2025-02-21T18:19:58Z NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge on Friday adjourned the corruption trial for New York City Mayor Eric Adams and appointed counsel to advise him on how to handle the Justice Departments controversial request to drop charges against the Democrat.The ruling by Judge Dale E. Ho will delay by at least a couple weeks when he will decide whether to grant the request to dismiss the case against the embattled mayor of the countrys largest city.At a hearing Wednesday, Acting Deputy U.S. Attorney General Emil Bove cited an executive order by President Donald Trump outlining his criminal justice priorities as he defended the request to drop charges.Adams confirmed at the hearing that he accepted that charges could later be reinstated, a feature of the request to dismiss charges that has led critics to suggest that the mayor would be required to carry out Trumps plans to round up New Yorkers who are in the country illegally if he wanted to remain free from prosecution. The request is virtually unreviewable in this courtroom, Bove argued at the hearing.Adams was indicted in September and accused of accepting more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and travel perks from a Turkish official and business leaders seeking to buy influence while he was Brooklyn borough president. He faces multiple challengers in Junes Democratic primary. To assist him in deciding whether to dismiss the charges as Bove requested, the judge said in his order Friday that he has appointed Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general and acting U.S. attorney general, as amicus curiae to present arguments on the governments request to throw out the charges. Ho said he wanted all parties and Clement to address the legal standard for dismissing charges, whether a court may consider materials beyond the motion itself and under what circumstances additional procedural steps and further inquiry would be necessary. He also said he wants to know under what circumstances, dismissal can occur without the ability to reinstate charges or with the ability to reinstate charges.He said briefs should be filed by March 7 and, if necessary, oral arguments can occur on March 14.Adams will not be required to attend future hearings, he said.Boves initial request last week to then-interim U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to drop charges against Adams was rejected and she resigned.Another prosecutor, Hagan Scotten, told Bove in a resignation letter that it would take a fool or a coward to meet Boves demand, but it was never going to be me.In all, seven prosecutors, including five high-ranking prosecutors at the Justice Department in Washington, had resigned last week before Bove made the request himself, along with two other prosecutors from Washington, to drop the case.On Thursday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she wont immediately use her authority to remove Adams from office over concerns that such a move could result in disruption and chaos and would ultimately be undemocratic.

In this image provided by Beth Hill, Warren Hill poses for a photo at Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska July 15, 2018. (Beth Hill via AP)2025-02-21T17:00:44Z ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) Warren Hill spent more than two decades working at the Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, which spans 4 million acres of coastline, forests, lakes and glaciers in Alaska.Last summer, he was promoted to serve as maintenance supervisor, in addition to his roles as carpenter and mechanic. But because Hill was starting a new role, he was on probationary status when President Donald Trump s administration began firing thousands and thousands of federal workers who had less civil service protection.Im furious, he said. I am just a few years away from retirement, not to mention all my benefits disappeared in a flash.Probationary employees are generally younger, with less than a year or two on the job. However, the classification can also apply to workers with much more experience who were placed on probation when they transferred between agencies or moved into a different position. Now many have been swept up in layoffs championed by Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who is advising Trump. A lot of them, including Hill, were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were often terminated in cursory letters that described their services as no longer needed or accused them of poor performance even in cases where they had received positive reviews for their work. They have no idea how many lives they are destroying and the negative economic impact they are having in our community and all the others like ours, Hill said. The total number and experience level of probationary employees who have been fired isnt clear. The layoffs have taken place across many agencies, including Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs, Education, Energy, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Park Service. Roughly 2,000 employees were cut from the U.S. Forest Service, and another 7,000 people are expected to be let go at the Internal Revenue Service. Unions for federal workers filed a lawsuit Thursday to stop and reverse the layoffs, accusing the administration of the indiscriminate firing of thousands of patriotic public servants across the country.The Trump administration has defended its handling of probationary employees, which is part of a sweeping effort to downsize the federal government.The probationary period is a continuation of the job application process, not an entitlement for permanent employment, said McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management.Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, brushed off concerns about employees being falsely accused of lackluster work.Ive never seen a person who was laid off for poor performance say that they were performing poorly, he told reporters on Thursday.Trumps allies have long considered civil service protections to be an impediment to achieving his agenda, and theres been talk about reclassifying employees to make them easier to fire. For now, administration officials have tried to push out as many as possible, either by giving them financial incentives to quit or laying off those on probationary status. Probationary periods are an essential tool for agencies to assess employee performance and manage staffing levels, read a memo distributed on Inauguration Day. Employees on probationary periods can be terminated during that period without triggering appeal rights to the Merit Systems Protection Board.Federal agencies were given four days to draw up lists of all probationary employees. Some of them were working as civilians after long careers in the military.Terri Wollenberg said she spent more than three decades in the U.S. Army and Navy before retiring and going to work at the Cedar Rapids Veterans Center in Iowa, where she remained in probationary status. She met clients at the door, confirmed schedules and assisted the centers counselors. But last Friday, Wollenberg said her director let me know that I was done.I didnt even know I was on a list that could possibly be considered, but it appears that any one of us could be on that list, she said. Theres no one left to do her job, Wollenberg said during a press conference organized by Iowa Democrats. Were not here to get rich, she said. Were here to work for the citizens of the United States. Kayleigh McCarthy was among the probationary U.S. Forest Service employees fired last week, allegedly for performance issues.She had been hired as a seasonal employee at the Anan Wildlife Observatory in Alaska, but she was upgraded to a permanent position within the last year. She monitored and recorded black and brown bear behavior in the Tongass National Forest, and sometimes she would stop tourists on hiking trails to give the animals the right of way. A lot of times, mama bears especially black bears are walking across with their cubs, McCarthy said. McCarthy had spent her summers living on a float house and became entrenched in the community, where she met her boyfriend. Her situation began to unravel on Sunday, when her supervisor reached out.She had to call me and told me that I had been terminated and that it was supposedly because of performance, even though she told me that my performance had always been exemplary, McCarthy said.It says on the termination letter that its because of performance, when in fact I only have exemplary performance, and so it doesnt seem that theres just cause for these firings, she said.McCarthy plans to appeal her firing. But once she finishes her graduate degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, shell likely need to leave the state to find a new job. I am angry, and I am upset and I am heartbroken, she said. -Writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska. Megerian reported from Washington. MARK THIESSEN Thiessen is an Associated Press all-formats reporter based in Anchorage, Alaska. He covers Alaska Native issues and other general assignments. twitter mailto 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

Steve Bannon speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)2025-02-21T19:38:44Z LOS ANGELES (AP) Six weeks after devastating wildfires, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass ousted the citys fire chief amid a public rift over preparations for the fires and finger-pointing between the chief and City Hall.Bass says in a statement she is removing Chief Kristin Crowley immediatelyBass says 1,000 firefighters could have been on duty the morning the fires broke out but were instead sent home on Chief Crowleys watch.

President Donald Trump throws pens used to sign executive orders to the crowd during an indoor Presidential Inauguration parade event in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)2025-02-21T20:29:39Z AP AUDIO: Details about Trumps executive orders around DEI are causing confusion On this episode of The Story Behind the AP Story, AP correspondent Haya Panjwani speaks with deputy global business editor Pia Sarkar and reporter Alexandra Olson. WASHINGTON (AP) HAYA PANJWANI, host: In front of a large crowd in Washington, Donald Trump, shortly after being sworn into office for his second presidential term, signed a slew of executive orders. Those orders were what he calls Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity and Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.That executive order prompted companies around the United States to roll back their own diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. But the details of Trumps order and what its actually implementing are still murky.Im Haya Panjwani. On this episode of The Story Behind the AP Story, we speak with deputy global business editor Pia Sarkar and reporter Alexandra Olson.Firstly, Alexandra, what is DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion?ALEXANDRA OLSON, reporter: Its not a specific policy. It is an idea that you want to make your workplace or your school or any number of institutions inclusive and diverse and welcoming to a diverse population. I think companies over time have evolved to become more deliberate in these efforts. Some of the first waves of what people think of as modern-day DEI initiatives started in the wake of the civil rights movement. Part of the Civil Rights Act is ensuring that your workplace is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate. Some of the policies that companies had to institute involved compliance with those laws. And over time, you saw some prominent companies also institute an employment resource group for black employees or LGBTQ employees. Some of these companies started these groups in the 80s, even. PANJWANI: The Trump administrations executive order moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff be put on paid leave and eventually laid off. Some businesses reacted. OLSON: Businesses have been rolling back their DEI initiatives or at least evaluating their DEI practices for many months now in response to conservative-led lawsuits that target some of these policies that they claim are discriminatory. But this review has taken on more urgency in response to the election of President Trump, and even more recently, his executive orders aimed at ending DEI-related policies both in the federal and private sectors. PIA SARKAR, editor: And businesses are also rolling back DEI initiatives. PANJWANI: Thats Pia Sarkar, deputy global business editor. You saw a lot more of them starting to join the movement of sorts. First, it started off with a handful of companies like Tractor Supply and John Deere. They were kind of smaller companies, but still name brands. But then suddenly you started to see much bigger companies also jumping in, including Walmart and McDonalds. And those are much bigger employers. And their rollback of some of these policies are much more impactful and may influence even bar companies to do the same.OLSON: Trumps executive orders were both very aggressive and at the same time not specific about what constitutes what the government is calling illegal or discriminatory. The orders did lay out the intention to harness the enforcement power of the federal government of the day against these policies. And thats what has gotten a lot of peoples attention. For example, the executive order threatens to impose financial sanctions on federal contractors deemed to have illegal DEI programs under new contracts. Federal contractors have to have a clause stating that they do not engage in discriminatory DEI programs. If they are found to be in violation of that, they could be subject to massive damages under the 1863 False Claims Act. PANJWANI: Whats being rolled back at companies varies.OLSON: Very few companies have gotten rid of everything that falls under their DEI buckets. What theyre trying to do is figure out which DEI practices or programs or policies could eventually be deemed illegal by a court responding to a lawsuit or by the federal government under these new Trump executive orders. One practice that has been prominently challenged is tying executive compensation to promoting diversity. What the argument is from the conservative side is that this kind of practice can pressure hiring managers to make decisions on who to hire and who to promote and who even to let go based on race. So its important to note that it is illegal under Title VII of the civil rights law to take race into account in hiring or promotion decisions. And prominent companies that have long promoted their DEI efforts say they do not do that.SARKAR: And some of the other DEI practices that are worth noting are a little bit more open-ended. If a company was sponsoring a pride event, for instance, some have pulled back on how much sponsorship theyre going to give. Some of those events, I think, Walmart, for instance, said that it was not going to renew its equity racial center that it set up in 2020 after the killing of George Floyd. And that was a five-year commitment, and it is not renewing it. PANJWANI: Consumers are reacting differently than they have in the past.SARKAR: So some are reacting to the rollback of the initiative initiatives a little bit more, at least from what I could see, in a more muted way than some of the protests that you saw, like, after George Floyd there was a huge demand for these kind of programs in 2020 and afterwards, in terms of people boycotting these companies because theyre rolling back the initiatives, you dont see as much of that. There was a boycott that had been planned against, I believe, Target. There was a lot of pressure on social media, specifically from conservative activist Robby Starbuck, going after companies that were promoting DEI. And so that had raised a lot of social media backlash and calls for boycotts. Those boycotts never seem to have taken place, but the companies reacted to the threat of a boycott, in some cases by rolling back their DEI initiatives. And those rollbacks of the DEI initiatives havent really led to more boycotts.It seems like because so many companies have gone in this direction, it almost is starting to feel like its becoming more the norm than the exception. Youre only hearing about the companies that are rolling back their DEI policies, right? Were not hearing from companies who are keeping them in place except for Apple and Costco and Microsoft. But there could be a lot more that just arent saying anything at all.PANJWANI: Now what exactly is the confusion?OLSON: The confusion is what is illegal. What is illegal discrimination or preference? The trouble is that DEI can constitute such a wide range, a wide range of programs, that nobody is quite sure whether their policies and practices and programs that theyve had in place in some cases for many years, in some cases maybe even decades. Whether these are in fact illegal or not. Theres been a few hints of, of backlash or of people protesting that some of this anti-gay effort has gone too far.So we saw that, for example, when some government institutions or museums decided to stop celebrating Black History Month or Holocaust Remembrance Day. Theres some indication that the government is trying to clarify that that is not what theyre after. That speaks to the confusion, because these executive orders are so wide-ranging that nobody knows exactly what they are trying to target and what they are not. But it also speaks to a certain sensitivity that the anti-drag campaign might also go too far.I think theres also a danger for these companies. They want to make sure that they dont go so far as to dismantle policies that are geared towards ensuring that they comply with anti-discrimination laws.SARKAR: And I think there is also some caution around letting this issue go up to the Supreme Court, considering that its a conservative Supreme Court right now in terms of whether or not there will be the pendulum swing back.It is worth noting that a lot of these companies that are rolling back their DEI programs are also making it a point to say, we still care about these issues. Were not pulling back completely. So it kind of feels like they want to keep one foot in the door still. And I dont know if thats because the pendulum might swing back. So kind of playing it both ways might be the best way to approach it right now, just in case it does go the other way.But right now, it doesnt look like thats going to happen in the foreseeable future.PANJWANI: This has been The Story Behind the AP Story. For more information on APs DEI coverage, visit APNews.com.

Voletta Wallace poses for a portrait on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)2025-02-21T18:12:59Z NEW YORK (AP) Voletta Wallace, the dedicated mother of the late great rapper The Notorious B.I.G. and protector of his legacy, died Friday morning. She was 78.Monroe County Coroner Thomas Yanac confirmed her death Friday to The Associated Press, saying she died at her home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, after a stint on hospice care. She died of natural causes.A representative for the estate of The Notorious B.I.G. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Notorious B.I.G., one of the raps greatest performers, was shot to death at age 24 in Los Angeles in 1997. The case remains unsolved. He was survived by his wife, the musician and actress Faith Evans, and his two children, Christopher Jordan Wallace and Tyanna Dream Wallace.Wallace was a dedicated keeper of the legacy of her son, born Christopher Wallace. When he first emerged on the scene as one of raps most distinctive talents with songs that expertly detailed street life in Brooklyn, she labeled his music noise. Since his death, his gift took on a new meaning for her. She told AP in 2017, 20 years after his death, I remembered my son said, Dont listen to my music. And I never listened to his music. I heard it on the radio and it sounded good, because it was clean. But I said, You know what, I have to. I have to listen to that music. And thats what I did.I cried so much that day just listening to the music. I remember I sat, I stood. I rested my head on the stereo and I just cried like a baby. And that was therapy for me. And I said, Oh my God that was a talented young man to put those words together. He had a beautiful voice. I love his voice, she continued. Wallace launched the Christopher Wallace Memorial Foundation following her sons death, an organization that provides educational resources for children. In 2003, she honored mothers of other musicians who died untimely deaths Aaliyah, Lisa Left Eye Lopes, Tupac Shakur, Jam Master Jay, Big Pun, Big L and Freaky Tah at B.I.G. Night Out, a benefit for the foundation. It is our way of saying, Keep your head up, Wallace told AP at the time. Its the foundations way just to let these parents know that we love them.She also took legal action on behalf of her son. In 2004, she dropped a wrongful-death lawsuit against a former suspect in the rap stars slaying Amir Muhammad, aka Harry Billups. The 2002 lawsuit also named the city of Los Angeles and Muhammads former college roommate, David A. Mack, a Los Angeles policeman. It accused Mack of hiring Muhammad to shoot the hip-hop artist and police of failing to investigate properly after a fellow officer came under suspicion.In 2021, Wallace worked as an executive producer on the Netflix documentary Biggie: I Got a Story to Tell, and told AP about her role in the public eye. They never knew me. The public never knew me. I was thrust into this environment, I should say, after he passed away, because Im a very private person. Extremely private, she said. What he was doing out there, maybe I should have known. But honestly, I didnt. And to this day, there are people who are saying, Oh, she knew. (whispers) But I never knew. Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 debut album for Bad Boy Records, Ready to Die, has sold over six million units as of 2018, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, and included the hits Big Poppa and Juicy. His sophomore album, Life After Death, released two weeks after his death, sold more than 11 million units. It launched multiple hits, including the timeless No. 1 hits Mo Money Mo Problems and Hypnotize. In 1997, Wallace accepted the MTV Video Music Award for best rap video for Hypnotize on behalf of her son. ___Associated Press journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton contributed to this report. MARIA SHERMAN Maria Sherman is the music reporter at The Associated Press. She is based in New York City. twitter instagram mailto

President Donald Trump speaks at the Governors Working Session in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Pool via AP)2025-02-21T21:22:22Z The Associated Press sued three Trump administration officials Friday over access to presidential events, citing freedom of speech in asking a federal judge to stop the 10-day blocking of its journalists.The lawsuit was filed Friday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.The AP says its case is about an unconstitutional effort by the White House to control speech in this case refusing to change its style from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, as President Donald Trump did last month with an executive order.The press and all people in the United States have the right to choose their own words and not be retaliated against by the government, the AP said in its lawsuit, which names White House Chief of Staff Susan Wiles, Deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.This targeted attack on the APs editorial independence and ability to gather and report the news strikes at the very core of the First Amendment, the news agency said. This court should remedy it immediately. In stopping the AP from attending press events at the White House and Mar-a-Lago, or flying on Air Force One in the agencys customary spot, the Trump team directly cited the APs decision not to fully follow the presidents renaming.Were going to keep them out until such time as they agree that its the Gulf of America, Trump said Tuesday. This week, about 40 news organizations signed onto a letter organized by the White House Correspondents Association, urging the White House to reverse its policy against the AP. READ the full lawsuit. DAVID BAUDER Bauder is the APs national media writer, covering the intersection of news, politics and entertainment. He is based in New York. twitter mailto

Steve Bannon speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)2025-02-21T19:15:28Z OXON HILL, Md. (AP) Steve Bannon was accused of making a Nazi salute as he concluded a speech at a conservative gathering where President Donald Trump is slated to speak this weekend, but Bannon said Friday the gesture was merely a wave.Bannon, who once served as Trumps chief strategist and helped lead his 2016 Republican campaign, was onstage at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday evening when he extended his right arm in the air, his palm flat, after imploring the crowd to Fight! Fight! Fight! a reference to what Trump shouted after an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, during last years campaign.The gesture drew immediate backlash due to its similarities with the right-arm salute linked in history to the Nazis and their allies.Steve Bannons long and disturbing history of stoking antisemitism and hate, threatening violence, and empowering extremists is well known and well documented by ADL and others, the Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism and human rights watchdog, wrote on X in response. We are not surprised, but are concerned about the normalization of this behavior. Meanwhile, French far-right National Rally president Jordan Bardella said he had cancelled his scheduled speech at CPAC on Friday in reaction to what he described as a gesture referring to Nazi ideology. While I was not present in the room, one of the speakers allowed himself, out of provocation, a gesture referring to Nazi ideology. As a consequence, I made the immediate decision to cancel my speech, Bardella said in a written statement. Bannon, speaking to a French journalist from Le Point news magazine on Friday, said the gesture was not a Nazi salute but was a wave like I did all the time.I do it at the end of all of my speeches to thank the crowd, Bannon said.Bannon, whose War Room podcast is extremely popular on the right, also blasted Bardella for his decision to cancel, calling him unworthy to lead France. Hes a boy, not a man, Bannon said, according to video posted by correspondent Claire Meynial.He echoed those comments later Friday, telling The Associated Press that, If he canceled because I waved to the crowd like I did at the Front National seven years ago ... hes not a man and he will never be the leader of France.Online, some far-right users suggested Bannon had made the gesture purposely to trigger liberals and the media, while others distanced themselves. Nick Fuentes, a far-right influencer and Trump ally who uses his platform to share his antisemitic views, said in a livestream that Bannons salute was getting a little uncomfortable even for me.Bannons gesture came at the end of a speech in which he repeated lies about the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, and continued to press for Trump to serve a third term, something the Constitution explicitly bars.The future of America is MAGA. And the future of MAGA is Donald J. Trump, he said. We want Trump in 28! Bannon is not the only person in Trumps orbit whose gestures have come under scrutiny.Trump adviser Elon Musk drew criticism last month after he slapped his hand on his chest and then extended his arm out in a speech at Capital One Arena celebrating Trumps inauguration. But extremist monitors and experts said it was unclear what Musk was trying to convey to the crowd.Musk, made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute, the ADL concluded.Musk also pushed back. Frankly, they need better dirty tricks, he posted on X several hours after he left the stage. The everyone is Hitler attack is sooo tired.Marshall Lerner, a Jewish conservative who attended CPAC but had not seen Bannons appearance or gesture, said he was bothered by how some critics look to link Trumps Make America Great Again movement with Nazism and mentioned the criticism of Musk.Its like saying if the Nazis got up in the morning and they ate breakfast and Trump got up in the morning and ate breakfast, he is doing things that the Nazis are doing, Lerner said. Thats silly. Thats ridiculous. That doesnt make any sense. CPAC did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Bannons gesture.This years gathering, held in Oxon Hill, Maryland, has drawn a whos who of conservative leaders and Trump administration officials, including numerous Cabinet members. Vice President JD Vance addressed the convention earlier Thursday.___ Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Ali Swenson in New York 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 ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Gomez Licon writes about national politics for The Associated Press. She is based in Florida. twitter mailto

People drive past billboards with a picture of the late Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hashem Safieddine displayed on Beirut airport highway, Lebanon, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)2025-02-21T18:53:54Z BEIRUT (AP) Nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike, thousands of supporters of the longtime leader of Lebanons militant Hezbollah group have flown into Beirut for Hassan Nasrallahs funeral on Sunday.Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27 when Israels air force dropped more than 80 bombs on Hezbollahs main operations room in southern Beirut. It was the biggest and most consequential of Israels targeted killings in years. The death of Nasrallah, one of the Iran-backed Shiite groups founders and Hezbollahs leader of more than 30 years, was a huge blow to the group he had transformed into a potent force in the Middle East. Hezbollah, which the U.S. and some of its allies has designated a terrorist organization, has suffered significant losses in the latest war with Israel, including the killing of several of its most senior military and political figures. His cousin and successor Hashem Safieddine, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Beirut suburb a few days later, will be laid to rest in his hometown in southern Lebanon. The two had temporarily been buried in secret locations. Hezbollah earlier this month announced plans for their official funerals. Crowds are expected to gather on Sunday at Beiruts main sports stadium for a funeral ceremony before Nasrallahs interment. Flights from Iraq, where Hezbollah has a huge following among Iraqi Shiites, have been full for days on end. According to an Iraqi transportation ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the flights, up to 6,000 people have flown to Beirut over the past days. Among those who arrived from overseas was also American commentator Jackson Hinkle, who regularly spreads false information on social media, especially in support of Russia and its war on Ukraine.I am honored to be attending the funeral, Hinkle posted on the social media platform X after arriving this week in Beirut. Hinkle posted a photo of himself visiting a war-wrecked southern Lebanese border village, waving a Hezbollah flag. Nasrallah, idolized by his supporters and with large followings among the Shiites and the Islamic world, also held the title of sayyid, an honorific meant to signify the Shiite clerics lineage dating back to the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam.However, Lebanese authorities have revoked permission for a passenger plane from Iran, leaving dozens who had wanted to attend the funeral stranded in Tehran and triggering protests by Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon. The ban came after the Israeli army accused Iran of smuggling cash to Hezbollah by way of civilian flights, leading some in Lebanon to allege that their government had caved in the face of a threat from Israel. Some of those who were expected to fly in from Iran were now coming to Lebanon via Iraq. Also, members of Iran-backed groups in the region also were traveling to Beirut to attend Nasrallahs funeral. Kazim al-Fartousi, spokesman for the Iran-backed Kataib Sayyid al-Shuhada group in Iraq, arrived on Friday. He said Nasrallah was the father, commander and the book that we read every day to learn about freedom. U.S. Republican Rep. Joe Wilson criticized Lebanese politicians who were planning to attend the funeral. Any Lebanese politician who attends the funeral of the murderous terrorist Hasan Nasrallah is standing with the Iranian Regime, Wilson said on X.___Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.

People drive past billboards with a picture of the late Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hashem Safieddine displayed on Beirut airport highway, Lebanon, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)2025-02-21T18:49:10Z LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Police say three people were shot and killed at a motor vehicle office in Louisville on Friday.Louisville Metro Police Department Maj. Donald Boeckman told reporters officers were called to the office around noon and found one person dead and two others wounded. The two wounded were taken to the hospital where they died.He said theres no ongoing threat to the public.The shooting happened at a state Driver Licensing Office on the southern outskirts of Louisville.Boeckman said the victims were a man and two women and the suspect or suspects left in a vehicle. Boeckman did not have a description of the vehicle and said investigators were still reviewing surveillance video.Its absolutely a tragedy and Im surprised there wasnt more people injured, Boeckman said.

Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's new director of the FBI, is pictured during his ceremonial swearing-in, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in the Indian Treaty Room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2025-02-21T23:08:00Z WASHINGTON (AP) Kash Patel was sworn in Friday as the FBI director, calling the opportunity to lead the nations premier federal law enforcement agency the greatest honor of his life.Patel was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday by a 51-49 margin, with two Republican lawmakers, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, breaking party ranks and voting against him.I think hell go down as the best ever at that position, President Donald Trump told reporters Friday ahead of the White House swearing-in, which was conducted by Attorney General Pam Bondi and attended by Republican supporters in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Trump added that the agents love this guy.Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Democrats had sounded the alarm about the appointment, saying they fear Patel will operate as a loyalist for Trump and abuse the FBIs law enforcement powers to go after the presidents adversaries. Theyve cited past comments such as his suggestion before he was nominated that he would come after anti-Trump conspirators in the government and media. Patel sought to assuage those concerns at his confirmation hearing last month, saying he intended to follow the Constitution and had no interest in pursuing retribution, though he also said at his swearing-in Friday that reporters had written fake, malicious, slanderous and defamatory stories about him. Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job. Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureaus traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades as national security threats have proliferated.He said Friday that the FBIs national security mission was equally as important as its efforts to fight violent crime and drug overdoses.Anyone that wishes to do harm to our way of life and our citizens, here and abroad, will face the full wrath of the DOJ and FBI, Patel said. If you seek to hide in any corner of this country or planet, we will put on the worlds largest manhunt and we will find you and we will decide your end-state.A former Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor, Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and who resigned at the conclusion of the Biden administration to make way for his chosen successor. Wray infuriated Trump throughout his tenure, including after FBI agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 for classified documents in one of two federal investigations that resulted in indictments against Trump that were dismissed after his election win. FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration. But Trump fired the FBI director he inherited, James Comey, after Comey had spent over three years on the job and replaced Wray after more than seven years in the position. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department and the special counsel cases against former President Donald Trump. twitter mailto WILL WEISSERT Weissert covers national politics and the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto

The New York Stock Exchange, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)2025-02-21T03:59:54Z NEW YORK (AP) U.S. stocks fell sharply Friday after reports showed that worries among consumers and businesses about President Donald Trumps policies may be hitting the U.S. economy. The S&P 500 sank 1.7% for its worst day in two months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 748 points, or 1.7%, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 2.2%.The losses accelerated through the day following several weaker-than-expected reports on the economy. One suggested U.S. business activity is close to stalling, with growth slowing to a 17-month low. The preliminary report from S&P Global said activity unexpectedly shrank for U.S. services businesses, and many in the survey reported slumping optimism because of worries about Washington. Companies report widespread concerns about the impact of federal government policies, ranging from spending cuts to tariffs and geopolitical developments, said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence. Sales are reportedly being hit by the uncertainty caused by the changing political landscape, and prices are rising amid tariff-related price hikes from suppliers. A separate report said U.S. consumers are also preparing for higher inflation, in part because of potential tariffs that could raise prices for all kinds of imports. Theyre broadly expecting prices to be 4.3% higher 12 months from now, which is a big jump from their forecast of 3.3% inflation last month, according to a survey by the University of Michigan. That fits with preliminary data in the survey earlier this month. Among U.S. households, though, a divide is evident underneath the surface. Expectations for inflation are rising for political independents and Democrats, while falling slightly for Republicans. A third economic report, meanwhile, said sales of previously occupied homes were weaker last month than economists expected. Relatively high mortgage rates, along with expensive prices for homes, have been hurting sales. To be sure, the U.S. stock market is still up for the young year so far and is not far from its all-time high set earlier this week. Virtually no one on Wall Street is forecasting a recession anytime soon. But Fridays reports raise concerns about whats been a remarkably resilient economy, and the losses on Wall Street were widespread. Stocks of the smallest companies, whose profits can be more closely tied to the strength of the U.S. economy than big multinational rivals, fell more than the rest of the market. The Russell 2000 index of small stocks dropped a market-leading 2.9%.Within the big companies of the S&P 500 index, 3 out of every 4 stocks fell. Everything from Big Tech stocks that have been bid up amid the artificial-intelligence frenzy to airlines to metals companies dropped. Nvidia sank 4.1%. United Airlines lost 6.4%, and Newmont Mining fell 5.7%. Akamai Technologies had the sharpest drop in the S&P 500, even though the cybersecurity and cloud computing company reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It lost a fifth of its value and fell 21.7% as investors focused instead on its forecasts for revenue and other financial measures this upcoming year, which fell short of analysts expectations. On the winning side of Wall Street was Celsius Holdings, which sells better-for-you energy drinks. It leaped 27.8% after saying it agreed to buy Alani Nu, a beverage company that focuses on female customers. Analysts called the purchase price, $1.65 billion net of tax effects, reasonable and said the deal should quickly add to profits for Celsius, which also reported its latest quarterly results. Other winners included stocks of companies that can provide steadier profits regardless of the U.S. economys strength. Water utility American Water Works rose 3.1%, for example.All told, the S&P 500 fell 104.39 points to 6,013.13. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 748.63 to 43,428.02, and the Nasdaq composite sank 438.36 points to 19,524.01.Before Fridays sharp drop, the S&P 500 had been heading for a week of almost zero movement. Helping to lift stocks had been a steady parade of better-than-expected profit reports. That helped offset worries about stubbornly high inflation, which could prevent the Federal Reserve from delivering more relief for the economy and financial markets through lower interest rates. The Fed has been holding its main interest rate steady after sharply cutting it through the end of last year. At their last policy meeting in January, Fed officials suggested they may stay on hold for a while given worries about how Trumps proposed tariffs and mass deportations of migrants, along with other factors, could push upward on inflation.While lower rates can boost the economy, they can also encourage spending that puts upward pressure on inflation. Treasury yields fell in the bond market following Fridays weaker-than-expected economic reports. The yield on the 10-year Treasury sank to 4.42 % from 4.51% late Thursday.In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in Europe after rising across much of Asia. Hong Kongs Hang Seng jumped 4% for one of the worlds largest moves,, boosted by a surge for e-commerce firm Alibaba, which reported stronger profit for the end of last year than expected. It also talked up its artificial-intelligence developments. ___AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

The Supreme Court in Washington, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)2025-02-21T23:16:07Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept on the job the head of the federal agency that protects government whistleblowers, in its first word on the many legal fights over President Donald Trumps second-term agenda.The justices said in an unsigned order that Hampton Dellinger, head of the Office of Special Counsel, could remain in his job at least until Wednesday. Thats when a lower-court order temporarily protecting him expires.With a bare majority of five justices, the high court neither granted nor rejected the administrations plea to immediately remove him. Instead, the court held the request in abeyance, noting that the order expires in just a few days. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has scheduled a Wednesday hearing over whether to extend her order keeping Dellinger in his post. The justices could return to the case depending on what she decides. Conservative justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito sided with the administration, doubting whether courts have the authority to restore to office someone the president has fired. Acknowledging that some presidentially appointed officials have contested their removal, Gorsuch wrote that those officials have generally sought remedies like backpay, not injunctive relief like reinstatement. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have rejected the administrations request. The conservative-dominated court has previously taken a robust view of presidential power, including in last years decision that gave presidents immunity from prosecution for actions they take in office.The Justice Department employed sweeping language in urging the court to allow the termination of the head of an obscure federal agency with limited power. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in court papers that the lower court had crossed a constitutional red line by blocking Dellingers firing and stopping Trump from shaping the agenda of an executive-branch agency in the new administrations critical first days. The Office of Special Counsel is responsible for guarding the federal workforce from illegal personnel actions, such as retaliation for whistleblowing. Its leader may be removed by the president only for inefficiency, neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.Dellinger was appointed by Democratic President Joe Biden and confirmed by the Senate to a five-year term in 2024.I am glad to be able to continue my work as an independent government watchdog and whistleblower advocate, Dellinger said in a statement. I am grateful to the judges and justices who have concluded that I should be allowed to remain on the job while the courts decide whether my office can retain a measure of independence from direct partisan and political control.Harris said the court should use this case to lay down a marker and check federal judges who in the last few weeks alone have halted dozens of presidential actions (or even perceived actions) that encroached on Trumps presidential powers. The court already has pared back a 1935 ruling, known as Humphreys Executor, that protected presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed leaders of independent agencies from arbitrary firings.Conservative justices have called into question limits on the presidents ability to remove the agency heads. In 2020, for instance, the court by a 5-4 vote upheld Trumps first-term firing of the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the Presidents removal power is the rule, not the exception. But in that same opinion, Roberts drew distinctions that suggested the court could take a different view of efforts to remove the whistleblower watchdog. In any event, the OSC exercises only limited jurisdiction to enforce certain rules governing Federal Government employers and employees. It does not bind private parties at all or wield regulatory authority comparable to the CFPB, Roberts wrote.The new administration already has indicated it would seek to entirely overturn the Humphreys Executor decision, which held that President Franklin D. Roosevelt could not arbitrarily fire a Federal Trade Commission member. Trump has taken aim at people who are on the multimember boards that run an alphabet soup of federal agencies, including the National Labor Relations Board and the Merit System Review Board.Like Dellinger, they were confirmed to specific terms in office and the federal laws under which the agencies operate protect them from arbitrary firings. Lower courts have so far blocked some of those firings.

United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a media conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)2025-02-21T22:49:29Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Defense Department said Friday that its cutting 5,400 probationary workers starting next week and will put a hiring freeze in place.It comes after staffers from the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, were at the Pentagon earlier in the week and received lists of such employees, U.S. officials said. They said those lists did not include uniformed military personnel, who are exempt. Probationary employees are generally those on the job for less than a year and who have yet to gain civil service protection.We anticipate reducing the Departments civilian workforce by 5-8% to produce efficiencies and refocus the Department on the Presidents priorities and restoring readiness in the force, Darin Selnick, who is acting undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.President Donald Trumps administration is firing thousands of federal workers who have fewer civil service protections. For example, roughly 2,000 employees were cut from the U.S. Forest Service, and an 7,000 people are expected to be let go at the Internal Revenue Service. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has supported cuts, posting on X last week that the Pentagon needs to cut the fat (HQ) and grow the muscle (warfighters.) The Defense Department is the largest government agency, with the Government Accountability Office finding in 2023 that it had more than 700,000 full-time civilian workers.Hegseth also has directed the military services to identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trumps priorities. It represents about 8% of the militarys budget.

People protest during a rally outside the Treasury Department in Washington, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)2025-02-22T00:46:56Z NEW YORK (AP) A federal judge in Manhattan on Friday extended a ban on Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency accessing sensitive Treasury Department information, but rejected broader restrictions sought by 19 Democratic state attorneys general who sued over the issue.Judge Jeannette A. Vargas issued a preliminary injunction but said she may lift the ban which she initially put in place earlier this month if the Treasury Department certifies by March 24 that DOGE members have received required cybersecurity training.Vargas said DOGEs efforts to modernize Treasury payment systems were not undercut by the delay, which she said was meant to ensure the security of sensitive personal data for millions of Americans.Without addressing these issues, the potential consequences of a cybersecurity breach could be catastrophic, Vargas wrote in a 64-page ruling. The attorneys general had sought to ban Musks DOGE team from developing automated or manual processes to halt payments flowing through the Treasury Departments payment systems.Vargas said that rather than broad and sweeping relief she opted for a narrowly tailored remedy to address concerns that private banking data could become exposed in a data breach.___ RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump talks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-02-22T00:22:03Z WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge on Friday largely blocked sweeping executive orders from President Donald Trump that seek to end government support for programs promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore granted a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from terminating or changing federal contracts they consider equity-related.Abelson found that the orders likely carry constitutional violations, including against free-speech rights. Trump signed an order his first day in office directing federal agencies to terminate all equity-related grants or contracts. He signed a follow-up order requiring federal contractors to certify that they dont promote DEI.The White House didnt immediately return a message seeking comment. The plaintiffs including the city of Baltimore and higher education groups sued the Trump administration earlier this month, arguing the executive orders are unconstitutional and a blatant overreach of presidential authority. They also allege the directives have a chilling effect on free speech. The Trump administration has argued that the president was targeting only DEI programs that violate federal civil rights laws. Whats happening is an overcorrection and pulling back on DEI statements, attorney Aleshadye Getachew said during a nearly three-hour hearing Wednesday. Abelson, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, agreed with the plaintiffs that the executive orders discourage businesses, organizations and public entities from openly supporting diversity, equity and inclusion. The harm arises from the issuance of it as a public, vague, threatening executive order, he said during a hearing this week.Abelsons order does allow for the attorney general to investigate and prepare a report on DEI practices, but blocks enforcement. Efforts to increase diversity have been under attack for years by Republicans who contend the measures threaten merit-based hiring, promotion and educational opportunities for white people. However, supporters say the programs help institutions meet the needs of increasingly diverse populations while addressing the lasting impacts of systemic racism.Their purpose was to foster equitable environments in businesses and schools, especially for historically marginalized communities. Although researchers say DEI initiatives date back to the 1960s, more were launched and expanded in 2020 during increased calls for racial justice. Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued in their complaint that Trumps efforts to abruptly end such programs will cause widespread harm, not least because of the vague language in his executive orders. Ordinary citizens bear the brunt, they wrote. Plaintiffs and their members receive federal funds to support educators, academics, students, workers, and communities across the country. As federal agencies make arbitrary decisions about whether grants are equity-related, Plaintiffs are left in limbo.The plaintiffs include the city of Baltimore, which receives federal funds for public safety, housing, the environment, infrastructure and more, according to the complaint. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, who won reelection last year, has championed efforts to increase opportunities for the citys most vulnerable residents, including people of color. Scott became the subject of racist attacks online last year as some commenters labeled him a DEI mayor, and he recently coined the phrase Definitely Earned It to highlight the accomplishments of Black figures throughout history.In addition to the mayor and the Baltimore City Council, the plaintiffs include the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents restaurant workers across the country.Their attorneys claim the groups are already suffering the effects of the executive orders as Trump encroaches on the powers of Congress and seeks to suppress views he doesnt agree with.But the President simply does not wield that power, they wrote in the complaint. And contrary to his suggestions otherwise, his power is not limitless. LINDSAY WHITEHURST Whitehurst covers the Supreme Court, legal affairs and criminal justice for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. Past stops include Salt Lake City, New Mexico and Indiana. twitter mailto

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. CQ Brown speaks during a press briefing, April 26, 2024, at the Pentagon in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)2025-02-22T00:40:47Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.The ouster of Brown, only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.I want to thank General Charles CQ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family, Trump posted on social media.Trump says he is nominating Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Razin Caine to be the next chairman. Caine is a career F-16 pilot who served on active duty and in the National Guard, and had most recently served as the associate director for military affairs at the CIA, according to his official military biography. Caines military service includes combat roles in Iraq, special operations postings and positions inside some of the Pentagons most classified special access programs. However, it does not include key assignments that were identified in law as prerequisites for the job, with an exemption for the president to waive them if necessary in times of national interest. The 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act states that to be qualified, a chairman must have served previously as either the vice chairman, as a combatant commander or a service chief but that requirement could be waived if the president determines such action is necessary in the national interest. The role of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs was established in 1949 as an adviser to the president and secretary of defense, as a way to filter all of the views of the service chiefs and more readily provide that information to the White House without the president having to reach out to each individual military branch, according to an Atlantic Council briefing written by retired Maj. Gen. Arnold Punaro. The role has no actual command authority. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a statement praising both Caine and Brown, announced the firings of two additional senior officers: Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Jim Slife.Brown had spent Friday at the U.S.-Mexico border, assessing the militarys rapid buildup of forces to meet Trumps executive order on countering illegal immigration.Trump acted despite support for Brown among key members of Congress and a seemingly friendly meeting with him in mid-December, when the two were seated next to each other for a time at the Army-Navy football game. Brown had been meeting regularly with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who took over the top Pentagon job just four weeks ago.But Browns future was called into question during the Senate Armed Services Committees confirmation hearing for Hegseth last month. Asked if he would fire Brown, Hegseth responded bluntly, Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders they will be given. Hegseth has embraced Trumps effort to end programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the ranks and fire those who reflect those values.Hegseth had previously taken aim at Brown. First of all, you gotta fire, you know, you gotta fire the chairman of Joint Chiefs, he said flatly in a podcast in November. And in one of his books, he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.Was it because of his skin color? Or his skill? Well never know, but always doubt which on its face seems unfair to CQ. But since he has made the race card one of his biggest calling cards, it doesnt really much matter, Hegseth wrote.As he walked into the Pentagon on his first day as defense chief on Jan. 27, however, Hegseth was asked directly if he planned to fire Brown. Im standing with him right now, said Hegseth, patting Brown on the back as they headed into the building. Look forward to working with him.In his second term, Trump has asserted his executive authority in a much stronger way and removed most carryover officials from President Joe Bidens term, even though in typical transitions, many of those positions are meant to carry over independently from one administration to the next.Just prior to his Senate confirmation vote in June 2020 to become chief of the Air Force, Brown gained some attention when he spoke out on the police killing of George Floyd the month before. While he knew it was risky, he said, discussions with his wife and sons about the killing convinced him he needed to say something. As protests roiled the nation, Brown posted a video message to the Air Force titled, Heres What Im Thinking About. He described the pressures that came with being one of the few Black men in his unit. He recalled pushing himself to perform error-free as a pilot and officer his whole life, but still facing bias. He said hed been questioned about his credentials, even when he wore the same flight suit and wings as every other pilot.As chairman, he pushed the same campaign he had when leading the Air Force that the Pentagon must accelerate its ability to change or it would lose future wars.Prior to leading the Air Force, Brown had served as the top air power leader in the Indo-Pacific. He had repeatedly warned that U.S. warplanes had to change the way they would fight, by moving them from large, vulnerable bases and shifting to a format where drone swarms and small dispersed units would be able to independently counter threats from the thousands of islands throughout the Pacific. Im thinking about my mentors, and how I rarely had a mentor that looked like me, Brown said in the video. Im thinking about how my nomination provides some hope, but also comes with a heavy burden I cant fix centuries of racism in our country, nor can I fix decades of discrimination that may have impacted members of our Air Force.Brown was overwhelmingly confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 98-0. Not long afterward, his name began to surface as the likely successor to Gen. Mark Milley, who was set to retire as chairman.Browns path to the chairmanship was troubled he was among the more than 260 senior military officers whose nominations were stalled for months by Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. Tuberville caused ire in the Senate and organizational juggling in the Pentagon when he blocked the confirmations in protest over a department policy that paid for travel when a service member had to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care. But when the Senate vote was finally taken in September 2023, Brown easily was confirmed by a vote of 89-8.It had been 30 years since Colin Powell became the first Black chairman, serving from 1989 to 1993. But while African Americans made up 17.2% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members, only 9% of officers were Black, according to a 2021 Defense Department report.Browns service as chairman made history in that this was the first time that both the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, and the Joint Chiefs chairman were Black. TARA COPP Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. twitter mailto LOLITA C. BALDOR Baldor has covered the Pentagon and national security issues for The Associated Press since 2005. She has reported from all over the world including warzones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. twitter mailto

Acting United States Attorney for the District of Nevada Sue Fahami speaks about an alleged romance scheme that turned deadly during a news conference in Las Vegas, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil)2025-02-21T21:57:13Z LAS VEGAS (AP) A woman used online dating apps to lure at least four older men to meet her in person, then drugged them with sedatives and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in a sinister romance scheme, FBI officials in Las Vegas said Friday. Three of the men died, authorities said, and she has been charged in one of their deaths. Aurora Phelps, 43, who is in custody in Mexico, faces 21 counts including wire fraud, identity theft and one count of kidnapping resulting in death, Sue Fahami, the acting United States attorney for the District of Nevada, said at a news conference.This is a romance scam on steroids, said Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBIs Las Vegas division. One of the four victims, who were targeted in 2021 and 2022, awoke from a coma after Phelps gave him prescription sedatives over the course of a week, Evans added. In one instance Phelps is alleged to have kidnapped a victim by heavily sedating him and taking him across the U.S.-Mexico border in a wheelchair and then to a Mexico City hotel room, where he was later found dead.After incapacitating her victims, Evans said, Phelps stole their cars, withdrew money from their bank accounts, used their credit cards to purchase luxury items and gold and even tried to access social security and retirement accounts. According to the indictment, Phelps met one man in July 2021, went on lunch dates with him and that November ordered lunch to his house and slipped him a prescription drug. While he was mostly unconscious for about five days, Phelps gained access to his accounts and stole his iPhone, iPads, drivers license and bank cards, according to the indictment. She also allegedly accessed his E-Trade account and sold Apple stock worth about $3.3 million, though she was unable to withdraw that money.Authorities believe Phelps used popular dating apps including Tinder, Hinge and Bumble to find her targets. The men were lonely and looking for companionship and went on multiple dates with Phelps before she stealthily gave them sedatives, according to Evans. Its folks that are out looking for love that ran into something far more sinister, he said.Phelps, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S., had been on the FBIs radar for a couple of years, according to Evans. He declined to comment on her criminal history.Phelps does not have a U.S.-based attorney who could speak on her behalf, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said. The Associated Press left messages seeking comment with Mexicos Foreign Affairs Ministry and Attorney Generals Office.Several of the victims relatives called authorities when they were unable to contact their loved ones, Evans said. One woman was unable to reach her father the day after he went on a date with Phelps in Guadalajara, Mexico, in May 2022, according to court records. The next day Mexican police found him dead on the bathroom floor of his home. Phelps then used an account belonging to the victim to purchase a gold coin, along with other transactions, the indictment alleges. The FBI is aware of more alleged victims in the U.S. and Mexico, Evans said, and is making information about the case public, including suspected aliases, in hopes of identifying others who fell victim to her scams and whose trust in her may have cost them their life. The FBI is also working with the Department of Justice and Mexican authorities to secure her extradition.If convicted on every charge, which include seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of mail fraud, six counts of bank fraud, three counts of identity theft and one count of kidnapping, Phelps faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Fahami said. ___Bedayn reported from Denver, and Govindarao from Phoenix. JESSE BEDAYN Bedayn is a statehouse reporter for The Associated Press based in Denver. He is a Report for America corps member. mailto 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 RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

President Donald Trump speaks at the Governors Working Session in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (Pool via AP)2025-02-21T19:37:21Z President Donald Trump sparred with Maines Democratic governor during a meeting of governors at the White House on Friday, with Gov. Janet Mills telling the Republican president, Well see you in court, over his push to deny federal funding to the state over transgender athletes.Trump told the governor he looked forward to it and predicted the end of her political career for opposing his order. Later Friday, the U.S. Department of Education said it was initiating an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over the inclusion of transgender athletes.The confrontation during the meeting came after Mills and Trump had traded barbs over the last 24 hours regarding his push to bar transgender athletes from playing in girls and womens sports. The confrontation in the State Dining Room was an unusual breach of the typically courteous interactions that lawmakers, even of opposing parties, have historically shared at the White House. The back-and-forth came in the middle of the presidents remarks welcoming the nations governors to the White House. As he was speaking about an executive order he signed earlier this month on transgender athletes, he sought out Mills in the room after singling her out a day earlier in remarks to the Republican Governors Association. Is Maine here, the governor of Maine? he asked.Im here, she replied.Are you not going to comply with it? he asked. Im complying with state and federal laws, Mills replied.Trump responded, We are the federal law. He again threatened the states federal funding and said Maine may be a Democratic state but its residents largely agree with him on this issue.Were going to follow the law, she said.Youd better comply, Trump warned. Otherwise, youre not getting any federal funding.Well see you in court, the governor replied.Good, Ill see you in court. I look forward to that. That should be a real easy one, Trump said. And enjoy your life after governor because I dont think youll be in elected politics. Trump made a similar funding threat Thursday night as he spoke to a group of Republican governors. He said that he heard men are still playing in Maine and that he would pull funding because of it.So were not going to give them any federal funding. None whatsoever, until they clean that up, Trump said.The Maine Principals Association, which governs high school sports in the state, said earlier this month that it would continue to allow transgender female athletes to compete. The associations executive director, Mike Burnham, said it would follow the Maine Human Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity.The U.S. Department of Educations Office of Civil Rights said in a letter sent later Friday to the commissioner of the state Department of Education that it was launching an investigation amid allegations that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in girls interscholastic athletics, which it called a violation of federal antidiscrimination law. The U.S. Department of Educations statement said state laws do not override federal antidiscrimination laws. If the state wants to continue to receive federal funds from the education department, it must follow Title IX, said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights with the education department, in a statement.Mills said she would work with the attorney general to defend the state in court, but she predicted that Maine would not be the last state Trump tried to target.I imagine that the outcome of this politically directed investigation is all but predetermined, she said in a statement. She added: But do not be misled: this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot.Earlier Friday, Mills and Maines Democratic attorney general, Aaron Frey, pushed back against Trumps comments the night before. Mills said the state will not be intimidated by Trumps threats.If the president attempts to unilaterally deprive Maine school children of the benefit of Federal funding, my administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding and the academic opportunity it provides, Mills said in a statement before the confrontation with Trump.Frey said he would defend Maines laws and block efforts by the president to bully and threaten us. The order Trump signed earlier this month gives federal agencies wide latitude to make sure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administrations view, which interprets sex as the gender someone was assigned at birth.The federal government could penalize organizations such as schools or athletic associations that do not comply, possibly by pulling funding such as grants to educational programs. ___Price reported from New York. Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine. Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report. MICHELLE L. PRICE Price is a national political reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in New York. twitter mailto PATRICK WHITTLE Whittle is an Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Maine. He focuses on the environment and oceans. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

This image made from video provided by Hawaii News Now shows Gordon Cordeiro in court on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, in Wailuku, Hawaii. (Hawaii News Now via AP)2025-02-22T00:25:59Z HONOLULU (AP) A judge on Friday ordered the release of a Hawaii man who was imprisoned for 30 years for a murder he has long said he didnt commit. New evidence, including DNA test results, would likely change the results of another trial against Gordon Cordeiro, Judge Kirstin Hamman ruled Friday in vacating his convictions and life sentence. There were gasps and cries in the courtroom when Hamman said, And the judgement and sentence is vacated and the defendant is ordered to be released from custody, before a Zoom feed broadcasting the hearing suddenly turned off. In 1994, a man was murdered on Maui during a drug deal robbery. Cordeiro would eventually be found guilty of murder, robbery and attempted murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The Hawaii Innocence Project took up his case and during a hearing earlier this week argued Cordeiro must be released on the grounds of new evidence proving his innocence, ineffectiveness of his previous attorney and prosecutorial misconduct. Maui County Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Martin didnt immediately return a phone message seeking comment after the judge ordered Cordeiros release. Kenneth Lawson, co-director of the Hawaii Innocence Project, said he was waiting for Cordeiro, now 51, to be processed and released from custody after the hearing. It was very, very emotional. He cried, we all cried, Lawson said. He believed that he was going to be exonerated ... but having gone through two trials you lose faith in the justice system. To finally hear a judge say Im vacating your convictions, thats when it hit him. According to court documents filed by Cordeiros attorneys, he was wrongfully convicted for the shooting death of Timothy Blaisdell partly because police relied upon four jailhouse informants. They say those informants were motivated by promises of reduced sentences and concocted a fabricated murder-for-hire plot. The plot, they say, claimed Cordeiro tried to arrange the killing of the man who tried to pin the death on Cordeiro due to a previous dispute. Unfortunately for Cordeiro, the States use of incentivized jailhouse informants and their fabricated evidence and testimony about the murder-for-hire plots, was enough to convince a jury of his guilt in his second trial, the Hawaii Innocence Project said in a court filing.The first trial against Cordeiro ended in a hung jury, with only one juror voting to convict him. Cordeiro had several alibi for the day Blaisdell was killed, his attorneys said: The then 22-year-old was at home with his parents and sisters, spending the day building a shelving unit in his familys open-air garage and installing a stereo in his sisters car. He was nowhere near the area known as Skid Row in upcountry Maui where Blaisdell was killed. Blaisdell had gone to Skid Row with a man named Michael Freitas, where Blaisdell planned to buy a pound of marijuana with $800 in cash, according to court documents. Blaisdells body was found at the bottom of a ravine there. Freitas kept changing his story, Cordeiros attorneys said, and shifted the blame onto Cordeiro, a friend he falsely believed had snitched on him in an unrelated drug case. After Cordeiros conviction, new testing on physical evidence from the scene excluded Cordeiro as the source of DNA on Blaisdells body and other crime scene evidence, and found there was a DNA profile of an unidentified person on the inside pockets of Blaisdells jeans, the Hawaii Innocence Project said.Cordeiros attorneys believe Freitas set up Blaisdell to get robbed and was involved in his killing. Freitas died in 2020, Lawson said. The judge agreed that the new DNA evidence and new information about gunshot residue would change the results of a later trial. The police botched this case from the beginning and turned the No. 1 suspect into the states star witness, resulting in a 30-plus-year nightmare and miscarriage of justice for Gordon and his family, Lawson said.

In this undated and unknown location photo released by the Department of Homeland Security shows Border Patrol Agent David Maland posing with a service dog. (Department of Homeland Security via AP, File)2025-02-22T05:10:55Z MINNEAPOLIS (AP) A U.S. Border Patrol agent whose killing in Vermont during a traffic stop near the Canadian border has been tied to a cultlike group is scheduled to be buried with full military honors Saturday at a national cemetery. David Maland, 44, died Jan. 20 during the stop on Interstate 91 in Conventry, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) south of the border with Canada. The driver of the stopped car is accused of opening fire on Maland and other agents, sparking a shootout that left her companion dead. Both belonged to a group called the Zizians that may be linked to six deaths in three states, investigators said. Maland, who went by Chris, is to be buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis. A native of Minnesota, he served in the Air Force and the State Department before joining the Border Patrol. Chris was a loving son, brother, uncle, fiance and dedicated colleague, his family said in a statement released late Friday. His kind heart and fighting soul made him a warm and inviting person to be around and pillar of strength for his country. We love you, Chris. Youll live in our hearts forever. In the Air Force, Maland was responsible for protecting bases, personnel and property. In 2001, he worked security duty at the Pentagon during the Sept. 11 attacks, his family said.He received the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, among other honors, according to his obituary. Maland was a K-9 handler at the State Department and at his Border Patrol job in Vermont. He first joined the Border Patrol in Texas. He will be remembered for his courage and commitment to protecting fellow Americans, Minnesota state Rep. Krista Knudsen, Malands cousin, said on the House floor last month. He is also a person who served faithfully with honor and bravery. He always put his service above himself.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second left, meets with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudi National Security Advisor Mosaad bin Mohammad Al-Aiban, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, third left, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, left, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, second right, at Diriyah Palace, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday Feb. 18, 2025. (Evelyn Hockstein/Pool Photo via AP)2025-02-22T01:30:38Z UNITED NATIONS (AP) The United States has proposed a draft U.N. resolution that stops far short of a competing European-backed statement demanding an immediate withdrawal of all of Moscows forces from Ukraine.Both are timed to the third anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine, which falls on Monday, when the U.N. General Assembly will vote on the nonbinding resolutions.It sets up a clash between the United States and Europe as the strength of the transatlantic alliance has been called into question over the Trump administrations extraordinary turnaround on Russia, opening negotiations with Moscow after years of isolation as the U.S. looks to broker a rapid end to the war. European leaders were dismayed that their officials and those from Ukraine werent invited to preliminary U.S.-Russia talks this week in Saudi Arabia.The very short U.S. draft resolution offers mourning for the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict and implores a swift end to the conflict and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia. Russias U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told U.N. reporters about the U.S. resolution, Its a good move. Russia also suggested an amendment, seeking to add the phrase including by addressing its root causes so the final line of the U.S. resolution reads, implores a swift end to the conflict, including by addressing its root causes, and further urges a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia. By contrast, the draft resolution from the European Union and Ukraine refers to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation and recalls the need to implement all previous assembly resolutions adopted in response to the aggression against Ukraine.It singles out the assemblys demand that Russia immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders and its demand to immediate halt all hostilities. The General Assembly has become the most important U.N. body dealing with Ukraine because the Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, is paralyzed by Russias veto power.There are no vetoes in the General Assembly, but its resolutions are not legally binding unlike Security Council actions. Nonetheless, assembly resolutions are closely watched as a barometer of world opinion.The dueling resolutions come as President Donald Trump has falsely blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for allowing the war to start and describing him as a dictator who better move fast to negotiate an end to the war or risk not having a nation to lead. Zelenskyy responded by saying Trump was living in a Russian-made disinformation space.

President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)2025-02-22T05:21:54Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) As Ukraine approached the three-year mark of Russias full-scale invasion, the countrys hoped-for path to a favorable and lasting peace was upended in a matter of days by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.Kyiv had benefited from years of staunch support by its allies in the United States and Europe which had provided crucial military and financial support to help defend against Moscows grinding incursions.But when Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week undoing years of U.S. policy to isolate the Russian leader over his aggression it was taken as a signal in Kyiv and other European capitals that their alliance to contain Moscow was fraying.Heres a timeline of events: Wednesday, Feb. 12On their 90-minute call, Trump and Putin agreed to begin negotiations to end the war, a move that was met with jubilation in Russia but which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had warned would be very dangerous " if Ukraine were excluded from talks. Although Trump spoke to Zelenskyy immediately after the Putin call, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that day that NATO membership for Ukraine, something Kyiv believes would protect the country and Europe from future Russian attacks, was unrealistic. He suggested Ukraine should abandon hopes of winning all its territory back, a perspective that is remarkably close to Moscows. The breakneck speed of Trumps transformation of U.S. policy toward Ukraine and Russia left many war-weary Ukrainians feeling that they were being left out of the conversation on their future, and fearing that a deal forced by Washington and Moscow would result in lost territory and vulnerability to future Russian aggression. Friday, Feb. 14European leaders had their first chance to meet with members of the new Trump administration at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where they hoped to gain clarity on Trumps approach to the war. But leaders were stunned as senior U.S. officials including Vice President JD Vance lambasted European nations, gave mixed signals on support for Kyiv and suggested Europe would not be at the table for negotiations on Ukraine.During highly anticipated talks between Vance and Zelenskyy in Munich, the Ukrainian leader told Vance that his country needed security guarantees as a precondition for engaging in any talks with Moscow to end the war. Zelenskyy also said hed ordered his ministers not to sign off on a proposed agreement to give the United States access to Ukraines rare earth minerals, a key part of his talks with Vance. Ukrainian officials said the U.S. proposal did not offer any specific security guarantees in return for access to Ukraines vast reserves of critical minerals that are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. A senior White House official described Zelenskyys refusal as short-sighted. Sunday, Feb. 16On the final day of the conference, French President Emmanuel Macron began rallying European leaders to fortify their support for Ukraine, with his foreign minister announcing an emergency working meeting in Paris to assess the continents next steps. Meanwhile, amid concerns that U.S. support for Kyiv was faltering, a group of European countries was quietly working on a plan to send troops into Ukraine to help enforce any future peace settlement with Russia. Tuesday, Feb. 18U.S. and Russian officials met for talks in Saudi Arabias capital, sidestepping Kyiv and its European backers. The two countries agreed to work together to end the war in Ukraine and to improve diplomatic and economic ties, an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy.Yet the three U.S. principals at the meeting in Riyadh Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Trumps special Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff maintained that the four-hour discussion was aimed mainly at assessing Russias seriousness about wanting a peace deal.All three said publicly that no specific proposals had been put on the table, and that it remained to be seen if the Russians were willing to negotiate in good faith. They also rejected assertions that either Ukraine or the Europeans were being excluded, noting that although they werent present in Riyadh, Trump, Vance and Rubio had all spoken with both Zelenskyy and European officials who would be involved if and when peace talks actually start. Zelenskyy dismissed the talks, saying they would yield no results in the absence of Ukrainian participation. He postponed a plan to visit Riyadh the next day to avoid any linkage of his trip with the U.S.-Russia meeting.Trump showed little patience for Kyivs objections to being sidelined in Riyadh, and ramped up inflammatory rhetoric that caused anger and alarm in Ukraine and seemed to contradict the assurances that Rubio, Waltz and Witkoff had endeavored to provide. Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump made the jarring suggestion that Ukraine itself was responsible for starting the war that has cost tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, and criticized Zelenksyy for Ukraine delaying elections because of the invasion, in accordance with the Ukrainian Constitution. Wednesday, Feb. 19Trumps comments, and a Wednesday post on social media that called Zelenskyy a dictator, led to Zelenskyy saying that some of the presidents claims were disinformation that originated in Russia, and that he would like Trumps team to be more truthful. Trump, Zelenskyy said, is living in a Russian-made disinformation space.As relations between the two leaders eroded, one thing remained on the horizon that some observers thought could serve to lower the temperature on the disagreements between Washington and Kyiv: Trumps special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Ret. Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, arrived in Ukraines capital by train Wednesday morning for discussions with Zelenskyy and other officials. Kellogg has long been Trumps top adviser on defense issues. He was due to speak with Zelenskyy about Trumps efforts to end the war, and the Ukrainian leader had previously said he looked forward to explaining what was happening in Ukraine to Kellogg and accompanying him to see the front line. Thursday, Feb. 20A news conference that was set to follow a meeting between Zelenskyy and Kellogg was abruptly cancelled at the request of the U.S. delegation. Friday, Feb. 21In a complimentary gesture that stood in stark contrast with the tone of the preceding days, Kellogg wrote on X that hed had a long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine.He said hed had positive discussions with the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team. Still, Trump continued to lay into Zelenskyy, grumbling that a visit to Kyiv last week by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was a wasted trip after the Ukrainian side declined to agree to a U.S. proposal to procure profits on rare earth minerals. At the same time, Waltz, Trumps national security adviser, expressed confidence that Zelenskyy would seal a rare earths deal. Heres the bottom line. President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, Waltz said.Trump, speaking to The Brian Kilmeade Show on Fox News radio, also dismissed Zelenskyys complaints about not being included in the Saudi talks. He voiced certainty that Putin wanted to strike a deal. He doesnt have to make a deal, Trump said of Putin. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country.___Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. ___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine JUSTIN SPIKE Spike is an Associated Press reporter based in Budapest, Hungary. twitter mailto

U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg, right, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)2025-02-22T03:37:27Z WASHINGTON (AP) The White House and Ukraine have made significant progress toward reaching an agreement that would provide the U.S. with access to Ukraines rare earth minerals and tighten the long-term relationship between Kyiv and Washington, according to a person familiar with the matter.The progress in talks comes after President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traded sharp rhetoric this week about their differences over the matter. Zelenskyy said he balked at signing off on a deal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv last week, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.Trump earlier Friday renewed his criticism of Zelenskyys handling of the three-year war and accused the Ukrainians of wasting Bessents time. But the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine this week by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trumps special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, according to the person familiar with the ongoing negotiations who was not authorized to comment publicly. While the Ukrainians were rattled by Trump, the still-not-completed agreement came into focus over three days of meetings in Ukraine between Kellogg and Zelenskyy and other top-ranking Ukrainian officials, the person said. In addition to Zelenskyy, the talks included Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk and others, the person said.As Kellogg returned to Washington on Friday evening, Zelenskyy in his nightly address said the two sides were still working on a draft agreement. It was a notably optimistic tone after Trump earlier in the day in a Fox News Radio interview said Bessents visit to Kyiv had been a wasted trip.Today, Ukrainian and U.S. teams are working on a draft agreement between our governments, Zelenskyy said in his address. This agreement can add value to our relations what matters most is getting the details right to ensure it truly works. I look forward to a just result. Trump said he wanted such a deal earlier this month, and it was initially proposed last fall by Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyivs hand in future negotiations with Moscow.Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.Trumps national security adviser also expressed confidence Friday that Zelenskyy would eventually accept a deal letting the U.S. access his countrys rare earth minerals.Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mike Waltz said: Heres the bottom line. President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal. Its not clear whether the White House has offered Ukraine any security guarantees in the emerging deal.Earlier proposals focused on how the U.S. could use Kyivs minerals as compensation for support already given to Ukraine by the Biden administration and as payment for future aid. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the reported progress.Trump aides Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Waltz met with senior advisers to Russias Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia earlier this week for preliminary talks about ending the war.The U.S. president faced criticism from Zelenskyy for not including Ukraine and other European allies in the talks.Trump, in the radio interview, pushed back against that criticism and once again laced into Zelenskyy. The U.S. president said he didnt think it was important for Zelenskyy to be in the meetings and dismissed Zelenskyy as negotiating with no cards.Earlier this week, Trump warned Zelenskyy that he better move fast to negotiate an end to Russias invasion of Ukraine or risk not having a nation to lead.Trump also said of Putin that the Russian leader wants to make a deal but has options. He doesnt have to make a deal, Trump said. Because if he wanted, he would get the whole country.Trumps harsh words for Zelenskyy drew criticism from Democrats and even some Republicans in Congress, where Ukraines defense against Russian aggression has had bipartisan support. AAMER MADHANI Madhani covers the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto

Relatives and friends of Eliya Cohen, 27, gather to watch the TV broadcast of his release by Palestinian militants in Gaza, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)2025-02-22T06:23:32Z RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Hamas is set to free six more Israeli hostages Saturday from the Gaza Strip, but the exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners is shadowed by heightened tension between the adversaries that clouds the future of the fragile ceasefire deal. A poster shows Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped to Gaza with her husband and two young sons on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) A poster shows Shiri Bibas, who was kidnapped to Gaza with her husband and two young sons on Oct. 7, 2023, in Jerusalem, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Red Cross ambulances arrived Saturday morning in Gazas southernmost city of Rafah in preparation for the latest release.The exchange is going ahead after a grisly and heart-wrenching dispute this week when Hamas initially handed over the wrong body for Shiri Bibas, an Israeli mother of two young boys abducted by militants.The remains that Hamas transferred with her sons bodies on Thursday were later determined to be those of an unidentified Palestinian woman. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge for a cruel and malicious violation, while Hamas suggested it had been a mistake. On Friday night, the small militant group believed to have been holding Bibas and her sons -- the Palestinian Mujahedeen Brigades said it handed over a second body. On Saturday morning, Bibas family said Israeli forensic authorities had confirmed the remains were hers. For 16 months we sought certainty, and now that its here, it brings no comfort, though we hope it marks the beginning of closure, the family said.Three other bodies returned Thursday were confirmed as those of Bibas sons and Oded Lifshitz, who was 83 when all were taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that killed 1,200 in Israel and ignited the war. Hamas fighters deploy ahead of handing over four bodies to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Hamas fighters deploy ahead of handing over four bodies to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Palestinians gather as Hamas fighters deploy ahead of handing over four bodies to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Palestinians gather as Hamas fighters deploy ahead of handing over four bodies to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Israel has identified three of the bodies as hostages and said the other was of an unknown person. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Israel said its tests determined that the hostages had been killed by their captors. Hamas has claimed Lifshitz and the members of the Bibas family were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.The dispute over the bodys identity raised new doubt about the ceasefire deal, which has paused over 15 months of war but is nearing the end of its first phase. Negotiations over a second phase, in which Hamas would release dozens more hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal, are likely to be even more difficult. Despite the dispute, Hamas military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades, said it would go ahead with the release of the six Israeli hostages planned for Saturday. The six are the last living hostages to be freed during the ceasefires first phase.They include Eliya Cohen, 27; Omer Shem Tov, 22; and Omer Wenkert, 23. All three were abducted from a music festival during the Oct. 7 attack. Tal Shoham, 40, who was taken from the community of Kibbutz Beeri, is also set to be released.Avera Mengistu, 39, and Hisham Al-Sayed, 36, who have been held since crossing into Gaza on their own years ago, are also scheduled to be returned to Israel as part of the deal.On Saturday morning, hundreds of people gathered in a rainy Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as Hamas prepared to release the hostages. More than 600 Palestinians jailed in Israel will be freed in exchange, the Palestinian prisoners media office said Friday. The prisoners set for release include 50 serving life sentences, 60 with long sentences, 47 who were released under a previous hostage-for-prisoner exchange and 445 prisoners from Gaza arrested since the war began. Hamas has said it will also release four more bodies next week, completing the first phase of the ceasefire. If that plan is carried out, Hamas would retain about 60 hostages, about half of whom are believed to be alive.Hamas has said it wont release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and a full Israeli withdrawal. Netanyahu, with the full backing of the Trump administration, says hes committed to destroying Hamas military and governing capacities and returning all the hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.Trumps proposal to remove about 2 million Palestinians from Gaza so the U.S. can own and rebuild it has thrown the ceasefire into further doubt. His idea has been welcomed by Netanyahu but universally rejected by Palestinians and Arab countries.Trump said Friday that he was a little surprised by rejections of the proposal by Egypt and Jordan and that he would not impose it. Ill tell you, the way to do it is my plan. I think thats the plan that really works. But Im not forcing it. Im just going to sit back and recommend it, Trump said in a Fox News interview.Israels military offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which doesnt distinguish between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 fighters, without providing evidence.The offensive destroyed vast areas of Gaza, reducing entire neighborhoods to rubble. At its height, the war displaced 90% of Gazas population. Many have returned to their homes to find nothing left and no way of rebuilding.___Shurafa reported from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Lady Justice statue, depicting a seated, blindfolded woman holding a sword, stands outside the Supreme Court in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)2025-02-22T05:00:55Z SAO PAULO (AP) The fate of Brazils former President Jair Bolsonaro is largely in the hands of five people.Within the next three weeks, a panel of five of Brazils 11 Supreme Court justices will decide whether Bolsonaro and 33 others charged by the countrys prosecutor-general of attempting a coup will stand trial.To expedite certain cases, including criminal ones, Brazils top court can use one of its two five-justice panels, both of which are permanent and exclude the chief justice. Changes in each panel usually take place mostly by request or when one of its members becomes chief justice. In Brazil, the chief justice serves for two years.As rapporteur of the cases against Bolsonaro, Justice Alexandre de Moraes was authorized to bring them before the panel he sits on.The 5-judge panel that could decide Bolsonaros future excludes the two justices he appointed: Andr Mendona and Kssio Nunes Marques. They sit on the other panel of the court. Bolsonaros lawyers have said that they want the decision to fall on the full-court, not just on the 5-justice panel. But that decision can only be made by de Moraes, as the rapporteur of the case, or by three of the justices in the panel a majority. If the charges are accepted, that same panel could become the main judicial body to hear Bolsonaros defense, witness testimony and sentencing.Brazils legal experts are split on whether to keep the trial within the 5-justice panel, so it doesnt drag into the 2026 presidential election, or to move for a full-court decision, which would carry greater authority. Luis Henrique Machado, a criminal attorney and professor at the IDP university in Brasilia, says it is virtually impossible that the panel will reject the charges against Bolsonaro, though this does not guarantee a guilty verdict.The former President denies any wrongdoing in all five counts against him and has claimed that he is being politically persecuted.Here are the judges set to decide whether Bolsonaro will be on trial and likely rule on the case: Alexandre de MoraesDe Moraes is the rapporteur of the cases against the former president in the court and also a target of Bolsonaro and his allies. Appointed by former president Michel Temer in 2017, de Moraes is regarded as a conservative member of the court who, unlike his peers, has experience as public security secretary. The 56-year-old justice was also targeted by billionaire Elon Musk, who advocated for nis impeachment for alleged judicial overreach.Crmen LciaLcia, who is also the chairwoman of Brazils top electoral court, was appointed by Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva in 2006 during his first term. Since then, the 70-year-old justice has been considered one of the harshest on the court on criminal cases, including those once aimed at the current president. Lcia has often followed de Moraes in her decisions regarding democratic guardrails. Two years ago, she wrote in one of her rulings that Bolsonaro didnt respect the presidency.Cristiano ZaninZanin is the chairman of the panel. The 49-year-old was Lulas attorney between 2013 and 2023, when he was appointed by the leftist leader to the countrys top court. Zanins work helped overturn Lulas graft conviction at the Supreme Court, allowing him to leave jail and defeat Bolsonaro in the 2022 election. He was a critic of judicial overreach during the sprawling Car Wash corruption probe, which put Lula behind bars for almost one year. Flvio DinoA former federal judge who transitioned to politics before being appointed to Brazils top court, Dino, 56, is the latest justice to take his seat. He was appointed by Lula in 2023 after serving as his justice minister. He was on that job when Bolsonaro supporters trashed government buildings on Jan. 8, 2023, which the countrys prosecutor-general says was part of a plan to return the far-right leader to the presidency. Dino has been a Bolsonaro critic for years.Luiz FuxFux, regarded by his peers as a moderate, was appointed in 2011 by then President Dilma Rousseff. The 71-year-old had a difficult relationship with the Bolsonaro presidency during his time as chief-justice between 2020 and 2022, particularly with respect to matters regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. When he left the position, shortly before the latest presidential election, he said the court was targeted daily by hostile words or undemocratic acts. He often follows de Moraes decisions.___Follow APs coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america MAURICIO SAVARESE Savarese is a reporter since 2004, with a vast experience covering soccer and politics. English, Espaol, Portugus, some French and a bit of Italian. twitter instagram facebook mailto

Eaton Fire evacuees Ceiba Phillips, 11, right, adjusts his mask as he and his mother, Alyson Granaderos, stand next to what remains of their in-law suite during Ceiba's first visit to their home since the fire in Altadena, Calif., Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)2025-02-22T05:09:03Z LOS ANGELES (AP) Ceiba Phillips, 11, couldnt believe what he saw when he returned to his Southern California neighborhood a month after a wildfire reduced it to rubble.The ruins of his best friends house and his beloved school. His house survived, but the backhouse where his grandparents lived and packed him lunch every morning was reduced to ashes and a silver pool of melted aluminum. His favorite cozy diner, Foxs, was decimated.Seeing it in person after seeing it through photos brought shock and tears.Theres not even a word created for it, Ceiba said. Its sad, its heavy, somewhat angry. Why did this have to happen?The Eaton fire that tore through Altadena on Jan. 7 left parents and children alike to deal with the trauma of one of the most destructive fires in California history. As people return to their neighborhoods, many kids are navigating the grief of losing everything that was familiar. Their parents, meanwhile, are learning how to help them cope. Children thrive on routine, and reestablishing one as quickly as possible is key to helping kids cope, said Lori Peek, a sociology professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who studies the impact of natural disasters. Its essential for kids to stay connected with their friends, and for parents to have honest conversations with them about the difficulty of what they are facing. Being honest about our own emotions and opening up, but then being very inviting for children to share what theyre feeling, what theyre grieving, what theyre experiencing, that can be one way to start those really important conversations, Peek said. Its this kind of space that Chiara Angelicola, who works in early childhood education, was trying to create when she organized a Kids Town Hall event for families affected by the fires. Children had the opportunity to share how they felt and participate in art and somatic therapy exercises, which focus on how trauma can affect the body. Ceibas 4-year-old sister, Quoia, went with their mother, Alyson Granaderos, along with more than 100 other kids and parents. A lot of these kids had a lot to say ... and some of it even made the adults uncomfortable, Angelicola said. I think that exercise in learning how to be uncomfortable experiencing certain feelings is very necessary for children because were modeling for them that feelings wont hurt us.Hundreds of therapists and non-profits also have offered their mental health services for free to victims of the fires.A last normal dayCeibas home was one of about six on his street that wasnt destroyed, but it sustained so much smoke damage its not livable right now. On a recent day, the family carefully entered wearing respirator masks and protective equipment. Ceiba looked out his bedroom window and said he didnt care that his house had survived. Id rather have all of Altadena, he said.Ceiba remembers every detail of his last normal day.School let out early due to intense Santa Ana winds that fueled the fires. He and his sister went to Ceibas best friends house. They played on a trampoline, drew comics, and chucked LEGO figurines off the balcony. Ive probably been to his house more than 2,000 times, Ceiba said.That evening, the family received a text message from Ceibas grandma asking if they saw the fire that had broken out nearby. They ran to their window and saw the whole mountainside ablaze.I was on the floor like praying, please protect my house and my family. And you know, moms like, Come on, you got to get up, pack your stuff, Ceiba said.The 11-year-old sprang into action, dumping his clothes and quarters into his bag and packing for his younger sister.They sheltered in their dads office in neighboring Pasadena. Ceiba could barely sleep. By the morning, much of his neighborhood was gone.Finding a rhythm againCeibas days have taken on a rhythm again, even at his new school in Pasadena. When he greeted his mom on a recent afternoon, he shared a fun fact hed learned that day: In 1846, a future president, Abraham Lincoln, had almost joined the ill-fated Donner Party as it set out from Springfield, Illinois, on its infamous journey out West, only to get trapped in Californias Sierra Nevada. Ceiba has decided to play the saxophone in band class, and his state project will be on Michigan, where his mom is from. Granaderos said her son already seems to be adapting.But his conversations with friends now veer into unusual topics for 11-year-olds.The insurance isnt covering us and hows your house? Hows this persons house? Ceiba said, sharing what he and his friends discuss.He wonders what will become of his community. Hes optimistic though.I know Altadena and I know that its going to stick together, Ceiba said. Beauty, sadness and destructionCeiba had clamored right away to go back home after the fire, but Granaderos was hesitant. After the dust settled, she knew that allowing her kids to see and experience what happened was part of the healing process.Youre facing this realization of certain conversations you have to start to have with your kid, right? Granaderos said. Theres beauty in the world, and theres also a lot of sadness and destruction.Quoia burst into tears when the family drove past what was left of The Bunny Museum in Pasadena dedicated to rabbits. She loved seeing the giant inflatable bunnies that loomed over the street corner nearly every day. Ceiba cried along with her.I just couldnt really take it, he said.But not all is lost. Granaderos named both of her children after trees Ceiba, the tree of life, and Quoia after the Sequoia. She planted a sapling of the iconic Sequoia which is extraordinarily resilient to fire, insects and disease in the homes backyard when Quoia was a baby. After the fire, it is still standing.

The logo for the Justice Department is seen before a news conference at the Department of Justice, Aug. 23, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)2025-02-21T22:46:56Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department filed a complaint Friday accusing a federal judge in Washington of misconduct during hearings over President Donald Trumps executive order that calls for banning transgender troops from serving in the U.S. military.The complaint filed by Attorney General Pam Bondis chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, marks an escalation of the Republican administrations criticism of the judiciary, which has been been weighing a slew of legal challenges to the Republican presidents actions. The complaint to the chief judge of Washingtons federal court accuses U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes of inappropriately questioning a government lawyer about his religious beliefs and trying to embarrass the attorney with a rhetorical exercise during an exchange about discrimination. It is seeking an investigation, saying appropriate action should be taken to ensure that future hearings are conducted with the dignity and impartiality the public has a right to expect. A representative from Reyes chambers declined to comment Friday. During the rhetorical exercise, Reyes told the attorney that she changed the rules in her courtroom to bar graduates of the University of Virginia law school from appearing before her because they are all liars and lack integrity. She instructed the government attorney, a graduate of the school, to sit down. In another exchange cited in the complaint, the judge asked the attorney what Jesus would say to telling a group of people that they are so worthless, so worthless that were were not going to allow them into homeless shelters? She continued, Do you think Jesus would be, Sounds right to me? The government lawyer responded, The United States is not going to speculate about what Jesus would have to say about anything. An independent impartial judiciary is fundamental to our system of justice, Mizelle wrote. When judges demonstrate apparent bias or treat counsel disrespectfully, public confidence in the judicial system is undermined. Reyes is known for her stern rebukes of lawyers on both sides. In a different case earlier this month, she verbally rebuked former U.S. Solicitor General Seth Waxman, whos representing eight government watchdogs suing the Trump administration over their firing. She denied an emergency motion and called it beyond comprehension to hold a hearing on a matter rather than resolving it in a five-minute phone call.The Trump administration has been ramping up its criticism of judges over rulings blocking parts of his ambitious agenda rolled out in the first weeks of his administration. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier this month accused judges of acting as activists rather than honest arbiters of the law. Supporters have circulated pictures of judges online, made claims about their families and suggested that the Republican president simply ignore their orders. Reyes, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden, indicated that she wont rule before early March on whether to temporarily block the Trump administration from enforcing the order, which plaintiffs attorneys have said illegally discriminates against transgender troops. Her questions and remarks, however, suggested she is deeply skeptical of the administrations reasoning for ordering a policy change. Reyes also lauded the service of several active-duty troops who sued to block the order.If you were in a foxhole, would you care about these individuals gender identity? the judge asked the government attorney, who answered that it would not be a primary concern of mine.Trumps Jan. 27 order claims the sexual identity of transgender service members conflicts with a soldiers commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in ones personal life and is harmful to military readiness. It requires Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to issue a revised policy.Six transgender people who are active-duty service members and two others seeking to join the military sued to block the Trump administration from enforcing the order. In a court filing, plaintiffs lawyers argued that Trumps order openly expresses hostility and constitutionally impermissible animus toward transgender people.Trumps order also says that use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individuals sex is inconsistent with a government policy to establish high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer is an Associated Press reporter covering the Justice Department and legal issues from Washington. twitter mailto

A woman lays a rosary near candles adorned with pictures of Pope Francis outside the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic where Pope Francis is battling pneumonia, in Rome, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)2025-02-22T11:34:24Z ROME (AP) The Vatican carried on with its Holy Year celebrations without the pope Saturday, as Pope Francis battled pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection that doctors say remains touch-and-go and will keep him hospitalized for at least another week.Francis slept well overnight, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a brief early update Saturday.But doctors have warned that the main threat facing the 88-year-old Francis would be the onset of sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia. As of Friday, there was no evidence of any sepsis, and Francis was responding to the various drugs he is taking, the popes medical team said in their first in-depth update on the popes condition.He is not out of danger, said his personal physician, Dr. Luigi Carbone. So like all fragile patients I say they are always on the golden scale: In other words, it takes very little to become unbalanced. Francis, who has chronic lung disease, was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb. 14 after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened. Doctors first diagnosed the complex viral, bacterial and fungal respiratory tract infection and then the onset of pneumonia in both lungs. They prescribed absolute rest and a combination of cortisone and antibiotics, along with supplemental oxygen when he needs it. Carbone, who along with Francis personal nurse Massimiliano Strappetti organized care for him at the Vatican, acknowledged he had insisted on staying at the Vatican to work, even after he was sick, because of institutional and private commitments. He was cared for by a cardiologist and infectious specialist in addition to his personal medical team before being hospitalized. Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of medicine and surgery at Romes Gemelli hospital, said the biggest threat facing Francis was that some of the germs that are currently located in his respiratory system pass into the bloodstream, causing sepsis. Sepsis can lead to organ failure and death. Sepsis, with his respiratory problems and his age, would be really difficult to get out of, Alfieri told a press conference Friday at Gemelli. The English say knock on wood, we say touch iron. Everyone touch what they want, he said as he tapped the microphone. But this is the real risk in these cases: that these germs pass to the bloodstream.He knows hes in danger, Alfieri added. And he told us to relay that.Deacons, meanwhile, were gathering at the Vatican for their special Jubilee weekend. Francis got sick at the start of the Vaticans Holy Year, the once-every-quarter-century celebration of Catholicism. This weekend, Francis was supposed to have celebrated deacons, a ministry in the church that precedes ordination to the priesthood.In his place, the Holy Year organizer will celebrate Sundays Mass, the Vatican said. And for the second weekend in a row, Francis was expected to skip his traditional Sunday noon blessing, which he could have delivered from Gemelli if he were up to it. Beyond that, doctors have said his recovery will take time and that regardless he will still have to live with his chronic respiratory problems back at the Vatican.He has to get over this infection and we all hope he gets over it, said Alfieri. But the fact is, all doors are open.___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.

This image taken from video released by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025, shows the crashed plane of Delta flight 4819 at Toronto Pearson International Airport, in Mississauga, Ontario, on Tuesday, Feb. 18. (Transportation Safety Board of Canada via AP)2025-02-22T11:07:20Z The crash landing of a Delta Air Lines flight in Toronto this week highlighted the potential dangers of flying with a young child sitting on an adults lap. The plane flipped over, which would make holding onto a baby extremely difficult. A Delta Air Lines plane lies upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP) A Delta Air Lines plane lies upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More Authorities havent said whether the 18-month-old child who was injured in the crash was riding on a parents lap. All 21 people who were hurt were released from the hospital, but young children have died in previous crashes.Despite the recent rash of aviation disasters, airline crashes remain rare, but children could easily get hurt if they are on a parents lap when a plane encounters turbulence. Experts agree its safer for children younger than 2 years old to have their own plane seats and ride in approved car seats when flying, even if families have to pay for an extra ticket. But babies are still allowed to travel in laps, so parents continue doing it despite the risks. A Delta Air Lines plane lies upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP) A Delta Air Lines plane lies upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press via AP) Share Share Copy Link copied Email Facebook X Reddit LinkedIn Pinterest Flipboard Print Read More The saddest part is that most families who travel with a lap child think that because its allowed, its safe, said former flight attendant Jan Brown, who had to look a mother in the face after she had just lost her 22-month-old son when their plane crashed and broke into several pieces near Sioux City, Iowa, in 1989. Brown stopped that mother from climbing back into the wreckage of United Flight 232 after it came to rest upside down in a cornfield. I told her what I thought would stop her: that rescue workers would find him. And she just looked up at me and said, You told me to put my baby on the floor. And I did. And hes gone. And so I think that was the moment that I became a child seat advocate, Brown said.Of the four lap children on that plane, three were injured and the womans son was among the 112 people who died. A 6-month-old boy traveling on a parents lap was killed in 2012 when a plane landed hard and overran the end of a runway in Nunavut, Canada. Last year, three infants on laps could have been sucked out of an Alaska Airlines plane after a door plug flew off midflight, but none were sitting close enough to the opening for that to happen. What do experts recommend?The National Transportation Safety Board and its counterpart in Canada, the Transportation Safety Board, have long recommended that young children fly only in approved car seats to protect them. The Federal Aviation Administration also recommends the use of car seats but doesnt require it despite lobbying from advocates. In addition to those safety regulators, the American Academy of Pediatrics and most major airline trade groups and unions support requiring young children to fly in approved car seats.The main crash investigators in the United States and Canada started recommending car seats for children under 2 and specialized restraint systems for older kids until they are taller than 40 inches (102 centimeters) after the deadly crashes in their countries decades ago. Weve all been there at that point in your life when youve got young children. Youre not swimming in money. Youre trying to save nickels and dimes any way you can. And if you can avoid buying an extra seat, its a completely understandable reaction, NTSB member Tom Chapman said. Its just that people dont understand the risk that they are subjecting their child to by not buying that seat and properly restraining them. Not only is it safer for children to ride in their own seats, but its more enjoyable for parents who dont have to hold a squirming baby for hours in the air.Safety advocate and mother Michelle Pratt, who founded Safe in the Seat, said no matter how tempting it is to check that lap child box, families should get everyone a ticket. Your baby could cost less than your checked suitcase. Why not take advantage? Pratt said. What do parents think?Some parents like Clare Ronning arent convinced. After landing in Burbank, California, with her husband and 5-month-old baby Thursday, she said she doesnt see a need for a car seat on a plane.I dont really see the difference, personally, said Ronning, who already has taken her daughter on six flights. It just seems like another money grab.But Meredith Tobitsch never imagined flying without a seat for her 3-year-old daughter and wont do it with her 14-month-old now, either, because of safety and practical concerns.If there was turbulence, your natural reflex would be to let go of your child, said Tobitsch, who lives in Connecticut, adding that her oldest daughter always slept better in her car seat, making the flights much more enjoyable.Obviously, that does add to the cost of air travel for families, but it is a safety thing. At least for us, were fortunate to do that, she said. Why isnt it required?The FAA relies on a study done in the 1990s to justify not requiring families to buy tickets for children younger than 2.The rationale is that if families had to buy those extra tickets, more of them might drive instead of fly. Because driving is riskier than flying, that would mean more kids would die in car crashes than would be saved in planes if car seats and separate tickets were required.Chapman with the NTSB thinks that logic is a stretch and the study should be revisited, particularly since airline tickets are more affordable today.But parent Andrea Arredondo suggested there might be some truth to it, saying she might fly less if she had to buy a ticket and lug along a car seat for her 4-month-old when flying with her family and two older kids.I would be more likely to decrease our plane travel than bring a car seat, Arredondo said, explaining she and her husband already have their hands full traveling with three kids, three car seats that they check, a stroller and play set.___Associated Press writers Jaimie Ding, Michael Casey and Kathleen Ronayne contributed to this report. JOSH FUNK Funk is an Associated Press reporter who covers all the major freight railroads including Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National and CPKC. Funk also covers Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway and has been attending Buffetts Woodstock for Capitalists annual meeting every spring in Omaha, Nebraska, for 19 years. twitter mailto

This photo provided by Woven by Toyota shows the square at the center of the apartment complexes of Woven City in Susono city, Shizuoka Prefecture on Feb. 2025. (Woven by Toyota via AP)2025-02-22T11:14:31Z SUSONO, Japan (AP) Woven City near Mount Fuji is where Japanese automaker Toyota plans to test everyday living with robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous zero-emissions transportation.Daisuke Toyoda, an executive in charge of the project from the automakers founding family, stressed its not a smart city. Were making a test course for mobility so thats a little bit different. Were not a real estate developer, he said Saturday during a tour of the facility, where the first phase of construction was completed.The Associated Press was the first foreign media to get a preview of the $10 billion Woven City. The first phase spans 47,000 square meters (506,000 square feet), roughly the size of about five baseball fields. When completed, it will be 294,000 square meters (3.1 million square feet). Built on the grounds of a shuttered Toyota Motor Corp. auto plant, its meant to be a place where researchers and startups come together to share ideas, according to Toyoda. Ambitious plans for futuristic cities have sputtered or are unfinished, including one proposed by Googles parent company Alphabet in Toronto; Neom in Saudi Arabia; a project near San Francisco, spearheaded by a former Goldman Sachs trader, and Masdar City next to Abu Dhabis airport. Woven Citys construction began in 2021. All the buildings are connected by underground passageways, where autonomous vehicles will scuttle around collecting garbage and making deliveries. No one is living there yet. The first residents will total just 100 people.Called weavers, theyre workers at Toyota and partner companies, including instant noodle maker Nissin and Daikin, which manufactures air-conditioners. Coffee maker UCC was serving hot drinks from an autonomous-drive bus, parked in a square surrounded by still-empty apartment complexes. The citys name honors Toyotas beginnings as a maker of automatic textile looms. Sakichi Toyoda, Daisuke Toyodas great-great-grandfather, just wanted to make life easier for his mother, who toiled on a manual loom. There was little talk of using electric vehicles, an area where Toyota has lagged. While Tesla and Byd emerged as big EV players, Toyota has been pushing hydrogen, the energy of choice in Woven City.Toyota officials acknowledged it doesnt expect to make money from Woven City, at least not for years. Keisuke Konishi, auto analyst at Quick Corporate Valuation Research Center, believes Toyota wants to work on robotic rides to rival Googles Waymo even if it means building an entire complex.Toyota has the money to do all that, he said. ___Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@yurikageyama YURI KAGEYAMA Kageyama covers Japan news for The Associated Press. Her topics include social issues, the environment, businesses, entertainment and technology. twitter instagram facebook mailto

Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. President Donald Trump give a joint news conference at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)2025-02-22T12:36:47Z Preparations are underway for a face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russias Vladimir Putin, Russias deputy foreign minister said Saturday, marking a dramatic shift away from Western isolation of Moscow over its war in Ukraine. Speaking to Russian state media, Sergei Ryabkov said a possible Putin-Trump summit could involve broad talks on global issues, not just the war in Ukraine.The question is about starting to move towards normalizing relations between our countries, finding ways to resolve the most acute and potentially very, very dangerous situations, of which there are many, Ukraine among them, he said.But he said efforts to organize such a meeting are at an early stage, and that making it happen will require the most intensive preparatory work.Ryabkov added that U.S. and Russian envoys could meet within the next two weeks, to pave the way for further talks between senior officials. Russian and U.S. representatives on Tuesday agreed to start working toward ending the war in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties, according to the two countries top diplomats, at a high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia that marked an extraordinary about-face in U.S. foreign policy under President Trump. After the meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the AP that the the two sides agreed broadly to pursue three goals: to restore staffing at their respective embassies in Washington and Moscow; to create a high-level team to support Ukraine peace talks; and to explore closer relations and economic cooperation. He stressed, however, that the talks which were attended by his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, and other senior Russian and U.S. officials marked the beginning of a conversation, and more work needs to be done. Lavrov, for his part, hailed the meeting as very useful. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which came as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops, nearly three years after Moscow launched an all-out invasion of its smaller neighbor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country would not accept any outcome from the talks since Kyiv didnt take part, and he postponed his own trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for last Wednesday. European allies have also expressed concerns that they are being sidelined.

President Donald Trump arrivals at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute summit in Miami Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)2025-02-22T13:49:33Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is moving with light speed and brute force to break the existing order and reshape America at home and abroad. He likes the ring of calling himself king.No one can absorb it all. By the time you try to process one big thing he covets Greenland, Canada, the Panama Canal and Gaza; he turns away from historic alliancesand Ukraine; fires many thousands of federal workers, then brings some right back; raises doubts whether he will obey laws he doesnt like; orders an about-face in the missions of department after department; declares there are only two genders, which federal documents will henceforth call sexes; announces heavy tariffs, suspends them, then imposes some three more big things have happened.Trumps core supporters are thrilled with what they see. Those who dont like him watch in horror. The nation is far from any consensus on what makes America great and what may make it sink. Whats undeniable is that Trump has ushered in the sharpest change of direction for the country at least since Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Great Depression. But the long-term implications of Trumps national reset, and by extension his own legacy, cannot yet be determined. Make American Great Again figure Steve Bannon calls all this action muzzle velocity firing every way at once to confuse the enemy. The barrage has left a variety of foreign leaders and many public servants picking figurative buckshot out of their backsides. Paul Light, an expert on the workings of government and the civil service, reaches for another analogy: Its the never-ending volcano. It just doesnt stop, and its hot.Says Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service: Were essentially playing Russian roulette and they just added a bunch more bullets to the chamber.Or is it instead a controlled burn, as Kevin Roberts, an architect of the Heritage Foundations Project 2025, puts it? A controlled burn destroys the dangerous deadwood so that the whole forest can flourish, he asserts. Project 2025 offered Trump a preelection blueprint for some of what is happening now. Some 75,000 federal workers accepted the new administrations deferred resignation proposal in exchange for financial incentives, and tens of thousands more have been laid off or are in line to be, out of a civilian federal workforce of about 2.4 million, excluding postal workers.Democrats, the minority in Congress, and the broader political opposition are mulling which fights are worth fighting and which are not, out of so many to choose from. Democrats, said one of them, Rep. Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, are not going to engage in the outrage Olympics.At the moment, polls suggest slightly less than half of U.S. adults like the Republican presidents handling of his job, a tick better than Democrat Joe Bidens approval when he left office in January. That sentiment could shift for the better or worse in an hour, after the next big things. He brings Russia in from the coldIn his first month, Trump performed a pirouette in foreign policy, disavowing the age-old commitment to defend fellow NATO members if they are attacked, reaching out to Russia and suspending most U.S. foreign aid. Washington, Ukraines steadfast and potent wartime supporter for three years, has suddenly become its scold.At home, Trumps explosion of executive orders and marching orders reaches beyond the workings of government and into the culture. Corporate boardrooms as well as government itself are shedding their diversity, equity and inclusion programs in alignment with the nascent new order, though a judge on Friday largely blocked Trumps mandate. Institutions are also being pressed to abandon any recognition of or accommodations for transgender people, at risk of losing federal money if they dont.How much all of this sticks will largely depend on courts, which appear to be the only check on Trumps expansive use of executive power. The Republican-controlled Congress has been compliant as Trump pursues his ends by executive action instead of legislation. Trump has issued about a squillion executive orders, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said a while back. Im still trying to read them.Longtime Republican articles of faith such as support for free trade and strong U.S.-led security guarantees against foreign adversaries have been lost in the din, if not discarded. Long live the kingRepublicans have historically preached the virtues of letting state and local governments make decisions about their communities without the federal government calling the shots. But the Trump administration did just that this past week, halting New York Citys new commuter tolls for driving into Manhattan. Trump was quick to take credit. Long live the king, he posted in all-caps, meaning himself. The White House circulated an image of him wearing a crown.In the civil service upheaval, a blanket staff reduction, largely of thousands of newer employees with fewer job protections, has been combined with the targeted firing of senior officials deemed disloyal to Trump or otherwise an impediment. Multitudes of nonpolitical public servants, normally left in place when new presidents come in, are out.Senior officials responsible for keeping agencies honest and accountable were among those purged. Nearly 20 departmental inspectors general were fired late one night without the legally required 30 days notice. Trump also dismissed the head of the Office of Government Ethics, an agency that protects government whistleblowers; the Supreme Court on Friday temporarily kept the official on the job.Trump terminated a dozen federal career prosecutors who had worked on criminal cases brought against him, striking at the heart of what he calls the deep state. We are in a dangerous placeCongress, which holds the power of the purse, is letting the president exercise it instead, so far leaving federal judges to decide when to rein him in. The early result has been massive cuts or freezes in grants and other spending that Congress approved in law, but Trump is stopping on his own, if courts let him.The last month has been entirely distinctive in American history, said Cal Jillson, a constitutional and presidential scholar at Southern Methodist University. We have never had an American president who moved this decisively in the face of the law and the Constitution. We are in a dangerous place. Jillson and other historians say such tumult in the machinery of government has only come in reaction to dire emergencies: states leaving the union before the Civil War, FDRs New Deal thrust in the depths of the Great Depression, Lyndon Johnsons Great Society burst of programs when taking office after John Kennedys assassination.No catastrophes of such magnitude greeted Trump. Illegal border crossings that had surged during the Biden administration, for example, subsided before Biden left office. Even so, Trump let loose in all the ways he telegraphed, and in most cases promised, in the campaign.To Trump and Elon Musk, though, a challenge to democracy comes not from their efforts to upend the bureaucracy but from the bureaucracy itself the unelected officials who resist the agenda of a duly elected president.Theres a vast federal bureaucracy that is implacably opposed to the the president and the Cabinet, Musk told Hannity on Fox News Channel this past week in an interview joined by Trump. Musk, the Tesla, SpaceX and X titan, is leading Trumps scouring of the civil service.If the will of the president is not implemented and the president is representative of the people, that means the will of the people is not being implemented, Musk said. And that means we dont live in a democracy. We live in a bureaucracy.Chaos is a feature, not a bugLight, author of several dozen books on the workings of government, said times like these can yield positive results. Every once in a while you have to scrub down the operation. But this chaos, he said, is both intentional and corrosive, exposing the country to the inadequacy of a hollowed-out civil service when the next crisis comes, whether its a pandemic, a hurricane, a war or a massive IT attack.Thats Trumps basic MO keep people jumping, he said. Trump really doesnt know anything except breaking things.Some polls done this month carry warning signs for Trump as he pursues his audacious course. More than half of adults in a Washington Post/Ipsos survey (57%) said he has exceeded his authority since taking office. More than half in a CNN/SSRS poll (55%) said he hasnt paid attention to the most pressing problems.In essence, though, this is a half-and-half country that Trump is responsible for leading the whole of. For vast numbers of Americans, he can do no wrong, or no right, depending which side you are on.___Associated Press polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux contributed to this report.

Welcome back to the Abstract!Its hard to keep up with all the news about all the giant gassy orbiters out there. Im speaking, of course, about hot Jupiters, a class of planets that takes the concept of inhospitable to dazzling and creative new levels, and which had an epic news week.Then, what did scientists find in cores taken from deep-sea trenches? The answer might surprise you. Next, mice administer first aid. Last, fish can see you for who you really are (though yummy treats will certainly not be refused).Hot Jupiters Are So Hot Right Now (and at All Other Times)Seidel, Julia et al. Vertical structure of an exoplanets atmospheric jet stream. Nature.Hot Jupiters are the low-hanging fruit of exoplanet discoveries. As the name implies, they are Jupiter-sized worlds that orbit extremely close to their stars, a proximity that makes themyou guessed ithot.Given that they are both giant in scale and have short years lasting only hours or days, hot Jupiters are the easiest exoplanets to spot, which is why our catalog of distant worlds is packed with them. In fact, a study came out just this week that identified seven new ones.But while its not all that novel to discover these worlds (which is kind of amazing in itself), scientists have now peered deep into the atmosphere of the hot Jupiter WASP-121, nicknamed Tylos, which is about 850 light years from Earth. Its the first time several distinct atmospheric layers and processes have been observed on an exoplanet.Ultra-hot Jupiters, an extreme class of planets not found in our solar system, provide a unique window into atmospheric processes, said researchers led by Julia Seidel of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Here we show a dramatic shift in atmospheric circulation in an ultra-hot Jupiter including the first vertical characterization of a high-altitude, super-rotational atmospheric jet stream.Tylos is slightly bigger than Jupiter, but it is so close to its star that its year lasts only 30 hours. As a consequence, it is tidally locked, meaning that one side is always facing the star, and the other always faces away. The star-lit side is about 2,300C (4,200F) which is, as advertised, quite hot. Using the ESOs Very Large Telescope, the researchers spotted the aforementioned equatorial jet stream and saw flows of hot gas moving from the hot day side to the cooler night sidewhich is still pretty hot at around 700C (1,340F).The weather report on Tylos is permanently fatal with a chance of titanium rain, according to a third study that came out this week (thats a hot Jupiter hat-trick). Taken together, the research represents a new emerging era of exoplanet observations in which astronomers can peek under the hood of these distant atmospheres and start to get a real vertical cross-section of otherworldly skies.Down the line, this will lead to better characterizations of the atmospheres of potentially habitable exoplanets, which could contain detectable signs of alien life. But for now, on this late winter weekend, let's be satisfied with warming ourselves into certain oblivion in the bellies of hot Jupiters.From the Hadal to the GraveHovikoski, Jussi et al. Bioturbation in the hadal zone. Nature Communications.To cool off, we shall now dive straight into the deepest parts of the ocean, the hadal zone, where strange things are inherently afoot. Scientists took sediment cores from seafloors at depths of over 4.6 miles in the Japan Trench which is, in my opinion, asking for trouble. But in this case, the results revealed an activity that you might not expect to find in one of the most inhospitable places on Earthfarming.I should just say, the farmers are probably invertebrates, like sea cucumbers or bivalves, that cultivate microbes that help break down organic matter for them. Still, a basic form of agrichnial farming is preserved in trace fossils, like burrows, the team found in the cores.Trace fossils of burrows in the cores. Image: Hovikoski, Jussi et alThe hadal zone, >6km deep, remains one of the least understood ecosystems on Earth, said researchers led by Jussi Hovikoski of the Geological Survey of Finland. The cores open a rare window into this otherworldly region and reveal slender spiral, lobate and deeply penetrating straight and ramifying burrow systemsinterpreted to include burrows of microbe farming and chemosymbiotic invertebrates.The study also gets points for its title, Bioturbation in the hadal zone, which sounds like an early aughts prog rock album. \m/Somebody Call an EMT! (Emergency Mouse Technician)Sun, Wenjian et al. Reviving-like prosocial behavior in response to unconscious or dead conspecifics in rodents. Science.Humans produce a lot of selfish psychos, if you hadnt noticed, but one nice thing about our species is we generally share a prosocial instinct to help people during a medical crisis. As it turns out, were not alone in this behavior, according to a new study that monitored the reactions of mice to ailing, unconscious, or dead conspecifics.Anecdotal observations across several species in the wild, including nonhuman primates, dolphins, and elephants have reported intriguing behaviors of animals toward unresponsive conspecifics that have collapsed because of sickness, injury, or death, said researchers led by Wenjian Sun of the University of Southern California. These animalsdisplay various behavioral responses, including touching, grooming, nudging, and sometimes even more intense physical actions, such as striking, toward the collapsed peers. Some of these actions toward incapacitated conspecifics are reminiscent of human emergency responses, especially those involving sensory stimulation.To bring these anecdotal reports in an experimental setting, the team videotaped mice responding to cagemates that had been anesthetized into unconsciousness, as well as their reactions to dead mice. The r mice interacted with unconscious cage-mates about ten times as much as with an active partner, and may have even performed basic versions of first aid.Our results suggest that the actions of mouth/ tongue biting and tongue pulling may have rescue-like effects, reminiscent of human first aid efforts in reviving unconscious individuals with physical stimulation and airway maintenance, the researchers said.The consequences of the behaviors, such as improved airway opening or clearance and expedited recovery, are clearly beneficial to the recipient, they added, though they also cautioned that it is challenging to determine the motivational needs behind these distinctive reviving-like behaviors.Mouse resuscitation efforts. Image: Sun, Wenjian et al.Familiarity played a strong role in the experiment's outcome; mice heaped much more attention on dead or unconscious cage-mates that they knew well compared to strangers. At the risk of anthropomorphizing, its kind of sad to think about these mice being confronted with their passed-out or dead friends, but the silver lining is an empirical validation of widespread prosocial behaviors.Im also going to assume it means that the Disney franchise The Rescuers, starring mice humanitarians, is a documentary.The Adventures of Left Hump and FriendsTomasek, Malan and Soller, Katinka et al. Wild fish use visual cues to recognize individual divers. Biology Letters.The next time you go for an ocean swim, why not introduce yourself to some neighboring fish? They might learn to recognize you as an individual and start following you around, especially if you give them something nice to eat. Thats the conclusion of a new study that found fish can tell individual divers apart based on visual cuesand that they rapidly learn which divers are generous with treats (in this case: shrimp).Researchers Malan Tomasek and Katinka Soller conducted several dives at the STARESO research station in Corsica, France. Soller was the designated shrimp dispenser, and the wild fish volunteers rapidly learned to distinguish her visually from Tomasek, the shrimp miser.Tomasek with fish volunteer. Image: Malan TomasekTwo species voluntarily took part in our experiments: saddled sea bream O. melanura and black sea bream S. cantharus, said the researchers. Of specific individuals, the saddled bream (Bernie) was first identified at dive 5 of the training, four black bream at dives 12 (Left Hump), 15 (Kasi), 19 (Alfi), 21 (Julius) and the last black bream (Geraldine) on the first session of experiment 1. Note that this marks the moment from which we were able to reliably identify them (i.e. identify with absolute certainty at each apparition from one dive to the next) but that they most likely appeared several days prior to this.First of all, fantastic names. Im already shipping Julius and Geraldine as a celebrity fish couple called Juladine. Left Hump will officiate the wedding. But setting aside the fish fanfic, the team demonstrated that the fish learned to visually tell the researchers apart, leading to a clear preference for following Soller.The fact that wild bream can discriminate between divers adds scientific evidence to the numerous accounts suggesting differentiated relationships between fish and specific humans, the team said. Our study thus encourages a reappraisal of the methodological avenues to study cognitive abilities of wild fish under natural conditions.It also demonstrates a potential difficulty when conducting such experiments that could be disturbed by fish following specific experimenters, the researchers said, concluding with an implied wink: Researchers might not always want to be followed all around by fish, but if they do, they will not be disappointed.Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Detectives with the Louisville Metro Crime Scene unit examines a scene of a deadly shooting outside a motor vehicle office in Louisville, Ky., Friday, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)2025-02-22T14:13:24Z LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Witnesses described a chaotic scene in which three people were shot and killed outside of a Kentucky drivers license office, including one man shot multiple times by masked assailants. The Jefferson County Coroners Office issued a statement late Friday identifying the victims from earlier in the day as ranging in age from 18 to 33 years old. Officers who responded around noon Friday found one man dead at the scene and two wounded women, who later died after being taken to a hospital, according to Louisville Metro Police Department. The coroners statement said that the man, 18-year-old Leslye M. Harbin Jr., died of multiple gunshot wounds at the scene, while the two women, 33-year-old Antwanette Chillers and 29-year-old Raysa Pacios Valdes, each died of a gunshot wound at a hospital. Authorities have not said whether the victims knew each other or knew whoever was responsible for the shooting. Witnesses said the chaos unfolded at the busy office, which had a line out the door. Jalen Eddings told WHAS-TV that he had gone to the office but went back to his car to wait out the long line when the shooting unfolded nearby. He said two masked men shot the man multiple times, including as he lay on the ground, before they ran off. He said he didnt see them fire at the women. Like I was just in shock, I couldnt believe it, it was like something off of a movie, Eddings said. Numerous police responded to the shooting at a state Driver Licensing Office on the southern outskirts of Louisville. Police evidence markers were set on the ground around an area about 20 feet (about six meters) from the entrance to the building Friday afternoon. Police Maj. Donald Boeckman said Friday that the shooter left in a vehicle. Boeckman did not have a description of the vehicle and said investigators were still reviewing surveillance video. The police department didnt immediately respond to an email Saturday morning asking for updates on the search for suspects. Its absolutely a tragedy, and Im surprised there wasnt more people injured, Boeckman said. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear posted a statement on social media calling the shooting a senseless act of violence.The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, which operates the license office, said in a news release that security at the office locked down the building quickly after the shooting and that none of its employees were harmed. Another witness, Ali Raza, told WHAS that he was inside the office when he suddenly heard a lot of shots and the people were screaming. He said that a security guard inside worked quickly by telling them to get on the ground. He told us to go back and get on the ground. He saved us basically, he said.

The Squishmallows booth sells toys modeled after Warren Buffett, pictured, and Charlie Munger in the exhibit hall for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting, Saturday, May 6, 2023, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)2025-02-22T13:59:12Z OMAHA, Neb. (AP) In his annual letter to shareholders Saturday, Warren Buffett celebrated the successes of Berkshire Hathaways companies last year and in the 60 years since he took over a struggling New England textile company and began converting it into a massive conglomerate.Buffett opened the letter by acknowledging that he has occasionally made mistakes over the years without offering many specific examples, but he assured shareholders that the man he has chosen to one day succeed him as CEO, Greg Abel, isnt one of them. He wrote that Abel will be ready to act whenever he spots significant investment opportunities.We are impartial in our choice of equity vehicles, investing in either variety based upon where we can best deploy your (and my familys) savings. Often, nothing looks compelling; very infrequently we find ourselves knee-deep in opportunities. Greg has vividly shown his ability to act at such times, Buffett wrote. And Abel will have plenty of resources to work with given that Berkshire now holds $334.201 billion cash after selling off much of its Apple and Bank of America stock in the past year and continuing to generate money from all its subsidiaries that include Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, a collection of major utilities and an assortment of major manufacturers and well-known retail businesses that include brands like Dairy Queen and Sees Candy. Thats almost double the $167.6 billion cash Berkshire held a year ago. Buffett did find a few things to use some of that cash on last year by spending $3.9 billion to acquire the rest of its utility business from the estate of a former partner and another $2.6 billion to buy the rest of the Pilot truck stop chain. Buffett said he also increased Berkshires investment in five major Japanese conglomerates. Berkshire has now spent $13.8 billion over the past six years on those Japanese investments that are now worth $23.5 billion. But while Buffett has struggled to find major acquisitions in recent years he affirmed that he has no plans to offer a dividend. In what might be a nod to the 94-year-old Buffetts age, the legendary investor announced that this years shareholder meeting in May that routinely attracts tens of thousands of people will be shorter. Buffett and Berkshires two vice chairmen will only answer questions from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. several hours less than usual. Buffett also acknowledged using a cane these days to avoid falling flat on my face.Buffett hardly reflected on his long tenure as CEO in the letter unlike 10 years ago when he and his longtime investing partner Charlie Munger, who died in 2023, issued separate reflections on the company. Buffett cited the fact that Berkshire paid zero income tax in the decade before he took over in 1965 as a sure sign the investment was a mistake, but over time the amount Berkshire pays to the IRS has grown along with the conglomerate to hit $26.8 billion last year far more in corporate income tax than the U.S. government had ever received from any company even the American tech titans that commanded market values in the trillions. Buffett began buying Berkshire stock for $7.60 a share in 1962. The stock grew to be the worlds most expensive shares because of Buffetts remarkable success in building Berkshire and his aversion for splitting the stock. Berkshires Class A shares closed at $718,750 apiece on Friday, but the company does have a more affordable Class B stock that sells for $478.74.Buffett did promise that shareholders will have a chance to buy a special 60th anniversary book filled with untold stories and lessons from the companys history at the annual meeting. JOSH FUNK Funk is an Associated Press reporter who covers all the major freight railroads including Union Pacific, BNSF, Norfolk Southern, CSX, Canadian National and CPKC. Funk also covers Warren Buffetts Berkshire Hathaway and has been attending Buffetts Woodstock for Capitalists annual meeting every spring in Omaha, Nebraska, for 19 years. twitter mailto

Dr. Grover Smith, right, works out with exercise scientist Dr. Irv Rubenstein, left, at STEPS Fitness, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)2025-02-22T14:53:49Z You know you should develop a regular exercise routine, but you lack motivation. Promises to yourself are quickly broken, and you never establish enough of the workout habit to experience any rewards.Exercising as you age is important. Its not only good for physical health to help prevent falls or enable you to do basic tasks exercise is also superb for the mind.If you want to be cognitively active, it is so important to be physically active, explained Dr. Amy Eyler, a professor of public health at Washington University in St. Louis. There is a such a strong connection between these two behaviors.Why make exercise part of my routine?First, regular exercise helps maintain bone density and muscle strength. It also lowers the risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer.For older people, regular exercise helps maintain strength and balance and allows them to live independently. Research also suggests the immune system may get a bump from physical activity.There is also a psychological component. Successfully completing a daily exercise can improve ones mood and sense of self-satisfaction. This article is part of APs Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well. How to get startedGetting into the habit of doing regular physical activity can be difficult for some. The motivation to get moving is different for everyone.Initially youll need external motivation I want to be able to play with my grandkids or keep driving the car until you see results and the motivation shifts to internal, Eyler said.When you set a goal, you should ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 100, how confident am I that I can do this? Eyler explained. It has to be over the 90% level of confidence or youre not going to do it. Lots of people set these goal too high and then fail. Build to your goals.Just walk whenever you can, Eyler said. You can walk for 10 minutes pretty much anywhere indoors, at work, at home.And, if youre trying to encourage others, look for positive reasons rather than nagging. Telling someone they will be more independent if they take their blood pressure medicine is better than take your blood pressure medicine, she said.Here are some tips about how to start and how to stay with it from three gym rats between the ages of 77 and 86. All got started late and have stayed with it. All three work out with Dr. Irv Rubenstein, an exercise scientist who runs STEPS Fitness in Nashville, Tennessee.I always hated gym classKathryn Dettwiller, 77, got pushed into exercising 34 years ago by her husband.I always hated gym class, she said. I always hated getting down on the floor.She works out in a gym twice a week with a trainer, which she said gives her added discipline and motivation.The external has become internal because I realize I need it, she said. She cautioned beginners to expect some setbacks minor injuries and not to be discouraged.Try it as soon as your body starts playing out on you, she said. Its like a game of Whack-A-Mole. One time your leg hurts, the next time its your back. It added structure to his lifeRick Bolsom, 82, enjoys the structure of having a trainer. In his case, his wife got him started almost two decades ago and hes into a three-times-a-week routine.I kept doing it because I had a sense of feeling better, he said. The key to me was probably doing it with a trainer. The structure really helped me to continue with it. Now its just become part of my life.I couldnt imagine quitting it, he added. I work out as vigorously as I did 15, 18 years ago. It turned out to be the smart thing to do.Bolsom also added in the social aspect to training in a gym or studio.I retired a few years ago. You do miss the connectivity with people. Flattery will get you everywhereDr. Grover Smith, a retired radiologist, is 86 and still going strong. He attributes this partly to training regularly in a gym three times a week, a habit he didnt start until he was 74 and well into retirement. He was coaxed to go after several visits to his cardiologist.He said he went after the fourth time his cardiologist suggested it, although he was not having any specific heart problems. His plan was to go once to appease the cardiologist and that would be it. That was more than a decade ago.Medicine was basically my life and it was very time consuming, Smith said. It was sometimes seven days a week and I didnt have time for a lot of other things.Hes not only fit, but now he also gets flattered.He tells the story about a recent visit to a doctor who, after looking at his charts, told him: Dr. Smith, you look 15 years younger than your age.Smith laughed as he added the punchline.I would have told her to get her eyes examined except shes an ophthalmologist, he quipped. STEPHEN WADE Wade has written about sports and the politics of sports around the globe for The Associated Press. He has covered nine Olympics and five soccer World Cups and has been based for AP in Madrid, London, Beijing, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, before moving to Tokyo. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

2025-02-22T17:46:18Z YORK, Pa. (AP) A hospital official says a gunman has been killed after shots were fired at a hospital in central Pennsylvania. The extend of injuries were unclear. Officials at UPMC Memorial in York said that no patients were injured and that the gunman is dead. The extent of any other injuries was unclear.Law enforcement is on premises and is managing the situation, the hospital said.

This is a locator map for Sudan with its capital, Khartoum. (AP Photo)2025-02-22T17:46:42Z CAIRO (AP) A cholera outbreak in a Sudanese city killed nearly 60 people and sickened about 1,300 others over the last three days, health authorities said Saturday.The outbreak in the southern city of Kosti was blamed mainly on contaminated drinking water after the citys water plant stopped due to an attack by a notorious paramilitary group, the health ministry said. The group has been fighting the countrys military for about two years. The ministry said in a statement the disease killed 58 people and sickened 1,293 others between Thursday and Saturday.

FILE-- The tapestry depicting late Pope John Paul I, hanging from the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, is unveiled during the beatification ceremony led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)2025-02-20T13:33:37Z ROME (AP) The pope looms so large in everyday Italian life that there are lots of expressions that make light of even a dark event like his death.A pope dies, they make another, goes one, suggesting how life goes on.Every death of a pope starts another, indicating a rare occurrence. But the one most frequently heard when a pope is actually sick is perhaps the darkest: The pope is fine until hes dead.That ones been making the rounds as Pope Francis nears a week in Romes Gemelli hospital, battling pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection. While the Vatican has been providing twice-daily updates on his condition and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said they joked around as usual during her visit Wednesday, all kinds of reports true and not abound about Francis health.Theyve taken on a life of their own in an age of chat groups, conspiracy theories and internet memes not to mention the perennial Roman fixation on the pope and who might succeed him.The Conclave effectIt doesnt help that the Oscar-nominated movie Conclave is in theaters and has made everyone an expert in the arcane rules and spectacular drama involved in a papal election. Or that Francis recently extended the term of the dean of the College of Cardinals rather than find someone new to fill a key job during the next papal transition. Or that at 88, he is one of the oldest popes ever.Francis still has a ways to go to outlive Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903 at 93. But hes on track to equal or surpass Pope Gregory XII, perhaps best known for being the most recent pope to resign until Pope Benedict XVI did so in 2013. Gregory was 88 when he stepped down in 1415 to end the Western Schism, according to online resource Catholic Hierarchy. Francis has frequently said he, too, would consider resigning if his health made him unable to continue, though more recently he said a popes job is for life. Vatican correspondents are usually preparing for upcoming papal trips at this time of year, but none are confirmed so far. Instead, between medical updates, they are preparing stories looking back at his life, just in case.I think the dictum of A pope is fine until hes dead is always true, said Giovanni Maria Vian, former editor of the Vatican newspaper LOsservatore Romano, who knows about how Vatican information is managed. Its a very Roman way of speaking that represents, on the one hand, the traditional skepticism of Romans and Italians, but on the other hand, an informational opacity.The Vatican hasnt allowed any member of Francis medical team to appear on camera or give detailed updates on his health, and no photos of him have been released since his Feb. 14 hospitalization. A papal video fuels rumorsBut to understand how entwined the pope is in Italian life, one only needs to consider another tradition religiously observed by Italians: the annual Sanremo song festival, a weeklong series on RAI television in which viewers vote for their favorite rising vocalists who perform nightly in the kitschy, sometimes bawdy contest.When it aired last week, it made even more headlines than usual because Francis already sick with bronchitis but not yet in the hospital appeared on opening night in a pre-taped video, a publicity coup for Sanremo and a first for the papacy. When popular Italian blog Dagospia subsequently claimed the video had been made nearly a year earlier for another event, near-hysteria broke out among Vatican watchers. The apparent deception suggested that Francis latest illness was much worse than it seemed, and raised questions about the solidity of the papacy if an old video had been released without his knowledge.As it turns out, Dagospia was wrong. The video was legit, recent and recorded for Sanremo. But it was true that Francis bronchitis was indeed much worse. By weeks end, he was hospitalized with a lung infection that turned into pneumonia.The episode though underscored the truism that the papacy is a matter of general public knowledge, interest and debate here, and that speculating about the popes current health and who might be next is a national pastime. Im certainly very, very worried, said Maurizio Di Folco, who was being treated Tuesday at the same hospital. I wish him a speedy recovery and were praying for him deeply. A very good pope. A great pope! We hope hell be with us for a long time to come. Francis conservative critics weigh inBut elsewhere, Francis right-wing critics are circulating alarmist - and wholly uncorroborated - stories about his condition. Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a Francis nemesis who was excommunicated for schism last year, revived his conspiracy about the legitimacy of Francis 2013 election, calling for the CIA to investigate what he claims was a Deep State plot to elect him.Francis knows this dynamic well.Some wanted me dead, he told Slovakian Jesuit priests in 2021, referring to what he learned while he was hospitalized that year for intestinal surgery. I know there were even meetings among priests who thought the pope was in worse shape than what was being said. They were preparing the conclave. Its considered poor taste to discuss publicly whos up or down in the papal stakes of a future conclave, much less to start plotting one. But privately, Rome is abuzz with such conversations. Taxi drivers chat about it with passengers, doctors with patients, butchers with customers.For now, Francis is holding on. Thursdays bulletin said his overall clinical condition was improving slightly and that his heart was working well. He had breakfast sitting up in an armchair and was working with aides.There is a greater measure of transparency, but even that is not complete, said Christopher Bellitto, a church history professor at Kean University in New Jersey. Surely everyone with aging parents and grandparents said, thats pneumonia before the Vatican did.___Visual journalist Silvia Stellacci contributed.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

FILE-- The tapestry depicting late Pope John Paul I, hanging from the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, is unveiled during the beatification ceremony led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)2025-02-22T17:49:27Z ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A shooting at a U.S. Air Force base in New Mexico early Saturday morning left one airman dead and another wounded, authorities said, adding that it was not an act of terrorism or an attack by an outsider.Officials at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque said security forces responded to a shooting near one of the entrances to the base at about 2 a.m. One airman died at the scene, and the other was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to a hand and later discharged, authorities said in a statement.The Air Force released few other details and did not immediately say whether someone was in custody or if there was a search for a suspect. A spokesperson declined to say whether the shooter or shooters also were airmen.The names of the airmen who were shot were not immediately released.FBI investigators were at the scene being helped by Albuquerque police, a city police spokesperson said.

FILE-- The tapestry depicting late Pope John Paul I, hanging from the facade of St. Peter's Basilica, is unveiled during the beatification ceremony led by Pope Francis at the Vatican, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)2025-02-22T18:35:38Z PARIS (AP) A knife attack Saturday in eastern France left one dead and at least two injured, the national anti-terrorism prosecutors office said.A 37-year-old Algerian man was arrested, the prosecutors office said. The attack occurred in the French city of Mulhouse near Germany and Switzerland. The anti-terrorism prosecutors office said that its handling the investigation.French President Emmanuel Macron labeled the perpetrator an Islamic extremist, and said the government has complete determination to respond to the attack.France has been on high alert for extremist threats.Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was heading to the scene of the attack Saturday night.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)2025-02-22T16:08:00Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Hungary will be the one to decide whether Ukraine is able to achieve its hopes of joining the European Union in the future, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn said Saturday in an escalation of his adversarial posture toward Hungarys war-ravaged neighbor. Speaking at an annual State of the Nation address in Budapest to a closed circle of party members and supporters, Orbn described Ukraine as a buffer zone between Russia and NATO countries, and predicted that, following a cessation of Moscows war, it would resume that role despite its ambitions to join the Western military alliance. He added that whether Ukraine can one day join the 27-member EU will be decided by the Hungarians.Against the will of Hungary and the Hungarians, Ukraine will never be a member of the European Union, Orbn said. Ukraines accession would destroy Hungarian farmers, and not only them, but the entire Hungarian national economy. Unanimity is required among leaders of all EU countries for accepting new members. Orbn, considered the Kremlins closest partner among EU leaders, has been the blocs primary impediment in its efforts to assist Ukraine in the countrys struggle to defend against Russias full-scale invasion. He has frequently criticized, and threatened to veto, EU sanctions against Russia over its aggression, but has ultimately always voted for them. While Hungary, an EU and NATO member, has taken in Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict, it has also stood in the way of EU financial assistance to Kyiv and pushed for deeper economic and energy cooperation with Moscow despite the war. Seeming to question Ukraines statehood, Orbn said Saturday that the war Russia launched nearly three years ago was not even about Ukraine, but about the territory called Ukraine which until now has been a buffer zone between NATO and Russia being placed under the auspices of NATO. Ukraine, or what remains of it, will again become a buffer zone, Orbn said. It will not become a NATO member. Those comments mirrored recent statements by members of U.S. President Donald Trumps administration, who have suggested Ukraine should abandon its hopes of joining NATO as a guarantor of its future security against potential Russian attacks. Orbn, a Trump ally, has applauded the U.S. administrations actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, claiming, with no evidence, that the agency was used to fund liberal causes in Hungary aimed at toppling his government. He has promised a reckoning for nongovernmental organizations, media outlets and rights groups that have benefited from funding by USAID, saying they would be eliminated in Hungary and face legal consequences.On Saturday, Orbn doubled down on his earlier crackdowns on civil society and LGBTQ+ people, saying his government would send a commissioner to the United States to collect data on Hungarian entities that had received USAID funding. We must urgently create the constitutional and legal conditions, so that we do not have to sit idly by as pseudo-civil public organizations serve foreign interests and organize political actions before our eyes, Orbn said. He also announced that he would recommend that the Hungarian Constitution which his party unilaterally authored in 2011 be amended to say that a person is either a man or a woman, and hinted that his right-wing populist government would take steps to prohibit the annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Budapest this summer. I suggest we go on a counterattack here, Orbn said. I advise Pride organizers not to bother with the preparation of this years parade ... Waste of money and time. JUSTIN SPIKE Spike is an Associated Press reporter based in Budapest, Hungary. twitter mailto

This image from a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report released on Jan. 14, 2025 shows a crash test of a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck in Adelanto, Calif., on Dec. 18, 2024. (NHTSA via AP)2025-02-22T17:07:54Z NEW YORK (AP) Elon Musks cost-cutting team is eliminating jobs at the vehicle safety agency that oversees Tesla and has launched investigations into deadly crashes involving his companys cars.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has cut a modest amount of positions, according to a statement from the agency. Musk has accused NHTSA of holding back progress on self-driving technology with its investigations and recalls.Asked about whether the cuts would impact any probes into Tesla, the agency referred to its statement that says it will enforce the law on all manufacturers of motor vehicles and equipment.The job cuts at NHTSA enacted by Musks advisory group on shrinking the federal government, the Department of Government Efficiency, was earlier reported by The Washington Post.In addition to investigations into Teslas partially automated vehicles, NHTSA has mandated that Tesla and other automakers using self-driving technology report crash data on vehicles, a requirement that Tesla has criticized and that watchdogs fear could be eliminated. The staff reductions have come through a combination of firings, buyouts and layoffs. The agency noted in its statement that the Biden administration had expanded its payroll, suggesting the smaller staff was sufficient to carry out its mission.Even with these modest efficiencies, NHTSA is still considerably larger today than it was four years ago, the statement said. We have retained positions critical to the mission of saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing economic costs due to road traffic crashes. BERNARD CONDON Condon is an Associated Press investigative reporter covering breaking news. He has written about the Maui fire, the Afghanistan withdrawal, gun laws, Chinese loans in Africa and Trumps business. twitter facebook mailto

Friedrich Merz, CDU Federal Chairman and Union candidate for Chancellor, speaks at the joint CSU and CDU campaign closing for the Bundestag elections, in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (Sven Hoppe/dpa via AP)2025-02-22T16:56:26Z BERLIN (AP) The contenders in Germanys election made their final appeals to voters Saturday, with opposition leader and front-runner Friedrich Merz vowing to revive the stagnant economy and defend Europes interests in the face of a confrontational U.S. administration. Chancellor OIaf Scholz, meanwhile, insisted that he still hopes for an improbable last-minute comeback.Germans are electing a new parliament Sunday after a campaign focused on the state of Europes biggest economy and calls to curb migration, while uncertainty has grown rapidly about the future of Ukraine and the strength of Europes alliance with the United States. It appears to have done little to shift parties position in polls. They have consistently shown the center-right opposition, main challenger Merzs Union bloc, in the lead. Its ahead of the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which is on course for the strongest result for a far-right party since World War II, but has no other party willing to go into government with it. Scholzs center-left Social Democrats have shown little sign of coming back from a large poll deficit after the chancellors three-party coalition collapsed in November following a long-running argument about how to revitalize the economy. That led to the election being held seven months ahead of schedule. At a closing rally in a Munich beer hall, Merz told supporters that three years in opposition are enough. Germany is a traditional leader of the 27-nation EU and the blocs most populous member, but like fellow heavyweight France has been consumed in recent months by domestic instability. Merz said that with me, Germany will have a strong voice in the European Union again.Europe must be a player and not ask maybe to get a seat at a side table, he said. No, we must sit at the main table; and we must safeguard our interests against Russia, against China, and if necessary also with respect to America. Anyone who shows up there as a dwarf is treated as a dwarf and sent home as a dwarf, Merz added. He said, however, that we will only gain respect in this European Union again if ... we finally overcome our countrys economic weakness. He said that was overwhelmingly homemade.Merz also underscored his calls for a tougher stance on migration, which created friction in recent weeks. Last month, he brought a nonbinding motion calling for many more migrants to be turned back at Germanys borders to parliament. The motion was approved thanks to votes from Alternative for Germany, or AfD a first in postwar Germany that prompted opponents to accuse Merz of breaking a taboo. He rejects the criticism.We will under no circumstances discuss any talks, never mind negotiations or a participation in government, with AfD, Merz said Saturday.At an event in Potsdam, which he represents in parliament, Scholz again cast doubt on Merzs reliability and portrayed his party as the strongest bulwark against AfD playing any role. Anyone who wants to be sure this doesnt happen must ensure that there are strong Social Democrats and that they can provide the next chancellor, Merz said. On the sidelines of an earlier event in Potsdam, Scholz said that he was convinced that, this time, many people will only make their decision at the polling station.I dont believe in miracles, but in an election victory, he said, German news agency dpa reported.If Merz does win, its unclear whether he will be able to put together a two-party coalition or need a third partner, a more awkward prospect.If we govern, we need few partners and not an endless number of them, senior conservative ally Markus Sder said in Munich.

Elon Musk hold a chainsaw as he arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)2025-02-22T23:21:12Z NEW YORK (AP) Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have little more than 48 hours to explain what they accomplished over the last week as part of billionaire Elon Musks crusade to slash what he describes as waste everywhere in the federal government. Musk, who serves as President Donald Trumps cost-cutting chief, teased the extraordinary request on his social media network on Saturday.Consistent with President @realDonaldTrumps instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week, Musk posted on X, which he owns. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.Shortly afterward, federal employees received a three-line email with this instruction: Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. The deadline to respond is Monday at 11:59 p.m. Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforce either by being fired or offered a buyout during the first month of Trumps administration as the White House and Musks so-called Department of Government Efficiency fire both new and career workers, tell agency leaders to plan for large-scale reductions in force and freeze trillions of dollars in federal grant funds. There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but The Associated Press has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington. The cuts include thousands at the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Defense, Health and Human Services, the Internal Revenue Service and the National Parks Service, among others. AFGE President Everett Kelley quickly condemned the ultimatum as an example of Trump and Musks utter disdain for federal employees and the critical services they provide to the American people. It is cruel and disrespectful to hundreds of thousands of veterans who are wearing their second uniform in the civil service to be forced to justify their job duties to this out-of-touch, privileged, unelected billionaire who has never performed one single hour of honest public service in his life, Kelley said. AFGE will challenge any unlawful terminations of our members and federal employees across the country.Musk on Friday celebrated his new role at a gathering of conservatives by waving a giant chainsaw in the air. He called it the chainsaw for bureaucracy and said, Waste is pretty much everywhere in the federal government.McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson at the Office of Personnel Management, confirmed Musks directive and said that individual agencies would determine any next steps.What happens if an employee is on leave or vacation? Again, she said individual agencies would determine how to proceed. ___Associated Press writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report.

Mikey Madison arrives at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)2025-02-22T05:00:11Z Sean Bakers Anora won best film, best director and best actor for Mikey Madison at the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday in what could be a preview of next Sundays Oscars: The film about a Brooklyn sex worker and her whirlwind affair with a Russian oligarchs son has emerged in recent weeks as an awards season front-runner.The Spirit Awards, held in a beachside tent in Santa Monica, California, is the shaggier, more irreverent sister to the Academy Awards, celebrating the best in independent film and television.Host Aidy Bryant called it Hollywoods third or fourth biggest night.In accepting the directing prize, Baker spoke passionately about the difficulty of making independent films in an industry that is no longer able to fund riskier films. He said indies are in danger of becoming calling card films movies made only as a means to get hired for bigger projects. The system has to change because this is simply unsustainable, Baker said to enthusiastic applause. We shouldnt be barely getting by.Anoras best film competition included Jane Schoenbruns psychological horror I Saw the TV Glow, RaMell Ross adaptation of Colson Whiteheads Nickel Boys, Greg Kwedars incarceration drama Sing Sing and Coralie Fargeats body horror The Substance. This year had several other possible Oscar winners celebrating. Kieran Culkin, considered an Oscar favorite, won the supporting performance award for A Real Pain. His director, co-star and writer Jesse Eisenberg won best screenplay for the film about two cousins embarking on a Holocaust tour in Poland. Culkin was not there to accept he also missed his BAFTA win last weekend to tend to a family member but other Oscar nominees like Madison and Demi Moore were.Madison won the top acting prize over Moore at the BAFTAs last weekend, as well, and stopped Saturday to pet Moores dog Pilaf on the way to the stage. Acting categories for the Spirit Awards are gender neutral and include 10 spots each, meaning Madison and Moore were up against Oscar nominees like Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice). The documentary prize went to No Other Land, the lauded film by a Palestinian-Israeli collective about the destruction of a village in the West Bank which doesnt have distribution. Its also a strong Oscar contender in a competitive category. The filmmakers were not in attendance to accept the award.Flow, the wordless animated Latvian cat film, won best international film. At the Oscars, its competing in the international film category and animation. While the Spirit Award winners dont always sync up with the academy, they can often reflect a growing consensus as in the Everything Everywhere All At Once year. The awards limit eligibility to productions with budgets of $30 million or less, meaning more expensive Oscar nominees like Wicked and Dune: Part Two were not in the running.Sean Wang accepted best first feature and best first screenplay prizes for Ddi. He said it was special to be sharing the stage with one of his stars, Joan Chen, who was also nominated for the same award 25 years ago for Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl. The Netflix phenomenon Baby Reindeer also picked up several prizes, for actors Richard Gadd, Jessica Gunning and Nava Mau.Mau, who is trans, spoke about the importance of actors sticking together as we move into this next chapter.We dont know what is going to happen, but we do know our power, Mau said. We are the people and our labor is everything.Other television winners included Shgun, for best new scripted series, and How to Die Alone, for best ensemble.How to Die Alone creator and star Natasha Rothwell was emotional while accepting the ensemble prize. The show was recently canceled after its first season.Rothwell said it was a show about the need to feel seen, to be valued just as you are.For Black stories, visibility isnt a privilege: It is a necessity, Rothwell said. We deserve to take up space, to be complex, to be hilarious and to be fully human. The generally lighthearted show took a moment to acknowledge the impact of the wildfires on Los Angeles. Bryant made a plea to anyone watching the show, in the audience or on the YouTube livestream, to help rebuild L.A. She pointed to a QR code that appeared on the livestream to make donations to the Film Independent Emergency Filmmaker Relief Fund, providing grants to alumni impacted by the wildfires. The show also paid tribute to longtime Film Independent president Josh Welsh, who died earlier this year at age 62. Welsh had colon cancer. Bryant said in her opening that it had been a great year for film and a bad year for human life. The Saturday Night Live alum kicked off the event ribbing some of the nominees, like Emma Stone. Emma was a producer on four nominated projects tonight, Bryant said. But even more importantly, her hair is short now. Stone also featured prominently in Eisenbergs speech, when he picked up the best screenplay prize for A Real Pain. Since they met on the set of Zombieland in 2009, he said, shes been supportive of his writing despite being the most famous person I know and produced both of his films.I think of her not as my producer, but as a fairy godmother, like Im riding the coattails for her goodwill, Eisenberg said.The camera cut to Stone, teary and moved, in the audience. She and her husband Dave McCarys production company Fruit Tree also produced Julio Torres Problemista and Fantasmas and Schoenbruns I Saw the TV Glow.I Saw the TV Glow went into the show tied with Anora with six nominations. It left with only one, for producer Sarah Winshall. LINDSEY BAHR Bahr has been a film writer and critic for The Associated Press since 2014. twitter instagram mailto

The U.S. Department of Agriculture building is seen in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)2025-02-22T16:43:39Z WASHINGTON (AP) A federal scholarship aimed at boosting students from underserved and rural areas attending historically Black colleges and universities has been put on hold. The U.S. Department of Agriculture suspended the 1890 Scholars Program, which provided recipients with full tuition and fees for students studying agriculture, food or natural resource sciences at one of 19 universities, known as the 1890 land grant institutions. Its not clear exactly when the program was suspended, but some members of Congress first issued statements criticizing the suspension of the program on Thursday. The 1890 Scholars Program has been suspended pending further review, the Department of Agriculture said in a post on the programs website.The suspension coincides with a funding freeze President Donald Trumps administration instituted. Administration officials had said the pause was necessary to review whether spending aligned with Trumps executive orders on issues like climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. A spokesperson for the department said Saturday in an email to The Associated Press that every scholar over 300 regardless of matriculation date, was retained to finish their studies and complete their work with the Department. The spokesperson added that Secretary Brooke Rollins will review the scholarship program, its mission and its metrics to ensure taxpayer resources are used efficiently. The funding freeze has been challenged in court, with a temporary hold on the executive action already in place. The affected universities include Alabama A&M, Florida A&M, North Carolina A&T and Tuskegee University in Alabama, among others.The scholarship program dates to 1992, but 1890 in the title refers to the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which established historically Black colleges and universities. Eligibility rules include being a U.S. citizen with a GPA of 3.0 or better, along with acceptance to one of the 19 1890 land grant universities. Eligible students must also study agriculture or related fields and demonstrate leadership and community service, according to the departments site. In October, the department said it had set aside $19.2 million for the program. In fiscal year 2024, 94 students were awarded scholarships, the department said.

President Donald Trump dances as he speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)2025-02-22T21:32:12Z OXON HILL, Md. (AP) President Donald Trump said Saturday that nobodys ever seen anything like his administrations sweeping effort to fire thousands of federal employees and shrink the size of government, congratulating himself for dominating Washington and sending bureaucrats packing. Addressing an adoring crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference just outside the nations capital, Trump promised, Were going to forge a new and lasting political majority that will drive American politics for generations to come. The president argues that voters gave him a mandate to overhaul government while cracking down on the U.S.-Mexico border and extending tax cuts that were the signature policy of his first administration. Trump clicked easily back into campaign mode during his hour-plus speech, predicting that the GOP will continue to win and defy history, which has shown that a presidents party typically struggles during midterm elections. He insisted of Republicans, I dont think weve been at this level, maybe ever. Nobodys ever seen anything like this, Trump said, likening his new administrations opening month to being on a roll through the first four holes of a round of golf which he said gives him confidence for the fifth hole. Trump has empowered Elon Musk to help carry out the firings, and the billionaire suggested Saturday that more might be coming. Consistent with President @realDonaldTrumps instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week, Musk posted on X, which he owns. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.Later, an HR email was sent to federal workers across numerous agencies titled What did you do last week and asking that recipients reply with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager. It cautioned against sending classified information, and gave a deadline of Monday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Trump also said during the speech that hed carry out harsher immigration policies. But those efforts have so far largely been overshadowed by his administrations mass federal firings. He announced that one entity with a workforce that had been significantly reduced, the U.S. Agency for International Development, would have its Washington office taken over by Customs and Border Protection officials. The agencys name has been removed from its former building, he said. The president also repeated his previous promises to scrutinize the countrys gold depository at Fort Knox. Would anybody like to join us? he asked to cheers from the crowd at the suggestion that administration forces might converge on the complex. We want to see if the gold is still there.But Trump also devoted large chunks of his address to reliving last years presidential race, jeering at former President Joe Biden and mispronouncing the first name of former Vice President Kamala Harris his Election Day opponent gleefully proclaiming, I havent said that name in a while. He went on to use an expletive to describe Bidens handling of border security, despite noting that evangelical conservatives have urged him not to use foul language.Trump had kinder words for Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying I happen to like him, while saying, weve been treated very unfairly by China and many other countries. On the sidelines of the conference, Trump met with conservative Polish President Andrzej Duda amid rising tensions in Europe over Russias war in Ukraine. After he took the stage, Trump saluted Duda and another atendee, Argentine President Javier Milei. Trump called Duda a fantastic man and a great friend of mine and said you must be doing something right, hanging out with Trump. He noted that Milei was a MAGA guy, too, Make Argentina Great Again. Poland is a longtime ally of Ukraine. Trump upended recent U.S. policy by dispatching top foreign policy advisers to Saudi Arabia for direct talks with Russian officials that were aimed at ending fighting in Ukraine. Those meetings did not include Ukrainian or European officials, which has alarmed U.S. allies. Trump is meeting on Monday at the White House with French President Emmanuel Macron and Thursday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump also has begun a public tiff with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whom the U.S. president called a dictator while falsely suggesting that Ukraine started the war though on Friday Trump acknowledged that Russia attacked its neighbor.Trump told the CPAC crowd, Im dealing with President Zelenskyy. Im dealing with President Putin and added of fighting in Ukraine, It affects Europe. It doesnt really affect us.Zelenskyy has said Trump is living in a Russian-made disinformation space.For much of the time since Russia invaded in February 2022, the United States, under Biden, pledged that Ukraine would play in any major effort to end the fighting, vowing nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. Trumps administration has dispensed with that notion, as the Republican president has accelerated his push to find an endgame to the war. I think were pretty close to a deal, and we better be close to a deal, Trump said Saturday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently told reporters that Trump and his team were focused on negotiations to end the war and the President is very confident we can get it done this week, though such a tight timeline seems difficult. Leavitt is one of three administration officials who face a lawsuit from The Associated Press on First- and Fifth-Amendment grounds. The AP says the three are punishing the news agency for editorial decisions they oppose. The White House says the AP is not following an executive order to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.Later, Trump hosted a formal dinner at the White House for governors from around the country who were in Washington for a meeting of the National Governors Association. Trump said Republicans and Democrats can always call him and joked that he might address Democratic concerns first. Let us all recommit ourselves to strengthening America and making it something even more special than it has been, Trump said. And were going to be one united nation, and maybe together, this is going to be easier if we start uniting. The president, who wore a tuxedo and bow tie, was accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, who had her own tuxedo but no tie. Trump told those gathered that his wife helped organize the event. She worked very hard on making sure everything was beautiful, he said to applause. Trump also said hed give a tour of the Lincoln Bedroom after the meal to anyone who wished to see it. I think maybe its like the most important room in the whole country, he said. The most important bedroom definitely. ___Weissert reported from Washington. WILL WEISSERT Weissert covers national politics and the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON Gomez Licon writes about national politics for The Associated Press. She is based in Florida. twitter mailto

This image provided by the U.S. Air Force shows Lt. Gen. Dan Caine. (U.S. Air Force via AP)2025-02-22T20:37:18Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trumps choice to be the top U.S. military officer, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, endeared himself to the commander in chief through his military call sign, Razin, during a meeting in Iraq years ago. Officials who have served with Caine described him Saturday as measured and apolitical.Trump said Friday night that Caine was his pick as the next Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, making the announcement in the same social media post in which he fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who had held that job for 16 months after a career as a history-making fighter pilot.Browns ouster followed soon by that of other military leaders came as Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are pushing out officers who have supported diversity, equity and inclusion in the ranks. The new Republican administration says it is focused on a lethal fighting force. Caine retired in December. It was not immediately clear what it would take to recall him to active-duty service so he could go through Senate confirmation.Caine does not meet the positions prerequisites, such as being a combatant commander or service chief, as laid out in a 1986 law that does allow a president to waive those requirements. I know hes nontraditional, but thats kind of what this administration looks for, said Chris Miller, who served as Trumps last acting secretary of defense in his first term. Caine definitely knows how the Pentagon works, Miller told The Associated Press. Caine has experience, too, in the National Guard and has worked in the private sector. Hes spent time as a citizen-soldier. The guys been out, done other things. He brings a perspective that is not traditional for a chairman, which I think will be a breath of fresh air, Miller said. Trumps relationship with Caine dates to his first administration. They met during a trip to Iraq, as Trump recounted during a 2019 speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC, where he spoke again on Saturday. Trump said he asked Caine why it would take two more years to end the fight against the Islamic State group. Caine told him it could be as little as a week, if he did it his way. Were only hitting them from a temporary base in Syria, Trump said Caine told him. But if you gave us permission, we could hit them from the back, from the side, from all over from the base that youre right on, right now, sir. They wont know what the hell hit them. A question after Browns firing was whether Trump was seeking a loyalist as chairman of the Joint Chiefs chairman. Trump praised Caine and condemned the current military leadership at an unrelated appearance in Miami this past week.General Razin Caine was hes some general. Hes a real general, not a television general, Trump said Wednesday, two days before his Truth Social post.We have the greatest military in the world, but we dont have the greatest top, top leadership. Thats why Afghanistan was such a horrible situation and so embarrassing and so many other things, Trump added. But when we want to, with proper leadership, theres nobody even close to us. Trump has previously suggested that Caine is a political supporter. In a CPAC speech last year, Trump recalled meeting Caine in 2018 in Iraq when he was visiting troops. He said, Ill kill for you sir, Trump said. Then he puts on a Make America Great Again hat. But Caine has been steadfastly apolitical, a military officer who had served with him and remains close to him said Saturday. Gen. Caine doesnt have a MAGA hat. Hes never put one on, said the official, who was not authorized to talk to the media on the record and spoke on condition of anonymity.Miller, the former acting defense secretary, served at the Pentagon when Caine led the militarys Special Access Program Central Office, which oversees what classified information on weapons programs is shared with foreign governments. That position is one of the most difficult places to work in the whole department because of all of the congressional interest. You have to be really, really adept to handle all of the constituencies, Miller said. Caine, like Brown, flew F-16 fighter jets. Last month, Caine completed an assignment for the CIA, and during an in-depth Jan. 27 episode of The Afterburn Podcast spoke at length about his life and career.I grew up as the son of a fighter pilot. This was our family business, he said. Both he and his father, who started his military career flying F-4 Phantoms, ultimately flew the F-16.In the podcast, Caine had a message for young people looking to serve, or those already flying: Cherish it, Caine said. And remember that while flying airplanes in the military at least is epically cool, its about something deeper, he said. Its about serving our country. Its about being willing to protect and defend this nation. ___AP National Political Writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report. TARA COPP Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. twitter mailto

Law enforcement officers detain migrants in the area in Coral Gables, Fla., Jan. 28, 2025. (Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via AP File)2025-02-23T05:13:19Z ATLANTA (AP) Republican state lawmakers seeking to aid President Donald Trumps crackdown on illegal immigration are threatening local officials who resist with lawsuits, fines and even potential jail time. Lawmakers in more than 20 states this year have filed legislation targeting so-called sanctuary policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, according to an Associated Press analysis using the bill-tracking software Plural. Some of those states already ban sanctuary policies but are now proposing to punish mayors, council members and other government officials who violate the prohibition.The goal is to provide teeth to those who are being aggrieved by local governments and local officials who are not abiding by Georgia immigration law, said Republican state Sen. Blake Tillery, whose legislation would allow lawsuits against anyone who implements sanctuary policies. His bill recently passed the Senate and is now in the House. Opponents have raised concerns that the legislation could lead local police and sheriffs to detain immigrants for longer than they are supposed to under federal law out of fear of getting sued. Were threatening our local law enforcement who are doing the best job they can to keep our communities safe, said Georgia state Sen. Nikki Merritt, a Democrat.The state proposals come as the Trump administration also has begun taking legal action against governments that have adopted policies inhibiting arrests and deportations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The Department of Justice has sued Illinois, Chicago and Cook County, alleging they are violating federal law by not cooperating with immigration authorities. Using lawsuits to enforce anti-sanctuary lawsA Georgia law enacted last year already mandates that local law enforcement cooperate with federal authorities to identify and detain immigrants in the U.S. illegally, or else lose state funding and face misdemeanor charges. The legislation recently passed by the state Senate doubles down by letting people sue local governments, officials and employees for violating the ban. Immigrants and advocates in Georgia say the legislation, if passed, could stoke fear in communities already worried about ICE officials arresting loved ones in homes, churches or schools.This all relates to Donald Trumps war on immigrants and local people trying to garner favor with him through legislation that doesnt solve any problems, said Charles Kuck, an Atlanta immigration attorney who opposes the legislation. Mike Mitchell, deputy executive director of the Georgia Sheriffs Association, said the organization has a neutral position on the bill but noted sheriffs already are following immigration law. Louisiana passed a law last year requiring law enforcement agencies to use best efforts to enforce federal immigration law. Earlier this month, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill sued the sheriffs office in New Orleans, alleging it is violating the state ban on sanctuary immigration policies.The Orleans Parish Sheriffs Office declines ICE requests to hold detainees for extra time except when they face murder, rape, kidnapping, treason or robbery charges, according to a 2013 policy put in place under a consent judgment in federal court. The attorney generals lawsuit seeks to end that federal court order. The sheriffs office also restricts the information it shares with ICE and prevents federal immigration agents from entering its facilities without court authorization or interviewing detainees without legal counsel. The sheriffs office said in an emailed statement that it remains in full compliance with all applicable state laws and valid court orders related to ICE detainers. Imposing fines and jail time An anti-sanctuary measure was the first item signed into law by Republican Gov. Larry Rhoden of South Dakota after he took over for former Gov. Kristi Noem, who was picked by Trump to be homeland security secretary. The law bans state and local policies that limit communication with federal officials about peoples immigration status, however it contains no penalties.Other states have gone further. A sweeping immigration law signed recently by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis requires the attorney general to take legal action against local governments that adopt policies refusing to comply with federal requests to detain immigrants in the country illegally. Local officials who willfully violate a ban on such sanctuary policies can face fines up to $5,000.Tennessee law already denies state economic development funds to local governments that violate a ban on sanctuary policies. A law signed recently by Gov. Bill Lee enhances that by subjecting local officials who vote for such policies to felony charges punishable by up to six years in prison. Legislative attorneys have said such penalties could be unconstitutional due to protections afforded elected officials while carrying out their duties. Legislation that passed the Wyoming House and is now pending in the Senate would not only bar local governments from adopting immigration sanctuary policies but also block citizens from proposing them through initiative petitions. The measure contains steep penalties. The governor could withhold state funds from counties, cities and towns that adopt such policies. Local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities could face felony charges punishable by 5-10 years in prison and a fine up to $20,000. Republican state Rep. Joel Guggenmos acknowledged there are no sanctuary jurisdictions in Wyoming but told colleagues during a committee hearing that he was sponsoring the legislation as a preemptive measure. As I look at other states, this is becoming a problem, Guggenmos said. New Hampshire lawmakers have advanced two separate bills targeting sanctuary policies. A Senate version would allow the state attorney general to sue local governments that prohibit the enforcement of federal immigration laws and seek fines equal to 25% of their state funding. A House version omits the fine but includes more detailed directives for local governments to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. ___Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed from New Orleans.___Kramon and Brook are corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. CHARLOTTE KRAMON Kramon covers government and politics from Atlanta. She is a Report for America corps member. twitter mailto DAVID A. LIEB Lieb covers issues and trends in state governments across the U.S. Hes reported about government and politics for The Associated Press for 30 years. twitter mailto