonbinary is not a legitimate gender identity. Others cited a lack of campaigning for or against the measure and concerns over the financial cost of making a change. Although he and she are inherently inclusive of many transgender people who use those pronouns, Noem has a track record opposing gender transitions.Noem signed a bill in 2023 prohibiting gender-affirming care for youth and in 2022 signed a bill banning transgender girls and college-age women from playing in school sports leagues that match their gender identity. Noem resigned her office in late January to oversee the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Trump, who issued an executive order last month directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes male and female. Trump also signed an executive order Wednesday that intended to prohibit transgender athletes from participating in girls and womens sports.Trump emphasized his opposition to transgender rights in his 2024 presidential bid. Aligned political action committees spent tens of millions of dollars on anti-transgender attack ads. Had she been unfamiliar with the South Dakota measure, Tobin said she would have voted no based on how it read. The states attorney general writes the titles and explanations for constitutional amendments. Republican South Dakota state Rep. Brandei Schaefbauer was among those who encouraged voters to turn down the measure. Schaefbauer said she supports referring to officeholders as he or she but opposes gender-neutral references.That is one of my biggest oppositions to this, Schaefbauer said. We are male and female, and when this was gender-neutralized in the constitution, it was taking away the personhood and that is not how I live my life.Neil Fulton, dean of the University of South Dakota School of Law, said that masculine pronouns have long been understood to encompass all people and its usage in the state constitution reflects the drafting convention at the time. Certainly we know that the officeholder limits in South Dakota have never been interpreted to preclude female officeholders, said Fulton. Why? We have a female governor and weve had a variety of statewide female elected officials previously. And no ones ever challenged that, so it would not have worked substantive change. He said language use and convention evolve dramatically over time, and proponents argued those conventions are changing. The states legislative drafting manual discourages the use of male pronouns when referring to an individual or class of individuals. ___ The Associated Press women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. 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. SEJAL GOVINDARAO Govindarao covers Arizona government and politics for The Associated Press, with a focus on women in state government. She is based in Phoenix. twitter mailto

Philadelphia Eagles' Cooper DeJean walks off the field before the NFC Championship NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)2025-02-09T10:31:37Z PATNA, India (AP) At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed on Sunday in the deadliest combat so far this year in central India, police said.Hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers launched an operation in the forests of the Indravati area of Chhattisgarh state based on intelligence that large number of rebels had gathered there, said state police Inspector General Pattilingam Sundarraj.Sundarraj said as the troops conducted a search operation fighting erupted in the forest, killing at least 31 insurgents and two police officials. Two other police were injured . He said search operations were continuing in the area and the troops had recovered some arms and ammunition, including automatic rifles. There was no immediate statement from the rebels.Sundays fighting is the biggest so far this year and the second major clash in less than a month in Chhattisgarh, according to police officer Jitendra Yadav. At least 16 rebels were killed in the states Gariband district on Jan. 23. According to Indian officials, the government had issued a bounty for 12 of them totaling about $345,000. Eight rebels were killed in a gunbattle with troops in the Bijapur district on Jan. 31. Indian soldiers have been battling the Maoist rebels across several central and northern states since 1967, when the militants, also known as Naxalites, began fighting to demand more jobs, land and wealth from natural resources for the countrys poor indigenous communities. The insurgents are inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. Years of neglect have isolated many locals, who face a lack of jobs, schools and health care clinics, making them open to overtures by the rebels. The rebels speak the same tribal languages as many villagers and have promised to fight for a better future especially in Chhattisgarh, one of Indias poorest states despite its vast mineral riches.The rebels have ambushed police, destroyed government offices and abducted officials. Theyve also blown up train tracks, attacked prisons to free their comrades and stolen weapons from police and paramilitary warehouses to arm themselves. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson )2025-02-07T18:32:34Z NEW YORK (AP) You dont have to be an American football fan, or even an American for that matter, to have heard about the Super Bowl. For the NFL faithful, the event is a final push toward the end zone following a season-long drive down the gridiron, each yard filled with shot nerves and high blood pressure. But for those who are just joining for the final sprint (and didnt understand the metaphor in that last sentence), heres everything you need to know to get caught up to speed.Whos playing?Last years Super Bowl winners, the Kansas City Chiefs, will be playing against the Philadelphia Eagles.If a ChiefsEagles Super Bowl sounds familiar, thats because it is. Just two years ago, the two teams competed in Super Bowl 57, when quarterback Patrick Mahomes helped lead his team to victory. Whats all this chatter about a three-peat?This year, all eyes are on the Chiefs. Not just because Taylor Swifts boyfriend is on the team ( though it helps ) but because they have the chance to do something that no team has ever done before: win three straight Super Bowls.Can they do it? We shall see. Gamblers are split in the early wagering on the Super Bowl. Sports betting site BetMGM has the Chiefs as the favored winners with odds at -130. The underdog Eagles have their odds at +110. FILE- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, left, and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) shake hands following an NFL football game on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) FILE- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, left, and Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) shake hands following an NFL football game on Monday, Nov. 20, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards When is the game, and how can I watch it?At 6:30 p.m. EST on Sunday, Feb. 9, the two teams will face off at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. The game will air on Fox, but for those without cable, the network will stream the game on Tubi, a free, ad-supported streaming service, for the first time. Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Matthew Wright (49) kicks a 31-yard field goal as time expires in an NFL football game, Dec. 8, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File) Kansas City Chiefs place kicker Matthew Wright (49) kicks a 31-yard field goal as time expires in an NFL football game, Dec. 8, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More How does football work again? What are the rules?For all its ubiquity in the U.S., football is a surprisingly complicated sport. So lets stick with the basics and talk through some terms you might hear on the broadcast.There are two teams, and each one wants to score as many points as possible.When a team has the ball, they will attempt to either run or throw the football down the 100-yard-long field in hopes of getting it into the end zone, thus scoring a touchdown, which is worth 6 points (a successful extra point kick after the touchdown would make it 7). The other team will seek to stop their opponent by either tackling the player with the ball, knocking the ball to the ground or intercepting the ball. Teams have sets of offensive and defensive players. When a team has the ball, their offensive players take the field, pushing forward and protecting the player with the ball. The team without the ball has its defensive players take the field, attempting to stop their opponents from advancing. The team with the ball has four chances (called downs) to move 10 yards down the field. If they successfully advance 10 yards, the number of downs resets. If they fail, the ball must go to the other team.There are a lot more details and exceptions, but these fundamental rules should help get you through the game. Who are some key players to watch?Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, #26, helped lead the Birds to the Super Bowl and had an incredible season. He signed a $37.75 million, three-year contract last March and became the ninth player ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a regular season. He also set an NFL record by completing seven touchdown runs of at least 60 yards in the regular season and playoffs.Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, #1, had a great Super Bowl against the Chiefs two years ago, but he lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown in the first half of Kansas Citys 38-35 comeback victory. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More But that wont cut it this time, especially not in Philadelphia.As for the Chiefs, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, #15, or as his teammates and coaches call him, Laid-back Pat, is one of the greatest in the sport. He already has three Super Bowl rings and is chasing a fourth, and is a two-time league MVP who is shattering records every season. Travis Kelce, #87, has been ranked by AP as the NFLs top tight end two years in a row. Kelce is Mahomes most trusted pass catcher, so you can expect to hear the two players names mentioned in tandem a lot on Sunday. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson ) Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (15) participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson ) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Who are the coaches?Nick Sirianni took the helm for the Eagles in 2021, his first time serving as head coach. Hes worked to fill the shoes of coach Doug Pederson, who led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2017.Sirianni has the highest winning percentage among active NFL coaches and the fifth-best in NFL history. However, hes often ridiculed for his sideline antics that can overshadow his coaching success. Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, left, and quarterback Jalen Hurts celebrate after the Eagles won the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Philadelphia Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, left, and quarterback Jalen Hurts celebrate after the Eagles won the NFC Championship NFL football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More The Chiefs Andy Reid is an NFL stalwart whos guided the team for over a decade.Reid is no stranger to the Eagles himself. Before joining the Chiefs, he coached the Eagles for 13 seasons and was the most successful in the teams history. Go figure. FILE_ Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is doused after their win against the Philadelphia Eagles at the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) FILE_ Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is doused after their win against the Philadelphia Eagles at the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Despite leading opposing teams, Reid and Sirianni have something in common: At some point, Eagles fans wanted them both fired.What if football just isnt my thing? FILE - Taylor Swift stands on the field after an AFC Championship NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. Taylor Swift, who is holding concerts in Japan, will make it in time for the Super Bowl to see her partner and football superstar Travis Kelce play. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) FILE - Taylor Swift stands on the field after an AFC Championship NFL football game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024, in Baltimore. Taylor Swift, who is holding concerts in Japan, will make it in time for the Super Bowl to see her partner and football superstar Travis Kelce play. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More You dont have to keep your eye on the ball to enjoy the big game. Here are a few things to watch out for this year:1. Fun ads: Brands are paying big bucks to keep the nostalgia train rolling. Former When Harry Met Sally costars Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal will reunite for a mayonnaise commercial set in Katzs Deli, and Chrises Pratt and Hemsworth will use their bromance (last seen on screen in Avengers: Infinity War) to promote Metas smart Ray Ban sunglasses. 2. The halftime show: Seventeen-time Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar will perform at this years halftime show, continuing his cultural domination with another victory lap following the release of his chart-topping GNX album and decisive triumph over Canadian rapper Drake in last years rap beef.3. Taylor Swift: While its impossible to know where the superstar will be on any given day, its safe to assume shell be in New Orleans on Feb. 9 wearing red to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce.4. Betting on the game: If youre over 18 and in a state where its legal, you can become one of the many millions of Americans who bet on the big game. And if the game itself doesnt interest you, there are tons of other proposition bets that have nothing to do with football. They could be anything from what color the Gatorade will be when its dumped on the winning coach (a long-standing football tradition), to how long the national anthem run time will be and whether Kelce will propose to Swift at the end of the game. ( Yes, this is a real thing.) BRIDGET BROWN Brown is an editor for APs live blog coverage. She is also a digital video producer and editor. twitter mailto CURTIS YEE Yee is an Associated Press editor in Washington, D.C. mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, center, and teammates run the tush push play during the NFL championship playoff football game against the Washington Commanders, Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola, FIle)2025-02-08T19:24:19Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) They are two of the more delightful in Philadelphia and detestable to the rest of the league words that have escalated into the fast-evolving NFL lexicon.Tush push.No team has taken advantage of the rugby-style scrum deemed so unstoppable that the NFL had flirted with the idea of banning the play quite like the Eagles under coach Nick Sirianni and QB Jalen Hurts.Sirianni likes to say that every first down for the Eagles is first-and-9.No example summed up how much the tush push can be a pain in the butt to the opposition quite like when the Eagles used it to maddening perfection against Washington in the NFC championship game. The Commanders jumped offside four times in a sequence of five plays while trying to stop the tush push earning them a warning from the referee that he could award the Eagles a touchdown if the Commanders did it again. It sounded implausible but it was true, right there in Rule 12, Section 3, Article 2 of the leagues rule book. Titled Fouls To Prevent Score, it states, The defense shall not commit successive or repeated fouls to prevent a score. Further, the rule reads that if the violation is repeated after a warning, the score involved is awarded to the offensive team. Hurts, as he inevitably does, scored a touchdown. AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards Its a great concept, great play, hard to stop, Commanders linebacker Bobby Wagner said. If I was them, I would run it, too. Oh, they do, on repeat: The Eagles were successful on 28 of 34 tush push attempts this season, according to Next Gen Stats. Overall, Hurts converted 35 of 43 attempts this year on third- or fourth-and-1 from anywhere on field, plus any other runs from the 1-yard line.Thats the incredulous part teams know the tush push is coming, fans at Lincoln Financial Field go wild when the Eagles line up in TP formation and yet defenses still cant stop the score. Just dont tell Kansas City.The Chiefs, who have mastered the art of everything from the improbable comeback win to defying the odds and the injuries that seem insurmountable en route to a third straight Super Bowl, might have unlocked the cheat code on stopping the tush push.In the AFC title game, the Buffalo Bills converted only twice on six attempts with their tweaked version of the tush push. While the Eagles like to bunch together and push Hurts forward, the Bills and QB Josh Allen tend to lean left in their first-down attempts."(KC) put their big guys inside and their linebackers were coming downhill pretty hard, Allen said after the game. They played it well.Well enough to stop the Eagles?The Eagles fell short to Kansas City 38-35 when they played each other in the Super Bowl two years ago, but it wasnt because of the tush push. Hurts scored two touchdowns on the play against the Chiefs in the Super Bowl and threw for 304 yards and accounted for four total TDs and then used the play against the Chiefs in the 2023 season to score the winning touchdown.Chiefs defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, whose complicated defensive playbook and reliance on blitzes are a big reason why the team is back on the NFLs biggest stage, has had at least two weeks to devise a scheme to stop Hurts. I think the Eagles have perfected this thing over however many years its been and that offensive line, I think theyre built for it, Spagnuolo said. They could take that O-line and win some rugby tournaments. Theyre that big and physical and theyve really perfected the way they do it. I think its really tough to stop.Those teams that cant stop it start making excuses.Consider, Green Bay president and CEO Mark Murphy wrote on the teams website after the Packers were eliminated by the Eagles that the tush push is bad for the game.There is no skill involved and it is almost an automatic first down on plays of a yard or less, Murphy wrote. The series of plays with the Commanders jumping offsides in the NFC Championship Game to try to stop the play was ridiculous. ... I would like to see the league prohibit pushing or aiding the run. Ban the tush push?Sirianni can only scoff at critics who hate on the play.The success that we have is not always replicated around the entire league, Sirianni said. We saw it last week with the game plan were studying with Kansas City against Buffalo. Stopped them in a critical situation. I guess Im lobbying to never change that rule because were successful at it. Were successful at it because of the guys we have up front.The Eagles played to near push-perfection this season even after Cam Jurgens replaced the retired Jason Kelce at center. It helps having a quarterback who can squat the weight of about three Saquon Barkleys in Hurts and a stout offensive line that features Pro Bowl stars Landon Dickerson and Lane Johnson.Controversial or not, just maybe the Eagles can use the push to sneak away with a Super Bowl win.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl DAN GELSTON Gelston is an an Associated Press sports writer covering major college and pro sports in Philadelphia, including the 76ers, Flyers, Eagles, Phillies and Villanova. twitter mailto

People walk past the John Harvard statue on the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)2025-02-09T04:51:34Z As Republicans in Congress look for ways to slash spending, some legislators are floating new taxes on college scholarships, an end to student loan repayment plans and a big hike in taxes on university endowments. The ideas affecting higher education are among many in circulation among House committees that are exploring ways to cover the cost of extending and expanding tax cuts passed in President Donald Trumps first term. The recommendations are still evolving, and its unclear how close any of them will get to being implemented. Regardless, advocates across higher education say they are alarmed to see such proposals gain traction at all with Republicans. Its shocking to me because this amount of cuts is not happening in reaction to like a budget crisis, like a recession. This really feels different in the sense that it is not something that there is an external push or a need for. So, it feels more ideological in a way, said Jessica Thompson, a higher education policy expert with The Institute for College Access and Success.Here is a look at possible federal budget cuts that would affect higher education under the Trump administration: Cutting programs that help students pay off college debtThe U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce has suggested several possible ways to overhaul student loan programs. Some would reduce student access to federal aid for college. On the chopping block potentially are several plans students can opt into to repay their students loans, including the SAVE plan introduced by the Biden administration. That plan doesnt require borrowers to make payments if they earn less than 225% of the federal poverty line $32,800 a year for a single person and prevents interest from adding to balances as long as borrowers make their monthly payments. The SAVE plan was already put on hold after Republicans challenged it. Some plans do not appear to be targeted, including one that caps loan payments based on borrowers income level. Another possible change would give borrowers additional opportunities to recover from defaults. While they currently can rehabilitate their loans just once, allowing them to make a certain number of consecutive payments to get out of default, the proposal would allow them to go through that process twice. The committee projected the new process could save the government millions of dollars but did not spell out how. The timing is uncertain on when any of these proposals could surface. They could be considered as soon as this spring in a process known as budget reconciliation that would allow Republicans to squeeze proposals through Congress purely on party-line votes. That would not be easy in the House, where Republicans hold the majority by just a few seats.An end to tax-free status for scholarshipsScholarships and fellowships have been exempt from taxes as long as they are used for tuition and related expenses. That would change under another proposal thats up for consideration. The changes could create new financial burdens for students and families, advocates say. Theres been great progress in bringing down the costs of higher education. Adjusted for inflation, public university tuition is less now than it was ten years ago, said Craig Lindwarm, senior vice president of governmental affairs with the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. But as we look at some of the proposals that are options, many would increase costs on students and families, and I think (the proposals) are heading in the direction that most dont want to see, which is increasing expenses on students and families. Increasing taxes on college endowmentsThe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act currently requires some private nonprofit colleges and universities to pay a 1.4% tax on income from their endowments, which raised about $244 million from 58 institutions in 2022. The committee suggests increasing that to a 14% tax and expanding which colleges would have to pay it.Also being considered among hundreds of other ideas in circulation are fines for colleges and universities that violate students rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which protects against discrimination toward students of shared ancestry. Such investigations often have been resolved through settlements calling for training and policy updates. Title VI is currently what is being used to investigate complaints of antisemitism on college campuses across the U.S. ___Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. AP education writer Collin Binkley in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report. ___The Associated Press education 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. CHEYANNE MUMPHREY Mumphrey is a national writer who covers higher education. twitter mailto

Elon Musk speaks at an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)2025-02-09T13:40:45Z WASHINGTON (AP) Elon Musk made a clear promise after Donald Trump decided to put him in charge of making the government more efficient.Its not going to be some sort of backroom secret thing, Musk said last year. It will be as transparent as possible, maybe even streamed live online. It hasnt worked out that way so far.In the three weeks since the Republican president has been back in the White House, Musk has rapidly burrowed deep into federal agencies while avoiding public scrutiny of his work. He has not answered questions from journalists or attended any hearings with lawmakers. Staff members for his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, have sidelined career officials around Washington. It is a profound challenge not only to business-as-usual within the federal government, which Trump campaigned on disrupting, but to concepts of consensus and transparency that are foundational in a democratic system. Musk describes himself as White House tech support, and he has embedded himself in an unorthodox administration where there are no discernible limits on his influence. Donald K. Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Trump has allowed Musk to exert unprecedented power and authority over government systems with maximal secrecy and little-to-no accountability. The White House insisted that DOGE is extremely transparent and shared examples of its work so far, such as canceling contracts and ending leases for underused buildings. House Republicans said the Trump administration also discovered that Social Security benefits were being paid to a dozen people listed as 150 years old. Trump, Musk and their allies are betting the American people will support their efforts to wipe out excessive spending, regardless of concerns about how it is being done. The president said Friday that Musk is finding tremendous fraud and corruption and waste. Trump was particularly enthusiastic about efforts to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development, where Musk has worked to choke off funding. Asked if Musk should publicly answer questions about his work, the president said, Oh sure.Hes not shy, Trump said. Elons not shy.That is true, at least judging by Musks social media, where no thought appears to be suppressed. His X account is a flood of internet memes, attacks on critics and professions of loyalty to the president. He has made clear the grand scope of his ambitions, talking in existential terms about the need to reverse the federal deficit, cut government spending and roll back progressive programs. This administration has one chance for major reform that may never come again, he posted on Saturday. Its now or never.Musk is used to doing things his own way. The worlds richest person, he became wealthy with the online payment service PayPal, then founded the electric car manufacturer Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX. More recently, he bought Twitter and rebranded it as X, cutting jobs and remaking its culture. He seems to be taking a similar approach to the federal government, but he can be tightlipped about his plans. For example, he has not explained how his team will utilize access to payment systems that include sensitive data on people in the United States.Much of DOGEs work is happening behind the scenes. Team members have shown up at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Treasury Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, among other agencies. Their arrival is never publicly announced, and career staff members are looking over their shoulders for unfamiliar faces in the hallways.At the Education Department, DOGE employees are working out of a conference room on the seventh floor, which also houses the secretarys office. Sheria Smith, president of a federal employees union that represents some of the agencys staff, said it is unclear what internal systems have been accessed by Musks team and for what reason. Its the lack of transparency thats alarming, she said. While longtime staff members fret about their future, DOGE workers have been spotted cheerfully trading high-fives with each other.They dont seem to answer to anyone and are not engaging with anyone in our agency, Smith said. Sometimes a rumor circulates that Musk himself is making the rounds. But he generally has been at the White House complex, where he has an office.David Sacks, a Musk ally working on artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency issues for the administration, said he stopped by to check on the DOGE team.The whole room was full of young coders, he said during The All-In Podcast, which Sacks hosts with three other venture capitalists. The facilities people dont know what to do because theyve never had people ask to stay late on Friday night before. Journalists have been piecing together the identities of people who work for DOGE, discovering a cadre of young acolytes with technology and engineering backgrounds. Some were previously employed by Musks companies, and Musk has said it is a crime to reveal their names. He has not cited any law that would be broken by such a disclosure.It does not appear to be an idle threat. Ed Martin, the Trump-appointed interim U.S. attorney in the nations capital, said last week that we will pursue any and all legal action against anyone who impedes your work or threatens your people.Martin followed up on Friday to thank Musk for referring suspects who were stealing government property and/or threatening government employees. No additional information was provided by Martins office or the White House.Energy Secretary Chris Wright defended DOGEs work, saying in a CNBC interview Friday that members of Musks team were like young gun management consultants coming in to take a critical look at how things are run.Theyre part of a team assembled by DOGE, friends in Elons broader circle that are very good at IT and very good at systems, Wright said. It took more than two weeks after Trumps inauguration on Jan. 20 to figure out that Musk had formally joined the administration as a special government employee. The White House said Musk will file a financial disclosure report, but it will be kept secret. Because of Musks sprawling business interests, the report would likely be among the most extensive ever compiled.Its unclear whether Musk swore an oath to the Constitution like other federal workers. Even though Trump promised that Musk would steer clear of any areas where he has a conflict of interest, no details have been provided on how that is being evaluated. A test of that arrangement could come soon, with Musk set to review spending at the Pentagon, where SpaceX has billions of dollars in contracts to put satellites in orbit.Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee tried to issue a subpoena to force Musk to testify, but the effort was blocked by Republicans.Who is this unelected billionaire, that he can attempt to dismantle federal agencies, fire people, transfer them, offer them early retirement, and have sweeping reform or changes to agencies without any congressional review, oversight, or concurrence? said Rep. Gerald Connolly of Virginia, the committees top Democrat.House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Republicans were doing the bidding of an unelected, out of control, billionaire puppet master.Trump said he was still in charge of Musk, saying Ill tell him to go here, go there, he does it.He also backed Musks aggressive approach.We have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption, he said. Contacting The Associated PressThe Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual, nonpartisan journalism. We are reporting on changes within the U.S. government under the new administration. If you are a former or current government worker who would like to share information with us, please message us on Signal at TheAP.1846 ___Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report. CHRIS MEGERIAN Megerian covers the White House for The Associated Press. He previously wrote about the Russia investigation, climate change, law enforcement and politics in California and New Jersey. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

This image provided by Coors Light shows the Coors Light 2025 Super Bowl NFL football spot. (Coors Light via AP)2025-02-09T15:22:38Z Most of the commercials airing during this years Super Bowl are going for laughs, with advertisers betting that America could use a brief diversion.As the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs hit the field in New Orleans, a parade of silly ads will hit airwaves on Sunday. Many companies put their ads online ahead of the game, but some held out to maintain an element of surprise. Humor dominates in the ads released so far. Four old ladies go on a joy ride with WeatherTech, while Eugene Levys eyebrows fly off and buzz around after he eats some Little Caesars. Sloths have a case of the Mondays in an ad for Coors Light. A mans tongue starts dancing to celebrate cold foam from Nestl Coffee Mate. British singer Seal becomes an actual seal, sad that he cant hold Mountain Dew with his flippers.Actor Glenn Powell does a take on Goldilocks for Ram Trucks, while comedian Nate Bargatze clones himself and hires an opera singer because he saved so much money using DoorDash. Shaboozey takes a lighthearted stroll through New Orleans for Nerds, while the stars of the Fast and Furious franchise take a slow cruise in a convertible so they can enjoy Hagen-Dazs ice cream bars. Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern Universitys Kellogg School of Management, said this was a complicated Super Bowl for advertisers. Most ads were in development during last falls U.S. presidential election race, so avoiding controversy was even more of a priority than usual, Calkins said. The finalized crop of commercials feature a lot of simple humor, nostalgia and few creative risks, he said. But even that approach can backfire.Thats the challenge this year. Everybody wants to be safe, but you also want to be interesting, Calkins said. Safe advertising isnt the advertising you notice or remember. AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards And advertisers cant afford not to be noticed. Some of the roughly 80 Super Bowl ads spots cost a record $8 million for 30 seconds this year. Here are some of the themes of this years Super Bowl ads:Heartwarming nostalgia Budweiser brings back its Clydesdales for its Super Bowl ad, including a foal that wants to join the delivery team. Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal reenact their famous scene from 1989s When Harry Met Sally, except this time Sally is expressing her enthusiasm for Hellmanns mayonnaise. The Muppets search for accommodations with Booking.com, while an Instacart ad features a parade of familiar mascots like Mr. Clean, the Jolly Green Giant and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Disney asks what the world would be like without the iconic characters it owns, like Elsa from Frozen, Bart Simpson and the Marvel superheroes. Advertisers are leaning on nostalgia more than they used to in Super Bowl ads, according to Kimberly Whitler, a marketing professor at the University of Virginias Darden School of Business. Nods to the past can broaden the appeal of an ad to different generations and connect products to positive cultural moments, she said. Celebrity mash-upsPutting celebrities together in unexpected combinations can also broaden the appeal of a commercial. In their Super Bowl ad for Michelob Ultra, Catherine OHara and Willem Dafoe are pickleball champs. Soccer star David Beckham and actor Matt Damon are long-lost twins who bond over Stella Artois. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and comedian Pete Davidson team up for a HexClad commercial, while Post Malone, Shane Gillis and Peyton Manning have a block party with Bud Light. A slew of celebrities, including Matthew McConaughey, Martha Stewart, Greta Gerwig and Charlie XCX, appear in an ad for Uber Eats. Linli Xu, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Management, said celebrity endorsements can get people talking. But with dozens of brands using them, theres a risk of diminishing returns.Celebrities can also get so much attention that viewers dont remember which brand theyre advertising, Xu said.There is a balancing act in terms of having celebrities in the ads, she said. Serious momentsIt isnt all fun and games at the Super Bowl this year. Pharmaceutical company Novartis urges women to get early detection for breast cancer. Dove warns that half of girls who quit sports have been criticized for their body type. Hims & Hers, a telehealth company, talks about Americas obesity epidemic. And the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, founded by New England Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, has a stark ad featuring Snoop Dogg and Tom Brady saying what they hate about each other. Xu said she expected more ads promoting that unifying message. But for the most part, advertisers went with humor, she said.We just had an election year and theres a lot of discussion around divisiveness, she said. People might be wanting to see some unity, everybody coming together as a country.Artificial intelligence arrivesSeveral Super Bowl ads make the case for AI as a helpmate. Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth and Kris Jenner team up for an ad wearing Meta s smart glasses, which use artificial intelligence to answer questions about what wearers are seeing. Actor Walton Goggins pitches GoDaddy Airo, which uses AI to help build websites and social content. And Googles 50 States, 50 Stories campaign will show viewers a small business from their state thats using Googles Gemini AI assistant. But Cirkul, a water bottle brand, pokes fun at AI, showing comedian Adam Devine accidentally ordering 100,000 bottles using the AI assistant on his phone. DEE-ANN DURBIN Durbin is an Associated Press business writer focusing on the food and beverage industry. She has also covered the auto industry and state and national politics in her nearly 30-year career with the AP. twitter mailto 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 WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS Grantham-Philips is a business reporter who covers trending news for The Associated Press. She is based in New York. twitter mailto

A recipe for shrimp po'boy sandwiches appears in New York on May 19, 2022. (Cheyenne Cohen via AP)2025-02-03T13:50:45Z If youre throwing a watch party for Super Bowl LIX, you couldnt ask for a better backdrop and inspiration than the games host city, New Orleans.The town is known for enticements, from its music scene to Mardi Gras to distinctive architecture and, ya know, food. There are plenty of traditional Cajun or Creole recipes, like gumbo, jambalaya, red beans and rice, etouffee, muffaletta, beignets. But Im going to go with the classic Shrimp PoBoy.A century-old origin storyPoboys were invented in New Orleans during a streetcar strike in 1929. The story goes that two brothers, Benny and Clovis Martin, former streetcar workers who had opened a coffee stand, began feeding striking colleagues with big sandwiches stuffed into half loaves of bread. One of the brothers, its said, would drawl here comes another poor boy each time someone approached for a sandwich, but it sounded more like poboy. And the name stuck. What makes poboys different?The key thing about poboys is the bread. It is the foundation, and it is the thing that differentiates a poboy from a hoagie, a hero, a sub or any other kind of sandwich, says Ian McNulty, food writer for the news site NOLA.com.Its the bread that in New Orleans we call French bread, but which is not even remotely like a baguette, he continues. It has a crackling crisp, very thin exterior crust and an airy, malty interior (achieved through fermentation). This combination of crisp to puffy textures makes the bed that both cradles all the fillings and stands up to them. The two main suppliers of New Orleans French bread, McNulty says, are Leidenheimer Baking Co. and the much smaller John Gendusa Bakery. Someone attempting to make a po boy outside of New Orleans should try to find bread that matches those characteristics.In a pinch, you can use a baguette instead, or an Italian loaf, but maybe dont tell Ian I told you that was OK.Once you have the right bread, decide if you want it dressed, and how. Fully dressed means shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced pickles and mayonnaise. Any combination of those is still dressed.For the filling, roast beef and fried oysters are popular poboy options, but here I went with plump, crispy, fresh-from-the-pan fried shrimp. Buy shrimp that are not too large nor too small, like 31-40 per pound shrimp. McNulty advises that the best fried shrimp will fall out the side of the sandwich and constitute their own little side dish to munch outside it.The key as always with shrimp is to avoid overcooking, he says. When you start to wonder if they might be done, they already are. You want a golden crust but you want that fresh pop of the shrimp within.McNultys favorite local places for po boys are Parkway Bakery & Tavern, in the heart of the city, and Domilises, a small neighborhood shop.My recipe:___Shrimp PoBoyServes 4Ingredients: 1 loaf New Orleans French Bread, or French or Italian bread1 pound medium (31/40 per pound) shrimp cup all-purpose flour cup cornmeal2 teaspoons kosher salt, pus more to taste1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper teaspoon paprika teaspoon garlic powder teaspoon cayenne pepper1 large egg cup milkVegetable oil for fryingTo Dress the PoBoys:Remoulade sauce or mayonnaiseShredded romaine or iceberg lettuceSliced picklesSliced tomatoesDirections:Slice the bread in half horizontally, then slice the loaf into 2 to 4 sections, depending on how big you want each sandwich to be. Scoop out some of the fluffy bread from the middle if you wish; thats a personal choice (but common in the po boy world of New Orleans).Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and cayenne pepper in a shallow bowl. Mix the egg with the milk in another bowl and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet.A few at a time, dunk the shrimp in the milk mixture, turning them to coat. Using a slotted spoon or your hand, remove the shrimp, allow any excess liquid to drip back into the bowl, then dredge them in the flour mixture, making sure they are well coated. Use one hand for the wet ingredients and another for the dry to keep everything from getting clumpy and messy. As the shrimp are breaded, place them, without touching each other, on the wire rack. When all of the shrimp are coated, place the baking sheet into the fridge and let the shrimp chill for 15 minutes.Line a large plate with paper towels. Pour the oil to a depth of 1 inch into a large, heavy, deep skillet. Heat the oil over medium high heat to 365F. (Tip: If you dont have a candy thermometer, just wait until the oil is shimmering, then add one shrimp. If it starts to gently sizzle and turn golden brown after about 2 minutes, your oil is the perfect temperature.)In a few batches, add the shrimp, turning them with a slotted spoon as they cook. They should fry for about 2 to 3 minutes total, and become golden brown and crispy. Remove them with a slotted spoon to the paper-towel-lined plate. See if they need another light sprinkle of kosher salt. Continue frying until all of the shrimp are cooked and crispy. (Tip: You may need to allow the oil to come back up to temperature in between batches of shrimp. Adding too many shrimp at once will lower the temperature of the oil, and the shrimp wont get nicely browned and crunchy.)Spread some remoulade or mayo on the toasted bread. Add shredded lettuce to the bottom piece, then pile on the warm shrimp, tomatoes and pickles. Add a bit more sauce and lettuce if you like, and then top with the other piece of bread. Serve immediately.___Katie Workman writes regularly about food for The Associated Press. She has written two cookbooks focused on family-friendly cooking, Dinner Solved! and The Mom 100 Cookbook. She blogs at https://themom100.com/. She can be reached at [emailprotected].___For more AP food stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/recipes. For more Thanksgiving stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/thanksgiving, and for more holiday stories go to https://apnews.com/hub/holidays.

In this undated photo provided by the NFL, New Orleans artist Tahj 'Queen Tahj' Williams works on the Super Bowl logo. (NFL Via AP)2025-02-05T21:06:14Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) Artist Tahj Queen Tahj Williams rarely cruises through downtown New Orleans, but recently she did, finding one of her creations on full display: The Super Bowl logo and theme art she meticulously stitched in her sewing room now stretched across buildings near t he Caesars Superdome.In that moment, it all sunk in. Williams design, a tribute to Black Masking culture, wouldnt just be a local spectacle. Her artwork would be seen all over the world.As visitors gather in New Orleans this week and millions tune into the Super Bowl on Sunday, Williams will be celebrating her artistry and culture. I come from a great and beautiful culture, and I want the world to see it the same way as I do, said Williams, 26, who is the first person to handcraft both the Super Bowl logo and theme art. Her intricate beadwork reflects the spirit of her city, celebrating Black Masking culture, which Williams uncle introduced to her as a child. In this undated photo provided by the NFL, New Orleans artist Tahj Queen Tahj Williams works on the Super Bowl logo. (NFL Via AP) In this undated photo provided by the NFL, New Orleans artist Tahj Queen Tahj Williams works on the Super Bowl logo. (NFL Via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Williams theme art and logo will be featured almost everywhere such as digital game tickets, the official program cover, the team jerseys for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, the game ball and the exterior of a hotel in New Orleans. Black Masking Culture, which was rooted in the 1800s, blends African and Native American heritage. The elaborate, hand-sewn suits adorned with intricate beadwork and feathers are highlighted with bold and colorful designs to pay homage to their ancestral influence. AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards The New Orleans natives designs feature bold pinks, deep reds, chartreuses and lush greens, blending traditional elements with modern creativity in her hand-sewn beadwork. Her concept for the logo comes from the Black Masking Indian suits she creates for Mardi Gras. In this undated photo provided by the NFL, shows the Super Bowl logo created by New Orleans artist Tahj Queen Tahj Williams. (NFL Via AP) In this undated photo provided by the NFL, shows the Super Bowl logo created by New Orleans artist Tahj Queen Tahj Williams. (NFL Via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More The suits, often created over a year of meticulous hand-sewing and beadwork, are a central part of Mardi Gras, St. Josephs Night and Super Sunday celebrations. I always try to do some kind of bright colors because bright colors speak to me, said Williams, a member of the Golden Eagles Mardi Gras Tribe. Shes also a master in the intricate art of Black Masking suit design, a tradition deeply rooted in the Indigenous and African heritage of New Orleans. They remind me of the happiest times in my life, she said. The design itself comes from New Orleans deep-rooted architecture. The historical parts of the city. Were known for food, the second-line band, you see the French Quarter.Williams Super Bowl journey began when an NFL representative reached out to her through social media in February 2024. She spent about a month on the beadwork, describing the process as nothing short of peaceful. AP @ the Super Bowl What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards For Williams, creativity is the perfect escape from her day job as a cybersecurity engineer at Microsoft. Her beadwork was a step-by-step process, focusing on the Super Bowls Roman numbers of LIX (59) first, then fleshing out the rest.I dont really look at this as a chore. Depends on your mindset, she said. I dont look at the full piece that Im trying to bead. We call it a patch. Ill start with the L. Then Ill do the I before the X. Ill work on the trophy then the wording. I dont look at the whole thing because Ill get discouraged. You need to do it in a way where you can see progress. The NFL said Williams work honors the cultural roots of New Orleans, calling her the perfect artist. As a local artist, Williams knows plenty of talented individuals who may not have the same marketability as those with larger audiences. She hopes more major organizations, like the NFL, will recognize and provide opportunities to proven local talent.Its about continuing on this pattern of local artists, small artists getting these big opportunities, she said. When you have a little bit more followers, its easier for these big organizations with these amazing opportunities to find you. I just want these bigger organizations to try their hardest to find those smaller artists that still make beautiful, amazing work, but just may not have the kind of marketing behind them that a larger artist would. Williams, who was the captain of her middle school football team, said shell be attending a Super Bowl for the first time. She wants to keep certain memorabilia like a jacket filled with lapel pins, a game ticket and a Bud Light sign that lights up, even though shes not a beer drinker.As the big game draws closer, Williams grows more excited. The culture and artistry will be on display for the Super Bowl, she said. Im looking forward to it.___For more on the Super Bowl, visit https://apnews.com/hub/super-bowl JONATHAN LANDRUM JR. Landrum is an entertainment reporter based in Los Angeles. He reports on television, film and music for The Associated Press. twitter instagram mailto

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin walk together at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)2025-02-08T06:43:40Z Nearly three years after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, his troops are making steady progress on the battlefield. Kyiv is grappling with shortages of men and weapons. And the new U.S. president could soon halt Ukraines massive supply of military aid. Putin is closer than ever to achieving his objectives in the battle-weary country, with little incentive to come to the negotiating table, no matter how much U.S. President Donald Trump might cajole or threaten him, according to Russian and Western experts interviewed by The Associated Press.Both are signaling discussions on Ukraine - by phone or in person - using flattery and threats. Putin said Trump was clever and pragmatic, and even parroted his false claims of having won the 2020 election. Trumps opening gambit was to call Putin smart and to threaten Russia with tariffs and oil price cuts, which the Kremlin brushed off. Trump boasted during the campaign he could end the war in 24 hours, which later became six months. Hes indicated the U.S. is talking to Russia about Ukraine without Kyivs input, saying his administration already had very serious discussions. He suggested he and Putin could soon take significant action toward ending the war, in which Russia is suffering heavy casualties daily while its economy endures stiff Western sanctions, inflation and a serious labor shortage. But the economy has not collapsed, and because Putin has unleashed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, he faces no domestic pressure to end the war.In the West, the idea came from somewhere that its important to Putin to reach an agreement and end things. This is not the case, said Fyodor Lukyanov, who hosted a forum with Putin in November and heads Moscows Council for Foreign and Defense policies. Talks on Ukraine without UkraineUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Putin wants to deal directly with Trump, cutting out Kyiv. That runs counter to the Biden administrations position that echoed Zelenskyys call of Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.We cannot let someone decide something for us, Zelenskyy told AP, saying Russia wants the destruction of Ukrainian freedom and independence.He suggested any such peace deal would send the dangerous signal that adventurism pays to authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran.Putin appears to expect Trump to undermine European resolve on Ukraine. Likening Europes leaders to Trumps lapdogs, he said Sunday they will soon be sitting obediently at their masters feet and sweetly wagging their tails as the U.S. president quickly brings order with his character and persistence.Trump boasts of his deal-making prowess but Putin will not easily surrender what he considers Russias ancestral lands in Ukraine or squander a chance to punish the West and undermine its alliances and security by forcing Kyiv into a policy of neutrality.Trump may want a legacy as a peacemaker, but history wont look kindly on him if hes the man who gives this all away, said Sir Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the U.S. from 2016-19. Former NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said a deal favoring Moscow would send a message of American weakness. Echoes of HelsinkiTrump and Putin last met in Helsinki in 2018 when there was mutual respect between them, said former Finnish President Sauli Niinist, the summit host. But they are not very similar, he added, with Putin a systematic thinker while Trump acts like a businessman making prompt decisions.That could cause a clash because Trump wants a quick resolution to the war while Putin seeks a slower one that strengthens his military position and weakens both Kyiv and the Wests political will.Zelenskyy told AP that Putin does not want to negotiate. He will sabotage it. Indeed, Putin has already raised obstacles, including legal hurdles and claimed Zelenskyy has lost his legitimacy as president.Putin hopes Trump will get bored or distracted with another issue, said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat in Geneva who quit his post after the invasion. Russian experts point to Trumps first term when they said Putin realized such meetings achieved little.One was a public relations victory for Moscow in Helsinki where Trump sided with Putin instead of his own intelligence agencies on whether Russia meddled in the 2016 election. Another was in Singapore in 2018 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he failed to reach a deal to halt Pyongyangs nuclear program. Previous peace talksThe Kremlin last year said a draft peace agreement that Russia and Ukraine negotiated in Istanbul early in the conflict but which Kyiv rejected could be the basis for talks. It demanded Ukraines neutrality, stipulated NATO deny it membership, put limits on Kyivs armed forces and delayed talks on the status of four Russian-occupied regions that Moscow later annexed illegally. Moscow also dismissed demands to withdraw its troops, pay compensation to Ukraine and face an international tribunal for its action. Putin hasnt indicated he will budge but said if there is a desire to negotiate and find a compromise solution, let anyone conduct these negotiations.Engagement is not the same as negotiation, said Sir Laurie Bristow, British ambassador to Russia from 2016-20, describing Russias strategy as whats mine is mine. And whats yours is up for negotiation.Bondarev also said Putin sees negotiations only as a vehicle to deliver him whatever he wants, adding its astonishing that Western leaders still dont understand Kremlin tactics.That means Putin is likely to welcome any meeting with Trump, since it promotes Russia as a global force and plays well domestically, but he will offer little in return.What Trump can and cant doTrump said Zelenskyy should have made a deal with Putin to avoid war, adding he wouldnt have allowed the conflict to start if he had been in office.Trump has threatened Russia with more tariffs, sanctions and oil price cuts, but there is no economic wonder weapon that can end the war, said Richard Connolly, a Russian military and economic expert at Londons Royal United Services Institute.And the Kremlin is brushing off the threats, likely because the West already has heavily sanctioned Russia.Trump also cant guarantee Ukraine would never join NATO, nor can he lift all Western sanctions, easily force Europe to resume importing Russian energy or get the International Criminal Court to rescind its war crimes arrest warrant for Putin.Speaking to the Davos World Economic Forum, Trump said he wants the OPEC+ alliance and Saudi Arabia to cut oil prices to push Putin to end the war. The Kremlin said that wont work because the war is about Russian security, not the price of oil. It also would harm U.S. oil producers.In the tradeoff between Putin and domestic oil producers, Im pretty sure which choice Trump will make, said Alexandra Prokopenko, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.Trump could pressure Russia by propping up the U.S. oil industry with subsidies and lift the 10% trade tariffs imposed on China in exchange for Beijing limiting economic ties with Moscow, which could leave it truly isolated, Connolly said. Europe also could underscore its commitment to Kyiv and curry favor with Trump by buying U.S. military equipment to give to Ukraine, said Lord Peter Ricketts, a former U.K. national security adviser.Lukyanov suggested that Trumps allies often seem afraid of him and crumble under his threats.The big question, he said, is what will happen when Putin wont.This story has been updated to correct that the summit with North Korea in Singapore was in 2018, not 2019. EMMA BURROWS Burrows is an Associated Press reporter covering Russia, Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus. She is based in London. twitter RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Russell Vought, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Director, Office of Management and Budget, is sworn-in during a Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing for his pending confirmation on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2025-02-09T16:08:36Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration has ordered the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop nearly all its work, effectively shutting down an agency that was created to protect consumers after the 2008 financial crisis and subprime mortgage-lending scandal.Russell Vought, the newly installed director of the Office of Management and Budget, directed the CFPB in a Saturday night email to stop work on proposed rules, to suspend the effective dates on any rules that were finalized but not yet effective, and to stop investigative work and not begin any new investigations. The agency has been a target of conservatives since President Barack Obama pushed to include it in the 2010 financial reform legislation that followed the 2007-2008 financial crisis.The email also ordered the bureau to cease all supervision and examination activity. Also late Saturday, Vought said in a social media post that the CFPB would no longer withdraw funds from the Federal Reserve, adding that its current financing of $711.6 million is excessive. Congress directed the bureau to be funded by the Fed to insulate it from political pressures. The CFPB says that it has obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers since its founding in the form of canceled debts, compensation, and reduced loans. Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, an advocacy group, said, thats why Wall Streets biggest banks and Trumps billionaire allies hate the bureau: its an effective cop on the finance beat and has stood side-by-side with hundreds of millions of Americans Republicans and Democrats battling financial predators, scammers, and crooks. The administrations move against the CFPB highlights the tensions between Trumps more populist promises to lower costs for working-class families and his pledge to reduce government regulation. During the campaign, Trump said he would cap credit card interest rates at 10%, after they had soared to record levels above 20%, on average, as the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates in 2022 and 2023. The CFPB had started work on how that proposal would be implemented. Voughts email follows a similar directive from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Feb. 3 and is the latest move by the Trump administration to rapidly curtail the work of federal agencies that they have deemed excessive. Vought suggested that the CFPB is unaccountable in his social media post. Contacting The Associated PressThe Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual, nonpartisan journalism. We are reporting on changes within the U.S. government under the new administration. If you are a former or current government worker who would like to share information with us, please message us on Signal at TheAP.1846 Obama created the bureau in the wake of the 2007-2008 housing bubble and financial crisis, which was caused in part by fraudulent mortgage lending. It was the brainchild of Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and has attracted criticism and lawsuits from large banks and financial industry trade associations. Voughts email said that President Donald Trump had made him acting director of the CFPB on Friday. Trump fired the previous director of the bureau, Rohit Chopra, on Feb. 1.Under Chopra, the CFPB approved rules to cap overdraft fees by banks, limit junk fees, and has proposed restrictions on data brokers selling personal information such as Social Security numbers. The agency had also sought to address complaints about the alleged debanking of crypto firms and conservatives by seeking to ban contracts that could cause someone to lose access to financial services for making political statements. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

This image released by Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery shows animal expert Victoria Schade interacting with dogs on the set of "Puppy Bowl XXI," airing Sunday. (Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery via AP)2025-02-05T16:06:27Z NEW YORK (AP) If you tune into the Puppy Bowl on Sunday, youll likely see a key persons influence even if you dont actually see her.Victoria Schade is a dog trainer and novelist whos the shows lead puppy trainer and wrangler. Shes the one making sure the shelter pups have a conflict-free contest and that theyre captured at their most adorable all from off-camera.It is Schade who gets the puppies to look up during the The Star-Spangled Banner or run through a tunnel to get to the field for the starting lineups. Shes on the lookout for possible conflicts or nervous dogs.My responsibilities include ensuring puppy happiness and safety during gameplay, she says. So if theres any moment where a puppy looks like theyre overwhelmed or they just need a break, Ill step out and give them a little break on the sideline. Animal expert Victoria Schade interacting with dogs on the set of Puppy Bowl XXI, airing Sunday. (Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery via AP) Animal expert Victoria Schade interacting with dogs on the set of Puppy Bowl XXI, airing Sunday. (Animal Planet/Warner Bros. Discovery via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Schade has been working with the doggies on the Animal Planet show for 19 years and is believed to be the longest serving member of the Puppy Bowl crew. She also works the kitten halftime show and calls filming both her favorite week of the year.I think she is one of the most dedicated, hardest working people out there in the business, says Puppy Bowl referee Dan Schachner, now in his 14th year. She doesnt ever seem to run out of energy. She never says no to a request and theres always brightness and sunshine from her with every step.Schade has coached hundreds of dogs over the years but never adopted one from the show until now. She took home Boris known on the show as Mr. Pickles from Dallas Dog rescue. I saw star quality. So this was the year, she says. Treats and funny noisesEarly on, Schade was responsible for recruiting and selecting the puppies, a task now that leans on animal rescue groups and shelters throughout the country. These days, shes the lead trainer.If youre seeing the puppy looking up at the camera, Im typically right there with the treat, she says. Its a lot of treats and funny noises. And that does the trick.This year, Schade is stepping out from the sidelines and joining Schachner on camera for an hour-long pre-game kickoff show, which features a doggie combine and a draft. Other show highlights include segments with Dan Smyers, from superstar country duo Dan + Shay, and Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi.Schade has developed some very special animal-related skills over the years, including anticipating when one of the players needs to relieve itself.One of my Puppy Bowl skills is reading butts. So I know when a puppy is going to go to the bathroom and Ill typically say like, Watch out in the 20-yard-line, were going to have a deposit and everyones ready to go with that cleanup.The Puppy Bowl made its debut as counter-programming to the Super Bowl in 2005. Dogs score touchdowns on a gridiron carpet when they cross the goal line any goal line with a toy in their mouth.The show is really just an excuse to spend time watching adorable, clumsy pups play with chew toys, wag their tails furiously and lick the camera. A deeper reason is to encourage animal adoption. According to the ASPCA, approximately 390,000 shelter dogs are euthanized each year and 2 million shelter dogs are adopted.Most of the puppies are usually adopted by airtime, since the show was filmed in the fall. But the point is to show that animals just like the ones on the show can be found at any shelter at any time.This years three-hour television event this year will feature 142 rescue puppies from 80 shelters across 40 states and one from Nicaragua, a Chihuahua-German shepherd. There will be 11 special needs dogs.Thats the most amount weve ever had, says Schachner. Look out for Jolene, who is a pitbull mix thats in a wheelchair. Look out for a three-legged Boston terrier from New York City. And my personal favorite, is Sprinkle, who is a blind and deaf Aussie. So its just incredible to watch them play.The inaugural Puppy Bowl was watched by nearly 6 million viewers. Last year, 12.6 million viewers tuned in. In comparison, this years Golden Globes attracted 9.3 million. Practical advice for raising puppiesSchade, whose first book was Bonding With Your Dog and who then pivoted to writing pet-oriented novels, like Life on the Leash and Dog Friendly, is a wealth of information about our four-legged friends.She advises dog owners to learn to read the body language of their pet, to try to understand what theyre trying to say. Like tail-wagging how tight? And where is the tail positioned?Schade is a big advocate for positive reinforcement and science-based training, not the so-called alpha dog approach, which uses intimidation or force.Theres no need to be the alpha, which has been debunked anyway. You are your dogs ally. Youre their friend. Youre their No. 1. And its a relationship based in compassion and understanding. That means load up on treats. She advocates keeping them in your pocket and consistently using them as rewards for good behavior, especially when potty training.I cannot stress it enough: When you think youre treating enough, treat more because, especially during puppyhood, it is such a critical learning period and every interaction is a chance to teach something. MARK KENNEDY Kennedy is a theater, TV, music, food and obit writer and editor for The Associated Press, as well as a critic for theater, movies and music. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto

President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York before his return to the White House. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)2025-02-09T17:54:28Z President Donald Trumps national security adviser said Sunday that top administration officials will meet with European officials this week about how to end the war in Ukraine, nearly three years after Russia launched an all-out invasion.Less than a day earlier, the New York Post reported that Trump had a phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to discuss steps toward a negotiated solution. There was no immediate confirmation from the White House or the Kremlin. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz declined to comment in a television interview.Waltz said the Russian economy is not doing well and that Trump is prepared to tax, to tariff, to sanction Moscow to get Putin to the negotiating table.But Waltz also underscored the Trump administration is looking to use this weeks engagements to begin talks on clawing back some of the United States assistance to Ukraine. He said European allies will also need to take a greater role in supporting Ukraine going forward. We need to recoup those costs and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in terms of their natural resources and their oil and gas and also buying ours, Waltz said in an appearance on NBCs Meet the Press. Those conversations are going to happen this week. And I think an underlying principle here is that the Europeans have to own this conflict going forward. President Trump is going to end it. And then in terms of security guarantees, that is squarely going to be with the Europeans. Vice President JD Vance will be in Paris on Monday for an artificial intelligence summit thats gathering government officials and will head later in the week to the Munich Security Conference, where Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will lead the battle-weary countrys delegation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trumps special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, will also be in Munich. On Wednesday, Hegseth will join the main international forum for drumming up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine. Hes set to participate in a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels the following day.The U.K. is convening the 26th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations, on Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels. It was not immediately clear whether the U.K. convened the meeting on its own initiative or whether Washington requested it. Kyiv under pressure as Russian troops advance and Trump floats talks with PutinPutin is closer than ever to achieving his objectives in battle-weary Ukraine, with little incentive to come to the negotiating table, no matter how much Trump might cajole or threaten him, according to Russian and Western experts interviewed by The Associated Press.Putin has previously said Trump was clever and pragmatic, and even parroted his false claims of having won the 2020 election. Trumps opening gambit was to call Putin smart and to threaten Russia with tariffs and oil price cuts, which the Kremlin brushed off.Trump boasted during the presidential election campaign that he could end the war in 24 hours, which later became six months. Hes indicated the U.S. is talking to Russia about Ukraine without Kyivs input, saying his administration already had very serious discussions. That would run counter to the Biden administrations position that echoed Zelenskyys call of Nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader has suggested any peace deal reached without Kyivs input would send the dangerous signal that adventurism pays to authoritarian leaders in China, North Korea and Iran.Meanwhile, Trump has hinted he and Putin could soon take significant action toward ending the war, in which Russia is suffering heavy casualties daily while its economy endures stiff Western sanctions, inflation and a serious labor shortage.But the economy has not collapsed, and because Putin has unleashed the harshest crackdown on dissent since Soviet times, he faces no domestic pressure to end the war.Ukraine hopes to make its case in MunichAndriy Yermak, a top Zelenskyy adviser who will attend the Munich security conference, has told AP the Ukrainian delegation will use its platform to present Kyivs position on ending the war. He said Kyiv hopes to discuss what security guarantees could be put in place to prevent repeated aggression by Russia. The Munich summit comes at a pivotal moment for Ukraine, which is striving to establish a relationship with the new U.S. administration, a key partner during its yearslong war against Russia. ___Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in Paris contributed.

U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher speaks during an interview in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)2025-02-09T14:17:02Z CAIRO (AP) Famine has been mostly averted in Gaza as a surge of aid enters the territory during a fragile ceasefire, the United Nations humanitarian chief said Sunday. But he warned the threat could return quickly if the truce collapses.Tom Fletcher spoke exclusively to The Associated Press after a two-day visit to Gaza, where hundreds of trucks carrying humanitarian aid have arrived each day since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19.The threat of famine, I think, is largely averted, Fletcher said in Cairo. Those starvation levels are down from where they were before the ceasefire.He spoke as concerns grow over whether the ceasefire can be extended and talks are meant to begin on its more difficult second phase. The six-week first phase is halfway through.As part of the agreement, Israel said it would allow 600 aid trucks into Gaza each day, a major increase after months of aid officials expressing frustration about delays and insecurity hampering both the entry and distribution of food, medicines and other badly needed items. The U.N. humanitarian office has said more than 12,600 aid trucks have entered Gaza since the ceasefire took effect. Fletcher urged both Hamas, which quickly reasserted its control of the territory in the hours after the ceasefire took effect, and Israel to stick to the deal that has saved so many lives.The conditions are still terrible, and people are still hungry, he said. If the ceasefire falls, if the ceasefire breaks, then very quickly those (famine-like) conditions will come back again. The internationally recognized mortality threshold for famine is two or more deaths a day per 10,000 people.For months before the current ceasefire, food security monitors, U.N. officials and others had been warning of possible famine in parts of devastated Gaza, especially the north, which had been largely isolated since the earliest weeks of the 16-month war. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been able to return to the north under the ceasefire. We cant ... sit by and just allow these people to starve to death, Cindy McCain, the American head of the U.N. World Food Program, told CBS in December. The Biden administration repeatedly urged Israel to allow more aid deliveries and warned that failing to do so could trigger U.S. restrictions on military support. Fletcher said more food and medical supplies are crucially needed for the territory of more than 2 million people, most of them displaced, and he expressed concerns about disease outbreaks due to the lack of basic health supplies. He also called for scaling up the delivery of tents and other shelters to those who have returned to their home areas, as winter continues.We must get tens of thousands of tents very rapidly in, so that people who are moving back, particularly moving back into the north, are able to take shelter from those conditions, he said.Fletcher entered the Palestinian territory through the Erez crossing between Israel and northern Gaza, where he said he drove through bombed-out, flattened and pulverized areas. You cant see the difference between a school or a hospital or a home, he said of the north.He said he saw people trying to find where their homes had been and collecting the bodies of loved ones from the rubble. He saw dogs looking for corpses in the rubble, too.It is a horror movie. Its a horror show, he said. It breaks your heart again and again and again. You drive for miles and miles and miles, and this is all you see.Fletcher acknowledged that some Palestinians have been angry at the international community over the war and its response.There was despair and anger. And I can understand the anger at the world that this has happened to them, he said. But there was also a sense of defiance as well. People were saying, We will go back to our homes. We will go back to the places that we have lived for generations, and we will rebuild.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A security officer stands outside the Caesars Superdome before the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)2025-02-08T21:54:03Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) With the Kansas City Chiefs gearing up for their third Super Bowl in as many seasons and the Philadelphia Eagles returning for their second in three years, Sunday will showcase a myriad of players who have big game experience.From relaxing, to hydrating, to having fun but not too much fun players on both sides shared what they would go back and tell themselves about playing in the Super Bowl before their first appearance in the big game.___CHIEFS Patrick Mahomes after winning last years Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Doug Benc) Patrick Mahomes after winning last years Super Bowl. (AP Photo/Doug Benc) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More PATRICK MAHOMES, quarterback: We won that first one but I felt I came out too anxious, a little too pumped up, so more than anything just play the game that you love the way youve always played it and that will be enough.JAYLEN WATSON, cornerback: Just chill, dont get too high too early, its a long week, dont wear yourself out, its an exciting week.NICK BOLTON, linebacker: The ebbs and flows, the highs and lows of the game, I wouldve let myself know that. Its such an emotional game, the game goes up and down. Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid celebrates following an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 31-13. (AP Photo/David Becker) Kansas City Chiefs safety Justin Reid celebrates following an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Chiefs won 31-13. (AP Photo/David Becker) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More JUSTIN REID, safety: Just, throughout the week, try and enjoy the experience a little bit more. Ive had some fun but you want to make sure with your first Super Bowl that you play well. Secondly, its just being prepared for how long the game is. That was different, the extended warmup, instead of a three-hour game its a five-hour game, its a 30-minute halftime so just having a great plan for that. GEORGE KARLAFTIS, defensive end: Its just a game. Its the same game youve been playing 19 times that season. Same game, same time, all that stuff. AP @ the Super Bowl Live coverage from both on and off the field. What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards HARRISON BUTKER, kicker: There were a lot of nerves and anxious feelings the entire two weeks and especially the week leading up to the Super Bowl. I remember getting to the game and just feeling exhausted from all of the pressure that felt like it was on my shoulders. CREED HUMPHREY, center: Just enjoy the moment, its hard to get to this game, just enjoy everything you can, dont take it for granted. Enjoy the moment but focus on the mission. LEO CHENAL, linebacker: Weve had this group of guys that Ive been around since my first season and weve had the experience of getting to places like this and going far in the playoffs. I would tell myself to not get wrapped up in off the football field. You have to appreciate the spectacle of where we are but dont get wrapped up in it.EAGLESAJ BROWN, wide receiver: Focus on the game. Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson ) Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown (11) participates during Super Bowl 59 Opening Night, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the NFL football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson ) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More DARIUS SLAY, cornerback: I would tell myself to not warm up as much, as fast. I was energized and ready to go and not knowing I got to go back in the locker room and sit there for another 45 minutes. I had to re-warm up so I have to pace myself, a lot more stretching because of the halftime show which feels like an hour long so I dont wanna get tight so I have to make sure Im loose and ready to go.DEVONTA SMITH, wide receiver: Just go out there and be you.REED BLANKENSHIP, safety: Have fun, embrace it, dont get caught up in the lights. Its another game, we get to play football. Its the biggest stage in football and the world and its an honor to play in it. Philadelphia Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Philadelphia Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert speaks during an NFL football news conference in Philadelphia, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, ahead of Super Bowl LIX against the Kansas City Chiefs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More DALLAS GOEDERT, tight end: Dreams are coming true. Do everything you can to help the team win because winning is the most important thing.LANDON DICKERSON, center: Dont ride the waves. Theres gonna be a lot of good times and a lot of bad times. Stay level-headed and keep playing.LANE JOHNSON, offensive tackle: Probably hydrate a little more. I was pretty tired out there.___Joel Haas and Tyler Millen are students in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

People carry the coffin of Prince Karim Al-Hussaini, the Aga Khan IV and 49th hereditary imam of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims, who died Tuesday in Portugal, to be buried at the Aga Khan mausoleum, in Aswan, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Haytham Fahmy)2025-02-09T16:15:23Z ASWAN, Egypt (AP) The Aga Khan IV was laid to rest on Sunday at a private ceremony in Aswan, Egypt.The death of Prince Karim - the 49th hereditary imam of the Shiite Ismaili Muslims - was announced Tuesday by the Aga Khan Development Network and the Ismaili religious community. His son, 53-year-old Rahim Al-Hussaini, has been named as the Aga Khan V, the spiritual leader of the worlds millions of Ismaili Muslims, in according with his fathers will.On Saturday, a private funeral service took place at the Ismaili community center in Lisbon attended by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Spains King Emeritus Juan Carlos and Portugals President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.The Aga Khan is considered by his followers to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad and is treated as a head of state.The governor of Aswan welcomed Prince Karims family at the southern Egyptians provinces airport on Saturday. When his will was opened, it was found that he had requested to be buried in Aswan near his grandfather, Sultan Muhammad Shah, and his grandmother, Om Habiba, said Maj. Gen. Ismail Kamal. Ismaili mourners marched as bells rang during the burial ceremony in the countrys southern Aswan province, as Prince Karims body was taken in a van. They carried his body, draped in a white shroud, and placed it on a yacht on the Nile River.Prince Karim, 88, 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. The late Aga Khan evolved over decades into a business magnate and a philanthropist, moving between the spiritual and the worldly with ease. He was a defender of Islamic culture and values, but also widely regarded as a builder of bridges between Muslim societies and the West. The Aga Khan Development Network 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.Ismailis lived for many generations in Iran, Syria and South Asia before also settling in east Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East, as well as Europe, North America and Australia more recently. They consider it a duty to donate up to 12.5% of their income to the Aga Khan as steward.

Vice President JD Vance speaks at the International Religious Freedom Summit at the Washington Hilton, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2025-02-09T19:59:01Z WASHINGTON (AP) Top Trump administration officials are openly questioning the judiciarys authority to serve as a check on executive power as the new presidents sweeping agenda faces growing pushback from the courts.Over the past 24 hours, officials ranging from billionaire Elon Musk to Vice President JD Vance have not only criticized a federal judges decision early Saturday that blocks Musks Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department records, but have also attacked the legitimacy of judicial oversight, a fundamental pillar of American democracy, which is based on the separation of powers.If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, thats also illegal. Judges arent allowed to control the executives legitimate power, Vance wrote on X on Sunday morning. That post came hours after Musk said overnight that the judge who ruled against him should be impeached.A corrupt judge protecting corruption. He needs to be impeached NOW! said Musk, who has been tasked by President Donald Trump with rooting out waste across the federal government. Musk also shared a post from a user who had suggested that the Trump administration openly defy the court order.I dont like the precedent it sets when you defy a judicial ruling, but Im just wondering what other options are these judges leaving us, the person had written, in part. The court order against Musk barred his team temporarily from accessing a Treasury system that contains sensitive personal data, such as Social Security and bank account numbers for millions of Americans. Musk and his team say they are simply rooting through government systems to identify waste and abuse at the direction of the Republican president. Deputy White House chief of staff of Stephen Miller called the ruling an assault on the very idea of democracy itself. What we continue to see here is the idea that rogue bureaucrats who are elected by no one, who answer to no one, who have lifetime tenure jobs, who we would be told can never be fired, which, of course, is not true, that the power has been cemented and accumulated for years, whether it be with the Treasury bureaucrats or the FBI bureaucrats or the CIA bureaucrats or the USAID bureaucrats, with this unelected shadow force that is running our government and running our country, Miller said on Fox News Channels Sunday Morning Futures.The pushback comes as the administrations efforts to dismantle government agencies and eliminate large swaths of the federal workforce are being held up by the courts. Judges have also blocked Trump, at least temporarily, from moving forward with mass federal buyouts, from placing thousands of USAID workers on leave and from implementing an executive order that seeks to end birthright citizenship for anyone born in the U.S.Early Saturday, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued a preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued, alleging the Trump administration allowed Musks team access to the Treasury Departments central payment system in violation of federal law. The payment system handles tax refunds, Social Security benefits, veterans benefits and much more, sending out trillions of dollars every year while containing an expansive network of Americans personal and financial data. A hearing is set for Feb. 14.Democrats have been sounding alarms over Musk and Trumps efforts, including efforts to halt spending that has already been appropriated by Congress. Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress is the body in charge of spending.I think this is the most serious Constitutional crisis the country has faced, certainly, since Watergate, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said on ABCs This Week. This is a red alert moment when this entire country has to understand that our democracy is at risk.Murphy expressed concern that the courts are ill-prepared for the onslaught they are facing. The pace of this assault on the Constitution in order to serve the billionaire class, it is absolutely dizzying. And so, you have to run a full-scale opposition, Murphy said. Ultimately, youve got to bring the American public into this conversation because we need our Republican colleagues in the House and in the Senate ultimately to put a stop to this. You cannot just rely on the court system.Republicans, who have largely stood in lockstep behind the president since he was sworn in for a second term, did so again on Sunday.Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan blasted the court ruling for the Treasury Department case while arguing that the president should be able to implement his agenda as he sees fit.I assume we will argue this out in court, like the other 17 or 18 decisions we have seen in the last several days. That all is going to get argued out in court. And, frankly, we knew the left, we knew the Democrats were going to do this, the Republican said on CNNs Inside Politics. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York. mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Former Marshall football player Randy Moss of the Oakland Raiders waves to fans prior to serving as an honorary coach during Marshall's annual Green-White game Saturday, April 22, 2006, in Huntington, W.Va. (AP Photo/Jeff Gentner, File)2025-02-09T17:12:05Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) Hall of Famer Randy Moss made an emotional return to ESPNs coverage of the Super Bowl on Sunday, two months after he took a leave from his job to get treated for cancer.Moss was back on ESPNs Sunday NFL Countdown before Kansas City took on Philadelphia in the Super Bowl. He was greeted with a video that included messages from Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Justin Jefferson, Kevin Garnett and several other big names welcoming him back to ESPNs set.Moss was moved to tears by the video before getting on with his job of analyzing the Super Bowl.Guys its been hard, but I got a lot of love and a lot of people believing in me, he said. Im happy to be here.Moss took a leave of absence from ESPN in early December after undergoing surgery for cancer. He said at the time that a cancerous mass was found in his bile duct, between his pancreas and liver. He said he had surgery to put a stent in his liver on Thanksgiving and later had a six-hour procedure to remove the cancer. He also said he would undergo radiation and chemotherapy. Moss has been a fixture on the ESPN show since 2016. Moss, who turns 48 on Thursday, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018 after playing 14 seasons with the Vikings, Raiders Patriots, Titans and 49ers.Moss ranks second in NFL history with 156 touchdown catches and fourth with 15,292 yards receiving, He set an NFL record with 23 TD receptions in 2007 for the Patriots.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

This image released by Universal Pictures shows Petey, voiced by Pete Davidson, left, and Dog Man, voiced by Peter Hastings in a scene from DreamWorks Animation's "Dog Man." (Universal Pictures/DreamWorks Animation via AP)2025-02-09T17:18:01Z NEW YORK (AP) On a quiet winter weekend at the box office, DreamWorks Animations Dog Man chased its own tail, repeating as the top movie in theaters. The animated Universal Pictures release, adapted from Dav Pilkeys popular graphic novel series, collected $13.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Both new releases the Ke Huy Quan action movie Love Hurts and the Valentines Day-themed slasher Heart Eyes were left nipping at the heels of Dog Man.Hollywood often largely punts Super Bowl weekend to the small screen. Last year, Apples much-derided Argylle debuted on the same weekend. Instead, the movie industry spends more energy pitching its blockbusters in trailers for the huge football audience on TV.It wasnt a banner weekend for Dog Man. It fell steeply, dropping 62% in it second weekend. But with a production budget of $40 million, Dog Man has already tallied $54.1 million domestically in two weeks. Coming in second was Spyglass Media Groups Heart Eyes, released by Sony. The horror-rom-com mashup earned $8.5 million from 3,102 locations. Reviews have been good for the film, directed by Josh Ruben and starring Oliva Holt and Mason Gooding, though audiences were less impressed. Moviegoers gave it a B- CinemaScore. Spyglass made Heart Eyes for $18 million. Love Hurts, the action comedy from 87North Productions (John Wick, The Fall Guy), debuted with a paltry $5.8 million in 3,055 theaters. In his first big movie role since his Oscar-winning comeback in Everything All at Once, Ke Huy Quan stars as a mild-mannered realtor with a hitman past. Ariana DeBose co-stars. It, too, was modestly budgeted at $18 million. Audiences, however, mostly rejected the movie, giving Love Hurts a C+ CinemaScore. Next weekend should bring Hollywood its biggest box-office weekend of the year with the release of Marvels Captain America: Brave New World and Sonys Paddington in Peru. Final domestic figures will be released Monday. Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:1. Dog Man, $13.7 million.2. Heart Eyes, $8.5 million.3. Love Hurts, $5.8 million.4. Mufasa: The Lion King, $3.9 million.5. Companion, $3 million.6. One of Them Days, $3 million.7. Becoming Led Zeppelin, $2.6 million.8. Flight Risk, $2.6 million.9. Sonic the Hedgehog, $1.8 million.10. Moana 3, $1.5 million. JAKE COYLE Coyle has been a film critic and covered the movie industry for The Associated Press since 2013. He is based in New York City. twitter mailto

A woman stamps her fingerprint on the voter list during presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)2025-02-09T07:07:04Z Sigue la cobertura en vivo de AP en espaol de las elecciones presidenciales en Ecuador. GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) Polls closed in Ecuadors presidential election Sunday, which shaped up to be a repeat of the 2023 race, when voters chose a young, conservative millionaire over the leftist protge of the countrys most influential president this century. President Daniel Noboa and Luisa Gonzlez were the clear front-runners among the pool of 16 candidates. All promised voters to reduce the widespread crime that pushed their lives into an unnerving new normal four years ago.The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses will be a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years can turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserves more time in office. Ecuadors National Electoral Council reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots. Electoral authorities were expected to begin releasing results after 7:30 p.m. local time.Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. In the port city of Guayaquil, people lined up, initially under light rain and then under a scorching sun, outside a public university where tens of thousands were expected to cast ballots. Crime, gangs and extortion For me, this president is disastrous, said Marta Barres, 35, who went to the voting center with her three teenage children. Can he change things in four more years? No. He hasnt done anything.Barres, who must pay $25 a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she would vote for Gonzlez because she believes she can reduce crime across the board and improve the economy. To win outright, a candidate needs 50% of the vote or at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest challenger. If needed, a runoff election would take place on April 13. More than 100,000 police officers and members of the military were deployed across the country to safeguard the election, including at voting centers. At least 50 officers accompanied Noboa, his wife and their 2-year-old son to a voting center where the president cast his ballot in the small Pacific coast community of Oln. Noboa defeated Gonzlez in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election that was triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result. Noboa and Gonzlez, a mentee of former President Rafael Correa, had only served short stints as lawmakers before launching their 2023 presidential campaigns.Testing the limits of laws and norms of governingNoboa, 37, is an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade. He opened an event organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his fathers Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission. Under his presidency, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. Still, it remained far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and some of Noboas no-holds-barred crimefighting strategies have come under scrutiny inside and outside the country for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing. His questioned tactics include the state of internal armed conflict he declared in January 2024 in order to mobilize the military in places where organized crime has taken hold, as well as last years approval of a police raid on Mexicos embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive who had been living there for months.His head-on approach, however, is also earning him votes.My vote was for Noboa because of his skills and because he maintains a direct confrontation with the armed drug-trafficking groups and the corrupt, Pablo Votruba, a retired doctor in Quito, said. Things are not going to changeGonzlez, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president. He was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2020 in a corruption scandal.Gonzlez was a lawmaker from 2021 until May 2023, when Lasso dissolved the National Assembly. She was unknown to most voters until Correas party picked her as its presidential candidate for the snap election.They are the fear, we are the hope, hope for change, for joy, for better days to come, she told reporters after voting in her hometown of Canuto, in northwestern Ecuador.Meanwhile, a group of soldiers, citing security reasons, prevented presidential candidate Andrea Gonzlez, no relation to Luisa, from entering her assigned polling station with her protection detail. After a brief discussion, she was allowed in accompanied only by her chief of security. Waiting for her turn to vote in Guayaquil, architecture student Keila Torres said she had not yet decided who to vote for. None, she said, will be able to lower crime across Ecuador due to deep-rooted government corruption.If I could, I wouldnt be here, said Torres, who has witnessed three robberies in public buses over the past four years and barely escaped a carjacking in December. Things are not going to change. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Carbon dioxide and other pollutant billows from a stack at PacifiCorps coal-fired Naughton Power Plant, near where Bill Gates company, TerraPower plans to build an advanced, nontraditional nuclear reactor, Jan. 13, 2022, in Kemmerer, Wyo. (AP Photo/Natalie Behring, File)2025-02-09T14:30:08Z CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) Putting carbon dioxide from power plants and industrial facilities underground where it wont contribute to global warming could see less federal support and enthusiasm under President Donald Trump. But experts and industry advocates doubt demand for the technology will go away as long as utilities face state-level climate change goals.Trump has vowed to drill, baby, drill for fossil fuels and ordered the U.S. to withdraw from the landmark Paris agreement to try to limit Earths warming. Meanwhile, his new energy secretary, Chris Wright, has vowed to prioritize affordable, reliable and secure energy in a policy-setting order that criticizes zero-carbon goals and makes no mention of carbon capture.Carbon captures doubters include both conservative policy organizations and environmental groups . Even so, its outlook in the U.S. isnt all bleak. Carbon capture got a $12 billion boost under Joe Biden through increased tax incentives and funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. With projects scattered nationwide, including dozens in Republican states, there may be less appetite to include them in budget cuts, said analyst Rohan Dighe with the energy and resources research firm Wood Mackenzie. But a broader trend away from environmental, social and governance investing, or ESG, could sap momentum for carbon capture, Dighe said by email. So even absent government rollback of funding, we could see fewer project announcements and movements due to lower interest in decarbonizing, Dighe wrote.Carbon capture involves separating carbon dioxide from the emissions of power plants and other industrial facilities and pumping it underground. The goal can be either to store it permanently so it doesnt contribute to climate change, or to pressurize an oilfield to help increase production. Carbon capture has deep support in Republican Wyoming, home to projects including an ExxonMobil plant that separates CO2 from sour gas wells for use in aging oilfields and another experimenting with putting power plant CO2 underground.In 2021, GOP Gov. Mark Gordon pledged to make the sparsely populated state which exports 12 times more energy than it consumes not just carbon neutral but carbon negative.Carbon capture features prominently in that plan. In 2020, Wyoming, which contributed tens of millions of dollars for a carbon capture research facility at an operating power plant, became one of the first states to regulate underground carbon dioxide injection itself rather than through the EPA. That list now also includes Louisiana, North Dakota and West Virginia.But theres also growing skepticism in Wyoming, the nations top coal producer. With Trump back in office, some question the need for greenhouse gas goals. One state lawmaker recently proposed legislation titled Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again that would back off carbon capture including a 2020 state law requiring utilities to study how much it would cost to install at the states fossil-fuel-fired power plants. No other lawmakers supported the bill and it failed.Meanwhile, Gordon is sticking with carbon capture to help protect Wyomings coal industry. Eighteen states that account for almost two-thirds of Wyomings coal market have renewable energy and carbon-neutrality goals, Gordon spokesman Michael Pearlman said by email.To keep that market, we have to use carbon capture, Pearlman wrote.The billions of dollars in federal grants for carbon capture approved under Biden have aided dozens of carbon capture projections nationwide through the Department of Energys CarbonSAFE program. Seven are in Wyoming.The future of the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture projects especially worries the Carbon Capture Coalition, a group of more than 100 environmental groups, unions and companies. It recently urged Congress to uphold the credit, which was included in the Inflation Reduction Act.To date, the Petra Nova facility outside Houston, whose CO2 is used to increase production at nearby oilfields, is the nations only power plant that puts the greenhouse gas underground on a commercial scale. More could be coming eventually. Government support helped spur 270 carbon capture projects across the U.S. in the past few years, the coalition wrote to congressional leaders. We wanted to kind of put a stake in the ground, said Madelyn Morrison, the groups government affairs director.Republicans have voted dozens of times, unsuccessfully, to repeal portions of the Inflation Reduction Act when they held a minority in the Senate, according to the Brookings Institution. Now that they control the Senate, House and White House, the bar to repeal is lower.That would have support from the conservative Heritage Foundation, a longstanding opponent of carbon capture. Requiring carbon capture for coal- and gas-fired power plants would be costly just when electric vehicles are increasing energy demand, the group argued in a paper last year. Others on the right say building out the network of pipelines and injection wells necessary for carbon capture threatens to trample on private property rights.Carbon capture and storage projects are nothing more than an opportunistic scheme to make vast sums of money from a problem that arguably does not exist, concluded a January report by the conservative Heartland Institute that recommended abolishing the 45Q tax credit.Earthjustice and other environmental groups oppose carbon capture largely because they see it as dubious cover to maintain fossil fuel production.For the Carbon Capture Coalition, the technology is a middle ground recognizing that neither carbon-free energy production nor an end to burning fossil fuels will happen overnight. Even if Trump is all in for fossil fuels, U.S. consumers and the global market will demand the technology, the group says.In order for these American industries to really remain competitive, not only in domestic markets, but really in the global marketplace, their businesses really depend on investing in innovative solutions like carbon management, Morrison said.___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.

President Donald Trump, left, waves as he boards Air Force One with grandson Theodore, Ivanka Trump's son, at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-02-09T22:02:31Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said he will announce on Monday that the United States will impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports, including from Canada and Mexico, as well as other import duties later in the week. Any steel coming into the United States is going to have a 25% tariff, he told reporters Sunday on Air Force One as he flew from Florida to New Orleans to attend the Super Bowl. When asked about aluminum, he responded, aluminum, too will be subject to the trade penalties. Trump also reaffirmed that he would announce reciprocal tariffs probably Tuesday or Wednesday meaning that the U.S. would impose import duties on products in cases where another country has levied duties on U.S. goods. If they are charging us 130% and were charging them nothing, its not going to stay that way, he told reporters. Trumps comments are the latest example of his willingness to threaten, and in some cases to impose, import taxes. Tariffs are coming much earlier in his presidency than during his previous four years in the White House, when he prioritized tax cuts and deregulation. Trump has alternately said he sees import taxes as tools to force concessions on issues such as immigration, but also as a source of revenue to help close the governments budget deficit. Financial markets fell on Friday after Trump first said he would impose the reciprocal tariffs. Stock prices also dropped after a measure of consumer sentiment declined on Friday, largely because many respondents cited tariffs as a growing worry. The survey also found that Americans are expecting inflation to tick up in the coming months because of the duties. Trump on Sunday did not offer any details about the steel and aluminum duties, or the reciprocal tariffs. Trump previously threatened 25% import taxes on all goods from Canada and Mexico, though he paused them for 30 days barely a week ago. At the same time, he proceeded to add 10% duties on imports from China.Yet on Friday, he said he would also delay the tariffs on the millions of small packages often from fast-fashion firms such as Temu and Shein until customs officials can figure out ways to impose them. The small packages have previously been exempt from tariffs. ___Associated Press writer Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One contributed to this report. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. 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)2025-02-10T00:53:33Z ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A federal court on Sunday blocked the Trump administration from sending three Venezuelan immigrants held in New Mexico to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba as part of the presidents immigration crackdown. In a legal filing earlier in the day, lawyers for the men said the detainees fit the profile of those the administration has prioritized for detention in Guantanamo, i.e. Venezuelan men detained in the El Paso area with (false) charges of connections with the Tren de Aragua gang. It asked a U.S. District Court in New Mexico for a temporary restraining order blocking their transfer, adding that the mere uncertainty the government has created surrounding the availability of legal process and counsel access is sufficient to authorize the modest injunction. During a brief hearing, Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales granted the temporary order, which was opposed by the government, said Jessica Vosburgh, an attorney for the three men. Its short term. This will get revisited and further fleshed out in the weeks to come, Vosburgh told The Associated Press. A message seeking comment was left for U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement. The filing came as part of a lawsuit on behalf of the three men filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, and Las Americas Immigrant Advisory Center.The Tren de Aragua gang originated in a lawless prison in the central Venezuelan state of Aragua more than a decade ago and has expanded in recent years as millions of desperate Venezuelans fled President President Nicols Maduro s rule and migrated to other parts of Latin America or the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last week that flights of detainees had landed at Guantanamo. Immigrant rights groups sent a letter Friday demanding access to people who have been sent there, saying the base should not be used as a legal black hole.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that more than 8,000 people have been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trumps Jan. 20 inauguration. Trump has vowed to deport millions of the estimated 11.7 million people in the U.S. illegally.

Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)2025-02-10T01:53:20Z Follow live updates on the 2025 Super Bowl Salutations!, the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.As if there were any doubts of the Pulitzer Prize winning rappers ability to put on a show.He started with GNX moving into Squabble Up. For just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colors, they were labeled too loud, too reckless, too ghetto, by Jacksons Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to play the game. Then, he launched into Humble., DNA., Euphoria and man at the garden. Score keeper, deduct one life, Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into peakboo, and then teased a performance of Not Like Us. I wanna play their favorite song but you know they love to sue, Lamar told the women dancers behind him, referencing Drake.It is hard to underscore the ubiquity of Not Like Us with its billion streams on Spotify, the massive hit is a regional anthem for Los Angeles, a rallying cry for community and against culture vultures, a diss track that won Lamar the highly-publicized feud with Drake and the track that won song and record of the year at the Grammys last weekend. Leading up to the Super Bowl, whether or not Lamar would perform the song was a legitimate question held by fans and critics alike. Lamar levels strong accusations against Drake in its lyrics; Drake has sued Universal Music Group for defamation as a result of the songs popularity. Does a Super Bowl performance further complicate things? AP @ the Super Bowl Live coverage from both on and off the field. What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards Little was known about Lamars halftime performance ahead of time. Lamar promised to keep his passion for storytelling at the forefront of his plans, and SZA was a previously announced guest performer. They are frequent collaborators; she most recently appeared his recent album GNX and was featured on a couple songs including Gloria and Luther, which also features sampled vocals from Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn through If This World Were Mine. The duo will also co-headline a 19-city North American tour this spring and summer. SZA appeared on stage for Luther and All the Stars. Thats what America wants nice and calm, Jackson said. And then, like clockwork: Lamar launched into Not Like Us with the removal of the word pedophiles in its lyrics into tv off. He brought out the producer Mustard and tennis superstar Serena Williams was spotted crip walking along to the diss track.Is there any better publicity than the biggest stage in U.S. sports? Consider this just another step in Lamars continued victory lap.He is also no stranger to the Super Bowl stage, having previously performed at the NFLs championship game in 2022 as a guest artist, alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Eminem. Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date, Lamar said in a statement in September, when he was first announced as the 2025 halftime performer. And Ill be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.Make no mistake about it thats exactly what he did Sunday evening.___For more on the Super Bowl, visit https://apnews.com/hub/super-bowl MARIA SHERMAN Maria Sherman is the music reporter at The Associated Press. She is based in New York City. twitter instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One where Trump signed a proclamation declaring Feb. 9 "the first ever Gulf of America Day," as he travels from West Palm Beach, Fla. to New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-02-09T22:11:40Z Follow live updates on the 2025 Super Bowl WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said he is serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state in an interview that aired Sunday during the Super Bowl preshow.Yeah it is, Trump told Fox News Channels Bret Baier when asked whether his talk of annexing Canada is a real thing as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently warned.I think Canada would be much better off being the 51st state because we lose $200 billion a year with Canada. And Im not going to let that happen, he said. Why are we paying $200 billion a year, essentially a subsidy to Canada? The U.S. is not subsidizing Canada. The U.S. buys products from the natural resource-rich nation, including commodities like oil. While the trade gap in goods has ballooned in recent years to $72 billion in 2023, the deficit largely reflects Americas imports of Canadian energy. Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada would be better off if it agreed to become the 51st U.S. state a prospect that is deeply unpopular among Canadians.Trudeau said Friday during a closed-door session with business and labor leaders that Trumps talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state was a real thing and tied to desire for access to the countrys natural resources. Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing. In my conversations with him on ..., Trudeau said, according to CBC, Canadas public broadcaster. Theyre very aware of our resources of what we have, and they very much want to be able to benefit from those. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday as he traveled to the Super Bowl game in New Orleans, Trump continued to threaten a country that has long been one of the U.S.'s closest allies. He claimed that Canada is not viable as a country without U.S. trade, and warned that the founding NATO member can no longer depend on the U.S. for military protection. You know, they dont pay very much for military. And the reason they dont pay much is they assume that were going to protect them, he said. Thats not an assumption they can make because why are we protecting another country?In the Fox interview, which was pre-taped this weekend in Florida, Trump also said that he has not seen enough action from Canada and Mexico to stave off the tariffs he has threatened to impose on the countrys two largest trading partners once a 30-day extension is up.No, its not good enough, he said. Something has to happen. Its not sustainable. And Im changing it.Trump last week agreed to a 30-day pause on his plan to slap Mexico and Canada with a 25% tariff on all imports except for Canadian oil, natural gas and electricity, which would be taxed at 10%, after the countries took steps to appease his concerns about border security and drug trafficking.Aboard Air Force One, Trump said that he would on Monday announce a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S., including from Canada and Mexico, and unveil a plan for reciprocal tariffs later in the week. Very simply its if they charge us, we charge them, he said.Trumps participation in the Super Bowl interview marked a return to tradition. Presidents have typically granted a sit-down to the network broadcasting the game, the most-watched television event of the year. But both Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, were inconsistent in their participation.Biden declined to participate last year turning down a massive audience in an election year and also skipped an appearance in 2023, when efforts by his team to have Biden speak with a Fox Corp. streaming service instead of the main network failed. During his first term, Trump participated three out of four years.Trump was the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl in person something he told Baier he was surprised to learn.I thought it would be a good thing for the country to have the president at the game, he said.During his flight to New Orleans, Trump signed a proclamation declaring Feb. 9 the first ever Gulf of America Day as Air Force One flew over the body of water that he renamed by proclamation from the Gulf of Mexico. Trump in the interview, also defended the work of billionaire Elon Musk, whose so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been drawing deep concern from Democrats as he moves to shut down whole government agencies and fire large swaths of the federal workforce in the name of rooting out waste and inefficiency.Musk, Trump said, has been terrific, and will target the Department of Education and the military next.Were going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse, Trump predicted. I campaigned on this.He was also asked about his dancing, which has become a popular meme on social media.I dont know what it is, he said. I try and walk off sometimes without dancing and I cant. I have to dance.___ Associated Press writer Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One contributed to this report. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. 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Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Cooper DeJean (33) scores a touchdown after intercepting a pass during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)2025-02-10T03:18:44Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) Cooper DeJean, Josh Sweat and the Philadelphia Eagles ferocious defense denied Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs a Super Bowl three-peat.It wasnt even close.DeJean got a pick-6 on his 22nd birthday, Sweat tormented Mahomes and the Eagles routed the Chiefs 40-22 on Sunday to secure the franchises second Super Bowl championship.Jalen Hurts threw for two touchdowns and ran for a score on a tush push, and Vic Fangios defense was so dominant that the Eagles didnt need much from Saquon Barkley.The game-changing running back finished with 57 yards, breaking Terrell Davis record for yards rushing in a season, playoffs included. Hurts threw for 221 yards.With Donald Trump becoming the first president in office to attend a Super Bowl, the Eagles outplayed Kansas City in every facet, delighting a raucous pro-Philly crowd that celebrated each score with a familiar rendition of Fly! Eagles! Fly! Even Taylor Swifts presence couldnt help the Chiefs. They lost for the first time in 10 games this season with the pop superstar in a suite watching boyfriend Travis Kelce, who didnt catch a pass until late in the third quarter. Not in Kansas Citys worst nightmares could its fans have imagined such a lackluster performance. The Chiefs had won three of the previous five Super Bowls, losing 31-9 to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers four years ago. AP @ the Super Bowl Live coverage from both on and off the field. What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards Mahomes was 8-0 against Fangios defenses before the longtime coordinator and former Broncos head coach outcoached Andy Reid, capping his first season with his hometown team. Reid fell to 3-3 in Super Bowls, including a loss with the Eagles. The Eagles sacked Mahomes six times, the most of his career, including 2 1/2 by Sweat. And they did it without Fangio calling a single blitz.Barkley, the 2024 AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year, only had 31 yards rushing in the first half when Philly built a 24-0 lead. The Chiefs were aiming to become the third team in NFL history to win three straight championships and the first to three-peat in the Super Bowl era.Hurts nearly led the Eagles to victory against the Chiefs two years ago in Arizona, but Mahomes led a comeback and Harrison Butker kicked the game-winning field goal in the final minute for a 38-35 victory. Mahomes rallied Kansas City to an overtime victory over San Francisco last year for the Chiefs second straight title.This time, a revamped Philly defense featuring eight new starters from the 2022 team made sure Mahomes had no chance to pull off his magic.Eagles coach Nick Sirianni, who mocked fans chanting Fire Nick! during a victory over Cleveland in October and was called a clown on national television, should finally silence critics by adding a championship ring to a resume that includes the fifth-best winning percentage in league history.Sirianni was showered with Gatorade with nearly three minutes left in the game while backup QB Kenny Pickett took snaps in mop-up duty.Barkley helped push Hurts into the end zone from the 1 to give Philadelphia a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Up 10-0 after Jake Elliotts 48-yard field goal, Sweat and Jalyx Hunt sacked Mahomes on consecutive plays. Mahomes then rolled out and made an errant throw that was picked by DeJean, who returned it 38 yards for a 17-0 lead.It was Mahomes first pick-6 in 21 career playoff games and ended a streak of 297 straight passes without an interception.All-Pro linebacker Zack Baun picked Mahomes again late in the second quarter, and Hurts connected with A.J. Brown on a 12-yard TD pass for a 24-0 lead.Hurts threw a perfect 46-yard TD pass to DeVonta Smith to make it 34-0 late in the third.Mahomes fired a 24-yard TD pass to Xavier Worthy to avoid the shutout, but the 2-point conversion failed. He threw two late, mostly meaningless TD passes, one to DeAndre Hopkins and another to Worthy.After two weeks of discussions about questionable calls that led to public perception that officials favor the Chiefs a theory NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell called ridiculous the first penalty of the game only fueled critics. A 32-yard pass from Hurts to Brown to the Chiefs 18 on fourth-and-2 was negated by a penalty for offensive pass interference. Brady, now a Fox analyst, and officiating analyst Mike Pereira both disagreed with the call, although Brown shoved Trent McDuffies facemask.On the next possession, the Eagles benefited from an unnecessary roughness penalty on McDuffie against Dallas Goedert following an incomplete pass on third-and-5.Hurts then connected with Jahan Dotson on a 27-yard pass to the 1 and scored on the next play.Hurts streak of 217 passes without a pick ended in the first half when he was intercepted deep in Kansas City territory, but the Chiefs didnt capitalize.The Green Bay Packers are the only NFL team to win three championships in a row, doing it from 1929-31 and 1965-67.The NBAs Los Angeles Lakers from 2000-02, led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille ONeill, are the last team in the major American professional leagues to win three straight titles.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl ROB MAADDI Maaddi is senior NFL writer for The Associated Press. 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Cardinal Michael Czerny meets with journalists at the Vatican press hall, in Rome, on March 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)2025-02-10T03:30:22Z VATICAN CITY (AP) Pope Francis point-man on migration and development has urged the Trump administration to remember Christian principles about caring for others, saying people are being terrorized by the U.S. crackdown on migrants and vital church-run aid programs are being jeopardized by the planned gutting of USAID.Cardinal Michael Czerny, a Czech-born Canadian Jesuit, is one of the cardinals most closely associated with Francis pontificate and heads the Vatican office responsible for migrants, the environment, the churchs Caritas Internationalis charity and development. In an interview with The Associated Press, Czerny said every incoming government has the right to review its foreign aid budget, and to even reform an agency like USAID. But he said its another thing to dismantle an agency after it has made funding commitments. There are programs underway and expectations and we might even say commitments, and to break commitments is a serious thing, Czerny said Sunday. So while every government is qualified to review its budget in the case of foreign aid, it would be good to have some warning because it takes time to find other sources of funding or to find other ways of meeting the problems we have. USAID is the main international humanitarian and development arm of the U.S. government and in 2023 managed more than $40 billion in combined appropriations. The Trump administration and billionaire ally Elon Musk have targeted USAID hardest so far in their challenge of the federal government: A sweeping funding freeze has shut down most of USAIDs programs worldwide, though a federal judge on Friday put a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job. One of USAIDs biggest non-governmental recipients of funding is Catholic Relief Services, the aid agency of the Catholic Church in the U.S., which has already sounded the alarm about the cuts. Other programs, including Caritas international programs at the diocesan and national levels, are also being impacted directly or indirectly, Czerny said. I think people are still reeling from the news and beginning to figure out how to respond, he said.While large, the USAID budget is less than one percentage point of the U.S. gross domestic product and a fraction of the biblical call to tithe 10% of ones income, Czerny noted.Czerny acknowledged Francis has often complained about Western aid to poor countries being saddled with conditions that may be incompatible with Catholic doctrine, such as programs promoting gender ideology. The Trump administration has said it is targeting these woke programs in its USAID cuts.If if the government thinks that its programs have been distorted by ideology, well, then they should reform the programs, Czerny said. Many people would say that shutting down is not the best way to reform them.Another area of concern for the Vatican and Catholic hierarchy in the U.S. is the Trump administrations crackdown on undocumented migrants. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said last week that more than 8,000 people had been arrested in immigration enforcement actions since Trumps Jan. 20 inauguration. Some are being held in federal prisons while others are being held at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. A crackdown is a terrible way to administer affairs and much less to administer justice, said Czerny, whose own family immigrated to Canada as refugees after World War II. And so Im very sorry that many people are being hurt and indeed terrorized by the measures.All we can hope for is that the people, Gods people and the people of goodwill, will help and protect those vulnerable people who are suddenly made much more vulnerable, he added.The U.S. conference of Catholic bishops put out an unusually critical statement after President Donald Trumps initial executive orders, saying those focused on the treatment of immigrants and refugees, foreign aid, expansion of the death penalty, and the environment, are deeply troubling and will have negative consequences, many of which will harm the most vulnerable among us. It was a strong rebuke from the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, which considers abortion to be the preeminent priority for Catholic voters and had cheered the 2022 Supreme Court decision to end constitutional protections for abortion that was made possible by Trump-appointed justices. Trump won 54% of Catholic voters in the 2024 election, a wider margin than the 50% he won of Catholic voters in the 2020 election won by President Joe Biden, a Catholic.Inspired by the biblical call to welcome the stranger, Francis has made caring for migrants a priority of his pontificate, demanding that countries welcome, protect, promote and integrate those fleeing conflicts, poverty and climate disasters. Francis has also said governments are expected to do so to the limits of their capacity.And I dont think that is any country except perhaps Lebanon, and maybe one or two other exceptions who are really over the limit, Czerny said. So I think its incumbent on us first of all as human beings, as citizens, as believers, and in our case, as Christians. ___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Ecuador's President Daniel Noboa, running for re-election, waves after accompanying his running mate, Maria Jose Pinto, to cast her ballot during the presidential elections in Quito, Ecuador, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Carlos Noriega)2025-02-10T04:51:27Z En resumen: Revisa la cobertura de AP en espaol de las elecciones presidenciales en Ecuador del domingo. GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) Ecuador will choose its next president in a runoff election after conservative incumbent Daniel Noboa and leftist lawyer Luisa Gonzlez garnered enough votes Sunday to beat 14 other candidates.The contest, set for April 13, will be a repeat of the October 2023 snap election that earned Noboa a 16-month presidency.Noboa and Gonzlez are now vying for a full four-year term, promising voters to reduce the widespread criminal activity that upended their lives four years ago.The spike in violence across the South American country is tied to the trafficking of cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru. So many voters have become crime victims that their personal and collective losses were a determining factor in deciding whether a third president in four years could turn Ecuador around or if Noboa deserved more time in office. Noboa, an heir to a fortune built on the banana trade, and Gonzlez, the protge of Ecuadors most influential president this century, were the clear front-runners ahead of the election. Figures released by Ecuadors National Electoral Council showed that with 80% of ballots tallied, Noboa received more than 3.71 million votes, or 44.43%, while Gonzlez earned over 3.69 million votes, or 44.17%. The 14 other candidates in the race were far behind them.Voting is mandatory in Ecuador. Electoral authorities reported that more than 83% of the roughly 13.7 million eligible voters cast ballots. Crime, gangs and extortion Under Noboas watch, the homicide rate dropped from 46.18 per 100,000 people in 2023 to 38.76 per 100,000 people last year. Still, it remained far higher than the 6.85 per 100,000 people in 2019, and other crimes, such as kidnapping and extortion, have skyrocketed, making people fearful of leaving their homes.For me, this president is disastrous, said Marta Barres, 35, who went to the voting center with her three teenage children. Can he change things in four more years? No. He hasnt done anything.Barres, who must pay $25 a month to a local gang to avoid harassment or worse, said she supported Gonzlez because she believes she can reduce crime across the board and improve the economy. Noboa defeated Gonzlez in the October 2023 runoff of a snap election that was triggered by the decision of then-President Guillermo Lasso to dissolve the National Assembly and shorten his own mandate as a result. Noboa and Gonzlez, a mentee of former President Rafael Correa, had only served short stints as lawmakers before launching their presidential campaigns that year.To win outright Sunday, a candidate needed 50% of the vote or at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest challenger. More than 100,000 police officers and members of the military were deployed across the country to safeguard the election, including at voting centers. At least 50 officers accompanied Noboa, his wife and their 2-year-old son to a voting center where the president cast his ballot in the small Pacific coast community of Oln. Testing the limits of laws and norms of governingNoboa, 37, opened an event organizing company when he was 18 and then joined his fathers Noboa Corp., where he held management positions in the shipping, logistics and commercial areas. His political career began in 2021, when he won a seat in the National Assembly and chaired its Economic Development Commission. As president over the past 15 months, some of his mano dura, or heavy-handed, tactics to reduce crime have come under scrutiny inside and outside the country for testing the limits of laws and norms of governing.His questioned tactics include the state of internal armed conflict he declared in January 2024 in order to mobilize the military in places where organized crime has taken hold, as well as last years approval of a police raid on Mexicos embassy in the capital, Quito, to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas, a convicted criminal and fugitive who had been living there for months.His head-on approach, however, is also earning him votes.Noboa is the only person hitting organized crime hard, retiree German Rizzo, who voted to get the president reelected, said outside a polling station in Samborondn, an upper-class area with gated communities separated from the port city of Guayaquil by a river. Things are not going to changeGonzlez, 47, held various government jobs during the presidency of Correa, who led Ecuador from 2007 through 2017 with free-spending socially conservative policies and grew increasingly authoritarian in his last years as president. He was sentenced to prison in absentia in 2020 in a corruption scandal.Gonzlez was a lawmaker from 2021 until May 2023, when Lasso dissolved the National Assembly. She was unknown to most voters until Correas party picked her as its presidential candidate for the snap election.Quitos University of the Americas professor Maria Cristina Bayas said Sundays result was a triumph for Correas party because pre-election polls projected a wider difference between Noboa and Gonzlez. Esteban Ron, dean of the Faculty of Social and Legal Sciences at the International University SEK in Quito, said Noboa will be forced to reengineer his campaign at the risk that he may have already reached his vote ceiling. Ron attributed the outcome to the problems Noboa faced during his administration.Waiting for her turn to vote in Guayaquil, architecture student Keila Torres said she had not yet decided who to vote for. None, she said, will be able to lower crime across Ecuador due to deep-rooted government corruption.If I could, I wouldnt be here, said Torres, who witnessed three robberies in public buses over the past four years and barely escaped a carjacking in December. Things are not going to change. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump gestures to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts after being sworn in as president during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (Chip Somodevilla/Pool Photo via AP)2025-02-10T05:02:05Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump will need the Supreme Court, with three justices he appointed, to enable the most aggressive of the many actions he has taken in just the first few weeks of his second White House term. But even a conservative majority with a robust view of presidential power might balk at some of what the president wants to do.The court gave Trump major victories last year that helped clear away potential obstacles to his reelection, postponing his criminal trial in Washington, D.C., then affording immunity from prosecution for official actions. But Trumps first term was marked by significant defeats as well as some wins at the court.It will be an extraordinary test for the Roberts Court whether its willing to stand up for constitutional principles it has long embraced, said Michael Waldman, the president of New York Universitys Brennan Center and the author of a book that is critical of the court. Some of the things we have seen are so blatantly unconstitutional that I am confident the court will stand up. Other things that align with the accumulation of the power of the presidency make me very nervous. Theres no shortage of issues that could find a path to the nations highest court. Lower courts already have paused orders on birthright citizenship, a freeze on government grants and loans, and a buyout order for federal workers. Other lawsuits have been filed over restrictions on transgender people, limits on asylum-seekers, efforts to shutter USAID, Elon Musk and his teams access to sensitive data and the firing of officials at independent federal agencies. Trump met with mixed success at the court in his first term. By a 5-4 vote, the justices upheld his ban on travel to the U.S. from several mostly Muslim countries, but only after courts had blocked the first two versions of it. The same five conservative justices backed Trumps firing of the head of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau and cleared the way for the administration to tap billions of dollars in Pentagon funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico, while a lawsuit over the money continued. At the same time, Chief Justice John Roberts joined with the courts then-four justice liberal bloc to prevent Trump from ending the DACA program for immigrants who were brought here as children. The same five-justice majority also stopped the administration from including a question about citizenship on the 2020 census.Roberts also bluntly rebuked Trump for denouncing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an Obama judge.One big difference from the first Trump presidency is that there are just three liberal justices, after Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death in September 2020 allowed Trump to appoint a third justice, Amy Coney Barrett, in the final months of his term. She joined earlier Trump appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. Birthright citizenship could offer a critical early testThe issue that might be first in line this time is Trumps order ending birthright citizenship for the children of parents who are in the U.S. illegally. The administration already has indicated it will appeal a judges ruling that has so far blocked it.Depending on how quickly the federal appeals court in San Francisco acts, an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court could arrive within weeks if Trumps Justice Department wants to press courts to allow the order to take effect while the legal fight continues.While there is some support in legal circles for what Trump is trying to do, the more broadly held view among both liberal and conservative scholars is that this is a fight the president wont win.Im exceedingly skeptical about there being any votes for the birthright citizenship executive order as written, said Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who describes himself as right-of-center. Will Trumps order to freeze federal spending stand? Trumps now-paused effort to freeze federal spending and his call to shut down USAID also might meet resistance, even in front of the conservative court, though more modest reductions could fare better.The court will be more skeptical, especially if the administration tries to completely unwind an agency that has been created by statute, said Villanova University law professor Michael Moreland, who worked in the George W. Bush White House.The history of the travel ban, which the court eventually upheld after it was revised twice, is instructive, Adler said.Make the broad announcement thats a bit blunderbuss, a bit aggressive, that pushed the envelope. Then settle back to a more defensible space after pushback. It results in something more modest, but still dramatic, he said. The Biden administration figured out a legally defensible way not to spend border wall money that Congress appropriated. Theres a lot more play in the joints than people recognize, Adler said. The presidents power to fire is on firmer groundTrump is on firmer ground in his firing of National Labor Relations Board member Gynne A. Wilcox and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission members Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels, all Democrats.Wilcox already has sued, arguing that federal law protects her from being arbitrarily dismissed.But even her lawyers acknowledged in their filing that her lawsuit could tee up a Supreme Court challenge to a 90-year-old precedent that Roberts and the other conservatives already have narrowed. The case known as Humphreys Executor held that President Franklin Roosevelt could not arbitrarily fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission, a ruling that applied to other independent federal agencies as well.That ruling, though, has run into a legal theory embraced by conservatives that says the Constitution gives all executive power to the president, the one person who is accountable to the entire American electorate.In the CFPB case in 2020, Roberts brushed aside Justice Elena Kagans complaint that the court was removing a measure of independence from political pressure.Roberts left Humphreys Executor standing, but diminished, even as Justice Clarence Thomas and Gorsuch wrote that they would have gone ahead and overruled it.If I had to speculate, Id say it would be if not outright overruled at least severely constrained, Moreland said.

President Donald Trump is pictured before boarding Air Force One at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-02-10T02:46:09Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin.For far too long the United States has minted pennies which literally cost us more than 2 cents. This is so wasteful! Trump wrote in a post Sunday night on his Truth Social site. I have instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to stop producing new pennies.The move by Trump is the latest in what has been a rapid-fire effort by his new administration to enact sweeping change through executive order and proclamation on issues ranging from immigration, to gender and diversity, to the name of the Gulf of Mexico.Trump had not discussed his desire to eliminate the penny during his campaign. But Elon Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency raised the prospect in a post on X last month highlighting the pennys cost. The U.S. Mint reported losing $85.3 million in the 2024 fiscal year that ended in September on the nearly 3.2 billion pennies it produced. Every penny cost nearly $0.037 up from $0.031 the year before. The mint also loses money on the nickel, with each of the $0.05 coins costing nearly $0.14 to make.It is unclear whether Trump has the power to unilaterally eliminate the lowly one-cent coin. Currency specifications -- including the size and metal content of coins -- are dictated by Congress. But Robert K. Triest, an economics professor at Northeastern University, has argued that there might be wiggle room.The process of discontinuing the penny in the U.S. is a little unclear. It would likely require an act of Congress, but the Secretary of the Treasury might be able to simply stop the minting of new pennies, he said last month.Members of Congress have repeatedly introduced legislation taking aim at the zinc coin with copper plating. Proposals over the years have attempted to temporarily suspend the pennys production, eliminate it from circulation, or require that prices be rounded to the nearest five cents, according to the Congressional Research Service. Proponents of eliminating the coin have cited cost savings, speedier checkouts at cash registers, and the fact that a number of countries have already eliminated their one-cent coins. Canada, for instance, stopped minting its penny in 2012.It wouldnt be the first time the U.S. eliminated its least valuable coin. The half-cent coin was discontinued by Congress in 1857.Trumps new administration has been sharply focused on cutting costs, with Musk, who has been brought on to lead the task, targeting entire agencies and large swaths of the federal workforce as he tries to identify a goal of $2 trillion in savings.Lets rip the waste out of our great nations budget, even if its a penny at a time, Trump wrote in his post.Trump sent the message as he was departing New Orleans after watching the first half of the Super Bowl.___AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report. JILL COLVIN Colvin is an Associated Press national political reporter covering the 2024 presidential campaign. She is based in New York. mailto

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, left, and Friedrich Merz, CDU candidate for chancellor before a TV election debate in Berlin, Sunday Feb. 9, 2025. (Michael Kappeler /dpa via AP)2025-02-09T22:01:04Z BERLIN (AP) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described President Donald Trumps suggestion that the U.S. could take ownership of the Gaza Strip, relocate its population and redevelop it as a scandal in a pre-election debate Sunday. His main challenger also voiced unease but suggested theres a lot of rhetoric coming from Washington.The center-left Scholz and center-right challenger Friedrich Merz, the front-runner in the Feb. 23 election, discussed top domestic issues such as Germanys struggling economy and migration, and also addressed foreign policy three weeks into Trumps new term.Asked what he made of Trumps proposal to redevelop Gaza into the Riviera of the Middle East, Scholz replied: A scandal. Besides that, a really terrible expression, given the extent of the destruction that is now visible there. The relocation of populations is unacceptable and against international law, he added in the debate on ARD and ZDF public television. He pointed to the position of Egypt and Jordan. I share this assessment, Merz said. But it is one of a whole series of proposals coming from the American administration that are certainly disconcerting, but one has to wait and see what is really meant seriously and how it is implemented theres probably a lot of rhetoric in this. The two candidates differed in their assessment of a Trump order directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes male and female. Merz said it is a decision I can understand. I think its inappropriate, Scholz said. Every person should be happy the way they want to be happy.Merz said the new U.S. president is predictably unpredictable. He said that there are significant concerns on this side of the Atlantic about what else is coming; so its all the more important that we on this side of the Atlantic are as united as possible. He said that, if elected, he would put a great deal of effort into ensuring such European unity. Scholz said that his strategy for dealing with Trump is clear words and friendly conversations. He pointed to his public statements after Trump said he wouldnt rule out the use of military force to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland that all countries must respect existing borders.He also pointed to the importance of European unity and said he and other countries are working on proposals to increase NATOs presence in Greenland.Asked about a response to possible U.S. tariffs against the EU, Scholz said: We are prepared ... We can act in an hour as the European Union.

A flag is raised during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)2025-02-10T07:05:21Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) A performer at Kendrick Lamars Super Bowl halftime show unfurled a flag referencing both Sudan and the Gaza Strip, providing a brief protest referencing two wars shaking the Middle East. Security at the stadium detained the performer shortly after waving the flag atop a car used as a prop in the performance. Its unclear if the performer, as of yet unnamed by authorities, would face any charges. The NFL said the person would be banned for life from NFL stadiums and events, while the company behind the halftime show said it was not part of the planned performance. But whats happening in Gaza and Sudan? And how does it affect the wider world? The Associated Press explains whats going on. Whats happening in the Gaza Strip?The Gaza Strip is an enclave along the Mediterranean Sea bordered by both Egypt and Israel. Its some 360 square kilometers (140 square miles) about the twice the size of Washington and 3 times the size of Paris. But its incredibly densely populated and was home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the start of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war. That war began when Hamas, a militant group thats ruled Gaza since 2007, stormed across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Israel responded with a devastating ground and air campaign striking across Gaza, killing more than 47,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Much of the territory has been obliterated. A ceasefire in the war began Jan. 19 and is still holding. Palestinian militants have freed hostages while Israel has released Palestinians held in prisons there. However, worries remains over whether the peace will hold. Comments by President Donald Trump, who was on hand Sunday night for the Super Bowl, suggesting the U.S. was committed to buying and owning Gaza, also have upended discussions about the enclaves future. AP @ the Super Bowl Live coverage from both on and off the field. What time does the Super Bowl start? Our guide to the game The ads youll be watching Kendrick Lamar is ready for halftime See who won the AP MVP and other awards The Palestinians want the Gaza Strip and the West Bank for a future state of their own, with east Jerusalem as its capital. That long-sought, two-state solution for the decadeslong conflict is backed by Mideast nations and much of the international community. Israel has expressed openness to the idea of resettling Gazas population, with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday calling it a revolutionary, creative vision. Hamas, the Palestinians and much of the world have rejected it. Whats happening in Sudan? Sudan, a nation in East Africa, has been unstable since a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. A short-lived transition to democracy was derailed when army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces led a military coup in 2021.The RSF and Sudans military began fighting each other in 2023. Their conflict has killed more than 28,000 people, forced millions to flee their homes and left some families eating grass in a desperate attempt to survive as famine sweeps parts of the country. Other estimates suggest a far higher death toll in the civil war. In recent weeks, Burhans forces including Sudans military and allied militias have advanced against the RSF. They retook a key refinery north of Khartoum, Sudans capital. Theyve also pushed in on RSF positions around Khartoum itself. That fighting has led to an increase in civilian casualties. From Jan. 31 until Feb. 5, the U.N.s Human Rights Office documented at least 275 civilian deaths from artillery, airstrikes and drone assaults.Indiscriminate attacks, as well as threats and attacks directed against civilians must cease immediately, said Seif Magango, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Office. The Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces and their allied movements and militias must respect their international law obligations and take concrete steps to protect civilians from harm, including humanitarian workers and human rights defenders. Have these wars come up in popular culture before?Online, activists have sought to draw attention to both the Gaza Strip and Sudan, though the conflicts have different roots and participants. However, the idea of the two conflicts being linked by their devastation has been made by celebrities. In August, American rapper Macklemore said he canceled a concert in Dubai over the United Arab Emirates role in the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis in Sudan through its reported support of the paramilitary force thats been fighting government troops there. While the UAE repeatedly has denied arming the RSF, U.N. experts reported credible evidence last year showed that the Emirates sent weapons to the RSF several times a week from northern Chad.Macklemore at the time said he reconsidered the show in part over his recent, public support of Palestinians over the Israel-Hamas war. He has been performing a song called Hinds Hall, in honor of a young girl named Hind Rajab killed in Gaza in a shooting Palestinians have blamed on Israeli forces opening fire on a civilian car. 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

U.S. Vice President JD Vance looks on prior to boarding Air Force Two for travel to France from Joint Base Andrews, Md., Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Leah Millis/Pool Photo via A)2025-02-10T06:02:04Z PARIS (AP) Major world political leaders are meeting for an AI summit in Paris, where challenging diplomatic talks are expected while tech titans fight for dominance in the fast-moving technology industry.Heads of state, top government officials, CEOs and scientists from around 100 countries are participating in the two-day international summit starting Monday. High-profile attendees include U.S. Vice President JD Vance, on his first overseas trip since taking office, and Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing.Were living a technology and scientific revolution weve rarely seen, French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday on national television France 2. France and Europe must seize the opportunity because AI will enable us to live better, learn better, work better, care better and its up to us to put this artificial intelligence at the service of human beings, he said. Vances debut abroadThe summit will give some European leaders a chance to meet Vance for the first time. The 40-year-old vice president was just 18 months into his time as Ohios junior senator when Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.On Tuesday, Vance will have a working lunch with Macron, with discussions on Ukraine and the Middle East on the menu. Vance, like President Donald Trump, has questioned U.S. spending on Ukraine and the approach to isolating Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump promised to end the fighting within six months of taking office. Vance will attend later this week the Munich Security Conference, where he may meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The vice president was joined by his wife Usha and their three children Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel for the trip to Europe.Leaders in Europe have been watching carefully Trumps recent statements on threats to impose tariffs on the European Union, take control of Greenland and his suggestion that Palestinians clear out Gaza once the fighting in the Israel-Hamas conflict ends an idea thats been flatly rejected by Arab allies. Fostering AI advancesThe summit, which gathers major players such as Google, Microsoft and OpenAI, aims at fostering AI advances in sectors like health, education, environment and culture. A global public-private partnership named Current AI is to be launched to support large-scale initiatives that serve the general interest. The Paris summit is the first time well have had such a broad international discussion in one place on the future of AI, said Linda Griffin, vice president of public policy at Mozilla. I see it as a norm-setting moment.Nick Reiners, senior geotechnology analyst at Eurasia Group, noted an opportunity to shape AI governance in a new direction by moving away from this concentration of power amongst a handful of private actors and building this public interest AI instead.However, it remains unclear if the U.S. will support such initiatives.French organizers also hope the summit will lead to major investment announcements in Europe. France is to announce AI private investments worth a total of 109 billion euros ($113 billion) over the coming years, Macron said, presenting it as the equivalent of Trumps Stargate AI data centers project. Indian PM co-hosting the summitIndias Prime Minister Narendra Modi is co-hosting the summit with Macron, in an effort to involve more global actors in AI development and prevent the sector from becoming a U.S.-China battle. Indias foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, stressed the need for equitable access to AI to avoid perpetuating a digital divide that is already existing across the world.Macron will also travel Wednesday with Modi to the southern city port of Marseille to inaugurate a new Indian consulate and visit the ITER nuclear research site. France has become a key defense partner for India, with talks underway on purchasing 26 Rafale fighter jets and three Scorpene submarines. Officials in New Delhi said discussions are in final phase and the deal could be inked in a few weeks.___AP journalists Kelvin Chan in Paris and Aijaz Hussain in New Delhi contributed to this report. SYLVIE CORBET Corbet is an Associated Press reporter based in Paris. She covers French politics, diplomacy and defense as well as gender issues and breaking news. twitter AAMER MADHANI Aamer Madhani is a White House reporter. twitter mailto

Palestinian motorists waiting in line at the Ein Senia Israeli army checkpoint are seen through an iron gate north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)2025-02-10T05:13:13Z RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) Abdullah Fauzi, a banker from the northern West Bank city of Nablus, leaves home at 4 a.m. to reach his job by 8, and hes often late.His commute used to take an hour until Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, after which Israel launched its offensive in the Gaza Strip.The Israeli military also ramped up raids against Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, and diverted its residents through seven new checkpoints, doubling Fauzis time on the road.Now its gotten worse. Since the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas took effect, Fauzis drive to the West Banks business and administrative hub, Ramallah, has become a convoluted, at least four-hour wiggle through steep lanes and farm roads as Israel further tightens the noose around Palestinian cities in measures it considers essential to guard against militant attacks. You can fly to Paris while were not reaching our homes, the 42-year-old said from the Atara checkpoint outside Ramallah last week, as Israeli soldiers searched scores of cars, one by one. Whatever this is, theyve planned it well, he said. Its well-designed to make our life hell. A ceasefire begets violenceAs the truce between Israel and Hamas took hold on Jan. 19, radical Israeli settlers incensed over an apparent end to the war and the release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Israeli hostages rampaged through West Bank towns, torching cars and homes. Two days later, Israeli forces with drones and attack helicopters descended on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, long a center of militant activity. More checkpoints started going up between Palestinian cities, slicing up the occupied West Bank and creating choke points the Israeli army can shut off on a whim. Crossings that had been open 24/7 started closing during morning and evening rush hours, upturning the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. New barriers earthen mounds, iron gates multiplied, pushing Palestinian cars off well-paved roads and onto rutted paths through open fields. What was once a soldiers glance and head tilt became international border-like inspections. Israel says the measures are to prevent Hamas from opening a new front in the West Bank. But many experts suspect the crackdown has more to do with assuaging settler leaders like Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister and an important ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has threatened to topple the government if Israel does not restart the war in Gaza.Israel now has a free hand to pursue what it has wanted to in the West Bank for a long time: settlement expansion, annexation, said Tahani Mustafa, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. It was considered a potential trade-off.Asked why Israel launched the crackdown during the ceasefire, the Israeli military said politicians gave the order in part over concerns that the release of Palestinian prisoners in swaps for Israeli hostages held by Hamas could raise tensions in the West Bank.The checkpoints all over the West Bank, it said, were to ensure safe movement and expand inspections.Checkpoints are a tool we use in the fight against terror, enabling civilian movement while providing a layer of screening to prevent terrorists from escaping, said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesman. Life disrupted To spend rush hour at an Israeli checkpoint is to hear of the problems it has brought Palestinian families divided, money lost, trade disrupted, sick people kept from doctors.Ahmed Jibril said not even his position as manager of emergency services for the Palestinian Red Crescent protects him.Were treated like any other private car, he said, describing dozens of cases in which Israeli soldiers forced ambulances to wait for inspection when they were responding to emergency calls.In one case, on Jan. 21, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported that a 46-year-old woman who had suffered a heart attack in the southern city of Hebron died while waiting to cross a checkpoint. The Israeli military said it was not aware of that specific incident. But citing Hamas use of civilian infrastructure like hospitals to conceal fighters, the army acknowledged subjecting medical teams to security checks while trying to reduce the delay as much as possible in order to mitigate harm. The U.N. humanitarian agency, or OCHA, reported that, as of last Nov. 28, Israel had 793 checkpoints and roadblocks in the West Bank, 228 more than before the war in Gaza. The agency hasnt updated the tally since the ceasefire, but its latest report noted a surge in suffocating restrictions that are tearing communities apart and largely paralyzing daily life. A bubble burstsWith its upscale restaurants and yoga studios, Ramallah gained a reputation in past conflicts for being something of a well-to-do bubble where cafe-hopping residents can feel immune to the harsh realities of the occupation. Now its residents, struck in numbingly long lines to run simple errands, feel under siege.All we want to do is go home, said Mary Elia, 70, stalled with her husband for nearly two hours at the Ein Senia checkpoint north of Ramallah last week, as they made their way home to east Jerusalem from their daughters house. Are we meant to never see our grandchildren? Suddenly, her face contorted in discomfort. She had to urinate, she said, and there were hours to go before they crossed.A national obsessionRoll down the window at a bottlenecked checkpoint and the same soothing female voice can be heard emanating from countless car radios, reeling off every Israeli checkpoint, followed by salik Arabic for open or mughlaq, closed, based on the conditions of the moment. These reports recently beat out weather broadcasts for top slot on the West Bank radio lineup. Almost every Palestinian driver seems able to expound on the latest checkpoint operating hours, the minutiae of soldiers mood changes and fiercely defended opinions about the most efficient detours.I didnt ask for a Ph.D. in this, said Yasin Fityani, 30, an engineer stuck in line to leave Ramallah for work, scrolling through new checkpoint-dedicated WhatsApp groups filled with footage of soldiers installing cement barriers and fistfights erupting over someone cutting the line.Lost time, lost moneyIt was the second time in as many weeks that his boss at the Jerusalem bus company called off his morning shift because he was late. Worse still for Nidal Al-Maghribi, 34, it was too dangerous to back out of the queue of frustrated motorists waiting to pass Jaba checkpoint, which severs his east Jerusalem neighborhood from the rest of the city. Another full days work wasted in his car.What am I supposed to tell my wife? he asked, pausing to keep his composure. This job is how I feed my kids.Palestinian trucks, packed with perishable food and construction materials, are not spared the scrutiny. Soldiers often ask truckers to pull over and unload their cargo for inspection. Fruit rots. Textiles and electronics get damaged.The delays raise prices, further choking a Palestinian economy that shrank 28% last year as a result of punitive Israeli policies imposed after Hamas attack, said Palestinian Economy Minister Mohammad Alamour. Israels ban on most Palestinian workers has left 30% of the West Banks workforce jobless.These barriers do everything except their stated purpose of providing security, Alamour said. They pressure the Palestinian people and the Palestinian economy. They make people want to leave their country. ISABEL DEBRE DeBre writes about Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay for The Associated Press, based in Buenos Aires. Before moving to South America in 2024, she covered the Middle East reporting from Jerusalem, Cairo and Dubai. twitter mailto

Free Syrian Army fighters walk through tunnels built by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces under the town of Tel Rifaat in the Aleppo region of northern Syria, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)2025-02-10T05:04:06Z TEL RIFAAT, Syria (AP) The long anticipated return home for residents of the Syrian town of Tel Rifaat, displaced since 2014, has collided with a painful reality scars of war, streets lined with rubble and ruins standing in place of their homes. Years of fighting and military fortifications have left an unmistakable mark on the town, a key flashpoint in the conflict between Syrian Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups in northern Syria.During Syrias civil war, Tel Rifaat became part of the repeated cycles of fighting and displacement that have played out since 2011. Syrian Kurdish forces took control of the town in 2016, displacing most of its population. In other places, like the town of Afrin, Kurdish resident were displaced after Turkish-backed forces took control, and many fled to Tel Rifaat. In December, during a lightning offensive by Syrian rebels that ousted President Bashar Assad, the tables were turned again as Turkish-backed rebels seized Tel Rifaat from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF. Those who have returned to Tel Rifaat since then were met with an unexpected discovery a vast network of underground tunnels that local authorities say were dug during the time when the SDF controlled the area. The network, built for military use, runs beneath homes, schools, and public buildings, weakening the structures on the ground above. Some walls have cracked and what remains lies on an unstable foundation, making reconstruction even more difficult and adding to the challenges of rebuilding the town. Inside their homes, returning families met with further signs of loss. Doors hang from broken hinges, walls are scarred by neglect, and rooms have been stripped of essentials wiring, plumbing, even furniture. Nothing valuable has been left behind. Signs of hurried departures are everywhere abandoned belongings, scattered debris, and makeshift barricades hastily dismantled. On the towns outskirts, a concrete wall, once a military barrier, cuts through parts of the town. Built by the SDF fighters as a defensive structure, it now stands an unwanted remnant of the past, blocking access to farmland.Infrastructure is poor, with water and electricity networks barely functional. Still, despite the destruction or perhaps because of it, the people of Tel Rifaat say they are busy clearing the rubble and getting their lives back on track.

A Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) feeds on agave nectar in Nuevo Len, Mexico, in July 2022. (Chris Galloway/Horizonline Pictures/Bat Conservation International via AP)2025-02-10T05:05:03Z FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) Scientists have long suspected that Mexican long-nosed bats migrate through southeastern Arizona, but without capturing and measuring the night-flying creatures, proof has been elusive.Researchers say they now have a way to tell the endangered species apart from other bats by analyzing saliva the nocturnal mammals leave behind when sipping nectar from plants and residential hummingbird feeders. Bat Conservation International, a nonprofit group working to end the extinction of bat species worldwide, teamed up with residents from southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico and west Texas for the saliva swabbing campaign.The samples of saliva left along potential migration routes were sent to a lab at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, where researchers looked for environmental DNA or eDNA to confirm that the bats cycle through Arizona and consider the region their part-time home. The Mexican long-nosed bat has been listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act since 1988, and is the only one in Arizona with that federal protection. It is an important species for pollinating cactus, agave and other desert plants. Officials from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Arizona Game and Fish Department announced the discovery in late January. While expanding Arizonas list of bat species to 29 is exciting, wildlife managers say the use of this novel, noninvasive method to nail it down also deserves to be celebrated. If we were trying to identify the species in the absence of eDNA, biologists could spend hours and hours trying to catch one of these bats, and even then, youre not guaranteed to be successful, said Angie McIntire, a bat specialist for the Arizonas Game and Fish Department. By sampling the environment, eDNA gives us an additional tool for our toolkit.Every spring, Mexican long-nosed bats traverse a lengthy migratory path north from Mexico into the southwestern U.S., following the sweet nectar of their favorite blooming plants like breadcrumbs. They return along the same route in the fall. The bat conservation group recruited ordinary citizens for the mission, giving them kits to swab samples from bird feeders throughout the summer and fall.Inside the university lab, microbiology major Anna Riley extracted the DNA from hundreds of samples and ran them through machines that ultimately could detect the presence of bats. Part of the work involved a steady hand, with Riley using a syringe of sorts to transfer diluted DNA into tiny vials before popping them into a centrifuge.Sample after sample, vial after vial, the meticulous work took months.Theres a big database that has DNA sequences of not every animal but most species, and so we could compare our DNA sequences we got from these samples to whats in the database, Riley said. A little bit like a Google search youve got your question, youre asking Google, you plug it into the database, and it turns up youve got a bat, and you have this kind of bat. Kristen Lear, of the conservation group, said the collection of eDNA has been used successfully for determining the presence of other kinds of wildlife in various environments, so the group proposed trying it with bats.They do apparently leave behind a lot of spit on these plants and hummingbird feeders, Lear said.___ONeil reported from Las Vegas. Gabriel Sandoval, a corps member for the Associated Press/ Report for America Statehouse News Initiative, in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (1) scores against the Kansas City Chiefs during the first half of the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)2025-02-10T07:45:52Z NEW ORLEANS (AP) The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 40--22 in the first Super Bowl to be held in New Orleans in a dozen years. It was played amid heavy security and with President Donald Trump in attendance just 41 days after a man plowed a truck into New Years revelers on Bourbon Street.There were tributes before the game, and some big plays during it.Heres a look at some of the more memorable moments from Sunday nights NFL title tilt. Fly Eagles Fly The Eagles convincingly captured the second Super Bowl trophy in franchise history while preventing Kansas City from achieving the first three-peat of the NFLs Super Bowl era. Hurts opened scoring on Philadelphias patented tush push play from 1 yard out in the first quarter. Rookie defensive back Cooper DeJean returned an interception 38 yards for a score and Hurts found A.J. Brown with a 12-yard scoring pass that gave the Eagles a stunning 24-0 lead at halftime.The Eagles widened their lead to 34-0 in the third quarter on Hurts 46-yard scoring strike deep down the middle to DeVonta Smith before Kansas City finally got on the board. We were here to play the game and make sure that green confetti fell at the end, Brown said.Virtually all the Chiefs points were academic, but made Patrick Mahomes statistical line (257 yards passing and three TDs) look a lot better than they did after one of his worst first halves of football as a pro. Defensive dominanceThe Eagles held Mahomes to just 6 of 14 passing for 33 yards in the first half, and also became the first NFL team to sack Mahomes as many as three times and intercept him twice in the first half of any regular-season or playoff game.DeJean, who also was celebrating his 22nd birthday on Sunday, made it 17-0 with his interception return in the second quarter. He undercut a pass intended for DeAndre Hopkins and crossed most of the field before weaving his way through pursuing Chiefs players near the Eagles sideline during the final 5 yards of his return. Late in the second quarter, former New Orleans Saints linebacker Zach Baun made a diving interception of a Mahomes pass at the Kansas City 14, setting up Hurts TD pass to Brown.Philadelphia finished with six sacks of Mahomes, the most the Chiefs QB has taken in a game in his NFL career. We didnt pressure much, Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. Hes so good against pressure that I was hoping we could play the game without having to pressure much and that happened.Rushing record Philadelphias Saquon Barkley, the AP Offensive Player of the Year, completed the most prolific NFL season ever by a running back.Barkley entered the Super Bowl needing 30 yards to break the record of 2,476 yards rushing set by Terrell Davis in 1998, when he helped the Denver Broncos win the Super Bowl. Barkley had 31 by halftime and finished with 57 yards, giving him 2,504 yards in 20 games. Davis set his mark in 18 contests. Presidential visit Trump became the first sitting US president to attend a Super Bowl.Trump spent a few minutes on the field before he headed to his suite to watch the game with Saints owner Gayle Benson, along with several lawmakers and family members.After entering through a tunnel near the Chiefs end of the field, Trump greeted first responders and victims of the New Years Day attack in the French Quarter.He was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from fans.As expected, Trump left the game after halftime.Before Trump exited, Mahomes mother, brother and sister posed for a photo with him.Kendrick LamarWith actor Samuel L. Jackson serving as emcee and dressed like Uncle Sam, Kendrick Lamar opened his halftime performance crouched atop a Buick Grand National Experimental the car for which his newest album, GNX, is named.Dancers wearing red, white and blue came pouring out of the car and moved in sync to songs such as Humble.Guest star SZA later joined Lamar for their slow-jam-style collaboration Luther.Near the conclusion of his performance, Lamar transitioned to Not Like Us, which won him Grammys for song of the year and record of the year. The song also takes shots at rival artist Drake, who has sued the Universal Music Group record label for defamation over the track. Big Easy bashWhat is already considered Carnival season in New Orleans it runs from Twelfth Night through Mardi Gras Day was ramped up even more with a week of Super Bowl-related festivities.The NFL Honors awards show was held at the historic Saenger Theater, where Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen was named AP NFL Most Valuable Player for the 2024 season, and the Minnesota Vikings Kevin OConnell was named AP NFL Coach of the Year.But nothing, it seemed, was more talked about than 72-year-old former NFL coach Bill Belichick now the coach of the North Carolina Tarheels arriving on the red carpet with 24-year-old girlfriend Jordon Hudson. Meanwhile, there were parties all over town, with several popular restaurants and cocktail bars from Nina Comptons Compere Lapin to the Columns Hotel and Hot Tin bar atop the roof of the Pontchartrain Hotel rented out for Super Bowl visitors private events.While there was a heavy law enforcement presence, it didnt stop crowds from flocking to the famed French Quarter.New Orleans flairPregame performances were highlighted by several musical artists from Louisiana.Harry Connick Jr. performed a rendition of Professor Longhairs, Go to the Mardi Gras. Terence Blanchard joined the Southern University Band, nicknamed the Human Jukebox, to perform Teddy Swims Lose Control.Trombone Shorty joined singer Lauren Daigle to perform America the Beautiful, and Jon Batiste sang The Star Spangled Banner, while playing a grand piano at midfield.Somber remembrances Shortly before the coin toss, New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan introduced local first responders who responded to the Jan. 1 terrorist attack on Bourbon Street.Each of them held a photo of one of the 14 New Years revelers who died in the attack.Family members of two of the victims Tiger Bech and Matthew Tenedorio were on the field as honorary captains.Together, we rise. Together, we heal. Together we will carry your memory with us forever, Jordan said.___AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A Palestinian man wearing a red shirt, left, stands amidst the rubble of destroyed buildings, watching Israeli soldiers, bottom right, take position in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)2025-02-10T09:48:56Z Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan again rejected a U.S. proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza and said Israel should pay for the damage it caused there and for reconstruction to begin.We do not consider the proposal to exile the Palestinians from the lands they have lived in for thousands of years as something to be taken seriously, Erdogan said during a visit to Malaysia on Monday.No one has the power to force the Palestinian people to experience a second Nakba, he added, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.Erdogan, who is on a four-day tour of Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan, highlighted the severe destruction in Gaza.He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government should look for funds to compensate for what he said was damage amounting to $100 billion instead of looking for a place for the people of Gaza.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, attends the 47th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP, File)2025-02-10T11:25:23Z LONDON (AP) The head of the U.N. AIDS agency said Monday the number of new HIV infections could jump more than six times by 2029 if American support of the biggest AIDS program is dropped, warning that millions of people could die and more resistant strains of the disease could emerge.In an interview with The Associated Press, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said HIV infections have been falling in recent years, with just 1.3 million new cases recorded in 2023, a 60% decline since the virus peaked in 1995. But since President Donald Trumps announcement the U.S. would freeze all foreign assistance for 90 days, Byanyima said officials estimate that by 2029, there could be 8.7 million people newly infected with HIV, a tenfold jump in AIDS-related deaths to 6.3 million and an additional 3.4 million children made orphans. We will see a surge in this disease, Byanyima said, speaking from Uganda. This will cost lives if the American government doesnt change its mind and maintain its leadership, she said, adding that it was not her place to criticize any governments policy. Byanyima pleaded with the Trump administration not to abruptly cut off funding, which she said has resulted in panic, fear and confusion in many of the African countries hardest hit by AIDS. In one Kenyan county, she said 550 HIV workers were immediately laid off, while thousands of others in Ethiopia were terminated, leaving health officials unable to track the epidemic. She noted that the loss of U.S. funding to HIV programs in some countries was catastrophic, with external funding, mostly from the U.S., accounting for about 90% of their programs. Nearly $400 million goes to countries like Uganda, Mozambique and Tanzania, she said.We can work with (the Americans) on how to decrease their contribution if they wish to decrease it, she said. Byanyima described the American withdrawal from global HIV efforts as the second biggest crisis the field has ever faced after the years-long delay it took for poor countries to get the lifesaving antiretrovirals long available in rich countries. Byanyima also said the loss of American support in efforts to combat HIV was coming at another critical time, with the arrival of what she called a magical prevention tool known as lenacapavir, a twice-yearly shot that was shown to offer complete protection against HIV in women, and which worked nearly as well as for men. Widespread use of that shot, in addition to other interventions to stop HIV, could help end the disease as a public health problem in the next five years, Byanyima said.She also noted that lenacapavir, sold as Sunlenca, was developed by the American company Gilead.International aid, Byanyima said, helped an American company to innovate, to come up with something that will pay them millions and millions, but at the same time prevent new infections in the rest of the world. The freeze in American funding, she said, didnt make economic sense.We appeal to the U.S. government to review this, to understand that this is mutually beneficial, she said, noting that foreign assistance makes up less than 1% of the overall U.S. budget. Why would you need to be so disruptive for that 1%? Byanyima said that so far, no other countries or donors have stepped up to fill the void that will be left by the loss of American aid, but that she plans to visit numerous European capitals to speak with global leaders.People are going to die because lifesaving tools have been taken away from them, she said. I have not yet heard of any European country committing to step in, but I know they are listening and trying to see where they can come in because they care about rights, about humanity. ___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.