The shutdown of online discourse within Iran has allowed both the government and its critics to flood social media outside the country with disinformation campaigns and fake images.

The ride-hailing giants chief executive has made a bet on how it can finally grab a bigger piece of one of the worlds largest taxi markets.

The Trump administration acknowledged it mistakenly deported a college student to Honduras despite a court order barring the removal. But the government has not moved to drop the case.

Newly available videos and existing footage synchronized and assessed by The Times provides a millisecond by millisecond look at how an ICE officer ended up shooting and killing a motorist in Minneapolis.

The bulwark of Iranian oppression is fear. The latest round of demonstrations shows it has been breached.

The Warriors kept their focus on the court, saying the talk of Jonathan Kuminga's trade demand was "not a distraction" in Thursday's win over the Knicks.

A court handed down five years in prison to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is facing multiple trials stemming from his short-lived imposition of martial law.

China will in turn cut its own tariffs on Canadian canola products. The countries leaders met in Beijing on Friday and hailed a new strategic partnership.

Two conversations this week confirmed that President Trump backs the remnants of Nicols Maduros regime over the Venezuelan opposition seeking to hold elections.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, left, and Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells speak to the media during a visit to St John Paul II College in Canberra, Australia, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Lukas Coch/AAP Image via AP)2026-01-16T04:31:08Z WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Social media companies have revoked access to about 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children in Australia since the country banned use of the platforms by those under 16, officials said.We stared down everybody who said it couldnt be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters, communications minister Anika Wells told reporters on Friday. Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.The figures, reported to Australias government by 10 social media platforms, were the first to show the scale of the landmark ban since it was enacted in December over fears about the effects of harmful online environments on young people. The law provoked fraught debates in Australia about technology use, privacy, child safety and mental health and has prompted other countries to consider similar measures. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Officials said the figure was encouragingUnder Australian law, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33.2 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16. Messaging services such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger are exempt.To verify age, platforms can either request copies of identification documents, use a third party to apply age estimation technology to an account holders face, or make inferences from data already available such has how long an account has been held.About 2.5 million Australians are aged between 8 and 15, said the countrys eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, and past estimates suggested 84% of 8- to 12-year-olds held social media accounts. It was not known how many accounts were held across the 10 platforms but Inman Grant said the figure of 4.7 million deactivated or restricted was encouraging. Were preventing predatory social media companies from accessing our children, Inman Grant said. The 10 biggest companies covered by the ban were compliant with it and had reported removal figures to Australias regulator on time, the commissioner said. She added that social media companies were expected to shift their efforts from enforcing the ban to preventing children from creating new accounts or otherwise circumventing the prohibition.Meta removed 550,000 accountsAustralian officials didnt break the figures down by platform. But Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said this week that by the day after the ban came into effect it had removed nearly 550,000 accounts belonging to users understood to be under 16.In the blog post divulging the figures, Meta criticized the ban and said smaller platforms where the ban doesnt apply might not prioritize safety. The company also noted browsing platforms would still present content to children based on algorithms a concern that led to the bans enactment.The law was widely popular among parents and child safety campaigners. Online privacy advocates and some groups representing teenagers opposed it, with the latter citing the support found in online spaces by vulnerable young people or those geographically isolated in Australias sprawling rural areas.Some said they had managed to fool age assessing technologies or were helped by parents or older siblings to circumvent the ban. Other countries might followSince Australia began debating the measures in 2024, other countries have considered following suit. Denmarks government is among them, saying in November that it had planned to implement a social media ban for children under 15.The fact that in spite of some skepticism out there, its working and being replicated now around the world, is something that is a source of Australian pride, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday.Opposition lawmakers have suggested that young people have circumvented the ban easily or are migrating to other apps that are less scrutinized than the largest platforms. Inman Grant said Friday that data seen by her office showed a spike in downloads of alternative apps when the ban was enacted but not a spike in usage. There is no real long-term trends yet that we can say but were engaging, she said.Meanwhile, she said, the regulator she heads planned to introduce world-leading AI companion and chatbot restrictions in March. She didnt disclose further details. CHARLOTTE GRAHAM-MCLAY Graham-McLay is an Associated Press reporter covering regional and national stories about New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands by putting them in a global context. She is based in Wellington. twitter mailto

Trader Michael Capolino works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)2026-01-16T05:57:38Z BANGKOK (AP) Asian shares were mixed Friday after Wall Street broke a two-day losing streak and edged back toward record levels, helped by advances for Big Tech companies like Nvidia. U.S. futures advanced and oil prices slipped. Tech shares regained momentum after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a major supplier to the industry, reported strong profits and investment plans. TSMC gained 3% early Friday and Taiwans benchmark Taiex was up 1.9%.The frenzy around AI has sent Nvidia and other superstar stocks to dizzying heights, stirring criticism that their prices had shot too high. Nvidia rose 2.1% on Thursday after TSMCs Chief Financial Officer Wendell Huang said its seeing continued strong demand in an encouraging signal for the entire AI industry.TSMCs stock that trades in the United States rose 4.4% on Thursday. The gains also followed the signing of a U.S.-Taiwan trade deal involving $250 billion in new investments by Taiwans semiconductor and tech companies in the U.S. In exchange, the Trump administration will cut tariffs on Taiwanese goods. The deal aims to establish a strategic economic partnership and upgrade U.S. industrial infrastructure. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 shed 0.3% to 53,936.17, while Hong Kongs Hang Seng gave up 0.6% to 26,770.56. The Shanghai Composite index lost 0.3% to 4,101.91. China is due to report its economic growth data for 2025 on Monday. Forecasts are for the economy to have expanded at about a 4.5% annual pace, slowing from earlier in the year. Elsewhere in Asia, South Koreas Kospi rose 0.9% to a record 4,840.74. The benchmark has been trading at record highs for weeks, helped by a recovery in confidence in AI-related shares. Samsung Electronics gained 3.5%. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.5% to 8,903.90. Indias Sensex rose 0.4%. Wall Street steadied on Thursday as stocks related to artificial-intelligence bounced back. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to 23,530.02.Easing oil prices also helped to calm investors jitters. Early Friday, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude cost $59.21, up 14 cents from a day earlier. It sank 4.6% on Thursday after Trump said he had heard on good authority that plans for executions in Iran had stopped amid widespread protests against the countrys leadership.Brent crude, the international standard, added 10 cents to $63.86 per barrel. It dropped 4.1% on Thursday. Financial markets took Trumps comments about Iran as a signal that tensions flaring above some of the worlds largest oil deposits could ease, which in turn could lower the possibility of disruptions to oil supplies. Earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies continued to pick up pace, meanwhile, with several more big financial companies delivering their results for the last three months of 2025.As we dive into the heart of earnings season in the coming weeks, tech results will be scrutinized in far greater detail., Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary. Concerns around circular AI deals, leverage and delayed returns on investment remain front of mind for investors. These are compounded by rising electricity and metals costs, higher memory-chip prices, and the risk of supply disruptions, she said. BlackRock, the giant thats now overseeing more than $14 trillion in investments, rose 5.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than analysts expected.Encouraging reports on the U.S. economy contributed to the upbeat mood.One said fewer workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in an indication layoffs may be slowing. Other reports said manufacturing was significantly stronger in the mid-Atlantic region and in New York state than economists had forecast. The stronger-than-expected data on the U.S. economy helped stocks of smaller companies to lead the market. Their profits can be tied more closely to the strength of the U.S. economy than their bigger, multinational rivals, and the Russell 2000 index rose 0.9%.In other dealings early Friday, the U.S. dollar fell to 158.19 Japanese yen from 158.63 yen. The euro rose to $1.1614 from $1.1609. ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the APs business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Anam Petit, a former Justice Department employee, poses for a portrait in the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Moriah Ratner)2026-01-16T05:03:36Z WASHINGTON (AP) Michael BenAry was driving one of his children to soccer practice on an October evening last year when he paused at a red light to check his work phone. He was in the middle of a counterterrorism prosecution so important that President Donald Trump highlighted it in his State of the Union address.BenAry said he was shocked to see his phone had been disabled. He found the explanation later in his personal email account, a letter informing him he had been fired.A veteran prosecutor, BenAry handled high-profile cases over two decades at the Justice Department, including the murder of a Drug Enforcement Administration agent and a suicide-bomb plot targeting the U.S. Capitol. Most recently he was leading the case arising from a deadly attack on American service members in Afghanistan.Yet the same credentials that enhanced BenArys resume spelled the undoing of his government career. His termination without explanation came hours after right-wing commentator Julie Kelly told hundreds of thousands of online followers that he had previously served as a senior counsel to Lisa Monaco, the No. 2 Justice Department official in the Biden administration. Kelly also suggested BenAry was part of the internal resistance to prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey, even though BenAry was never involved in the case. As Attorney General Pam Bondi approaches her first year on the job, the firings of attorneys like BenAry have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience and left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark for the rule of law at a time when Trump is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies. Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The departures include lawyers who prosecuted violent attacks on police at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, environmental, civil rights and ethics enforcers, counterterrorism prosecutors, immigration judges and attorneys who defend administration policies. They continued this week, when several prosecutors in Minnesota moved to resign amid turmoil over an investigation into the shooting of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. To lose people at that career level, people who otherwise intended to stay and now are either being discharged or themselves are walking away, is immensely damaging to the public interest, said Stuart Gerson, a senior official in the George H.W. Bush administration and acting attorney general early in the Clinton administration. Were losing really capable people, people who have never viewed themselves as political and attempted to do the right thing.Justice Connection, a network of department alumni, estimates that more than 230 lawyers, agents and other employees from across the department were fired last year apparently because of their work on cases they were assigned, past criticism of Trump or seemingly no reason. More than 6,400 employees are estimated to have left a department that at the end of 2025 had roughly 108,000, the group says. The Justice Department, for its part, says it has hired thousands of career attorneys over the last year. The Trump administration has characterized some of the fired and departed workers as out-of-step with its agenda.BenAry left with unfinished business, including the prosecution stemming from the Kabul airport bombing and the national security unit he led at the U.S. attorneys office for the Eastern District of Virginia.Left to pack his belongings, he posted a typed note near his door that functioned as a distress call, reminding colleagues they had sworn an oath to follow the facts without fear or favor and unhindered by political interference.But, he warned, In recent months, the political leadership of the Department have violated these principles, jeopardizing our national security and making Americans less safe. _____ Unparalleled in scale, scope and motivationSince its founding in 1870, the Justice Department has occupied elevated status in American democracy, sustained through transitions of power by reliance on facts, evidence and law. To be sure, there has always been a political component to the department, with lawyers appointed by the president.But even during turbulent times, when attorneys general have been pushed out by presidents or resigned rather than accede to White House demands as in the Watergate-era Saturday Night Massacre the departments rank-and-file have generally been insulated thanks to long-recognized civil service protections.This is completely unprecedented in both its scale and scope and underlying motivation, said Peter Keisler, a senior official in the George W. Bush Justice Department. In his first term, Trump pushed out one attorney general and accepted anothers resignation but the workforce remained largely intact. He returned to office seething over Biden-era prosecutions of him, vowing retribution.The firings began even before Bondi arrived last February. Prosecutors on special counsel Jack Smiths team that investigated Trump were terminated days after the inauguration, followed by prosecutors hired on temporary assignments for cases resulting from the 2021 Capitol insurrection.The people working on these cases were not political agents of any kind, said Aliya Khalidi, a Jan. 6 prosecutor who was fired. Its all people who just care about the rule of law.The firings have continued, at times surgical, at times random almost always without explanation. Adam Schleifer, a Los Angeles prosecutor targeted in a social media post by far-right activist Laura Loomer over past critical comments of Trump, was fired in March. The Justice Department the following month fired attorney Erez Reuveni, who conceded in court that Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported. Reuveni later accused the department of trying to mislead judges to execute deportations. Department officials deny the assertion.Two weeks after Maurene Comey completed a sex trafficking trial against Sean Diddy Combs, the New York prosecutor was fired, also without explanation. Like BenAry, she penned a pointed farewell, telling colleagues that fear is the tool of a tyrant. Her father former FBI Director James Comey, a frequent Trump target uttered those same words after being indicted in September in a case that has been dismissed. Among the most affected sections is the storied Civil Rights Division. A recent open letter of protest was signed by over 200 employees who left in 2025, with several supervisors recently giving notice of plans to depart. The Public Integrity Section, which prosecutes sensitive public corruption cases, has also been hollowed out by resignations. The Justice Department has disputed the accounts of some of those who have been fired or quit and has defended the termination of those who investigated Trump as consistent with the mission of ending the weaponization of government.This is the most efficient Department of Justice in American history, and our attorneys will continue to deliver measurable results for the American people, the department said in a statement. More than 3,400 career attorneys have been hired since Trump took office, the department says. The departures have caused backlogs and staff shortages, with senior leaders soliciting job applications. It has affected the departments daily business as well as efforts to fulfill Trumps desires to prosecute political opponents.Desperate for lawyers willing to file criminal cases against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, the administration in September forced out the veteran U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, replacing him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide with no experience as a federal prosecutor. Halligan secured the indictments but the win was short-lived.One judge later identified grave missteps in how Halligan presented the Comey case to a grand jury. Another dismissed both prosecutions outright, calling Halligans appointment unlawful.Smith, the special counsel who investigated Trump but left before he could be fired, has himself lamented the losses. These are not partisans, he recently told lawmakers. They just want to do good work, he added, and I think when you lose that culture, you lose a lot._____Our dream was to be federal prosecutorsKhalidi joined the department in 2023 in a group of new prosecutors hired to help with the hundreds of cases stemming from the Capitol riot.Upon Trumps return to the White House, she watched cases she prosecuted get dismantled by Trumps sweeping clemency for all 1,500 defendants charged in the riot, including those who attacked police.Less than two weeks later, a Justice Department demand for the names of FBI agents involved in Jan. 6 investigations triggered rumors of potential mass firings. Worried about the agents she worked with, Khalidi spent the day checking in on them. But as she started preparing dinner one Friday evening, she received an email suggesting she had lost her own job.Attached was a memo from then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordering the firings of prosecutors like Khalidi whod been hired for temporary assignments but were moved into permanent roles after Trumps win, a maneuver Bove called subversive personnel actions by the previous administration. Neither the email nor memo identified the fired prosecutors, leaving them to guess.Khalidi grabbed a suitcase to collect family photos and other personal items she kept at work and rushed to the office, retreating with fellow shocked prosecutors to a bar where they received termination emails.The group of 15 fired attorneys later assembled to surrender their computers and phones, entering the same room where they gathered on their first day in 2023.For a lot of us, our dream was to be federal prosecutors, Khalidi said. And so we had happy memories of that room, of being excited on our first day. So it was just kind of surreal to be back there turning in our stuff.The news came for Anam Petit, an immigration judge, during a break between hearings. Appointed during the Biden administration, she said she felt uneasy when Trump won but also figured her position would probably be safe because immigration judges bear responsibility for issuing removal orders for those in the country illegally, a core presidential priority.Petit arrived on September 5 bracing for bad news because it was the Friday of the pay period before her two-year work anniversary, when her temporary appointment was poised to become permanent. Though she said she had received strong performance reviews and had already exceeded her case completion goal for the year, she had grown anxious as colleagues were fired amid an administration push to accelerate deportations.She was in the courtroom between hearings when she learned via email shed been fired. She left to text her husband, then returned to work. I just put my phone back in my pocket and I went into the courtroom to deliver my decision, with a very shaky voice and shaky hands, trying to center myself back to that decision to so that I could relay it, Petit said.Joseph Tirrell was concerned about job security as far back as last fall. As the departments chief ethics officer, he had affirmed that Smith, the special counsel, was entitled to a law firms free legal services, a decision he sensed might rile incoming leadership.But he remained in the position and over the ensuing months counseled Bondis staff in sometimes strained conversations on the propriety of accepting various gifts, including a cigar box from mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor.He was fired in July, just before a FIFA World Cup Final in New Jersey that Tirrell had said Bondi could not ethically accept a free invitation to. He was not terribly surprised, he says, when it was later reported that Bondi attended in Trumps box. The Justice Department maintains the invitation did not constitute a gift and that Bondis attendance in her capacity as a FIFA task force officer complied with ethics rules.Theres a great deal of fear there just because I was fired and just because so many others were summarily fired, Tirrell said. Are you going to get fired because you provided ethics advice? Are you going to get fired because you have a pride flag on your desk?_____Our country depends on youTrump was touting his administrations commitment to counterterrorism during his State of the Union address last March when he announced a success: the capture of an ISIS-K militant charged in a Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 American servicemembers during the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.Mohammad Sharifullah arrived the following day in the U.S., encountering BenAry in an Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom.BenAry spent the next several months working on the case, but on Oct. 1, he was fired. It was the apparent result, he told colleagues, of a social media post he said contained false information a reference to the one from Julie Kelly. The termination was so abrupt, he couldnt tell his colleagues where he had saved important filings and notes. Another prosecutor listed on the case, Comeys son-in-law, Troy Edwards, had resigned days earlier upon Comeys indictment. Once set for trial last month, the case has been postponed.In his farewell note, he observed that he was not alone, that in just a few short months career employees like himself had been removed from U.S. attorneys offices, the FBI and other critical parts of DOJ.While I am no longer your colleague, I ask that each of you continue to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons, BenAry wrote. Follow the facts and the law. Stand up for what we all believe in our Constitution and the rule of law. Our country depends on you. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department. twitter mailto ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer covers the Justice Department and federal courts. She joined The AP in 2013 and is based in Washington. twitter

A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)2026-01-16T06:11:26Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.Yoon has maintained he didnt intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoons decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses. Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel. Follow on Yoon gets 5-year prison term in 1st verdict from 8 trialsIn Fridays case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing a grave punishment was necessary because Yoon hasnt shown remorse and has only repeated hard-to-comprehend excuses. The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoons action was necessary. Yoons defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was politicized and reflected the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel. Yoons defense team argued the ruling oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the presidents constitutional powers and criminal liability.Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial. Yoon will likely avoid death sentence in rebellion trial Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoons decree didnt cause casualties and didnt last long, although Yoon hasnt shown genuine remorse for his action.South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future. Yoons stunt plunged South Korea into political turmoilOn the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate anti-state forces and protect the constitutional democratic order. Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didnt aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoons decree.No major violence occurred, but Yoons stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations. After Yoons ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.Yoons other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marines drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor. HYUNG-JIN KIM Hyung-jin is an Associated Press reporter in Seoul, South Korea. He reports on security, political and other general news on the Korean Peninsula. twitter mailto

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The Trump administration is directing employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate foreign scientists who collaborate with the agency on research papers for evidence of subversive or criminal activity.The new directive, part of a broader effort to increase scrutiny of research done with foreign partners, asks workers in the agencys research arm to use Google to check the backgrounds of all foreign nationals collaborating with its scientists. The names of flagged scientists are being sent to national security experts at the agency, according to records reviewed by ProPublica.At a meeting last month, USDA supervisors pushed back against the instructions, with one calling it dystopic and others expressing shock and confusion, according to an audio recording reviewed by ProPublica.The USDA frequently collaborates with scientists based at universities in the U.S. and abroad. Some agency workers told ProPublica they were uncomfortable with the new requirement because they felt it could put those scientists in the crosshairs of the administration. Students and postdocs are particularly vulnerable as many are in the U.S. on temporary visas and green cards, the employees said.Jennifer Jones, director for the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the directive a throwback to McCarthyism that could encourage scientists to avoid working with the best and brightest researchers from around the world.Asking scientists to spy on and report on their fellow co-authors is a classic hallmark of authoritarianism, Jones said. The Union of Concerned Scientists is an organization that advocates for scientific integrity.Jones, who hadnt heard of the instructions until contacted by ProPublica, said she had never witnessed policies so extreme during prior administrations or in her former career as an academic scientist.The new policy applies to pending scientific publications co-authored by employees in the USDAs Agricultural Research Service, which conducts research on crop yields, invasive species, plant genetics and other agricultural issues.The USDA instructed employees to stop agency researchers from collaborating on or publishing papers with scientists from countries of concern, including China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.But the agency is also vetting scientists from nations not considered countries of concern before deciding whether USDA researchers can publish papers with them. Employees are including the names of foreign co-authors from nations such as Canada and Germany on lists shared with the departments Office of Homeland Security, according to records reviewed by ProPublica. That office leads the USDAs security initiatives and includes a division that works with federal intelligence agencies. The records dont say what the office plans to do with the lists of names.Asked about the changes, the USDA sent a statement noting that in his first term, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum designed to strengthen protections of U.S.-funded research across the federal government against foreign government interference. USDA under the Biden Administration spent four years failing to implement this directive, the statement said. The agency said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins last year rolled out long-needed changes within USDAs research enterprise, including a prohibition on authoring a publication with a foreign national from a country of concern.International research has been essential to the Agricultural Research Services work, according to a page of the USDA website last updated in 2024: From learning how to mitigate diseases before they reach the United States, to testing models and crops in diverse growing conditions, to accessing resources not available in the United States, cooperation with international partners provides solutions to current and future agricultural challenges.Still, the U.S. government has long been worried about agricultural researchers acting as spies, sometimes with good reason. In 2016, the Chinese scientist Mo Hailong was sentenced to three years in prison for conspiring to steal patented corn seeds. And in 2022, Xiang Haitao, admitted to stealing a trade secret from Monsanto.National security questions have also been raised about recent increases in foreign ownership of agricultural land. In 2022, Congress allocated money for a center to educate U.S. researchers about how to safeguard their data in international collaborations.Since Trump took office last year, foreign researchers have faced increased obstacles. In March, a French researcher traveling to a conference was denied entry to the U.S. after a search of his phone at the airport turned up messages critical of Trump. The National Institutes of Health blocked researchers from China, Russia and other countries of concern from accessing various biomedical databases last spring. And in August, the Department of Homeland Security proposed shortening the length of time foreign students could remain in the country.But the latest USDA instructions represent a significant escalation, casting suspicion on all researchers from outside the U.S. and asking agency staff to vet the foreign nationals they collaborate with. Its unclear if employees at other federal agencies have been given similar directions.The new USDA policy was announced internally in November and followed a July memo from Rollins that highlighted the national security risks of working with scientists who are not U.S. citizens.Foreign competitors benefit from USDA-funded projects, receiving loans that support overseas businesses, and grants that enable foreign competitors to undermine U.S. economic and strategic interests, Rollins wrote in the memo. Preventing this is the responsibility of every USDA employee. The memo called for the department to place America First by taking a number of steps, including scrutinizing and making lists of the agencys arrangements to work with foreign researchers and prohibiting USDA employees from participating in foreign programs to recruit scientists, malign or otherwise.Rollins, a lawyer who studied agricultural development, co-founded the pro-Trump America First Policy Institute before being tapped to head the agency.There have long been restrictions on collaborating with researchers from certain countries, such as Iran and China. But these new instructions create blanket bans on working with scientists from countries of concern.In a late November email to staff members of the Agricultural Research Service at one area office, a research leader instructed managers to immediately stop all research with scientists who come from or collaborate with institutions in countries of concern.The email also instructed employees to reject papers with foreign authors if they deal with sensitive subjects such as diversity or climate change. National security concerns were listed as another cause for rejection, with USDA research service employees instructed to ask if a foreigner could use the research against American farmers.In the audio recording of the December meeting, some employees expressed alarm about the instructions to investigate their fellow scientists. The part of figuring out if they are foreign by Googling is very dystopic, said one person at the meeting, which involved leadership from the Agricultural Research Service.Faced with questions about how to ascertain the citizenship of a co-author, another person at the meeting said researchers should do their best with a Google search, then put the name on the list and let Homeland Security do their behind the scenes search.Rollins July memo specifies that, within 60 days of receiving a list of current arrangements that involve foreign people or entities, the USDAs Office of Homeland Security along with its offices of Chief Scientist and General Counsel should decide which arrangements to terminate. The USDA laid off 70 employees from countries of concern last summer as a result of the policy change laid out in the memo, NPR reported.The USDA and Department of Homeland Security declined to answer questions about what happens to the foreign researchers flagged by the staff beyond potentially having their research papers rejected.The documents also suggested new guidance would be issued on Jan. 1, but the USDA employees ProPublica interviewed said that the vetting work was continuing and that they had not received any written updates. The staff spoke on the condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to talk publicly.Scientists are often evaluated based on their output of new scientific research. Delaying or denying publication of pending papers could derail a researchers career. Over the past 40 years, the number of international collaborations among scientists has increased across the board, according to Caroline Wagner, an emeritus professor of public policy at the Ohio State University. The more elite the researcher, the more likely theyre working at the international level, said Wagner, who has spent more than 25 years researching international collaboration in science and technology.The changes in how the USDA is approaching collaboration with foreign researchers, she said, will certainly reduce the novelty, the innovative nature of science and decrease these flows of knowledge that have been extremely productive for science over the last years.The post Trump Administration Orders USDA Employees to Investigate Foreign Researchers They Work With appeared first on ProPublica.

Trump wants Greenland? Its previous colonizer has some thoughts.

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Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)2026-01-16T05:33:02Z BEIJING (AP) Breaking with the United States, Canada has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday.Carney made the announcement after two days of meetings with Chinese leaders. He said there would be an initial cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports to Canada, growing to 70,000 over five years. China will reduce its tariff on canola seeds, a major Canadian export, from about 84% to about 15%, he told reporters.It has been a historic and productive two days, Carney said, speaking outside against the backdrop of a traditional pavilion and a frozen pond at a Beijing park. We have to understand the differences between Canada and other countries, and focus our efforts to work together where were aligned.Earlier Friday, he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping pledged to improve relations between their two nations after years of acrimony. Xi told Carney in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People that he is willing to continue working to improve ties, noting that talks have been underway on restoring and restarting cooperation since the two held an initial meeting in October on the sidelines of a regional economic conference in South Korea.It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning ChinaCanada relations toward improvement, Chinas top leader said. Carney looks to improve global governanceCarney, the first Canadian prime minister to visit China in eight years, said better relations would help improve a global governance system that he described as under great strain.He called for a new relationship adapted to new global realities and cooperation in agriculture, energy and finance.Those new realities reflect in large part the so-called America-first approach of U.S. President Donald Trump. The tariffs he has imposed have hit both the Canadian and Chinese economies. Carney, who has met with several leading Chinese companies in Beijing, said ahead of his trip that his government is focused on building an economy less reliant on the U.S. at what he called a time of global trade disruption. A Canadian business owner in China called Carneys visit game-changing, saying it re-establishes dialogue, respect and a framework between the two nations.These three things we didnt have, said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, which helps exporters navigate the Chinese market. The parties were not talking for years.Canada had been aligned with US on tariffsCanada had followed the U.S. in putting tariffs of 100% on EVs from China and 25% on steel and aluminum under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Carneys predecessor.China responded by imposing duties of 100% on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% on pork and seafood. It added a 75.8% tariff on canola seeds last August. Collectively, the import taxes effectively closed the Chinese market to Canadian canola, an industry group has said. Overall, Chinas imports from Canada fell 10.4% last year to $41.7 billion, according to Chinese trade data. China is hoping Trumps pressure tactics on allies such as Canada will drive them to pursue a foreign policy that is less aligned with the United States. The U.S. president has suggested Canada could become Americas 51st state.Carney departs China on Saturday and visits Qatar on Sunday before attending the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland next week. He will meet business leaders and investors in Qatar to promote trade and investment, his office said.___Associated Press business writer Chan Ho-him in Hong Kong contributed to this report. KEN MORITSUGU Moritsugu covers political, economic and social issues from Beijing for The Associated Press. He has also reported from New Delhi, Bangkok and Tokyo and is the APs former news director for Greater China and for Japan and the Koreas. twitter

A woman walks on a street past a Greenlandic national flag in Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)2026-01-16T06:17:42Z NUUK, Greenland (AP) U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland into a geopolitical hotspot with his demands to own it and suggestions that the U.S. could take it by force.The island is a semiautonomous region of Denmark, and Denmarks foreign minister said Wednesday after a meeting at the White House that a fundamental disagreement remains with Trump over the island.The crisis is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we cant really understand it, Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britains Parliament this week.Heres a look at what Greenlanders think: Trump undermining Greenlandic cultureTrump has dismissed Denmarks defenses in Greenland, suggesting its two dog sleds.By saying that, Trump is undermining us as a people, Mari Laursen told AP.Laursen said she used to work on a fishing trawler but is now studying law. She approached AP to say she thought previous examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and Americans are often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds. She said during World War II, Greenlandic hunters on their dog sleds worked in conjunction with the U.S. military to detect Nazi German forces on the island.The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go, Laursen said. Greenlanders dont believe Trumps claimsTrump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese ships are swarming the seas around Greenland. Plenty of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that claim.I think he (Trump) should mind his own business, said Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.Whats he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland, he said. Down at Nuuks small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he attached small fish as bait to his lines. He said, I dont see them (the ships) and said he had only seen a Russian fishing boat ten years ago. Trump is interested in Greenlands critical mineralsMaya Martinsen, 21, a shop worker, told AP she doesnt believe Trump wants Greenland to enhance Americas security.I know its not national security. I think its for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched, she said, suggesting the Americans are treating her home like a business trade.She said she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officials met in the White House Wednesday and said she believes that the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side, despite some Greenlanders wanting independence. It is nerve-wrecking, that the Americans arent changing their mind, she said, adding that she welcomed the news that Denmark and its allies would be sending troops to Greenland because its important that the people we work closest with, that they send support. Greenlanders get support from DenmarkTuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told AP that she hopes the U.S. got the message from Danish and Greenlandic officials to back off.She said she didnt want to join the United States because in Greenland there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses ... we dont have to pay anything, she said adding I dont want the U.S. to take that away from us.Greenland is at the center of a media stormIn Greenlands parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition party that campaigns for independence in the Greenlandic parliament told AP that he has done multiple media interviews every day for the last two weeks.When asked by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the chance, Berthelsen said: I would tell them, of course, that as weve seen a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation. It is our country, he said. Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.___Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report. EMMA BURROWS Burrows covers security, defense and intelligence for The Associated Press in Europe. She is based in London. twitter

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Iranian senior cleric Ahmad Khatami delivers his sermon during Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 5, 2018. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)2026-01-16T11:53:05Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) A hard-line cleric leading Friday prayers in Irans capital demanded the death penalty for protesters detained in a nationwide crackdown and directly threatened U.S. President Donald Trump, showing the hard-line rage gripping the Islamic Republic after the demonstrations. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatamis sermon carried by Iranian state radio sparked chants from those gathered for prayers, including: Armed hypocrites should be put to death! Executions, as well as the killing of peaceful protesters, had been two of the red lines laid down by Trump for possible military action against Iran over the protests. Khatamis remarks also offered the first nationwide counts of damage done during the demonstrations, which began Dec. 28 over Irans ailing economy and soon morphed into demonstrations directly challenging the countrys theocracy. Iran cut off access to the internet Jan. 8 and intensified a bloody crackdown on all dissent, which the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency reports killed at least 2,677 people. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the death toll and Iran has offered no overall casualty figures. Khatami, appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a member of both the countrys Assembly of Experts and Guardian Council, described the protesters at time as the butlers of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trumps soldiers. He insisted their plans had imagined disintegrating the country They should wait for hard revenge from the system, Khatami said of Netanyahu and Trump. Americans and Zionists should not expect peace.Khatami long has been known for his hard-line views in Iran, including in 2007 when he said a fatwa calling for the death of writer Salman Rushdie remained in effect. He also threatened Israel in a 2018 speech by saying Iran could raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground with its missile arsenal. Khatami also provided the first overall statistics on damage from the protests, claiming 350 mosques, 126 prayer halls and 20 other holy places had sustained damage. Another 80 homes of Friday prayer leaders an important position within Irans theocracy also had been damaged, likely underlining the anger demonstrators felt toward symbols of the countrys government. Khatami said 400 hospitals, 106 ambulance, 71 fire department vehicles and another 50 emergency vehicles sustained damage, showing the scale of the protests. They want you to withdraw from religion, Khatami said. They planned these crimes from a long time ago,Khatami, as a cleric in the public positions, would have access to such data from authorities and mentioning it at Friday prayers likely meant Irans government wanted the information to be communicated without having to formally address the public. He also issued a call for the arrest of individuals who supporters the rioters in any way. 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

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