Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani (17) walks on the field during the first inning in an MLB Japan Series exhibition baseball game against the Hanshin Tigers, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)2025-03-17T04:24:44Z TOKYO (AP) The Major League Baseball season kicks off Tuesday night at the Tokyo Dome when Shohei Ohtani and the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers face the Chicago Cubs.Its the first of a two-game series and features five Japanese players. Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and rookie Roki Sasaki pitch for the Dodgers while the Cubs have outfielder Seiya Suzuki and left-handed pitcher Shota Imanaga.The two MLB teams have been in Tokyo for several days, playing exhibition games against two Japanese teams the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants. All four exhibition games had a capacity crowd of roughly 42,000. A similar atmosphere is expected for the two MLB games.Everybodys very aware of the series, thats evident for sure, more than I feel like it would be America, Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. More people are talking about it, absolutely. Thats a great feeling. The players love big events, thats why we do this, thats why we love to do it.Here are five things to know heading into the MLB opener: All-Japanese pitching matchupThe first game will feature the first all-Japanese pitching matchup on opening day in MLB history. Yamamoto will take the mound for the Dodgers against Imanaga of the Cubs.Yamamoto is entering his second season with Los Angeles. He was 7-2 with a 3.00 ERA last season and was an important part of the teams World Series championship, with a brilliant performance in a Game 2 win over the Yankees.Imanaga was an All-Star last year in his first season with the Cubs. The lefty finished with a 15-3 record and a 2.91 ERA in 2024.The Dodgers will start Sasaki in the second game on Wednesday night.Young CubsThird baseman Matt Shaw is expected to make his big league debut for the Cubs on Tuesday. Shaw is one of the teams top prospects and did enough this spring to earn the starting nod.Shaw was drafted with the No. 13 overall pick in 2020 after playing college baseball at Maryland. He hit .284 with 21 homers and 71 RBIs last season, splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A.Other young Cubs include third-year outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong, who hopes to take a big step forward after an encouraging second half of 2024. Rookie second baseman Gage Workman could also make his MLB debut in Tokyo. Ailing MookieDodgers shortstop Mookie Betts will not play in either game against the Chicago Cubs because of an illness thats lingered for the past week.Manager Dave Roberts said Monday that Betts is starting to feel better but has lost nearly 15 pounds and is still trying to get rehydrated and gain strength. Roberts added that the eight-time All-Star might fly back to the United States before the team in an effort to rest and prepare for the domestic opener on March 27.Miguel Rojas will start at shortstop in Betts place.Early in the U.S.Set your alarm if youre planning to view the two Tokyo games in the United States. Both games being at 7:10 p.m. in Tokyo, which means itll be a 6:10 a.m. wake up call in the Eastern time zone.Many Cubs and Dodgers fans will really need some coffee. Start time in Chicago is 5:10 a.m. while its 3:10 a.m. in Los Angeles. The game will air nationally on Fox. Tokyo historyThis marks the 25th anniversary of the first MLB regular season games played in Japan. The New York Mets and Cubs played a two-game set at the Tokyo Dome in 2000.Since that series, MLB returned in 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2019. The 2019 series featured the Oakland As and Seattle Mariners, who celebrated the final two games of Ichiro Suzukis career in his home country. Suzuki will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer.Its the 10th time that MLB has played regular season games in a spot outside the 50 states. The locations include Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia and last years series in South Korea.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB DAVID BRANDT Brandt is an Associated Press sports writer based in Phoenix. He covers a wide variety of sports including the NBA, NFL and MLB. twitter mailto

Ronen Bar, chief of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security agency, attends a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool photo via AP, File)2025-03-16T17:41:02Z JERUSALEM (AP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he will seek to dismiss the head of the internal security service this week, deepening a power struggle focused largely on who bears responsibility for the Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza.Netanyahus effort to remove Ronen Bar as director of the Shin Bet comes as the security service investigates close aides of the prime minister. Netanyahu said he has had ongoing distrust with Bar, and this distrust has grown over time.Bar responded by saying he planned to continue in the post for the near future, citing personal obligations to finish sensitive investigations, free the remaining hostages in Gaza and prepare potential successors.Bar also criticized Netanyahus expectation of a personal loyalty that contradicts the public interest. But he emphasized that he would respect any legal decision regarding his tenure. Attorney general says Netanyahu must explain legal basis for his decisionIsraels attorney general said Netanyahu must clarify the legal basis for his decision before taking any action.The Shin Bet is responsible for monitoring Palestinian militant groups, and recently issued a report accepting responsibility for its failures around the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. It also criticized Netanyahu, saying failed government policies helped create the climate that led to it.While the army concluded in a recent report that it underestimated Hamas capabilities, Shin Bet said it had a deep understanding of the threat. In veiled criticism of the government, the agency said its attempts to thwart the threat were not implemented.The investigation reveals a long and deliberate disregard from the political leadership from the organizations warnings, Bars statement said. Deflecting blame for the Oct. 7 attackNetanyahu has resisted calls for an official state commission of inquiry into the Oct. 7 attack and has tried to blame the failures on the army and security agencies. In recent months, a number of senior security officials, including a defense minister and army chief, have been fired or forced to step down.Bar has been one of the few senior security officials since the Oct. 7 attack to remain in office.If successful in removing him, Netanyahu would be expected to appoint a loyalist in his place, slowing any momentum for the commission of inquiry. The prime minister said removing him would help Israel achieve its war goals and prevent the next disaster.Netanyahus proposed resolution for Bars dismissal would need the approval of parliament, the Knesset, and it is likely he has support to pass it.However, a personnel decision of this magnitude must get the attorney generals approval, said Amichai Cohen, a senior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank.In her letter to Netanyahu warning he could not go ahead without clarification, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara added that he should pay attention to the fact that the role of the Shin Bet is not to serve the personal trust of the prime minister, according to a statement from her office.The two have a combative relationship, with the prime minister accusing Baharav-Miara of meddling in government decisions. Earlier this month, Justice Minister Yariv Levin, one of Netanyahus biggest supporters, initiated the process of firing her. Cohen also called Netanyahus decision very problematic. He said it illustrates the conflict of interest regarding the Shin Bet findings around the Oct. 7 attack and the agencys investigations into connections between the prime ministers office and Qatar, a mediator in talks on the war in Gaza.Netanyahu is angry that the Shin Bet is investigating members of his staff for their dealings with Qatar.Eli Feldstein, Netanyahus former spokesperson, was reported by Israels Channel 12 to have worked for a Doha-based firm that recruited Israeli journalists to write pro-Qatar stories. Israels left-leaning daily, Haaretz, has reported that two other Netanyahu staffers, Jonatan Urich and Yisrael Einhorn, allegedly built a campaign to bolster Qatars image ahead of the 2022 World Cup there. The Shin Bet, and Bar, have been closely involved with the Gaza hostage negotiations. Netanyahu recently removed Bar from the negotiating team and replaced him with a loyalist, Cabinet minister Ron Dermer. Israeli media have reported on policy differences between the negotiators, who have pushed for a hostage deal, and Netanyahu, who threatens to resume the war.The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a good-governance civil society group, called Netanyahus announcement a declaration of war on the rule of law and claimed that he does not have the authority to take the step against Bar because of the investigations into his office.The groups chair, Eliad Shraga, called the announcement unlawful and an extreme example of conflict of interest. Opposition leader calls plans to dismiss Bar shamefulOpposition leader Yair Lapid said he would appeal Bars dismissal, calling the resolution shameful and politically motivated.Since Netanyahu was indicted on corruption charges in 2019, he has claimed to be the victim of a deep state conspiracy by the media, judiciary and other unelected civil servants.He launched a plan to overhaul the countrys judicial system in early 2023, sparking months of street protests by demonstrators who accused him of trying to weaken the countrys system of checks and balances.Israeli media have said Bar was among top security officials warning ahead of the Oct. 7 attack that the strife was sending an image of weakness to Israels enemies. MELANIE LIDMAN Lidman is an Associated Press reporter based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

A participant smiles during the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Montreal, Sunday, March 16, 2025.(Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press via AP)2025-03-17T04:18:31Z NEW YORK (AP) St. Patricks Day, the annual celebration of all things Irish, is being marked in cities across the country on Monday with boisterous parades and celebrations. New York City hosts one of the largest and oldest parades in the United States. The rolling celebration, now in its 264th year, takes place along Manhattans famed Fifth Avenue. Some 150,000 take part in the march and 2 million spectators attend each year, according to organizers.Major celebrations are also planned on Monday in Savannah, Georgia, and other American communities, though some of the cities most transformed by Irish immigration held festivities over the weekend. Chicago s St. Patricks Day celebration, which is punctuated by turning its namesake river bright green with dye, happened Saturday. Boston and Philadelphia marked the occasion Sunday. Across the pond, the Irish capital of Dublin culminates its three-day festival with a parade Monday. Cities such as Liverpool, England, another city transformed by Irish immigration, also host celebrations on the St. Patricks feast day. The parades are meant to commemorate Irelands patron saint but have become a celebration of Irish heritage globally. Festivities on March 17 were popularized by Irish immigrant communities, who in the 19th century faced discrimination and opposition in the U.S.The New York parade dates to 1762 14 years before the U.S. Declaration of Independence. It steps off at 11 a.m., heading north along Fifth Avenue and running from East 44th Street to East 79th Street in Manhattan.A bevy of local politicians, from the mayor to the governor, are expected to walk the route along with school marching bands and traditional Irish pipe and drum ensembles and delegations from the New York Police Department and other organizations.The grand marshal of this years parade in New York City is Michael Benn, the longtime chairman of the Queens County St. Patricks Parade held in Rockaway Beach.

Former members of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) and police officers who allegedly surrendered to M23 rebels arrive in Goma, Congo, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, file)2025-03-17T10:17:25Z DAKAR, Senegal (AP) Congos government will participate in peace talks in Angola on Tuesday with the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group that has captured key areas of Congos mineral-rich east, a spokesperson said Monday.A delegation representing Congo is currently in the Angolan capital, Luanda, for the talks, Tina Salama, the spokesperson for President Felix Tshisekedi, told The Associated Press. Tshisekedi had earlier refused direct negotiations with the rebels. M23 also sent a delegation to Luanda, the groups spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka said on X Monday.The conflict in eastern Congo escalated in January when the Rwanda-backed rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma, followed by Bukavu in February. Angola, which has acted as a mediator in the conflict, announced last week that it will host direct peace negotiations between Congo and M23 on Tuesday. Peace talks between Congo and Rwanda were unexpectedly canceled in December after Rwanda made the signing of a peace agreement conditional on a direct dialogue between Congo and the M23 rebels, which Congo refused. A dialogue with a terrorist group like the M23 is a red line that we will never cross, Tshisekedi said during a speech to the diplomatic corps on Jan. 18. M23 is one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in mineral-rich eastern Congo near the border with Rwanda, in a conflict that has created one of the worlds most significant humanitarian crises. More than 7 million people have been displaced. The rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congos capital, Kinshasa.The U.N. Human Rights Council last month launched a commission to investigate atrocities, including allegations of rape and killing akin to summary executions by both sides. The U.S. State Department said last week it was open to a mining partnership in Congo and has confirmed that preliminary discussions had begun.On Sunday, Tshisekedi met with the U.S. special envoy to Congo, Rep. Ronny Jackson, to discuss potential security and economic partnerships.We want to work together so that American companies can invest and work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and for that we have to make sure there is a peace in the country, Jackson told reporters after the meeting.

This image taken from video provided by the U.S. Navy shows an aircraft launching from the USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea before airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (U.S. Navy via AP)2025-03-17T09:44:37Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The United States under President Donald Trump has launched a new campaign of intense airstrikes targeting Yemens Houthi rebels. This weekends strikes killed at least 53 people, including children, and wounded others. The campaign is likely to continue, part of a wider pressure campaign by Trump now targeting the Houthis main benefactor, Iran, as well. Heres what to know about the U.S. strikes and what could happen next: Why did the U.S. launch these new airstrikes?The Houthi rebels attacked over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, from November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership described the attacks as aiming to end the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The campaign also greatly raised the Houthis profile in the wider Arab world and tamped down on public criticism against their human rights abuses and crackdowns on dissent and aid workers.Trump, writing on his social media platform Truth Social, said his administration targeted the Houthis over their unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism. He noted the disruption Houthi attacks have caused through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypts Suez Canal. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective, Trump said. Didnt the U.S. already target the Houthis with airstrikes?Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. and the United Kingdom began a series of airstrikes against the Houthis starting in January 2024. A December report by The International Institute for Strategic Studies said the U.S. and its partners struck the Houthis over 260 times up to that point.U.S. military officials during that period acknowledged having a far-wider target list for possible strikes. While the Biden administration didnt go too far into explaining its targeting, analysts believe officials largely were trying to avoid civilian casualties and not rekindle Yemens stalemated war, which pits the Houthis and their allies against the countrys exiled government and their local and international allies, like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Trump administration, however, appears willing to go after more targets, based on the weekends strikes and public remarks made by officials. Were doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News Face The Nation on Sunday. Thats the mission here, and it will continue until thats carried out.Rubio added: Some of the key people involved in those missile launches are no longer with us, and I can tell you that some of the facilities that they used are no longer existing, and that will continue. What could the new U.S. strikes mean for the wider Mideast?In two words: More attacks. The Houthis said last week theyll again target Israeli ships traveling through Mideast waterways like the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, because of Israels blocking of aid to the Gaza Strip. No rebel attack targeting commercial shipping has been reported as of Monday morning. However, the new U.S. campaign likely could inspire Houthi attacks at sea or on land beyond American warships. The rebels previously targeted oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, two countries deeply involved in Yemens war since 2015. Although the U.S. has been striking at Houthi targets for over a year, the scope and scale of this new campaign, including the targeting of senior Houthi figures, marks a significant escalation in the conflict, analysts at the Eurasia Group said Monday. Gulf Arab countries will distance themselves from ongoing hostilities but now face threats to their major oil infrastructure. The Houthis will want to hit President Donald Trump where it hurts, oil prices. Meanwhile, the Houthis likely will expand their possible targets for ship attacks, meaning shippers will continue to stay out of the region, said Jakob P. Larsen, the head of maritime security for BIMCO, the largest international association representing shipowners. Where are the Iranians in all of this?Iran long has armed the Houthis, who are members of Islams minority Shiite Zaydi sect, which ruled Yemen for 1,000 years until 1962. Tehran routinely denies arming the rebels, despite physical evidence, numerous seizures and experts tying the weapons back to Iran. Thats likely because Tehran wants to avoid sanctions for violating a United Nations arms embargo on the Houthis. The Houthis now form the strongest group within Irans self-described Axis of Resistance. Others like Lebanons Hezbollah and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have been decimated by Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked Israels war of attrition in the Gaza Strip. Allied Shiite militias in Iraq largely have kept their heads down since the U.S. launched retaliatory attacks last year over a drone attack that killed three American troops and injured at least 34 others at a military base in Jordan. While Iranian state television aired footage of civilian casualties from the weekend strikes in Yemen, top political leaders stayed away from suggestion Tehran itself would get involved in the fight. Revolutionary Guard chief Gen. Hossein Salami notably underscored the Houthis made their own decisions while not offering any warning over what would happen if the strikes killed any members of the Guards expeditionary Quds Force, who are believed to actively support the rebels on the ground. We have always declared and we declare again today that the Yemenis are an independent and free nation in their own land, with an independent national policy, Salami said.Trumps national security adviser Mike Waltz, speaking to ABCs This Week on Sunday, warned Guard officials training the Houthis will be on the table too as possible targets for attack. Meanwhile, Iran is still trying to determine how to respond to a letter from Trump aiming to restart negotiations over Tehrans rapidly advancing nuclear program. Irans Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi traveled Sunday to Oman, which long has been an interlocutor between Tehran and the West. The attacks on the Houthis are a not-so-subtle signal to Iran, as President Trump has been unequivocal in his insistence that Iran return to the negotiating table to deal with its nuclear program, the New York-based Soufan Center said in an analysis Monday. JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov smiles following his meeting with Indonesian Communication and Information Minister Rudiantara in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Aug. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File)2025-03-17T11:31:48Z Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said Monday that he has travelled from France to Dubai as French authorities continue to investigate criminal activity on his messaging app.Durov revealed his whereabouts in a post on his Telegram channel. He had been detained last year after arriving in Paris, where French authorities handed him preliminary charges for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform.After his arrest, Durov was barred from leaving France pending further investigation, and was required to report to a police station twice a week,As you may have heard, Ive returned to Dubai after spending several months in France due to an investigation related to the activity of criminals on Telegram, Durov wrote. The process is ongoing, but it feels great to be home. French investigators say Telegram was used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, and that the platform refused to share information or documents with investigators when required by law. In his post, Durov thanked the investigative judges for letting this happen. Investigators detained Durov last August when he arrived at Le Bourget airport outside Paris and questioned him for four days as part of a sweeping probe. Durov said in his post that when it comes to moderation, cooperation, and fighting crime, for years Telegram not only met but exceeded its legal obligations.He insisted last year after his arrest that Telegram is not some sort of anarchic paradise, and blamed surging numbers of Telegram users, which caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.

This photo provided by the Jackson County (Ill.) Historical Society shows the Logan School in Murphysboro, Ill., after a tornado tore through Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri in March 1925. (Jackson County (Ill.) Historical Society via AP)2025-03-17T11:25:44Z MURPHYSBORO, Ill. (AP) From Logan Schools top floor, 11-year-old Othella Silvey should have been able to see her house easily it was less than two blocks away.But after a monstrous tornado ripped through the Illinois town of Murphysboro on March 18, 1925, Othella saw nothing but flattened wasteland.She couldnt tell which direction was home, said Othellas daughter, 81-year-old Sylvia Carvell. Deadliest twister in recorded U.S. historyThe deadliest twister in recorded U.S. history struck 100 years ago Tuesday, touching down in southeastern Missouri and tearing up everything in its 219-mile (352-kilometer) path for nearly four hours through southern Illinois and into Indiana.It left 695 people dead and more than 2,000 injured, not counting the casualties from at least seven other twisters that the main storm spawned which spun off through Kentucky and into Alabama.Modern standards qualify the so-called Tri-State Tornado as an F5, a mile-wide funnel with wind speeds greater than 260 mph (418 kph). Perhaps the best evidence of its destructive handiwork was found on the Logan School grounds: A wooden board measuring 4 feet (1.22 meters) long by 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) wide driven so deeply into the trunk of a maple tree that it could hold the weight of a man.Its on display this month as part of the Jackson County Historical Societys centennial commemoration of the disaster. You know the numbers: 200 mph winds. It was a mile wide. But the force that it took to put that pine board into that maple tree, it really puts it all in perspective, said Mary Riseling, coordinator of the six-day remembrance. To have one item that was witness to the force of those winds, its a story all its own. Perfect atmospheric mix for ferocious stormThe atmospheric stew that gave birth to the ferocious cataclysm was literally a perfect storm. A surface low pressure system located over the Arkansas-Missouri border moved northeast, blending with a warm front moving north, said Christine Wielgos, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service. That churn provided the warmth, the instability, the moisture which, when married perfectly, produce long-track, violent tornadoes, Wielgos said. Adding to the terror was the lack of notice. There was no reliable storm forecasting in 1925 and no warning system anyway. All they had was they looked off to the West and went, Looking a little dark out there, and didnt even know what it was until it was right up on them and then youre scrambling to find shelter, Wielgos said. Towns were obliteratedThe storm took out 40% of the city of Murphysboro, 97 miles (156 kilometers) southeast of St. Louis. Its 234 deaths were the most of any municipality, with entire neighborhoods flattened. Other towns were virtually obliterated, too, including Annapolis, Missouri; Gorham, Illinois; and Griffith, Indiana.The Mobile & Ohio Railroad yards, employing close to 1,100, were wiped out. At the twisters next stop, it ravaged the DeSoto School, killing 38 children. Sheet music for After the Tornado is Over, a morbid dirge written locally, reflects the mood of the odious aftermath: I once had a Home Sweet Home here/With families so kind and dear/The Red Cross tells me they are dead/Among the debris straight ahead/Death seems to come to every door/The strong and weak, the rich and poor.In Murphysboro, Pullman rail cars arrived to house visiting medical professionals and cleanup crews. The Red Cross supplied tents for the homeless. With reports that the Silvey family had been killed and their home destroyed, Othella and her younger sister, Helen Silvey, 7, were shipped to Carbondale as orphans. However, it was their grandparents who lived a block away who had died, Carvell said. The sisters were eventually reunited with their parents. Commemoration celebrates resilienceThe city rebuilt. Othella Silveys family erected a home identical to the one that had been leveled. First, they built a chicken coop, which supplied not only their primary dietary staple for months, but their shelter until the primary residence was finished, Carvell said. To this day, the west side of Murphysboro is peppered with small backyard structures that were temporary quarters until families could rebuild larger homes at the front of their lots. Dozens of families who toughed it out remain in Murphysboro, Riseling said. Jackson County Historical Society President Laura Cates Duncan said the commemoration honors those who died but also celebrates the resilience of those who carried on. They could have gone elsewhere, but they wanted to stay here, Duncan said. Their roots were here.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney and wife Diana Fox Carney arrive in Paris, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)2025-03-17T07:09:10Z PARIS (AP) New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney arrived in Paris Monday to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, seeking support from one of Canadas oldest allies as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to attack Canadas sovereignty and economy.This is Carneys first official foreign trip since he was sworn in on March 14. He will next land in London where he will sit down with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles III, the head of state in Canada. Why Paris and London?Carney has deliberately chosen the two European capital cities that shaped Canadas early existence. During his swearing-in ceremony, he noted the country was built on the bedrock of three peoples, French, English and Indigenous, and said Canada is fundamentally different from America and will never, ever, in any way shape or form, be part of the United States.Since Trump came to office, he has imposed whopping tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum and repeatedly commented on turning Canada into the 51st state, infuriating Canadians and sparking a call to boycott U.S. products across the country. He is threatening to impose tariffs on all Canadian products on April 2. On Monday, a senior Canadian government official briefed reporters on the plane before picking up Carney in Montreal, saying the purpose of the trip is to double down on partnerships with London and Paris. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he is not allowed to speak publicly, said Canada is a good friend of the United States but we all know what is going on. Carney will visit the Notre-Dame Cathedral before meeting with Macron at the Palais de llyse. However, Macron isnt expected to hold a joint news conference with Carney, a sign the French president might not want to upset Trump by siding with Canada. Before returning to Ottawa on Tuesday, Carney will travel to the edge of Canadas Arctic to reaffirm Canadas Arctic security and sovereignty. The choice of this itinerary for Prime Minister Carneys first official trip emphasizes the strong connection of Canada with the Arctic as well as with the two former colonial powers Canada remains attached to, through the Commonwealth on the U.K. side and La Francophonie on the France side, said Daniel Bland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.The fact that Canada never broke away from the U.K. in a violent fashion is a key historical and institutional difference between the United States and Canada, a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic that has adopted and retained a U.K.-style parliamentary system.The trip to London will be a bit of a homecoming, as Carney became the first non-British governor in the Bank of Englands 319-year history when he took over the top job on July 1, 2013. He served until March 15, 2020. No Washington trip plannedCarney, a former central banker who turned 60 on Sunday, has said hes ready to meet with Trump if he shows respect for Canadian sovereignty. He said he doesnt plan to visit Washington at the moment but hopes to have a phone call with the president soon. His government is also reviewing the purchase of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets in light of Trumps trade war. Meanwhile, Macron has been ramping up efforts to persuade Frances allies to move away from purchases of American military hardware, which dovetails with Canadas rethink on F-35s and also coincides with mounting questions and concerns in Europe that European defenses are overly dependent on U.S. weaponry, technical support and goodwill.Carney spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a call late Sunday and invited him to the G7 summit this summer, which Canada is hosting. Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he pushes to end the war in Ukraine.Carney is expected to call an election by the end of the week, to take place in late April or early May. Canadas governing Liberal Party had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared economic war. Now, the party and its new leader could come out on top.___Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed this report. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Lumber is piled at a housing construction site, Thursday, June 24, 2021, in Middleton, Mass. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola, File)2025-03-17T10:26:44Z Shopping for a new home? Ready to renovate your kitchen or install a new deck? Youll be paying more to do so.The Trump administrations tariffs on imported goods from Canada, Mexico and China some already in place, others set to take effect in a few weeks are already driving up the cost of building materials used in new residential construction and home remodeling projects.The tariffs are projected to raise the costs that go into building a single-family home in the U.S. by $7,500 to $10,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders. Such costs are typically passed along to the homebuyer in the form of higher prices, which could hurt demand at a time when the U.S. housing market remains in a slump and many builders are having to offer buyers costly incentives to drum up sales.We Buy Houses in San Francisco, which purchases foreclosed homes and then typically renovates and sells them, is increasing prices on its refurbished properties between 7% and 12%. Thats even after saving $52,000 in costs by stockpiling 62% more Canadian lumber than usual.The uncertainty of how long these tariffs will continue has been the most challenging aspect of our planning, said CEO Mamta Saini. Bad timing for buildersThe timing of the tariffs couldnt be worse for homebuilders and the home remodeling industry, as this is typically the busiest time of year for home sales. The prospect of a trade war has roiled the stock market and stoked worries about the economy, which could lead many would-be homebuyers to remain on the sidelines. Rising costs due to tariffs on imports will leave builders with few options, said Danielle Hale, chief economist at Realtor.com. They can choose to pass higher costs along to consumers, which will mean higher home prices, or try to use less of these materials, which will mean smaller homes.Prices for building materials, including lumber, have been rising, even though the White House has delayed its tariffs rollout on some products. Lumber futures jumped to $658.71 per thousand board feet on March 4, reaching their highest level in more than two years. The increase is already inflating costs for construction projects. Dana Schnipper, a partner at building materials supplier JC Ryan in Farmingdale, New York, sourced wooden doors and frames for an apartment complex in Nassau County from a company in Canada that cost less than the American equivalent.Half the job has already been supplied. But once the tariff goes into effect it will be applied to the remaining $75,000, adding $19,000 to the at-cost total. Once JC Ryan applies its mark up, that means the customer will owe $30,000 more than originally planned, Schnipper said.He also expects the tariffs will give American manufacturers cover to raise prices on steel components.These prices will never come down, Schnipper said. Whatever is going to happen, these things will be sticky and hopefully were good enough as a small business, that we can absorb some of that. We cant certainly absorb all of it, so I dont know. Its going to be an interesting couple of months. Sidestepping the tariffs by using an alternative to imported building materials isnt always an option.Bar Zakheim, owner of Better Place Design & Build, a contracting business in San Diego that specializes in building accessible dwelling units, or ADUs, said Canada remains the best source for lumber.By sticking with imported lumber, Zakheim had to raise his prices about 15% compared with a year ago. He also has 8% fewer jobs lined up compared with last year.Im not about to go out of business, but its looking to be a slow, expensive year for us, he said.Tariffs rollercoasterOn March 6, the Trump administration announced a one-month delay on its 25% tariffs on certain imports from Mexico and Canada, including softwood lumber. Tariffs of 20% on imports from China are already in effect. A 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports 50% on those from Canada kicked in on March 12.Tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods slated to go into effect next month will raise the cost of imported construction materials by more than $3 billion, according to the NAHB. Those price hikes would be in addition to a 14.5% tariff on Canadian lumber previously imposed by the U.S., ratcheting up tariffs on Canadian lumber to 39.5%. On Air Force One, President Donald Trump said he was pushing forward with his plans for tariffs on April 2 despite recent disruption in the stock market and nervousness about the economic impact.April 2 is a liberating day for our country, he said. Were getting back some of the wealth that very, very foolish presidents gave away because they had no clue what they were doing.Building materials costs overall are already up 34% since December 2020, according to the NAHB.Builders depend on raw materials, appliances and many other components produced abroad. About 7.3% of all products used in single-family home and apartment building construction are imported. Of those, nearly a quarter come from Canada and Mexico, according to the NAHB. Both nations also account for 70% of the imports of two key home construction materials: lumber and gypsum. Canadian lumber is used in everything from framing to cabinetry and furniture. Mexican gypsum is used to make drywall.Beyond raw materials, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and an array of other home components are manufactured in Mexico and China, which is also a key source of steel and aluminum.The tariffs will mean higher prices for home improvement shoppers, said Dent Johnson, president of True Value Hardware, which operates more than 4,000 independently owned hardware stores.The reality is that many products on the shelves of your local hardware store will eventually be affected, he said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. Chilling effectConfusion over the timing and scope of the tariffs, and their impact on the economy, could have a bigger chilling effect on the new-home market than higher prices.If consumers cant plan, if builders cant plan, it gets very difficult to know how to price product because you dont know what price you need to move it, said Carl Reichardt, a homebuilding analyst at BTIG. If people are worried about their jobs, worried about the future, its very difficult to make the decision to buy a new home, whatever the price.The uncertainty created by the Trump administrations tariffs policy will probably result in increased volatility for home sales and new home construction this year, said Robert Dietz, the NAHBs chief economist.Still, because it can take several months for a home to be built, the larger impact of from building materials costs are going to happen down the road, Dietz said.The impact tariffs are having on consumers is already evident at Slutsky Lumber in Ellenville, N.Y. There are not as many people getting ready for spring like they usually are, said co-owner Jonathan Falcon. It seems like people are just cutting back on spending.Falcon also worries that smaller businesses like his will have a tough time absorbing the impact of the tariffs.This is just like another thing thats going to be harder for small lumber yards to handle than the big guys and just sort of keep driving businesses like us to not make it, he said.-__Reporter Anne DInnocenzio contributed. MAE ANDERSON Anderson reports for The Associated Press on a wide range of issues that small businesses face. She is based in New York. twitter mailto

Southern California guard JuJu Watkins (12) looks to drive on UCLA forward Angela Dugalic (32) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the championship of the Big Ten Conference tournament in Indianapolis, Sunday, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)2025-03-17T10:10:06Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness. Get the AP Top 25 womens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. There was concern that attendance and overall interest in womens college basketball would drop this year with the departure of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and other stars for the WNBA. Both took a dip -- but only a dip.With JuJu Watkins and Paige Bueckers and a host of other standout players leading the way, attendance across the country was just short of last seasons record numbers in womens hoops and still the second-highest ever. More networks showed more games on TV this season and ratings were strong heading into March Madness that starts this week. ESPN will have the lions share of tournament games again, but Fox increased its footprint in the sport with five games in primetime on Saturday nights and 18 total on the network. There are great stars, great brands, weve done more than we have done before and were not alone in doing that, Fox Sports President of Insights and Analytics Mike Mulvihill said. The 3-5-10 year trend clearly is an upward trend. While the networks overall ratings are down from last seasons record mark that was due in large part to Clark being on Fox a lot, Mulvihill is happy with where they are. To go from zero exposures a few years ago to 18 on our biggest platform speaks to the growth and interest in the sport, he said. Theres growing confidence in this building that we can put it on broadcast and justify it. I love that we are able to put games on in primetime. It means something to the coaches and players. Having great matchups helps. The game between Watkins USC and Bueckers UConn on Dec. 21 was shown in primetime after an NFL game and averaged 2.2 million viewers, peaking at nearly 3.8 million. That was the second-most watched womens game on the network behind only Clarks game last year when she set the NCAA scoring record.The network also helped spearhead two new tournaments this year with the Champions Classic and the Coretta Scott King Invitational. Both were renewed for next season. CBS showed the third matchup of the season between UCLA and USC, two of the top teams in the country, in the Big Ten title game and it drew 1.44 million viewers, trailing only last seasons league championship which saw Clark and Iowa win.ESPN had big numbers with regular-season ratings up 3% from last year and 41% from two seasons ago. This was the most watched year for the network before the NCAAs since 2008-09 (the network didnt have many of Clarks regular-season games at Iowa last season).A doubleheader on Feb. 16 was huge for ESPN: UConn vs. South Carolina drew 1.8 million viewers while LSU vs. Texas had 1.7 million. In all, 15 games on ESPN networks averaged over 500,000 viewers, the most in a single year. ESPN, which owns the rights to the NCAA Tournament and shows womens games every week during the season, has faith that March Madness will deliver. Womens basketball programming director Dan Margulis knows that the network had a perfect storm last season to achieve the record ratings that saw the womens championship game outdraw the men. Clark, a generational player, had guided Iowa back to the championship game where they were facing an undefeated South Carolina team looking for its own place in history. Were looking at early rounds and everything growing going into it, Margulis said. Compared to two years ago, we see that growth.It wasnt just the championship game that drew huge numbers. A rematch between Reese and Clark in the Elite Eight game was massive as well.Certainly the floor has risen dramatically, said lead ESPN announcer Rebecca Lobo. The expectation for this years tournament, Final Four or national championship shouldnt be what we saw a year ago. Will it be better than pre-Caitlin? That floor should be much higher than it was.While there isnt an undefeated team this year or a generational player like Clark on her last run, there is more parity in the sport. People arent just watching on TV, but also showing up at games. The power conferences had strong attendance marks. The SEC led the way, setting numerous conference records, including total for its tournament and the mark in both the semis and the finals. The Big Ten had its second-highest average attendance in the last 15 years.Granted we get to see some of the best ones, but the energy was different throughout the country, Lobo said. The South Carolina-LSU game on a Thursday night with 2,500 students has a different energy. The increase from students across the country has made for incredible environments.___Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP womens college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani (17) bats against the Hanshin Tigers during the third inning in an MLB Japan Series exhibition baseball game, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)2025-03-17T10:00:07Z TOKYO (AP) Shohei Ohtani is widely regarded as the best player in Major League Baseball, and Ichiro Suzuki enters the Hall of Fame later this year, reminders that some of the top talent in American baseball is now Japanese. Thats a point of pride at home, but also a reason to worry.What happens to baseball in Japan, to the countrys pro league, if the stars all leave for the United States?About a dozen Japanese played in MLB last season, headlined by Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers. They came up through Nippon Professional Baseball and waited for free agency under the Japanese system, or were allowed to go earlier by their clubs.But times are changing.Two young stars 19-year-old Rintaro Sasaki and 18-year-old Shotaro Morii have moved directly to American baseball, bypassing NPB restrictions and unwritten societal norms of playing first in Japan. Sasaki is a freshman at Stanford, while Morii has a minor league contract with the Athletics. Yamamoto signed a $325 million, 12-year deal last offseason and was asked a few weeks ago at spring training in Arizona if the loss of great players could hurt Japanese baseball.Thats a good question, a difficult question, Yamamoto said through an interpreter. There are lots of different opinions about it. The outflow from JapanA slugging first baseman, Rintaro Sasaki skipped the NPB draft last year and signed to play college baseball at Stanford. He attended Hanamaki Higashi High School, the same high school as Ohtani and where Sasakis father, Hiroshi, is the baseball coach. Sasaki will be eligible for the MLB draft in 2026.I dont know how I will influence Japanese high school baseball players, but Im just going on my path, my way, he said speaking in English to The Associated Press.His father has acknowledged pointing his son toward MLB rather than being the likely No. 1 draft choice in Japanese baseball. Sasaki can now earn money through name, image and likeness deals, just as other college athletes. Sasaki has such deals, all in Japan. College athletes in the United States are also in line for millions more in revenue-sharing money.Morii signed a $1.5 million minor-league deal in January with the As, a potential two-way player a shortstop and pitcher.I didnt want to regret about my decision when I think about my whole life and whole career, Morii said through an interpreter after signing. A third player Japans top pitcher Roki Sasaki just left the Chiba Lotte Marines after four seasons to join the Dodgers. In general, Japanese players stay nine seasons before being granted free agency, though clubs can let them go earlier.The 23-year-old Sasaki agreed in January to a minor league contract with a $6.5 million signing bonus. Under the rules, had he waited two more years, he might have landed a nine-figure contract and the club would have picked up a hefty fee.Its not clear why his Japanese club let him go early, seeming to take a financial hit. Some reports in Japan suggest he had an undisclosed contract that forced the clubs hand. Nippon Professional Baseball says local interest remains highIn a written statement to The Associated Press, NPB expressed confidence that baseball in Japan will remain popular despite the outflow of talent. It said its long history and traditions bolstered local support and cited improved game production and fan service as another factor in boosting attendance.We believe that this has maintained the appeal of the league as a whole even after star players have moved to MLB, NPB said. It added that the success of young players has attracted attention, which has led to the popularity of NPB without any loss of interest from fans.The AP asked NPB what it might do to keep talented players like Sasaki and Morii inside the Japanese system. Some have suggested a change to Japans free agency rules might help.NPB is currently working with the 12 teams to further improve the development system and training environment, which are highly regarded overseas, it said. In addition, the Japanese national team won the 2023 WBC, which has also increased interest in Japanese baseball among younger generations. MLB wants top Japanese talent developing at homeChris Marinak, MLBs chief operations officer, told The Associated Press in an interview that MLB prefers that local players develop at home; essentially not to do what Sasaki and Morii have done in circumventing the local system.Our general philosophy is to have locally born players play in their local professional leagues, Marinak said. Anything we can do to encourage that would be consistent with our approach.He described Japanese baseball as being in a renaissance era and said scouts have described the level as the best theyve ever seen.Having Ohtani also has many benefits on the field and in marketing.It helps to have a generational talent like Ohtani essentially the best player in the game to be from a different market, Marinak said. It changes how you can communicate about the game in different markets. Marinak, who works on the business side rather than the legal side, said he was not aware of any direct conversations with NPB about changing the current system to allow earlier free agency in Japanese baseball or to alter the posting system.Marinak said MLB has an active dialogue with NPB and other leagues to share technology, best-business practices, rule changes and so forth. He argued that strong play by the Japanese in MLB has not hurt local baseball, but instead was driving interest.The more players that different countries are developing and ultimately coming to Major League Baseball or wherever thats good for that local league and thats good for Major League Baseball, he said.Where is this going? Brazilian soccer might offer a hintFive Japanese are on the rosters of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs when the teams open the MLB season on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Tokyo Dome. Japanese pro baseball has the potential of becoming Brazilian domestic football, where the best players go play in Europe and the kids play at home until theyre good enough to play in Europe, said Jim Allen, who covered Japanese baseball for 12 years for the Japanese news agency Kyodo, and 12 more for the Daily Yomiuri newspaper.Allen is the rare foreigner allowed to vote for the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.The talent flow could go from being a garden hose to a fire hydrant if they dont do something to prevent it, Allen said.___AP Baseball Writers David Brandt, Ronald Blum and Janie McCauley contributed to this report.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb 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

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, a prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)2025-03-17T15:02:12Z Plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed to halt deportations under a rarely-used 18th century wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump asked a federal judge Monday to force officials to explain under oath whether they violated his court order by removing more than 200 people from the country after it was issued and celebrating it on social media.The motion marks another escalation in the battle over Trumps aggressive opening moves in his second term, several of which have been temporarily halted by judges. Trumps allies have raged over the holds and suggested he does not have to obey them, and some plaintiffs have said it appears the administration is flouting court orders.On Saturday night, District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody over the newly-invoked Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally-declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the 1798 law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua. Trumps invocation of the act could allow him to deport any noncitizen he says is associated with the gang, without offering proof or even publicly identifying them. The plaintiffs filed their suit on behalf of several Venezuelans in U.S. custody who feared theyd be falsely accused of being Tren de Aragua members and improperly removed from the country. Told there were plans in the air headed to El Salvador, which has agreed to house deported migrants in a notorious prison, Boasberg said he, and the government, needed to move fast. You shall inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States, Boasberg told the governments lawyer Saturday night. According to the filing, two planes that took off from Texas detention facility when the hearing started more than an hour earlier were in the air at that point, and they apparently continued to El Salvador. A third plane apparently took off after the hearing and Boasbergs written order was formally published at 7:26 pm eastern time. El Salvadors President, Nayib Bukele, on Sunday morning tweeted Oopsie...too late above an article referencing Boasbergs order and announced that more than 200 deportees had arrived in his country. The White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reposted Bukeles post with an admiring GIF.Later Sunday, a widely-circulated article in Axios said the administration decided to defy the order and quoted anonymous officials who said they concluded it didnt extend to planes outside U.S. airspace. That drew a quick denial from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said in a statement the administration did not refuse to comply with a court order. Leavitt also stated the administration believed the order was not lawful and it was being appealed. The administration argues a federal judge does not have the authority to tell the president whether he can determine the country is being invaded under the act, or how to defend it. The Department of Justice also filed a statement in the lawsuit saying that some people who were not in United States territory at the time of the order had been deported and that, if its appeal was unsuccessful, it wouldnt use Trumps proclamation as grounds for further deportations.Boasberg scheduled a 4 p.m. hearing on Monday and said the government should be prepared to answer a series of questions about the flights laid out in the plaintiffs motion.Boasbergs order is only in effect for up to 14 days as he oversees the litigation over Trumps unprecedented use of the act, which is likely to raise new constitutional issues that can only ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. He had scheduled a hearing Friday for further arguments, but the two organizations that filed the initial lawsuit, the ACLU and Democracy Forward, urged him to force the administration to explain in a declaration under oath what happened. The governments statements, the plaintiffs wrote, strongly suggests that the government has chosen to treat this Courts Order as applying only to individuals still on U.S. soil or on flights that had yet to clear U.S. airspace as of 7:26pm (the time of the written Order). If that is how the government proceeded, it was a blatant violation of the Courts Order, they added.

Pedestrians make their way past a building housing the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Jan. 30, 2019, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)2025-03-17T14:03:20Z BOSTON (AP) A doctor from Lebanon who arrived at the Boston airport was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a U.S. visa and a job teaching at Brown University. A judge had ordered she not be sent back until there was a hearing, but government lawyers said customs officials did not get word in time.Its the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa in the past week, after a student at Columbia who led protests of the Gaza war was arrested, and another students visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, had been granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court. Alawieh, who had worked and lived Rhoe Island previously, was detained at least 36 hours, through Friday, and was going to be sent back to Lebanon, the complaint said. Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist, was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order on Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court. Whether or not she is in custody of the United States, the court anticipates proceeding with this hearing, he wrote. But by Saturday, the cousin filed a motion that customs officials willfully disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon. Lawyers for the government explained in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston Logan International Airport did not receive notice of the order until she had already departed the United States, the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed. The judge put a hearing on her case on hold, to give Sorokins lawyers time to prepare. Alawieh has worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the United States. A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown. Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown Universitys medical school. My colleagues and I are outraged over Dr Alawiehs deportation. She is a valued colleague and we hope for justice and her return to Rhode Island, said George Bayliss, an associate professor of medicine at Brown University. U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo of Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that is committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve.A rally was planned to support her Monday night at the Rhode Island statehouse. This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the doctors last name throughout. Her name is Rasha Alawieh, not Rasha Alawiech. MICHAEL CASEY Casey writes about the environment, housing and inequality for The Associated Press. He lives in Boston. twitter mailto

Consider, for a moment, that this AI-generated video of a bizarre creature turning into a spider, turning into a nightmare giraffe inside of a busy mall has been viewed 362 million times. That means this short reel has been viewed more times than every single article 404 Media has ever published, combined and multiplied tens of times. 0:00 /0:11 1 This is what my Instagram Reels algorithm looks like now: 0:00 /0:36 1 Any of these Reels could have been and probably was made in a matter of seconds or minutes. Many of the accounts that post them post multiple times per day. There are thousands of these types of accounts posting thousands of these types of Reels and images across every social media platform. Large parts of the SEO industry have pivoted entirely to AI-generated content, as has some of the internet advertising industry. They are using generative AI to brute force the internet, and it is working.One of the first types of cyberattacks anyone learns about is the brute force attack. This is a type of hack that relies on rapid trial-and-error to guess a password. If a hacker is trying to guess a four-number PIN, they (or more likely an automated hacking tool) will guess 0000, then 0001, then 0002, and so on until the combination is guessed correctly.Do you know anything else about AI slop or social media algorithms that enable it? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at jason.404. Otherwise, send me an email at jason@404media.co.As you may be able to tell from the name, brute force attacks are not very efficient, but they are effective. An attacker relentlessly hammers the target until a vulnerability is found or a password is guessed. The hacker is then free to exploit that target once the vulnerability is found.The best way to think of the slop and spam that generative AI enables is as a brute force attack on the algorithms that control the internet and which govern how a large segment of the public interprets the nature of reality. It is not just that people making AI slop are spamming the internet, its that the intended audience of AI slop is social media and search algorithms, not human beings.What this means, and what I have already seen on my own timelines, is that human-created content is getting almost entirely drowned out by AI-generated content because of the sheer amount of it. On top of the quantity of AI slop, because AI-generated content can be easily tailored to whatever is performing on a platform at any given moment, there is a near total collapse of the information ecosystem and thus of "reality" online. I no longer see almost anything real on my Instagram Reels anymore, and, as I have often reported, many users seem to have completely lost the ability to tell what is real and what is fake, or simply do not care anymore. 0:00 /0:47 1 There is a dual problem with this: It not only floods the internet with shit, crowding out human-created content that real people spend time making, but the very nature of AI slop means it evolves faster than human-created content can, so any time an algorithm is tweaked, the AI spammers can find the weakness in that algorithm and exploit it.Human creators making traditional YouTube videos, Instagram Reels, or TikToks are often making videos that are designed to appeal to a given platforms algorithm, but humans are not nearly as good at this as AI. In Mr. Beasts leaked handbook for employees, he reveals an obsession with the metrics that the YouTube algorithm values: I spent basically 5 years of my life locked in a room studying virality on YouTube, he writes. The three metrics you guys need to care about is Click Thru Rate (CTR), Average View Duration (AVD), and Average View Percentage (AVP).Mr. Beast has to care very deeply about these things and needs to have an intuitive understanding of how they work because his videos are very expensive and time consuming to make, and a video that fails to perform is a huge waste of money and effort. Adjusting to what is working on a platform at any given moment is more art than science, and it's a slow process, because human beings have a limited ability to feed the social media content machine. It takes us hours or days to write a single article; a human running an AI can generate dozens of images, photos, or articles in a matter of seconds. This allows a creator using AI to not necessarily have to worry about the quality of their videos, because these metrics (or any metric on any social media platform) can be brute forced. If a video fails it does not matter, because you can make 10 more of them in a matter of seconds.This means that people running AI-generated accounts can have hundreds or thousands of entries into the algorithmic lottery every day, and can hammer the algorithm once they find something that works. Brute force.If you can figure out how to post content at scale, that means you can figure out how to exploit weaknesses at scale, a former Meta employee who worked on content policy told me when I asked them about the AI spamming strategy for an article in August.The McDonald's Theory of YouTube Success"Brute force" is not just what I have noticed while reporting on the spammers who flood Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Google with AI-generated spam. It is the stated strategy of the people getting rich off of AI slop.Every single day, I get marketing emails from a 17-year-old YouTube hustler named Daniel Bitton. His message, uniformly, is that it makes no financial sense to spend time making quality YouTube videos, and that making a large quantity of AI-generated Shorts is far more lucrative: "While others spend 5-6 hours making ONE perfect video...We're cranking out 8-10 shorts in under 30 minutes. How? By combining two simple ingredients: 1) Cutting-edge AI tools that do 90% of the work. 2) My simple 3-step formula that tells the AI exactly how to create viral Shorts. Total time I spend on average creating a potentially viral Short? 2-4 minutes. Max.Another: YouTube doesn't care about your production value. They care about FEEDING their audience. And their audience is hungry for SHORT content Ready to start feeding the algorithm what it's actually hungry for?Where Facebooks AI Slop Comes FromFacebook itself is paying creators in India, Vietnam, and the Philippines for bizarre AI spam that they are learning to make from YouTube influencers and guides sold on Telegram.404 MediaJason KoeblerAnother: The great thing about posting Shorts is AI. See, it practically does 90% of the work for you. All you need to do is give it a few pointers, press a few buttons, let it create videos for you, and let the algorithm do its thing.A screengrab of one of Bitton's emailsIn another email, Bitton likens going viral on YouTube to the repeating patterns serial killers follow: Serial killers have patterns. YT viewers also follow patterns. YT algorithm catches that pattern and pushes the right content. AI knows how to predict this pattern. We're using AI to spot these viral patterns before they happen. And we let it create Shorts that YTs algorithm LOVES. And once AI finds something that goes viral? We can replicate them. Over and over. Like clockwork.In another email, Bitton says YouTube's Shorts algorithm is "broken," and that you can "exploit" it while it's broken "using simple AI-generated clips.""sounds about right bro"Bitton's colleague, Musa Mustafa (who I wrote about a year ago), advertises his own "Media Metas" strategy and community for spamming TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. In recent months, the entirety of his marketing has focused on using AI: "The 2025 creator is just chilling, using AI to generate a week's worth of content in 30 mins," Mustafa wrote in a recent marketing email. "Since AI is literally trained on the BEST contentIt gets you BETTER results. If youre looking to make money online by creating content, Use AI. Simple as that."Both Mustafa and Bitton tell users that it makes no sense trying to become the next Mr. Beast, who they see as a singular figure. All these premium channels with perfect production? They're slowly dying. Why? Because they need a $5,000 camera, studio lighting, professional editing, days to produce... And for what?, Bitton writes. To compete with Mr Beast and barely get 1000 views? Heck even if they get 100k views, it would still not be worth it. Because it doesn't even compare with what creators who pump out consistent Shorts make.I spoke briefly to Mustafa, and asked him if he was using AI tools for "brute-forcing social media algorithms." He said "sounds about right bro. I think that line of thought is correct. I agree with it."Mustafa recommends the "'sad hot dog' method to going viral," likening both social media algorithms and users to hungry people going to 7-Eleven at 2 a.m. looking for anything to eat: "when you're hungry at 2am, even a sad-looking hot dog tastes BETTER than any Michelin meal that only gives you 2 bites. Well, TikTok works pretty much the same way. Your audience isn't expecting (or even wanting) perfectly polished videos.""When's the last time you saw a viral TikTok and thought: 'Wow, the color grading on this is incredible!' Never. Because nobody cares. Which is actually GOOD news for you because it means you can make thousands focusing on quantity, NOT quality."Bitton, meanwhile, posits the "McDonald's Theory of YouTube Success," and the "Gas Station Sushi" approach to content, which suggest that AI slop is good enough, and that human beings doting over quality videos are wasting their time and are destined to fail."I think the brute force metaphor works well because it really is a game of numbers. If you have a Gen AI, you can make content at scale where you change the script slightly and then just play this cat-and-mouse game with people who are detecting the fraud," Alex Hanna, Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute told me. "You're really able to exploit any blind spots in the algorithm, then kind of spam that type of content."The Platforms Are Brute Forcing ThemselvesMy brute force attack metaphor isnt perfect, because with a brute force attack, the ones being attacked try to stop whats happening. In this case, the platforms are both paying spammers to brute force their platforms and increasingly have realized that they themselves can brute force their users with AI-generated ads that they can help companies make and optimize.In that sense, there isn't even a cat-and-mouse game occurring. Platforms and new types of startup companies aren't trying to stop this spam. They benefit from it, enable it, and worst of all, are finding ways to supercharge it. Brute forcing the algorithms with AI is not just a trick that entrepreneurial teenagers have discovered. The social media giants who themselves make the algorithms that are under attack are not only paying AI spammers to slopify their platforms, they are building tools that will help them spam more profitably. This means that, unlike most security vulnerabilities that are urgently fixed, there is no indication that any help is coming.A/B testing is a strategy where two (or more) types of content run concurrently, and the one that performs better in an algorithm is then pushed. Some news outlets do this with headlines and images, where they will use a tool that lets them post something on social media with multiple headline and image combinations, and then the one that performs better becomes the main one that is being pushed. Advertisers do this too, where they might try different versions of an ad, see which one gets more clicks or creates more sales with a certain audience, and then they spend more money pushing the ones that perform best. 0:00 /0:40 1 For years, advertisers were able to make several different versions of a given ad with slightly different calls to action, different images, different captions and different targeting. But Meta recently released a tool called "Advantage+" where, instead of making a few different versions of an ad, an advertiser can use generative AI to make orders of magnitude more versions of ads that are even more microtargeted to different users. A/B testing has become A/B/C/D/E/F/G etc testing, and advertisers can then spend money only on ads that have been perfectly calibrated to perform well.While Meta's own user-facing generative AI tools have been relentlessly mocked, it credits its advertiser-facing AI targeting and generative AI tools as being behind much of its revenue growth over the last few quarters."Advantage+ creative is another area where were seeing momentum. More than 4 million advertisers are now using at least one of our generative AI ad creative tools, up from one million six months ago," Meta CEO Susan Li said in a January earnings call. "There has been significant early adoption of our first video generation tool that we rolled out in October, Image Animation, with hundreds of thousands of advertisers already using it monthly. And so, in the Core Ads business, the Gen AI tools that we have built here that will help us enable businesses to make ads significantly more customized at scale, which is going to accrue to ad performance, thats a place where, again, were already seeing promising results in both performance gains and adoption."In January, The Information reported that Meta is working directly with ad agencies to create additional generative AI tools. And Meta's Advantage+ allows advertisers to "bulk create up to 50 ads at one time," and to use "Generative AI enhancements" that tweak images, backgrounds, image aspect ratios, image animations, text variations, and calls to action: "When you apply Advantage+ creative in Meta Ads Manager and Meta Business Suite, your images and videos are optimized to versions your audience is more likely to interact with," Meta tells advertisers.I have also been served ads from startups who say they will help companies generate hundreds of variations of ads from Google Drive dumps of a brand's assets and to put money behind the ones that perform best. A company called Blaze AI tells companies that it helps them "steal their competitors' content" with an "AI tool that helps you replicate your competitors' top-performing posts and tailoring it directly to your brand" as an Instagram Reel, TikTok, blog post, LinkedIn post, etc. "The AI does the work for you," they say. "The AI learns your brand voice so that every piece of media feels authentic ... it's infinite." A company called Go Mega AI advertises that it can help you generate "hundreds of articles a month without doing anything" by analyzing Reddit posts, YouTube videos, and a brand's own website. "24 hours later, I had a month of content already scheduled," the ad says.Content for Algorithms, Not HumansEven though many of the AI images and reels I see have millions of views, likes, and comments, it is not clear to me that people actually want this, and many of the comments Ive seen are from people who are disgusted or annoyed. The strategy with these types of posts is to make a human linger on them long enough to say to themselves what the fuck, or to be so horrified as to comment what the fuck, or send it to a friend saying what the fuck, all of which are signals to the algorithm that it should boost this type of content but are decidedly not signals that the average person actually wants to see this type of thing. Its brute forcing a weakness in the Instagram algorithm that takes any engagement at all as positive signals, and the people creating this type of content know this. 0:00 /0:24 1 Decentralized, upstart social media platforms like Bluesky and Mastodon are becoming more popular because of a backlash to algorithmified, monopolistic social media platforms. My friends, many of whom are journalists or who work in adjacent industries, are increasingly spending more time in group texts talking to real humans, or supporting independent, newsletter-centric media outlets like ours. RSS is coming back, to some degree. But the problem here is one of scale. From our perspective, 404 Media has been a huge success, our articles are widely shared, and our business is sustainable. But it is nearly impossible for me to fathom the scale of platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook, and the hold that these platforms have on billions of people, which is how it becomes the case that an AI video of a spider demon transformation in a mall reaches orders of magnitude more people in a week than I have with all of the reporting Ive ever done in my entire life.Whenever I write articles about AI slop, people ask me where this is going, and what the end goal of this is for, let's say, a company like Meta. First, I think we as a society need to realize that a huge portion of what is being done with generative AI tools is for the type of thing I have described in this article, or for nonconsensual, AI-generated intimate imagery. It is possible that generative AI will bring some of the work efficiencies and breakthroughs that venture capitalists and big tech have been hyping for years, but we must grapple with the fact that the main ways that people encounter generative AI is as brute force internet pollution.For Meta, I do not think its plan is too hard to figure out, because Mark Zuckerberg has been clear about his intentions: He believes that the future of "social media" is a bunch of human beings scrolling through and arguing about AI-generated content on his many platforms. In many ways, that future is already here. But here is what I think comes next:Meta is an ads business that makes the most money when it can keep people on its platform and engaged for as long as possible. Advertisers spend more money when their ads are more effective, and their ads are more effective when they are very narrowly targeted to a person's interests. The best way to do this is to learn as much about its users, and to then deliver both content and advertisements that precisely target any individual user.There are billions of people on Meta's platforms making billions of pieces of content, but even that is not enough. The goal is to move toward a world where a never-ending feed of hyper niche content can be delivered directly to the people who are into that type of content.We are already seeing this in the AI influencer and AI porn space on Instagram, which, per usual, is far ahead of the curve of other industries. I have stumbled on accounts where old, AI-generated men worship hot, young, AI-generated women's feet; accounts where AI-generated octopuses make out with AI-generated women and a separate account where AI-generated fish make out with AI-generated women; AI orcs get married to AI-generated waifus, etc. Any fetish or interest that any person could possibly have, AI can generate endlessly, and a social media algorithm can deliver directly to you. As Sam wrote when we launched 404 Media, AI porn is pushing to the edge of knowledge, and the rest of the AI content industry is following suit.Better still, AI-generated content that is generated directly on Meta's own platforms will have content tags, metadata, and prompting data that will more easily allow the algorithm to deliver cute AI-generated golden retrievers to golden retriever owners alongside pet food ads that have golden retrievers in them for the golden retriever owners and rat terriers in them for rat terrier owners. It will deliver AI-generated doomsday, conspiracy, and natural disaster content to people who linger on AI-generated videos of wildfires and hurricanes, interspersed with AI-generated ads for preppers. Brave teens will get AI-generated creepypasta and jumpscare content. Religious people will get AI Jesus, the devil, and the Pope. Trump fans will get Elon Musk inspiration porn interspersed with AI-generated ads for Trump coins.The combinations and possibilities are endless, and this type of thing is already happening. Social media algorithms are being brute forced with AI content and soon our very reality will be, too.

Ronen Bar, chief of Israel's domestic Shin Bet security agency, attends a ceremony marking Memorial Day for fallen soldiers of Israel's wars and victims of attacks at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl military cemetery, May 13, 2024. (Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool photo via AP, File)2025-03-17T15:49:05Z TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus has fired or forced out a string of top officials since the deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that triggered the war in Gaza. The countrys domestic security chief is the newest target.Netanyahu says he is motivated by a crisis of confidence and a need to get rid of officials who failed to prevent the Oct. 7, 2023, disaster.But Netanyahus many critics say the dismissals are part of a broader campaign aimed at undermining independent government institutions. They say he is doing that to boost his reputation and maintain power while on trial for alleged corruption and facing public pressure to accept his own responsibility for policy failures in the lead-up to Oct. 7. The announcement by Netanyahu on Sunday that he would seek to fire the director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, came as the security service investigates ties between Netanyahu advisers and the Gulf state of Qatar. Months of tensions preceded Bars firingTensions between Netanyahu and Bar had been building for months.Bar, who was appointed to lead the Shin Bet in 2021 by a previous prime minister, accepted responsibility for his agencys failure to halt the Oct. 7 attack ahead of time. He already has said he planned to step down before the end of his term in late 2026.But the Shin Bet investigation into its Oct. 7 failures also pointed blame at Netanyahu for formulating a policy that focused on containing Hamas, while ignoring a growing threat. Bar had been a key player in negotiations to free Israeli hostages held by Hamas. But he and Netanyahu differed on how to proceed. That led Netanyahu to replace him with Cabinet minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant. Critics of Netanyahu said the move highlighted a growing tendency by Netanyahu to surround himself with loyalists.A pair of Shin Bet investigations recently launched against advisers of Netanyahu appeared to be a tipping point. One is examining a Netanyahu spokesperson who allegedly leaked to a German news outlet classified documents that appeared to give the prime minister political cover in ceasefire negotiations. The other is looking into claims that Qatar reportedly hired close Netanyahu aides to launch a public relations campaign in Israel.Qatar, a key mediator between Israel and Hamas, was also the source of millions of dollars in cash sent to Gaza, with Netanyahus approval. The money, ostensibly meant for poor families, is seen as having helped Hamas bolster its military capabilities ahead of Oct. 7.The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a good governance group, said Bars dismissal while the probes are ongoing raises concerns that the move was made out of political considerations. The blame game over Oct. 7 has begunIf Bars dismissal is approved by the government, he will become the first Shin Bet chief in Israeli history to be fired. But he will also be just the latest in a series of defense officials to exit under pressure from Netanyahu during the war.In November, Netanyahu fired his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, saying he had lost trust in him. Gallant had repeatedly prodded Netanyahu to set out a postwar plan for Gaza.Gallant, a former top general, was replaced by Israel Katz, a longtime Netanyahu backer with little military experience who then pressured the military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, to step down earlier this month. Halevis replacement then sacked the militarys spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a popular figure with the public who was rebuked by Israeli leaders for commenting on the leaked documents case.With many top defense officials linked to the Oct. 7 failures out of office, the blame game over the deadliest attack in Israels history begins in earnest.Netanyahu has repeatedly tried to pin responsibility on his security chiefs, saying he was never warned about Hamas intentions and was guided by their advice that Hamas was deterred.Netanyahu has resisted growing calls for a state commission of inquiry that would examine the government policies that led to Hamas attacks. Such a commission could directly implicate Netanyahu.Commentator Nadav Eyal wrote in the Yediot Ahronot daily that Netanyahu is firing the witnesses to his failures leading up to Oct. 7 and, by so doing, is creating for himself a perfect alibi. Anything they say from now on will be because they were fired. Netanyahu has been challenging state institutions for yearsBars dismissal comes against the backdrop of a yearslong fight by Netanyahu against Israels state institutions, which he believes are out to get him.Since he was indicted for corruption charges in 2019, Netanyahu has lashed out against the police, the judiciary and the media, denying any wrongdoing and accusing them of conspiring in a politically motivated witch hunt.He took that battle a step further in early 2023. Thats when Netanyahu launched a sweeping overhaul of Israels justice system that he said was meant to weaken the courts and restore power to elected officials. The overhaul sparked mass protests, strikes and threats by military reservists not to serve a country whose democratic fundamentals were being eroded. Israeli media have reported that many top security officials, including Bar, warned that the internal strife sent a message of weakness to Israels enemies. Many critics believe it was a factor in the timing of the Hamas attack.Another Netanyahu target is Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, who has objected to Netanyahus effort to fire Bar. The dispute is likely to end up in the Supreme Court. With the stage set for a showdown between the judiciary and Netanyahu, his allies have already begun planning for Baharav-Miaras removal.Netanyahu is surrounding himself with loyalistsThe next election is scheduled for late 2026, but Netanyahus coalition, propped up by ultranationalist and ultra-religious parties, could collapse prematurely. They face a raft of hurdles -- including over the future of the war in Gaza, the court-mandated draft of ultra-Orthodox men and the state budget.With his political fortunes stagnating and many Israelis saying he should resign, the longtime Israeli leader similar to his ally President Donald Trump is looking to place loyalists in key positions.That might make implementing his wishes easier, but it will likely deepen opposition to him and complicate his legacy.Bar, in his response to being dismissed, said his loyalty was to the people of Israel.The prime ministers expectation of a duty of personal loyalty, he wrote, is a fundamentally wrong expectation. TIA GOLDENBERG Goldenberg is an Associated Press reporter and producer covering Israel and the Palestinian territories. She previously reported on East and West Africa from Nairobi. twitter mailto

In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Station's Harmony module and Boeing's Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP, File)2025-03-17T15:25:56Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were barely known outside space circles when they strapped in for what was supposed to be a quick test flight of Boeings Starliner capsule last June. Nine months later, theyve captured the worlds attention and hearts as NASAs stuck astronauts.Their homecoming is imminent now that a new crew has arrived at the International Space Station to replace them after launching from Florida last week. Theyll fly back with SpaceX as soon as Tuesday, their problem-plagued Starliner having returned to Earth empty months ago, leaving them behind in orbit. Heres a look at Suni and Butch and their drama-filled mission: Who are the stuck astronauts?The two test pilots came to NASA via the Navy. Wilmore, 62, played high school and college football in his home state of Tennessee before joining the Navy. Williams, 59, grew up in Needham, Massachusetts, a competitive swimmer and distance runner. Wilmore racked up 663 aircraft carrier landings, while Williams served in combat helicopter squadrons. NASA picked Williams as an astronaut in 1998 followed by Wilmore in 2000. Each had two spaceflights behind them including monthslong stints at the space station before signing up as Starliners first crew. While they accepted their repeated homecoming delays, they noted it was much harder on their families. Wilmores wife Deanna has held down the fort, according to her husband. Their oldest daughter is in college and their youngest in her last year of high school. Williams husband, Mike, a retired federal marshal, has been caring for their two Labrador retrievers. She said her mother is the worrier. What are the stuck astronauts looking forward to on Earth?Besides reuniting with loved ones, Wilmore, an elder with his Baptist church, cant wait to get back to face-to-face ministering and smelling fresh-cut grass. Wilmore kept in touch with members of his congregation over the months, taking part in occasional prayer services and calling ailing members via the space stations internet phone. Williams looks forward to long walks with her dogs and an ocean swim.Several other astronauts have spent even longer in space so no special precautions should be needed for these two once theyre back, according to NASA.Every astronaut that launches into space, we teach them dont think about when youre coming home. Think about how well your missions going and if youre lucky, you might get to stay longer, NASAs space operations mission chief and former astronaut Ken Bowersox said last week. Why were the stuck astronauts in a political dust-up? Wilmore and Williams found themselves in the middle of a political storm when President Donald Trump and SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced at the end of January they would accelerate the astronauts return and blamed the Biden Administration on keeping them up there too long. NASA officials stood by their decision to wait for the next scheduled SpaceX flight to bring them home, targeting a February return. But their replacements got held up back on Earth because of battery work on their brand new SpaceX capsule. SpaceX switched capsules to speed things up, moving up their return by a couple of weeks. The two will come back in the capsule thats been up there since last fall.Its great to see how much people care about our astronauts, Bowersox said, describing the pair as professional, devoted, committed, really outstanding. Why did the stuck astronauts switch space taxis? Astronauts almost always fly back in the same spacecraft they launched in. Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeings Starliner and will return in SpaceXs Dragon. Their first flights were aboard NASAs space shuttle, followed by Russias Soyuz capsule. Both the Starliner and Dragon are completely autonomous but capable of manual command if necessary. As test pilots, they were in charge of the Starliner. The Dragon had fellow astronaut Nick Hague in command; he launched in it last September with a Russian and two empty seats reserved for Wilmore and Williams. Whats the future of Boeings Starliner? Starliner almost didnt make it to the space station. Soon after the June 5 liftoff, helium leaked and thrusters malfunctioned on the way to the orbiting lab.NASA and Boeing spent the summer trying to figure out what went wrong and whether the problems would repeat on the flight back, endangering its two test pilots. NASA ultimately decided it was too risky and ordered the capsule back empty in September. Engineers are still investigating the thruster breakdowns, and its unclear when Starliner will fly again with astronauts or just cargo. NASA went into its commercial crew program wanting two competing U.S. companies for taxi service for redundancys sake and stand by that choice.___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)2025-03-17T15:59:09Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday explicitly linked the actions of Yemens Houthi rebels to the groups main benefactor, Iran, warning Tehran would suffer the consequences for further attacks by the group. The comments by Trump on his Truth Social website further escalate his administrations new campaign of airstrikes targeting the rebels, which killed at least 53 people this weekend alone and appear poised to continue. Meanwhile, Iran continues to weigh how to respond to a letter Trump sent them last week trying to jump-start negotiations over Tehrans rapidly advancing nuclear program. Describing the Houthis as sinister mobsters and thugs, Trump warned any attack by the group would be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that that force will stop there. Iran has played the innocent victim of rogue terrorists from which theyve lost control, but they havent lost control, Trump alleged in his post. Theyre dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, Intelligence. Its unclear what sparked Trumps post. However, the head of Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard sought to separate the Houthis actions from those of Tehran this weekend. The Houthis also launched drones and missiles targeting the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the Red Sea, though none reached the ship as it continues flight operations in the region. Iran did not immediately comment on the post. Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire! Trump added. JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

Family friend Trey Bridges, 16, climbs a mountain of tornado debris to help the Blansett family recover items not destroyed by Saturday's tornado, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tylertown, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)2025-03-17T15:59:17Z Crammed into their two-door Toyota Celica with three huskies, Hailey Hart and her fiance Steve Romero hugged and prayed as a tornado rolled the car upside down before tossing it on its wheels again. They heard screams for help minutes after the twister ripped apart their home in Tylertown, Mississippi. It was a bad dream come true, Romero said. Next door, Harts grandparents crawled out from the rubble of their house where they had sought shelter in a bathroom on Saturday. They all escaped with just a few scratches and aches.Throughout the South and Midwest, residents and work crews were beginning to clean up Monday and survey the destruction after severe weather across seven states kicked up a devastating combination of wildfires, dust storms and tornadoes, claiming at least 39 lives since Friday. Wildfires in Oklahoma Wind-driven wildfires across Oklahoma destroyed more than 400 homes, including more than 70 in and around Stillwater, home to Oklahoma State University. Four deaths were blamed on the fires or high winds, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said Sunday.Crews trying to control the fires were quickly overwhelmed while going up against the high winds and low humidity fueling the flames on Friday, said Stillwater Fire Chief Terry Essary.Its an insurmountable task, he said. Tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas and MissouriIn Mississippi, six people died and more than 200 were displaced by a string of tornadoes across three counties, said Gov. Tate Reeves. Within about an hour of each other, two big twisters tore through the county thats home to hard-hit Tylertown on Saturday, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.At least three people, including an 82-year-old woman, were killed in central Alabama. In Troy, parks officials said a recreation center where many residents had taken refuge had to be closed due to damage. No one was injured. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the Missouri, authorities said.Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies in rubble Friday night outside what remained of his aunts house in Wayne County, Missouri. In Arkansas, officials confirmed three deaths.Dust storms in Kansas and Texas The high winds spurred dust storms that led to almost a dozen deaths in car crashes Friday. Eight people died in a Kansas highway pileup involving at least 50 vehicles, according to the state highway patrol. Authorities said three people also were killed in car crashes during a dust storm in Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle.___Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas, Sara Cline in Tylertown, Mississippi, Jeff Martin in Atlanta, Rebecca Reynolds in Louisville, Kentucky, and Jeff Roberson in Wayne County, Missouri contributed. JOHN SEEWER Seewer covers state and national news for The Associated Press and is based in Toledo, Ohio. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

In recent days, various high profile commentators have been having a conniption about the fact that the Trump administration and the National Archives have not yet released new records about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy after Trump signed an executive order to create a plan to declassify and release new documents.This hit a fever pitch last week when Tucker Carlson suggested that a very serious force was acting on the administration to prevent the release of the documents. In reality, a source at the National Archives, which is working on uploading new records, tells 404 Media that one of the mysterious forces slowing the release of new records is the tedium and care associated with cataloguing, scanning, and digitizing paper documents from more than 60 years ago without damaging them. And the Archives official line is that scanning the documents is painstaking work that necessarily takes a long time and is ongoing.There's no conspiracy, just a shitton of staples to remove, a National Archives source familiar with the process told 404 Media. The conspiracies are funny, everyone is acting like not getting instant responses for complicated, broad searches is malice. A lot of it is just very unexciting. [Scanning] five practically identical copies of a report for 30 different reports, that kind of thing. 404 Media granted this source anonymity because they werent authorized to speak to the press.Digitizing two-sided paper records takes longer because fronts and backs have to be included with no creases that might hide text, so if a scanner can only do one side at a time, that's doubling the scanning time, they added. It is possible to spend an entire day removing staples and not be done with a single box. Not all of them are that bad, but prep can take a ton of time depending on the records. It's just time consuming and there are various inevitable bottlenecks in getting stuff out.There is still a declassification process, which itself is ongoing, but actually digitizing any new records (and previously declassified ones that are not online yet) is incredibly time consuming.Compare this very reasonable explanation with the way Carlson and others have been talking about the JFK records in recent days, and you will perhaps learn something about our information ecosystem and the ease with which someone like, say, Elon Musk is able to paint the entire government workforce as a bunch of incompetent and/or malicious losers whose expertise can be replaced by a mix of AI and workers he plucked from his companies.Less than two months ago, you have a sitting member of the United States Senate whose main goal is to keep those files secret. And then you have to ask yourself, why?, Carlson said on his podcast on March 10. We have the file numbers of most of the files that have not been disclosed, so it's like Trump issues an executive order on January 23 saying we're gonna release this stuff. They kind of can't not release it. And yet now it's the first week of March and they haven't released it.So pressure is currently being applied on the administration not to release those files, he added. All I'm saying is we can say with certainty that there is a force that is acting on these peoplea very serious force to the point that they are embarrassing themselves because they promised they would release this and they havent.Carlson was referring to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who said Carlson's claim is completely made up and that he does not oppose releasing the JFK files. NewsNation published an article with the subhed Pressure being applied to keep Kennedy files from being released. Jacob Hornberger, who runs the libertarian Future of Freedom Foundation, has sown further doubt with an article in which he posits that the CIA simply will not permit Trump to release those long-secret records and that Trump is too embarrassed to let people know that the national-security establishment (e.g., the CIA), not the president, is ultimately in charge of running the federal government.Actual experts, meanwhile, say that there is a declassification process, a records-keeping process, a digitization and archiving process, and more that needs to happen. The records do not just magically appear online, especially when considering that one of the agencies responsible for doing so has had its leadership fired by the administration. In fact, the Archives has been engaged in a years-long effort to digitize and upload the more than 6 million JFK assassination records that have already been declassified, and that process is not even fully done yet. Meanwhile, the FBI says that it has found thousands of new documents relating to JFK in the last few months.Since Trump signed the executive order, the National Archives created a landing page of previously released records and says that as part of the process it will work to upload new records.The National Archives began a concerted effort to digitize all records in the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection in 2023. Those efforts are ongoing and have been prioritized since the issuance of Executive Order 14176, the page says. The National Archives is ready to receive and process any further declassification decisions made by President Trump or by other agencies of the United States Government. As determinations are made and records are digitized, the National Archives will post the records online, at this webpage, on a rolling basis.The JFK document scanning process highlights, like many things we have seen over the last two months, that one man cannot snap his fingers and magically fix everything, and that it is important to have civil servants with expertise and who care about doing things correctly around to handle important tasks.NARA did not respond to a request for comment.

In this combination of file photos, President Donald Trump, left, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, center, are seen at the Elysee Palace, Dec. 7, 2024 in Paris, and President Vladimir Putin, right, addresses a Technology Forum in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, left and center, Pavel Bednyakov, right)2025-03-17T18:03:35Z A ceasefire in Russias 3-year-old war in Ukraine hinges on Moscow accepting the U.S. proposal of a 30-day pause in fighting as a confidence-building measure for both sides to hammer out a longer-term peace plan.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin will look to delay such a temporary truce with conditions meant to divert the peace process and lengthen the war. Ukraine, which faced pressure to accept the ceasefire after U.S. President Donald Trump blocked military aid and intelligence sharing, expects that he will threaten more sanctions on Moscow to push Putin into accepting the terms.As he disclosed that he will talk to Putin on Tuesday, Trump said that land and power plants are part of the conversation around bringing the war to a close, a process he described as dividing up certain assets. But beyond the temporary ceasefire, both sides seem unwilling to make large concessions to the other, and both have red lines that they insist cannot be crossed.A look at the issues: What are Russias demands?When Putin launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, he demanded that Ukraine renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army, and protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscows orbit.Now, he also demands that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the four regions Moscow illegally annexed in September 2022 but never fully occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.Russian officials also have said that any peace deal should involve releasing Russian assets that were frozen in the West and lifting other U.S. and European Union sanctions. The Trump administration has proposed putting potential sanctions relief on the table.Along with that, Putin has repeatedly emphasized the need to remove the root causes of the crisis a reference to the Kremlins demand to roll back a NATO military buildup near Russian borders that it describes as a major threat to its security. He also argues that Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, lacks legitimacy to sign a peace deal. Kyiv maintains that elections are impossible to hold amid a war. Trump has echoed Putins view, speaking of the need for Ukraine to hold an election.Russian officials also have declared that Moscow wont accept troops from any NATO members as peacekeepers to monitor a prospective truce.What are Ukraines demands?Facing setbacks along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front, Ukraine has backed away from demanding that its state borders be returned to pre-2014 lines, because it does not have the military force capable of reaching that end. Ukraine is asking for a peace deal cemented with security guarantees from international allies that will ensure that Russia is never able to invade again.In lieu of NATO membership a long-sought desire by Kyiv that appears to be nearly impossible without U.S. backing what those guarantees might look like is taking shape in parallel talks led by France and Britain. A coalition of the willing envisions European boots on the ground and a strong military response if Russia were to launch a new offensive. Zelenskyy has insisted the Ukrainian army be strengthened to withstand future Russian offensives, a costly endeavor that will require quick and consistent support from international allies. A stockpile of weapons, capable of doing serious damage to Russian assets, is another demand. Kyiv also wants to bolster its domestic arms industry to lessen its reliance on allies, a reality that has set Ukrainian forces back throughout the war.Ukraine has key demands from Russia as well. Kyiv refuses to cede more territory to Moscow, including those in partially occupied regions. Also, Ukraine is seeking the return of children illegally deported to Russia and thousands of civilians detained in Russian prisons. Concessions and red linesBoth sides have red lines that are mutually exclusive making negotiations extremely challenging. The U.S. has said both sides must make concessions. The fate of one-fifth of Ukrainian land now under Russian control is likely to take center focus.For Moscow, the presence of NATO member states, as either peacekeepers or a reassurance force outside of the alliance framework, is a red line. But Moscow hasnt mentioned any specific concessions.For Ukraine, which is in a weaker position, the question of territory held by Russia that it does not have the military means to retake is central. For Kyiv, it is both a red line and a potential concession.Zelenskyy has said his country will never recognize the territory as Russian. But Ukrainian officials concede that, while officially this always will be Kyivs position, the occupied territories are likely to remain under Russian control for some time.Partners know our red lines that we do not recognize the occupied territories as the territories of the Russian Federation, and we do not recognize them, Zelenskyy told journalists recently. This is my political will as president. And this is the political will of our people. This is a violation of international law and the Constitution of Ukraine. Ukraine also rejects restrictions on the size and capabilities of its armed forces as well as limits on its ability to join international alliances such as NATO and the European Union.-Kullab reported from Kyiv.___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine SAMYA KULLAB Kullab is an Associated Press reporter covering Ukraine since June 2023. Before that, she covered Iraq and the wider Middle East from her base in Baghdad since joining the AP in 2019. twitter instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Spirits with and without the star mark in Bilka in Randers, Denmark, making it easier for customers to buy European goods, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)2025-03-17T16:47:12Z Ivan Hansen, a retired Danish police officer, loaded up his basket at the supermarket, carefully checking each product to avoid buying anything made in the United States. No more Coca-Cola, no more California Zinfandel wine or almonds.The 67-year-old said its the only way he knows to protest U.S. President Donald Trumps policies. Hes furious about Trumps threat to seize the Danish territory of Greenland, but its not just that. There are also the threats to take control of the Panama Canal and Gaza. And Trumps relationship with Elon Musk, who has far-right ties and made what many interpreted as a straight-armed Nazi salute. On his recent shopping trip, Hansen returned home with dates from Iran. It shocked him to realize that he now perceives the United States as a greater threat than Iran.Trump really looks like a bully who tries in every way to intimidate, threaten others to get his way, he told The Associated Press. I will fight against that kind of thing. A sign in Bilka supermarket in Randers, Denmark, reads: ''Now its star-clear whether the label is European. The choice is yours, but weve made it easier for you to shop European: Look for the star on the price tag to see if the label is owned by a company in Europe. And dont worry, we still have plenty of labels from the rest of the world.', Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) A sign in Bilka supermarket in Randers, Denmark, reads: ''Now its star-clear whether the label is European. The choice is yours, but weve made it easier for you to shop European: Look for the star on the price tag to see if the label is owned by a company in Europe. And dont worry, we still have plenty of labels from the rest of the world.', Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A growing boycott movement across EuropeHansen is just one supporter of a growing movement across Europe and Canada to boycott U.S. products. People are joining Facebook groups where they exchange ideas about how to avoid U.S. products and find alternatives. Feelings are especially strong across the Nordic region and very possibly strongest in Denmark given Trumps threats to seize Greenland. Google trends showed a spike in searches for the term Boycott USA, and Boycott America, as Trump announced new tariffs, with the top regions including Denmark, Canada and France. At the same time, a global backslash is also building against Tesla as the brand becomes tied to Trump, with plunging sales in Europe and Canada. In Germany, police were investigating after four Teslas were set on fire Friday. A burnt-out Tesla car stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as four Teslas are suspected to have been set on fire in Berlin last night. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP) A burnt-out Tesla car stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as four Teslas are suspected to have been set on fire in Berlin last night. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A burnt-out Tesla car stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as four Teslas are suspected to have been set on fire in Berlin last night. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP) A burnt-out Tesla car stands in the Steglitz district of Berlin, Friday, March 14, 2025, as four Teslas are suspected to have been set on fire in Berlin last night. (Christophe Gateau/dpa via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Elsebeth Pedersen, who lives in Faaborg on the Danish island of Funen, just bought a car and made a point of not even looking at U.S.-made options. Before Elon Musk started to act like a maniac a Tesla could have been an option. And maybe a Ford, she said. French entrepreneur Romain Roy said his solar panel firm has bought a new Tesla fleet each year since 2021 but canceled its order for another 15 to take a stand against Musks and Trumps policies. Describing the United States as a country closing in on itself, he cited Trumps withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and Musks arm gestures. He said he was instead buying European models, even though it would cost an additional 150,000 euros ($164,000).Individual consumers, society, our countries, Europe must react, he told broadcaster Sud Radio.Responding to consumer demand, Denmarks largest supermarket chain, the Salling Group, created a star-shaped label this month to mark European-made goods sold in its stores. CEO Anders Hagh said its not a boycott, but a response to consumers demanding a way to easily avoid American products.Our stores will continue to have brands on the shelves from all over the world, and it will always be up to customers to choose. The new label is only an additional service for customers who want to buy goods with European labels, he said in a LinkedIn post. BBQ products with and without the star mark in Bilka in Randers, Denmark, making it easier for customers to buy European goods, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) BBQ products with and without the star mark in Bilka in Randers, Denmark, making it easier for customers to buy European goods, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More I have never seen Danes so upsetFor Bo Albertus, when Trump went on television and said he would by political force or military force take a piece of the Danish kingdom, it was just too much for me. The 57-year-old said he felt powerless and had to do something. He has given up Pepsi, Colgate toothpaste, Heinz ketchup and California wine, and replaced them with European products.He is now an administrator of the Danish Facebook page Boykot varer fra USA (Boycott goods from the U.S.), which has swelled to over 80,000 members.Drink more champagne, one user posted after Trump threatened 200% tariffs on EU wine and Champagne. Albertus, a school principal, told the AP he really misses the strong taste of Colgate. But hes been pleasantly surprised at finding a cola replacement that is half the price of Pepsi. Trumps policies have brought the Danish Viking blood boiling, said Jens Olsen, an electrician and carpenter. He is now considering replacing $10,000 worth of U.S.-made DeWalt power tools even though it will cost him a lot. He has already found European replacements for an American popcorn brand and California-made Lagunitas IPA beer, which he calls the best in the world. Ive visited the brewery several times, but now I dont buy it anymore, he said. He has mixed feelings because he is a dual Danish-U.S. citizen, and has spent a lot of time in the United States. But he cant contain his anger.Im 66 years old and I have never seen the Danes so upset before, he said. Michael Ramgil Sthr has canceled a fall trip to the U.S. and is among many choosing to buy Danish instead of American-made, though he cannot pinpoint the exact moment he made the decision.Maybe it was when (Trump) announced to the world press that he intended to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, and if necessary by military force. That and the gangster-like behavior towards the Ukrainian president in the White House, the 53-year-old Copenhagen resident said.The man is deadly dangerous and is already costing lives in the developing world and Ukraine, added Sthr, who works helping disabled war veterans, many of whom got injured serving alongside U.S. troops in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan. He himself served in Bosnia. Rising anger in France, tooEdouard Roussez, a farmer from northern France, launched an online group, Boycott USA, Buy French and European! that in just two weeks has attracted over 20,000 members on Facebook.Roussez believes a boycott of U.S. companies is a good way to express opposition to Trumps policies, especially the commercial and ideological war he believes Trump is waging against Europe. First of all, these are the companies that financed Donald Trumps campaign, he said on state-owned LCP television channel. Im thinking of Airbnb, Im thinking of Uber, Im thinking of Tesla of course. The irony of it all? The group is on Facebook. Roussez said only the American online social media platform gave him the reach he needed. But hes working to migrate the group to other platforms with no U.S. funding or capital. A star-labeled price tag for snacks in Bilka in Randers, Denmark, making it easier for customers to buy European goods, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) A star-labeled price tag for snacks in Bilka in Randers, Denmark, making it easier for customers to buy European goods, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Bo Amstrup/Ritzau Scanpix via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More As for any impact on U.S. export profits or policymaking, thats unlikely, said Olof Johansson Stenman, a professor of economics at the University of Gothenburg.The boycott could have a psychological effect on Americans who see the scale of anger, but some may also say, We dont like these Europeans anyway, Stenman said.Some choices are harder than othersSimon Madsen, 54, who lives in the Danish city of Horsens with his wife and 13-year-old twins, says the family has given up Pringles, Oreos and Pepsi Max. Not so hard, really. But now theyre discussing doing without Netflix, and that is a step too far for the kids.He also wonders whether he should keep buying Danish-made Anthon Berg chocolate marzipan bars, which are made with American almonds.Its important, he said, for people to use the power of the purse to pressure companies to change. Its the only weapon weve got, he said.____AP writers Stefanie Dazio in Berlin, John Leicester and Samuel Petrequin in Paris, and Laurie Kellman in London contributed.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, March 14, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)2025-03-17T19:19:07Z CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) Debates over President Donald Trumps hardline migration policies are focused on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to some a ruthless transnational criminal organization and to others the pretext for an overhyped anti-migrant narrative. Trump labeled the Tren de Aragua an invading force on Saturday when he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a little-used authority from 1798 that allows the president to deport any noncitizen during wartime. Hours later, the Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations. Flights were in the air when the ruling came down.The Alien Enemies Act requires a president to declare the United States at war, giving him extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners to whom immigration or criminal laws otherwise protect. It had been used only three times the last time to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians during World War II.The Trump administration has not identified the more than 200 immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States. Gang gains notoriety in the USFrom the heartland to major cities like New York and Chicago, the gang has been blamed for sex trafficking, drug smuggling and police shootings, as well as the exploitation of the nearly 1 million Venezuelan migrants have crossed into the U.S. in recent years. Trump told Congress this month that a Venezuelan migrant found guilty of murdering 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia campus was a member of the gang.The size of the gang is unclear as is the extent to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and national borders.The Venezuelan gang entered U.S. political discourse after footage from a security camera surfaced on social media last summer showing heavily armed men entering an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora shortly before a fatal shooting outside. In response, Trump vowed to liberate Aurora from Venezuelans he falsely said were taking over the whole town. The city initially downplayed concerns. But most of the apartment complex was closed under an emergency order last month after officials said they suspected Tren de Aragua members in the kidnapping and assault of two residents.Most of the men seen in the video have been arrested, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement accusing them of gang membership.The Tren originated in an infamous prisonThe Tren, which means train in Spanish, traces its origin more than a decade ago to an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals in the central state of Aragua. It has expanded in recent years as more than 8 million Venezuelans fled economic turmoil under President Nicols Maduros rule and migrated to other parts of Latin America or the U.S.Countries such as Peru and Colombia all with large populations of Venezuelan migrants have accused the group of being behind a spree of violence in a region that has long had some of the highest murder rates in the world. Some of its crimes have spread panic in poor neighborhoods, where the gang extorts local businesses and illegally charges residents for protection.The gang operates as a loose network in the U.S. Tattoos, which are commonly used by Central American gangs, arent required for those affiliated with the Tren, said Ronna Risquez, a Venezuelan journalist who wrote a 2023 book about the gangs origins. Trump targets the TrenOn his first day in office, Trump he took steps to designate the gang a foreign terrorist organization alongside several Mexican drug cartels. The Biden administration had sanctioned the gang and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three of its leaders.Trumps executive order Saturday accused the gang of working closely with top Maduro officials most notably the former vice president and one-time governor of Aragua state, Tareck El Aissami, to infiltrate migration flows, flood the U.S. with cocaine and plot against the country. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States, Trumps executive order alleged.Wes Tabor, who headed the Drug Enforcement Administrations office in Venezuela when the gang first came onto law enforcement radar, said Trumps decision to give the DEA and other federal agencies authority to carry out immigrant arrests is a force multiplier that will curtail the Trens activities in the U.S. Tabor said authorities need to build a robust database like it did when combating El Salvadors MS-13 containing biometric data, arrest information and intelligence from foreign law enforcement partners. We have to use a hammer on an ant because if we dont it will get out of control, said Tabor. We need to smash it now. Venezuelan officials protestIn Venezuela, officials originally expressed bafflement at the U.S. interest in the Tren, claiming it had dismantled the gang after retaking control of the prison where the group was born. As Trumps immigration crackdown has intensified, theyve conditioned their cooperation with U.S. deportation flights on progress in other areas in the long-strained bilateral relationship.Last month, authorities gave a heros welcome to some 190 Venezuelan migrants deported by Trump, accusing the U.S. of spreading an ill-intentioned and false narrative about the Tren in the U.S. They said most Venezuelan immigrants are decent, hard-working people and that U.S. officials were looking to stigmatize the South American nation.Over the weekend they protested the use of Trumps invocation of the wartime rules, likening it to the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.

This photo provided by the United States Geological Survey shows a female Lau banded iguana in Fiji. (Robert Fisher/U.S. Geological Survey via AP)2025-03-17T19:01:00Z NEW YORK (AP) Researchers have long wondered how iguanas got to Fiji, a collection of remote islands in the South Pacific. Most modern-day iguanas live in the Americas thousands of miles and one giant ocean away. They thought maybe they scurried there through Asia or Australia before volcanic activity pushed Fiji so far away. But new research suggests that millions of years ago, iguanas pulled off the 5,000 mile (8,000 kilometer) odyssey on a raft of floating vegetation masses of uprooted trees and small plants. That journey is thought to be a record further than any other land-dwelling vertebrate has ever traveled on the ocean. Scientists think thats how iguanas got to the Galapagos Islands off of Ecuador and between islands in the Caribbean. Initially they thought Fiji might be a bit too far for such a trip, but in a new study, researchers inspected the genes of 14 iguana species spanning the Americas, the Caribbean and Fiji. They discovered that Fijian iguanas were most closely related to desert iguanas from North America, and that the two groups split off around 31 million years ago. The researchers created a statistical model using that information and other tidbits about where iguanas live today and how they may spread. It suggested that the iguanas most likely floated to Fiji from North America. Given what we know now, their result is by far the most strongly supported, said Kevin de Queiroz, an evolutionary biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, who was not involved with the new study. The research was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The journey from North America to Fiji could have taken a few months, but these desert iguanas would have been ideal passengers because they were adept at resisting dehydration and could have snacked on the plants underfoot. If you had to pick a vertebrate to survive a long trip on a raft across an ocean, iguanas would be the one, said study author Simon Scarpetta from the University of San Francisco, in an email.Many Fijian iguana species are endangered, and an invasive green iguana roams the islands today, said study author Robert Fisher of the United States Geological Survey. Figuring out where these creatures came from can equip scientists with the tools to better protect them in the future.-The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN Ramakrishnan is a science reporter for The Associated Press, based in New York. She covers research and new developments related to space, early human history and more. twitter mailto

People line up to make sports bets at the Borgata casino in Atlantic City NJ on Friday March 19, 2021, the first full day of the NCAA March Madness tournament. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry,File)2025-03-17T15:25:01Z WASHINGTON (AP) As March Madness takes over this week, how many people are filling out NCAA brackets and why? A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows what share of Americans typically take a shot at bracket predictions and their motivation for joining in the madness. The survey found that about one-quarter of Americans fill out a mens March Madness bracket every year or some years. But what about the womens tournament? High-profile NCAA womens basketball games have closed the gap with mens tournaments in terms of viewership and there is more money flowing in and around womens sports in general; womens teams will now be paid to play in the tournament, just like men have for years. It all points to higher interest in how womens teams fare even if the bracket frenzy has not quite caught up. The survey found that 16% of U.S. adults fill out a womens tournament bracket every year or some years. And its much more common for bracket participants to only fill out a bracket for the mens tournament than the womens about 1 in 10 U.S. adults only fill out a mens tournament bracket, while only 2% fill out only a womens bracket. Another 14% fill out a bracket for both tournaments at least some years. So, a sizeable chunk of Americans are into NCAA bracketology, but whats behind the hype?Among those who fill out brackets at least some years, about 7 in 10 say a reason for their participation was for the glory of winning, the chance to win money or the fact that other people were doing it. Theyre less likely to be motivated by support for a specific school or team and in particular, to say this was a major reason for their participation. Theres certainly a financial motivation for correctly predicting the Final Four, and its hard to deny NCAA college basketball is in a betting-heavy era. More Americans can legally bet money on the NCAA mens and womens basketball tournaments than in previous years, and many will place a wager on their brackets success. Does that mean Americans think the tournaments are all about wagering, or that its technically gambling to enter a friends-and-family pool with only a modest payout at stake? Most U.S. adults 56% say that if someone enters a March Madness bracket pool for money, they consider that to be gambling. About 2 in 10 say it depends on the amount of money, and another 2 in 10, roughly, say this is not gambling.Who are the March Madness bracket diehards?Men tend to make up the bulk of the regulars who fill out a bracket at least some years. Among the March Madness bracket regulars, about 6 in 10 are men, including about one-third who are men under the age of 45. These bracket regulars are less likely to be women; only about 4 in 10 are women, and theyre about evenly split between being older or younger. Those who only fill out a bracket for the mens tournament are also overwhelmingly men. About 7 in 10 people who fill out a mens bracket and not a womens bracket every year or some years are men. About 4 in 10 are men over 45, and about 3 in 10 are younger men. If you cant beat them, avoid them?Not everyone wants to risk a bracket buster and people avoiding the Madness this month are hardly alone. About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say they never fill out a mens or womens bracket. This group leans more female: About 6 in 10 bracket avoiders are women. And roughly one-third in this group are women over 45.___The AP-NORC poll of 1,112 adults was conducted Feb. 6-10, using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. LINLEY SANDERS Sanders is a polls and surveys reporter for The Associated Press. She develops and writes about polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and works on AP VoteCast. twitter

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00545-xExcavations at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, reveal evidence of the systematic use of animal bones as a raw material for prehistoric tools.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00799-5Alba Graciela vila Bernals research focuses on power-storage technologies, but she also builds custom probes to test water quality.

Mohammad Shabir Osmani, pushes one of his families suitcases out of the Sacramento International Airport, Tuesday, March 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)2025-03-17T20:48:09Z WASHINGTON (AP) When Andrew Sullivan thinks of the people his organization has helped resettle in America, one particular story comes to mind: an Afghan man in a wheelchair who was shot through the neck by a member of the Taliban for helping the U.S. during its war in Afghanistan.I just think ... Could I live with myself if we send that guy back to Afghanistan? said Andrew Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind. And I thankfully dont have to because he made it to northern Virginia.The charitable organization of U.S. military veterans, Afghans who once fled their country and volunteers in the U.S. is stepping in to help Afghans like that man in the wheelchair who are at risk of being stranded overseas. Their efforts come after the Trump administration took steps to hinder Afghans who helped Americas war effort in trying to resettle in the U.S. No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the U.S. during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. President Donald Trump in January suspended programs that buy flights for those refugees and cut off aid to the groups that help them resettle in the U.S. Hundreds who were approved for travel to the U.S. had visas but few ways to get here. If they managed to buy a flight, they had little help when they arrived. The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.Meanwhile, the situation for Afghans has become more tenuous in some of the places where many have temporarily settled. Pakistan, having hosted millions of refugees, has in recent years removed Afghans from its country. increased deportations. An agreement that made Albania a waystation for Afghans expires in March, Sullivan said. Hovering over all of this is the fear that the Trump administration may announce a travel ban that could cut off all access from Afghanistan. In an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, Trump told key Cabinet members to submit a report within 60 days that identifies countries with vetting so poor that it would warrant a partial or full suspension of travelers from those countries to the U.S. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that the review was ongoing and no list had been finalized. But groups that work with Afghans are worried.When funding was suspended, No One Left Behind stepped in. Their goal is to make sure Afghans with State Department visas dont get stuck overseas. Other organizations many who got their start helping Afghans during the U.S. militarys chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 are doing the same.To qualify for this visa, Afghans must prove they worked for the U.S. for at least one year. That means tracking down documentation from former supervisors, who were often affiliated with companies no longer in business. They also undergo extensive vetting and medical checks.Our view was, OK, weve got to act immediately to try and help these people, said Sullivan. Weve been in kind of an all-out sprint. The organization has raised money to buy flights and help Afghans when they land. Between February 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans.It also launched a website where visa holders can share information, giving Sullivans group a starting point to figure out where they might live in the U.S. Sullivan and the organizations ambassadors Afghans and Iraqis who already have emigrated to the U.S., many through the special immigrant visa program have gone to Albania and Qatar to help stranded Afghans.Aqila is one of those ambassadors who went to Albania. The Associated Press is identifying Aqila by her first name because her family in Afghanistan is still at risk.Aqila said many of the families didnt know what would happen when they arrived in America. Would they be homeless? Abandoned? One man feared hed end up alone in the airport parking lot because his contact in America a long-haul trucker couldnt come pick him up. She assured him that someone would be there. They gave them cards with contact information for attorneys. They printed papers with information about their rights in English, Dari, and Pashto.No One Left Behind reached out to family members and friends in the U.S. to help with the transition when they landed in America.Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and U.S. forces for 17 years. Two months ago, he and his family boarded a plane to Albania in anticipation of soon being able to go to America. They landed in California on March 12, exhausted but safeThe next day he and his family explored their new apartment in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova. Saboor said he hasnt felt safe in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. He worried that hed be killed as retribution for the nearly two decades hed worked with the U.S. and its allies. He wondered what kind of future his children would have in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The family picked the suburb in the hope that the large Afghan population in the Sacramento area would help them get settled and find work. He envisions a bright future in America, where his kids can go to school and eventually give back to the country that took his family in. Arriving in the U.S., he said, gave them a great feeling.I believe that now we can live in a 100% peaceful environment, he said. Sullivan said he hopes there will be exceptions for Afghans in the special immigrant visa program if a travel ban is imposed. Theyve been thoroughly vetted, he said, and earned the right to be here.These are folks that actually served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats for 20 years, he said.Aqila, the Afghan ambassador, said its stressful to hear stories of what people went through in Afghanistan. But the reward comes when she sees photos of those who have arrived in America.You can see the hope in their eyes, she said. Its nice to be human. Its nice be kind to each other. REBECCA SANTANA Santana covers the Department of Homeland Security for The Associated Press. She has extensive experience reporting in such places as Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. twitter mailto

Los Angeles Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani, bottom center, bats against the Hanshin Tigers during the third inning in an MLB Japan Series exhibition baseball game, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)2025-03-17T15:58:45Z TOKYO (AP) The Los Angeles Dodgers gave Shohei Ohtani an unprecedented $700 million contract hoping to drive interest and the dollars that come with it from fans across the Pacific.It seems to be working. Hes the main attraction as the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs open the MLB regular season on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Tokyo Dome.Hes also producing off the field, the marquee name at a sprawling souvenir store that fills an exhibition hall in the Tokyo Dome complex.MLB calls the setup its largest ever special-event store.Isnt it crazy? said Lillian Izawa, who did a slow walk through the store, wedged between shoppers and shelves of souvenirs, most carrying Ohtanis name, face or No. 17.Just as thousands of others, Izawa stood for an hour just to get in with fans three or four abreast in a twisting line entering the 30,000-square-foot store. She chose a sunny day. But the lines seemed to grow longer, even on a rainy Sunday in Tokyo. The daily flow will only intensify as Tuesdays and Wednesdays games approach and both the Dodgers and MLB cash in on Ohtani, who signed a $700 million, 10-year deal last offseason. Lets call it a Merch Museum dedicated to Ohtani and his two Japanese teammates, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, and the Dodgers. Theres even a small section for Chicago Cubs fans with most of the usual stuff caps, jerseys, t-shirts and MLB knick-knacks.Japanese people will buy anything thats in a limited edition and hard to get, and theyll resell it, said Izawa, a Japanese American from Honolulu and a flight attendant with Hawaiian Airlines. World shopping centerThe souvenir shop illustrates that Ohtani might be intensifying the worldwide interest in baseball.This is an important series, Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. It highlights that baseball is on a world stage, a world platform.Rosie Rosas, a Dodgers fans from San Diego, made the trip to Tokyo with her son to visit her husband who works in Japan. Tickets for the Dodgers-Cubs games were impossible. But shopping was not. It doesnt happen very often, games like this, and the Dodgers are champions, Rosas said. And the Japanese players we have are amazing.Ruby Yu and Nick Mah, two Canadians with roots in Hong Kong, traveled from Vancouver on vacation and made Ohtani part of the experience.Things are flying off the shelf, said Ruby as Nick stood alongside with a bag full or goodies.They paid $200 apiece for two tickets to Fridays exhibition game between the Hanshin Tigers and Chicago Cubs. The Tigers won 3-0. The least expensive tickets for the Dodgers-Cubs games are fetching about $1,500 on the secondary market.We knew the Japanese were huge baseball fans, Ruby said.Wearing a blue Chicago jersey, Cubs fan Jason Umbreit was spending modestly in the souvenir shop, happy to have found a corner with Chicago merchandise.I knew it was going to be crowded, and this is the biggest shop Ive ever seen, he said.Hes also among the most fortunate baseball fans on earth. He said he paid only $60 for a ticket for one of the Dodgers-Cubs games.I got the ticket when they went on sale, he said. I was lucky. The prices, the exchange rateThe value of the Japanese yen has fallen drastically in relation to the dollar in the last 2 1/2 years. That means it has become very expensive for Japanese to travel to the United States. The yen buys fewer and fewer dollars, making American prices seem very high for Japanese. Conversely, tourists with dollars find Japan affordable.It means this MLB shop is a useful opportunity for many Japanese fans to buy coveted Ohtani and Yamamoto merchandise. Most suggested the prices though expensive might be cheaper than they are in the United States.Star Dodgers pitchers Yamamoto was asked his reaction to seeing thousands of fans wearing Dodgers garb, some with his name on the back. Or seeing his face on billboards, or inside massive souvenir store.I see the support from my fans and Id like to turn it into positive energy and carry it to the mound, he replied.At the very high end, the store offers Dodgers white or blue jersey for about 75,000 yen about $500. There are also other styles of Cubs and Dodgers jerseys for a bit less about 25,000 yen about $170. Caps and t-shirt are among the favorites, many in the $30-50 range. There are key chains for about $18 and game programs for $20.I think the prices are reasonable, Kohei Matsui said, a 21-year-old Japanese student. He described the crowds and shopping mayhem as beyond what I expected.Japanese all love baseball and Major League Baseball, and we want to see it once in our life, Matsui added. This is the chance.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb 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

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00622-1The recipients, all from African countries, were not the only beneficiaries, says Rafiou Agoro.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00733-9The 2005 finding of cells and blood vessels in dinosaur bone launched a systematic search for fossil remnants of biomolecules, creating innovations in methods and applications.

Ed Martin speaks at an event at the Capitol in Washington, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)2025-03-17T21:51:38Z WASHINGTON (AP) The top federal prosecutor for the nations capital, who promoted President Donald Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, has formed a special unit to investigate election offenses, according to an email sent to lawyers in his office on Monday. Interim District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Ed Martin said the Special Unit: Election Accountability has already opened one investigation and will continue to make sure that all the election laws of our nation are obeyed, according to the email reviewed by The Associated Press. Martin, who is awaiting Senate confirmation to permanently take the position, was involved in the Stop the Steal movement, which was animated by lies about fraud after Trump lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Martin also served on the board of a nonprofit that raised money for Capitol riot defendants and their families and legally represented at least three defendants in Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot criminal cases, including a Proud Boys member who pleaded guilty to felony charges. In the email announcing the new unit, Martin recounted uncovering voter registration fraud while serving as chairman of the Board of Elections in St. Louis years ago. That led to the implementation of accountability measures to make sure that electronic machines had a paper trail, he wrote. Nearly 20 years later, Americans do not have confidence in our election systems, Martin wrote. One of the best ways to restore that confidence is to protect our systems and demand accountability. Martin did not provide additional details about the investigation his office has already opened, and spokespeople for the office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. Officials at the Justice Department didnt immediately respond to questions about Martins effort, which was first reported by Bloomberg Law. Democrats reacted skeptically to Martin establishing the unit, noting his involvement with Trumps efforts to spread false claims about the 2020 election.California Sen. Alex Padilla, the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees elections, said he is concerned that the unit would be more focused on attacking political enemies than protecting all Americans right to vote in free and fair elections.Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said Martins new unit is all about installing a nationwide policy of heads I win, tails you lose.If the GOP wins, theres a mandate to trash the Constitution; if they lose, it means the election was stolen, said Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. America is going to have to defend free and fair elections against these autocrats and veteran saboteurs of democracy.The Trump administration had been expected to shift the Justice Departments priorities around investigating voting and elections. The agency has historically targeted voter suppression efforts and state laws that could disenfranchise certain groups, but conservatives have called for an increased focus on voter fraud. The scope of Martins unit is unclear and raises questions about whether he is seeking to investigate cases outside the realm of his authority, which is limited to the District of Columbia, said David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department attorney who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a Washington-based nonprofit.Im waiting to see more about what this unit actually is, what jurisdiction it purports to claim, what authority it tends to seize and what laws it purports to enforce, Becker said.Voting and elections experts expressed doubts that the new unit would improve Americans confidence in elections. The false idea that there is rampant fraud in U.S. elections undermines public faith in the vote, rather than bolstering it, said Sean Morales-Doyle, director of the voting rights program at the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. The results were confirmed through multiple recounts, reviews and audits. Trump lost dozens of court challenges, including before judges he appointed during his first term. His allies also have raised the specter of widespread illegal noncitizen voting in U.S. elections, though in reality this form of fraud is exceptionally rare. Republicans in 2024 filed numerous lawsuits ahead of the presidential election about various aspects of vote-casting and voter roll management, setting the stage to contest the results if Trump had lost.Martin has roiled the D.C. U.S. attorneys office since he was appointed to the job in January. He recently demoted senior leaders who handled politically sensitive cases and forced the chief of the offices criminal division to resign after directing her to scrutinize the awarding of a government contract during the Biden administration. Martin has also raised eyebrows for describing federal prosecutors as the presidents lawyers, using his office as a platform for parroting Trumps political priorities and sending warning letters to at least two members of Congress for statements they had made. He recently sent a letter of inquiry to Georgetown University Law Centers dean that warned that his office wont hire the private schools students if it doesnt eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs.___Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta contributed to this report. ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer is an Associated Press reporter covering the Justice Department and legal issues from Washington. twitter mailto ALI SWENSON Swenson reports on election-related misinformation, disinformation and extremism for The Associated Press. twitter

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00827-4Spending on research, including at the NIH, will see modest cuts this year. But the threat of big reductions in future remain.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00794-wIs a revolution of standards in public life the key to tackling our intertwined environmental crises? A compelling book argues it is.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)2025-03-17T21:45:22Z HOUSTON (AP) A Texas midwife has been arrested and accused of providing illegal abortions, marking the first time authorities have filed criminal charges under the states near-total abortion ban, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Monday.Maria Margarita Rojas has been charged with the illegal performance of an abortion, a second-degree felony, as well as practicing medicine without a license, which is a third-degree felony.Paxton alleges that Rojas, 48, illegally operated at least three clinics in the Houston area where illegal abortion procedures were performed in direct violation of state law.In Texas, life is sacred. I will always do everything in my power to protect the unborn, defend our states pro-life laws, and work to ensure that unlicensed individuals endangering the lives of women by performing illegal abortions are fully prosecuted, Paxton said in a statement. Texas law protecting life is clear, and we will hold those who violate it accountable. Waller County District Attorney Sean Whittmore, whose office is located northwest of Houston, referred the case to Paxton for prosecution, according to the state Attorney Generals Office. Waller County court records show Rojas was arrested on March 6 and she was released on bond the next day.Court records did not list an attorney for Rojas who could speak on her behalf.A woman reached by phone at one of Rojas clinics said Monday she did not know who Rojas was. Messages left at Rojas two other clinics were not immediately returned. On their Facebook pages, the clinics advertise various services, including physical exams, ultrasounds and vaccines. Texas is one of 12 states currently enforcing a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Texas ban allows exceptions when a pregnant patient has a life-threatening condition. Opponents of the ban say it is too vague when it comes to when medically necessary exceptions are allowed. A bill has been filed in the current Texas legislative session to clarify medical exceptions allowed under the law. The charge of illegal performance of an abortion carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison while the charge of practicing medicine without a license carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.Paxtons office said it has filed a temporary restraining order to close Rojas clinics.In the U.S., there have been few, if any, criminal charges filed alleging the operation of illegal abortion clinics since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and opened the door to state abortion bans.A Louisiana grand jury earlier this year indicted a New York doctor on charges that she illegally prescribed abortion pills online to a Louisiana patient. Paxton has filed a civil lawsuit against the same doctor under a similar accusation.___Associated Press reporter Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, contributed to this report.___Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00452-1It can be hard to say no to service requests in academia. Natures Careers team sought advice on how to ensure researchers dont get stuck doing unpaid labour.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00791-zThe importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.

A website called DOGEQUEST has posted on a searchable map what it claims to be the names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of Tesla owners across the United States, and says it will remove the data if an individual proves that they have sold their Tesla. The map also includes the addresses of Tesla dealerships, the rough locations of Tesla superchargers, and the personal information of employees of the Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).The veracity of much of the data is unclear. 404 Media has verified that at least some of the people listed on the site do appear to be Tesla owners or supporters of the company or Musk, but it is not clear if every person listed is. The addresses of several Tesla dealerships checked by 404 Media were correct. 404 Media found some plots on the map dont correspond correctly to their real world locations.Do you know anything else about this site? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +44 20 8133 5190. Otherwise, send me an email at joseph@404media.co.Regardless of the accuracy or inaccuracy of the data, the site is likely to intimidate some Tesla owners and is the latest salvo in escalating protests against Tesla. Every weekend, people are participating in Tesla Takedown protests across the country; Tesla dealerships, cars, and superchargers have also been vandalized all around the U.S. It also comes as broad sentiment against the company and people who drive its vehicles is especially negative, with even Cybertruck owners themselves documenting the constant flipping-off or insults they receive. Teslas stock price has fallen 44 percent since President Donald Trump was inaugurated and was down nearly 5 percent on Monday. Last week, Trump promoted Tesla cars in front of the White House, and both Musk and Trump have tried to intimidate protesters, with Trump even saying that violence against Tesla dealerships would be considered domestic terrorism.A screenshot of the site.DOGEQUEST is the ultimate hub for enthusiasts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)! Our innovative platform allows users to explore an interactive map of DOGE landmarks, the website reads. Leveraging our cutting-edge artificial intelligence algorithms, DOGEQUEST goes a step further by connecting like-minded Tesla owners with one another, facilitating a vibrant community through shared contact information, it adds. It is not clear where the alleged Tesla owner data has been sourced from.Under a heading that reads Is DOGEQUEST a protest platform? the website says If you're on the hunt for a Tesla to unleash your artistic flair with a spray can, just step outsideno map needed! At DOGEQUEST, we believe in empowering creative expressions of protest that you can execute from the comfort of your own home.The sites cursor is a molotov cocktail.DOGEQUEST claims that it will remove a persons data if they provide proof that theyve sold their Tesla. Under the heading I want my information removed, the site says Absolutely! Just provide us with proof that you've sold your Tesla.An email sent to that address seeking comment went unanswered.Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00692-1From owl surveys to peer review, Israels researchers are maintaining regional and international ties despite boycotts and the risk of war resuming.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00798-6Scientists around the world are recognizing that their research method isnt the only way.

Palestinians Ali Marouf and his mother Aisha cook on fire on the roof of their destroyed house by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2025-03-17T20:56:31Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Israels defense minister says Israel has resumed fighting in Gaza and is vowing to press ahead until all remaining hostages are released.In a brief statement, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the gates of hell will open in Gaza if hostages arent released.We will not stop fighting until all of our hostages are home and we have achieved all of the war goals, he said.Gazas ministry of health said at least 44 people were killed in the new wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday. Israel said it was striking Hamas targets in its heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Israel launched a wave of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip early Tuesday, saying it was striking Hamas targets in its heaviest assault in the territory since a ceasefire took effect in January. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the strikes because of a lack of progress in ongoing talks to extend the ceasefire. It was not immediately clear if the operation was a one-time pressure tactic or if the 17-month-old war was being resumed altogether. This comes after Hamas repeatedly refused to release our hostages and rejected all offers it received from the U.S. presidential envoy, Steve Witkoff, and from the mediators, Netanyahus office said. Taher Nunu, a Hamas official, criticized the Israeli attacks. The international community faces a moral test: either it allows the return of the crimes committed by the occupation army or it enforces a commitment to ending the aggression and war against innocent people in Gaza, he said. In Gaza, explosions could be heard at various locations and ambulances were arriving at Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. The strikes came two months after a ceasefire was reached to pause the war. Over six weeks, Hamas released roughly three dozen hostages in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. But since the first phase of the ceasefire ended two weeks ago, the sides have not been able to agree on a way forward with a second phase aimed at releasing the nearly 60 remaining hostages and ending the war altogether. Netanyahu has repeatedly threatened to resume the war, and early this month cut off the entry of all food and aid deliveries into the besieged territory to put pressure on Hamas.The war erupted with Hamas Oct 7, 2023, cross-border attack, which killed some 1,200 people and took 250 others hostage. Israel responded with a military offensive that killed over 48,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced an estimated 90% of Gazas population. The territorys Health Ministry doesnt differentiate between civilians and militants, but says over half of the dead have been women and children.Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength, Netanyahus office said.The ceasefire had brought some relief to Gaza and allowed hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to resume to what remained of their homes. But the territory is coping with vast destruction, with no immediate plans to rebuild. A resumption of the war threatens to reverse any progress made in recent weeks toward halting Gazas humanitarian crisis. While the ceasefire largely halted the fighting, Israel has left troops in Gaza throughout the past two months and continued to strike targets, claiming that Palestinians were trying to carry out attacks or approaching troops in no-go zones. A number of strikes earlier Monday killed a total of 10 people, according to Palestinian officials. Two strikes in central Gaza hit around the urban refugee camp of Bureij. One struck a school serving as a shelter for displaced Palestinians, killing a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old nephew, according to officials at nearby Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the casualties were taken. The Israeli military said it struck militants planting explosives. An earlier strike killed three men in Bureij. The Israeli military said the men were trying to plant an explosive device in the ground near Israeli troops. Gazas Hamas-led government said the men were collecting firewood.In Syria, meanwhile, Israel seized a zone in the south after the fall of longtime autocrat Bashar Assad in December. Israel says it is a preemptive security measure against the former Islamist insurgents who now run Syria, though their transitional government has not expressed threats against Israel.Strikes in the southern Syrian city of Daraa killed three people and wounded 19 others, including four children, a woman and three civil defense volunteers, the Syrian civil defense agency said. It said two ambulances were damaged. Other strikes hit military positions near the city. The Israeli military said it was targeting military command centers and sites in southern Syria that contained weapons and vehicles belonging to Assads forces. It said the materials presence posed a threat to Israel.In Lebanon, Israel said it struck two members of the Hezbollah militant group in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor, who it said were observation operatives. Lebanons state news agency reported two people killed in the strike and two wounded.The military later said it carried out further strikes on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, without specifying where. A U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect in late November ending the 14-month war between the two sides, and each side has repeatedly accused the other of violating the deal.Since the ceasefire in Gaza began in mid-January, Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military says approached its troops or entered unauthorized areas.Still, the deal has tenuously held without an outbreak of wide violence. The ceasefires first phase saw an exchange of some hostages held by Hamas in return for the freeing of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel. Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to mediate the next steps in the ceasefire.Israel wants Hamas to release half of the remaining hostages in return for a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Hamas instead wants to follow the ceasefire deal reached by the two sides, which calls for negotiations to begin on the ceasefires more difficult second phase, in which the remaining hostages would be released and Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza. Hamas is believed to have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 35 others. ___AP reporter Ghaith Alsayed in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00795-9Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00819-4The bioplastic was malleable, but is more expensive to produce than are plastics made from fossil fuels.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00717-9Inherited repeat mutations in the HTT gene expand in neurons over decades before crossing a toxic threshold, revealing a long time window for therapy.

Nature, Published online: 17 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08858-7Author Correction: B-cell-specific checkpoint molecules that regulate anti-tumour immunity

Nature, Published online: 14 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00500-wSingle-use plastics are everywhere but two researchers are redefining the norm and championing sustainability.

Nature, Published online: 14 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00681-4In this era of anti-science activism, its wise to take steps to protect your research and reputation in the digital realm.

Activists unfurl a large banner in support of Ukraine outside the European Council building ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, Wednesday, March 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana)2025-03-18T04:01:50Z FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) With U.S. support for Ukraine in doubt, Kyivs European allies are weighing whether to seize $300 billion in frozen Russian assets and use the money to compensate Ukraine, support its military and help rebuild shattered homes and towns.For now, the assets are still on ice, with opponents of seizure warning that the move could violate international law and destabilize financial markets.Here are key things to know about the debate surrounding the Kremlin assets that were frozen shortly after Russias full-scale invasion in early 2022: What are the assets and where are they?Originally, the money was in short-term government bonds held as reserves for the Russian central bank. By now, most of the bonds have have matured and turned into cash piling up in custodian banks. Some 210 billion euros are in European Union member states, with the biggest chunk, some 183 billion euros, at Euroclear, a Belgian clearinghouse for financial transactions. Other amounts are at financial institutions in Great Britain, Japan, France, Canada, Switzerland, Australia and Singapore.So far, the Group of Seven democracies have used the interest on the frozen cash to fund $50 billion in upfront assistance to Ukraine by borrowing against future interest income. That solution avoids legal and financial complications associated with outright confiscating the money and giving it it to Ukraine. Who is calling for seizing the assets and why?Some of Ukraines friends Poland, the United Kingdom and the Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia want to do more by taking the principal as well, given the enormous damage Russia has done. The World Bank estimates that reconstructing Ukraine will cost $524 billion over 10 years, already more than the total of the Russian assets. If one or more Western governments resists seizing the assets, the others that want to could still go ahead. Meanwhile, Ukraines allies in Europe are contemplating stepping up their financial aid in the wake of statements by U.S. President Donald Trump that Europe must take care of its own security. Several of those allies France and Belgium, for instance are already saddled with troublesome debt levels above 100% of gross domestic product. Why do France, Germany and Belgium oppose seizing the assets?European leaders say seizing the assets now would mean they couldnt be used as a bargaining chip in any peace deal or to help enforce a ceasefire.French Finance Minister Eric Lombard said Tuesday that it was against international law to seize assets in central banks. If Russian assets were seized without legal grounds, it could pose a risk to European financial stability, he said.I advocate great caution when it comes to those frozen assets, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said at a March 6 EU summit. At the moment, that is actually a chicken that also lays golden eggs. Those windfall profits are going to Ukraine.Opponents of seizure also fear that countries and investors would hesitate to use European financial institutions if they are afraid assets could be seized, undermining the euros role as an international currency for state reserves. More specifically, governments worry that countries such as Saudi Arabia and China may sell European government bonds in response, said Elina Ribakova, an economist with the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. That would raise borrowing costs for governments already deep in debt.She favors seizure, however, arguing that the European Central Bank has tools to thwart any unjustified bond selloff by purchasing government bonds.Also looming over the issue are memories of the 2010-2012 European government debt crisis, in which borrowing costs spiked and raised concerns the euro currency could break up.There is a good deal of PTSD in the EU around messing with the EU sovereign bond market because of that, said Tom Keatinge, director of the Centre for Finance and Security at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Would confiscating the assets be legal under international law?Some experts argue that seizure would be an appropriate countermeasure. Thats a specific legal term referring to an action that would normally be illegal but which is justified as a means to push Russia to stop its own violations of international law.There is no dilemma between using an aggressors assets to protect its victim and maintaining a commitment to the rules-based order, wrote Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and Britains former ambassador to Belarus, in a legal analysis.Other scholars say confiscation would not be a legitimate countermeasure.One reason: justifying a countermeasure as compensation for damages instead of merely as pressure to behave would be a very significant expansion of the way we have used countermeasures in the past, said Ingrid Brunk, professor of international law at Vanderbilt University Law School. I would term it as a violation of international law on countermeasures. Additionally, Brunk said international law grants strong protection to central bank reserves against seizure a principle that has been absolutely sacrosanct for a century.At a time when countries agree on almost nothing, this is a widely, universally accepted rule, Brunk said, cautioning against destabilizing one of the few ironclad bases for the international financial system.Keatinge said the legal question is a 50-50 call. It boils down to a question of political will.Have other countries frozen assets been confiscated in the past?Frozen state assets were used to compensate victims of Iraqs 1990 invasion of Kuwait and Irans 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Those actions were legally justified because they were part of post-conflict peace deals: a U.N. resolution in the case of Iraq, and by diplomatic accords in the case of Iran, noted Brunk.What has Russia said or done about the frozen assets?The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the seizure of Russian assets would be illegitimate and erode investors confidence. We view those intentions as unlawful, and any attempt to fulfill them would entail very serious legal consequences, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier this month.Russia could, in theory, seize the assets of the estimated 1,800 Western companies that continue to do business in Russia. Recent legislation would enable state seizure of companies based in countries designated as unfriendly, Russian news media report.However, theres less to seize on Russias end. Foreign companies have suffered more than $170 billion in losses since 2022, often as they decided to leave Russia or scale back there, according to the Kyiv School of Economics.___Burrows reported from London. Cook reported from Brussels. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed to this report. EMMA BURROWS Burrows is an Associated Press reporter covering Russia, Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus. She is based in London. twitter