The Voice of America building, Monday, June 15, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)2025-03-15T17:17:23Z President Donald Trumps administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with a press advocacy group saying all VOA employees have been put on leave.On Friday night, shortly after Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba.On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, the failed Arizona gubernatorial and U.S. Senate candidate whom Trump named a senior adviser to the agency, posted on X that employees should check their email. That coincided with notices going out placing Voice of America staff on paid administrative leave. Later, Reporters Without Borders said the notices extended to everyone who works for VOA.The advocacy group said it condemns this decision as a departure from the U.S.s historic role as a defender of free information and calls on the U.S. government to restore VOA and urges Congress and the international community to take action against this unprecedented move. The Agency for Global Media also sent notices terminating grants to Radio Free Asia and other programming run by the agency. Voice of America transmits United States domestic news into other countries, often translated into local languages. Radio Free Asia, Europe and Marti beam news into countries with authoritarian regimes in those regions like China, North Korea and Russia. Combined, the networks reach an estimated 427 million people. They date back to the Cold War and are part of a network of government-funded organizations trying to extend U.S. power and combat authoritarianism that includes USAID, another agency targeted by Trump. The latest reductions are especially provocative because the Agency for Global Media is an independent agency chartered by Congress, which passed a law in 2020 limiting the power of the agencys presidentially appointed executives. Trump has already taken several moves to gut congressionally-mandated programs, setting up a potential Supreme Court showdown over the limits of presidential power. Trumps order requiring reductions also includes several other, lesser-known government agencies such as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a nonpartisan think tank, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness and the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. The Trump administration has already made several controversial moves regarding Voice of America, including suspending a respected journalist who noted criticism of Trump and canceling contracts that allowed VOA to use material from independent news organizations, such as The Associated Press. ___Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)2025-03-15T21:04:53Z U.S. President Donald Trump says he has ordered airstrikes against Iran-backed rebels in Yemen, and issued a warning to Tehran. Heres why.Threat to global shippingThe Houthi rebels started attacking military and commercial ships on one of the worlds busiest shipping corridors shortly after the war in Gaza began between Hamas and Israel in October 2023. The Houthis said they were targeting vessels on the Red Sea with links to Israel or its allies the United States and the U.K. in solidarity with Palestinians, but some vessels had little or no link to the war.The Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors, until the current ceasefire in Gaza took effect in mid-January. Other missiles and drones were intercepted or failed to reach their targets, which included Western military ones. The attacks paused during the ceasefire, but the Houthis on Wednesday said they would resume against any Israeli vessel after Israel cut off all aid supplies to Gaza to pressure Hamas during talks on extending their truce. The rebels said the warning also affects the Gulf of Aden, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Arabian Sea. No Houthi attacks have been reported since then.These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk, Trump said Saturday while announcing the airstrikes in a social media post. Threat to the U.S.The earlier Houthi campaign saw U.S. and other Western warships repeatedly targeted, sparking the most serious combat the U.S. Navy had seen since World War II.The United States under the Biden administration, as well as Israel and Britain, previously struck Houthi-held areas in Yemen. But a U.S. official said Saturdays operation was conducted solely by the U.S.The USS Harry S. Truman carrier strike group, which includes the carrier, three Navy destroyers and one cruiser, are in the Red Sea and were part of Saturdays mission. The USS Georgia cruise missile submarine has also been operating in the region. Trump said the strikes were to protect American shipping, air, and naval assets, and to restore Navigational Freedom.The focus on the Houthis and their attacks have raised their profile as they face economic and other pressures at home amid Yemens decadelong stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab worlds poorest nation.Pressure on IranSaturdays strikes also were meant to pressure Iran, which has backed the Houthis just as it has supported Hamas and other proxies in the Middle East.Trump vowed to hold Iran fully accountable for the Houthis actions.The State Department earlier this month reinstated the foreign terrorist organization designation for the Houthis, which carries sanctions and penalties for anyone providing material support for the group.The Trump administration also has been pressing Iran to restart bilateral talks on Irans advancing nuclear weapons program, with Trump writing a letter to the countrys supreme leader. Trump, who unilaterally withdrew America from Irans 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, has said he will not allow the program to become operational. Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful. However, its officials increasingly threaten to pursue a nuclear weapon.Trump has also levied new sanctions on Iran as part of his maximum pressure campaign against the country and has suggested that military action remains a possibility, while emphasizing he still believes a new nuclear deal can be reached.___Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.

President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)2025-03-16T00:36:27Z President Donald Trump on Saturday invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II, granting himself sweeping powers under a centuries-old law to deport people associated with a Venezuelan gang. Hours later, a federal judge halted deportations under Trumps order.The act is a sweeping wartime authority that allows non-citizens to be deported without being given the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.Trump repeatedly hinted during his campaign that he would declare extraordinary powers to confront illegal immigration and laid additional groundwork in a slew of executive orders on Jan. 20.His proclamation on Saturday identified Venezuelas Tren de Aragua gang as an invading force. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, blocked anyone from being deported under Trumps proclamation for two weeks and scheduled a Friday hearing to consider arguments. What is the Alien Enemies Act?In 1798, with the U.S. preparing for what it believed would be a war with France, Congress passed a series of laws that increased the federal governments reach. Worried that immigrants could sympathize with the French, the Alien Enemies Act was created to give the president wide powers to imprison and deport non-citizens in time of war.Since then, the act has been used just three times: during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.During World War II, with anti-foreigner fears sweeping the country, it was part of the legal rationale for mass internment in the U.S. of people of German, Italian and especially Japanese ancestry. An estimated 120,000 people with Japanese heritage, including those with U.S. citizenship, were incarcerated during the war. What brought this to a head on a Saturday?The American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward preemptively sued Trump late Friday in federal court in Washington, D.C., saying five Venezuelan men being held at an immigration detention center in Raymondville, Texas, were at imminent risk of removal under the Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg blocked their deportation, prompting an immediate appeal from the Justice Department.Almost simultaneously, the Trump administration agreed to pay El Salvador $6 million to imprison about 300 alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang for one year.The agreement with El Salvador followed discussions between that countrys president, Nayib Bukele, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about housing migrants in El Salvadors notorious prisons. Bukeles government has arrested more than 84,000 people, sometimes without due process, since 2022 in a crackdown on gang violence.ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said two flights Saturday may have carried people deported under Trumps proclamation, one to El Salvador and one possibly to Honduras. Boasberg said any such flights would have to be returned midair to the United States. The US isnt at war, is it?For years, Trump and his allies have argued that America is facing an invasion of people arriving illegally. Arrests on the U.S. border with Mexico topped 2 million a year for two straight years for the first time under President Joe Biden, with many released into the U.S. to pursue asylum. After hitting an all-time monthly high of 250,000 in December 2023, they plunged to less than 8,400 this February the lowest levels since the 1960s.The act, Trump said in his inaugural address, would be a key tool in his immigration crackdown.By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, he said. As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions.Critics say Trump is wrongly using the act to target non-state actors, not foreign governments.Invoking it in peacetime to bypass conventional immigration law would be a staggering abuse, the Brennan Center for Justice wrote, calling it at odds with centuries of legislative, presidential, and judicial practice.Summary detentions and deportations under the law conflict with contemporary understandings of equal protection and due process, the Brennan Center said. Does illegal immigration constitute an invasion?Its a new and untested argument. Trump has warned of the power of Latin American criminal gangs in the U.S., but only a tiny percentage of the people living illegally in the U.S. are criminals.Trump, in his wartime declaration on Saturday, said Tren de Aragua is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion of predatory incursion against the territory of the United States. He said the gang was engaged in irregular warfare against the United States at the direction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.Tren de Aragua originated in an infamously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nations economy came undone last decade. Last month, the Trump administration designated Tren de Aragua and seven other Latin American crime organizations as foreign terrorist organizations, upping pressure on cartels operating in the U.S. and on anyone aiding them.Congress research arm said in a report last month officials may use the foreign terrorist designations to argue the gangs activities in the U.S. amount to a limited invasion. This theory appears to be unprecedented and has not been subject to judicial review, the Congressional Research Service said.The Venezuelan government has not typically taken its people back from the U.S., except on a few occasions. Over the past few weeks, about 350 people were deported to Venezuela, including some 180 who spent up to 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.___Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A person waves an Irish flag while watching the St. Patrick's Day parade, Sunday, March 17, 2024, in Boston's South Boston neighborhood. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)2025-03-14T21:13:07Z NEW YORK (AP) If its March, and its green, it must be St. Patricks Day. The day honoring the patron saint of Ireland is a global celebration of Irish heritage. And nowhere is that more so than in the United States, where parades take place in cities around the country and all kinds of foods and drinks are given an emerald hue.In fact, it was among Irish American communities that the day became the celebration it is, from its roots as a more solemn day with a religious observance in Ireland.But even in America, it was about more than a chance to dye a river green (looking at you, Chicago) or just bust out a favorite piece of green clothing, it was about putting down roots and claiming a piece of the countrys calendar. Who is St. Patrick and why does he even have a day?Patrick was not actually Irish, according to experts. Born in the late fourth century, he was captured as an adolescent and ended up enslaved in Ireland. He escaped to another part of Europe where he was trained as a priest and returned to Ireland in the fifth century to promote the spread of Christianity. Several centuries later, he was made a saint by the Catholic Church and like other saints had a day dedicated to him, which was March 17. He became Irelands patron saint, and even when religious strife broke out between Catholics and Protestants, was claimed by both, says Mike Cronin, historian and academic director of Boston College Dublin. How did an Irish saints day become an American thing? The short answer: Irish people came to America and brought their culture with them. St. Patricks Day observances date back to before the founding of the U.S., in places like Boston and New York City. The first parade was held in Manhattan in 1762.While the day was marked with more of a religious framing and solemnity in Ireland until well into the 20th century, in America it became the cultural and boisterous celebration it is today, marked by plenty of people without a trace of Irish heritage.It was because people in Ireland started seeing how the day was marked in the U.S. that it became more of a festival in the country of its origin rather than strictly a religious observance, Cronin says, pointing to the parades, parties and other festivities that are held.Oh, and by the way, for those who like to shorten names: Use St. Paddys Day, not St. Pattys Day. Paddy is a nickname for Pdraig, which is the Irish spelling of Patrick.Why is it such a big deal?Holidays arent simply days to watch bands go by, or wear a specific outfit or costume.Being able to mark a holiday, and have others mark it, is a way of putting down roots, showing that youve made it in American culture, says Leigh Schmidt, professor in the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University. Youve made your claim on that American calendar, in American civic life, by having these holidays widely recognized.The spread of St. Patricks Day celebrations in the U.S. was a way for Irish immigrant communities, who in the 19th century faced discrimination and opposition, to stake that ground, he says: Its a kind of immigrant Irish way of combating nativist antagonism against them. Whats with four-leaf clovers, anyway?A popular sight around the holiday is the shamrock, or three-leaf clover, linked to Ireland and St. Patrick.The lucky ones, though, come across something thats harder to find: a four-leaf clover. Thats because it takes a recessive trait or traits in the clovers genetics for there to be more than the normal 3 leaves, says Vincent Pennetti, who has been fascinated by the plants since high school.Four-leaf clovers are real. They are rare, he says.That doesnt mean they cant be found. People just have to keep their eyes open and get really good at noticing patterns and breaks in the patterns, and they just start jumping out at you, he says. Katie Glerum finds them. She says its not unheard of for her to be somewhere like out in a park and see one. She usually scoops it up and often gives it to someone else, to a positive response.If it happened every day, then I probably would be less excited about it, she says. But yeah, when it happens, it is exciting. DEEPTI HAJELA Hajela writes about the ways in which America is changing as part of the APs Trends+Culture team. She is based in New York City.

A farmer holds an opened cocoa pod at a plantation in Tanjung Rejo, Lampung province, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)2025-03-16T02:04:28Z TANJUNG REJO, Indonesia (AP) The loud whirr of a chainsaw sounds through the forest as a small group of farmers gathers around a tree filled with red seed pods. With one slow stroke, a severed knobby branch hits the ground.Now it will help the tree grow new fruit, farmer Tari Santoso says with a smile.Thousands of cocoa farmers across Indonesia like Santoso are working with businesses and other organizations to protect their crops from the bitter impacts of climate change and underinvestment that have pushed cocoa prices to record levels.Cocoa trees are high maintenance: Grown only near the equator, they require a precise combination of steady temperatures, humidity and sunlight. It takes five years for a tree to start producing the seeds that are processed into cocoa used to make chocolate and other delectable foods.Climate change raises the risks for farmers: Hotter weather hurts yields and longer rainy seasons trigger the spread of fungus and deadly pests. Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns have made it harder for farmers to deal with those challenges. So farmers are switching to other crops, further reducing cocoa supplies and pushing prices higher: In 2024, prices nearly tripled, reaching about US$12,000 per ton, driving up chocolate costs and leading some chocolate makers to try growing cocoa in laboratories. Indonesia is the third-largest producer of cocoa in the world, behind Cote DIvoire and Ghana, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, farmers are joining with businesses and nongovernmental organizations to develop better growing practices and improve their livelihoods. Sitting in the shade of his forest farm in south Sumatra, 3 miles (5 kilometers) from a national park where Sumatran tigers and rhinos roam, farmer Santoso is working with Indonesian chocolate maker Krakakoa. After he began working with the company in 2016, Santoso starting using practices that helped his cocoa trees flourish, regularly pruning and grafting new branches onto older trees to promote growth and prevent the spread of disease. He is using organic fertilizer and has adopted agroforestry techniques, integrating other crops and trees such as bananas, dragon fruit, coffee and pepper, into his farm to foster a healthier ecosystem and invest in other income sources. It wasnt very successful before we met Krakakoa, Santoso said. But then, we received training ... things are much better.Krakakoa has trained more than 1,000 cocoa farmers in Indonesia according to its founder and CEO, Sabrina Mustopo. The company also provides financial support. Santoso and other farmers in Sumatra said the partnership helped them to form a cooperative provides low-interest loans to farmers, with interest paid back into the cooperative rather than to banks outside of the community. Cocoa farmers who need bigger loans from government-owned banks also benefit from partnering with businesses, as the guaranteed buyer agreements can provide collateral needed to get loans approved, said Armin Hari, a communications manager at the Cocoa Sustainability Partnership, a forum for public-private collaboration for cocoa development in Indonesia. Dozens of other businesses, the government and nongovernmental organizations and cooperatives are also working with cocoa farmers to better cope with climate change, benefiting thousands, Hari said. He pointed to a collaboration between Indonesias National Research and Innovation Agency and the local division of international chocolate maker Mars, which have released a new variant of cocoa that produces more pods per tree.Challenges still remain, said Rajendra Aryal, the FAOs country director for Indonesia. Fewer people see cocoa farming as a lucrative business and instead are planting other crops such as palm oil. And many small-scale farmers still cannot get loans, he said.But Aryal said he hopes that continued collaboration between farmers and others will help.If we can look at the major issues these (farmers) are facing ... I think this sector could be, again, very attractive to the farmers, he said. Despite the challenges in Indonesia, I see that there are opportunities.___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. VICTORIA MILKO Milko is an Associated Press multimedia reporter covering the nexus of the energy transition, climate change and human rights across Asia-Pacific. twitter mailto

Farooq Ahmad Shaksaaz searches for a favorite cassette tape at his tailor shop in the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)2025-03-16T03:05:09Z SRINAGAR, India (AP) Farooq Ahmad Shaksaaz presses a button on his 1970 Sharp cassette player, and with a hefty clack the machine whirrs to life. As the Kashmiri tailor stitches, the machine crackles for a moment before Ghulam Ahmad Sofis otherworldly voice fills his shop with verses about divine love and the pain of separation from the beloved creator of the universe.Shaksaaz, a tailor in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, inherited his passion for local Sufi music from his grandfather along with a meticulously preserved collection of audio cassette tapes from the 1970s, which he often listens to as he works. Hes part of a small, dedicated community that believes cassette tapes are the best way to listen to and archive the Sufi music of Indian-controlled Kashmir, where music inspired by local and central Asian Muslim saints has long been a deep expression of spirituality and emotion. Many people turn to the music for spiritual guidance, or seeking an escape from the regions long periods of street battles, shutdowns and security clampdowns. For decades, cassette players have carried the soul-stirring poetry of Sufi saints and the mystical melodies of Kashmiri instruments like the sarangi and santoor, and its long been a local ritual for families to gather around the warm hum of a tape player. Even today, the regions traditional Sufi music gatherings are often recorded only on the disappearing audio format, which was widely used from the 1970s to the 1990s. While the music is increasingly available on digital formats, many Kashmiris say that its best heard on cassette tapes. There is something unique about this machine that for me plays recordings of spiritual guides, said Abdul Ahad, a carpet weaver. It is a sacred ritual in itself to press the play button of a cassette player to listen to a song on spiritual moorings. Many of the most beloved albums were released by local record labels during the heyday of the audio cassette, but dedicated devotees of the genre are still bringing tape recorders to gatherings. Digital recorders are often unwelcome at these nightly music sessions, as Sufi music lovers say they blur together the distinct sounds of the different instruments.It is a different experience to listen to music on a tape recorder, said Abdul Hamid Khan. Tapes are smooth and you can feel the sound of every instrument, you dont get that feel in these new players.Still, as tapes wear out and more music moves to digital streaming platforms and smartphones, the tactile and deeply personal listening experience of cassettes is becoming harder to keep going. Many families have been forced to part with their players due to mechanical failures, while others struggle to preserve their cherished cassette collections, some of which hold rare and irreplaceable recordings passed down through generations. Some collectors have turned to digitizing their old recordings to safeguard them for future generations.Only a few shops in Srinagar, the regions main city, sell tape recorders or blank tapes, and the availability of spare parts and skilled repair technicians has drastically dwindled. A handful of mechanics in the Kashmir Valley still cater to a dedicated population of Sufi music lovers, painstakingly restoring machines made by beloved Japanese brands like Sharp and Kenwood in the last century.Mohammad Ashraf Matoo, a self-taught mechanic, has spent years keeping decades-old cassette players running even as spare parts become increasingly scarce. He purchases non-functional recorders to extract usable components, and manufactures some parts himself to keep his customers devices going. Once repaired, a well-functioning tape recorder is sold for a price between $150 and $850, depending on its brand and condition.Shaksaaz, a lifelong Sufi music devotee, called it a personal mission to preserve the legacy of cassette tapes. It is a bridge to the past, a way to remain connected to our spiritual and cultural roots in this ever modernizing and digital world, he said. AIJAZ HUSSAIN Hussain is a senior reporter for The Associated Press covering the Kashmir conflict, Indian politics and strategic affairs, and climate. He has worked for the AP for nearly two decades. twitter mailto

Aminata Doumbia, president of the women's group, sits next to a pit on farmland that was leased with help from USAID but has not yet been cultivated because the funding has ceased in Kimbirila-Nord, Ivory Coast, Feb. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)2025-03-16T05:22:43Z KIMBIRILA-NORD, Ivory Coast (AP) With its tomato patches and grazing cattle, the Ivory Coast village of Kimbirila-Nord hardly looks like a front line of the global fight against extremism. But after jihadis attacked a nearby community in Mali five years ago and set up a base in a forest straddling the border, the U.S. committed to spending $20 million to counter the spread of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group here and in dozens of other villages.The Trump administrations sweeping foreign aid cuts mean that support is now gone, even as violence in Mali and other countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara has reached record levels and sent tens of thousands refugees streaming into northern Ivory Coast. Locals worry they have been abandoned. Diplomats and aid officials said the termination of aid jeopardizes counterterrorism efforts and weakens U.S. influence in a part of the world where some countries have turned to Russian mercenaries for help. In Kimbirila-Nord, U.S. funding, among other things, helped young people get job training, built parks for cattle to graze so they are no longer stolen by jihadis on Malian territory, and helped establish an information-sharing system so residents can flag violent encounters to each other and state services.What attracts young people to extremists is poverty and hunger, said Yacouba Doumbia, 78-year-old chief of Kimbirila-Nord. There was a very dangerous moment in 2020. The project came at the right time, and allowed us to protect ourselves. Seize a narrow prevention windowOver the last decade, West Africa has been shaken by extremist uprisings and military coups. Groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have conquered large areas and killed thousands in the Sahel and have been spreading into wealthier West African coastal states, such as Ivory Coast, Benin and Togo.In 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Global Fragility Act that led to the initiatives in northern Ivory Coast. The U.S. goal in this area was to seize a narrowing prevention window, according to this years congressional report about the implementation of the bipartisan legislation.Experts say local concerns help drive the popularity of extremist groups: competition for land and resources, exclusion, marginalization and lack of economic opportunities. Across the region, Islamic extremists have recruited among groups marginalized and neglected by central governments.Ivory Coast is one of the few countries that still resist the terrorist threat in the Sahel, said a U.N. official working in the country who was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly. If we do not continue to support border communities, a minor issue could send them into the arms of extremists.Trump issued an executive order in January directing a freeze on foreign assistance and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad. He charged that much of foreign aid was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda. Everyone was just looking out for themselvesIn 2020, when the jihadis struck a Malian village 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, Kimbirila-Nord in many ways fit the description of a community susceptible to extremism.The lives of Malians and Ivorians were intertwined. People crossed the border freely, making it easy for extremists, who like residents spoke Bambara, to access Kimbirila-Nord. Many residents did not have identity cards and few spoke French, leaving them with no access to states services or official information. Different ethnic groups lived next to each other but were divided by conflicts over scarce natural resources and suspicions toward the state. And young people did not have opportunities to make money.We were very scared when the extremists attacked, said Aminata Doumbia, the head of the villages female farmers cooperative. Everyone was just looking out for themselves.The Ivorian government runs a program that provides professional training, grants and microloans. But access is difficult in villages such as Kimbirila-Nord.Kimbirila-Nord is home to refugees from Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea. Sifata Berte, 23, fled there with his family two years ago from Mali. He is not eligible for the government-run program, but got training through the project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development and now works as an apprentice in an iron workshop. Other things the USAID-funded project set up included a network of community radios in local languages, so people could get access to information. It also used mobile government trucks to help tens of thousands of people across the region get their identity documents. And it brought people together with microcredit cooperatives and with a special committee of ranchers and farmers that helps resolve tensions over land. Its thanks to the project that we can sleep at night, Doumbia, the village chief, said. We learned how to be together. Equal Access International, an international nonprofit, designed and implemented the U.S.-funded project.The USAID project also has been the only direct source of information on the ground in northern Ivory Coast on violent events for the U.S.-based Armed Conflict and Location & Event Data Project, the main provider of data on violence in the Sahel.The village had big plans Ivory Coast became known as a target for extremists in 2016, when an attack on the seaside resort of Grand Bassam killed tourists. In 2021, a string of attacks occurred near the countrys northern border, but the violence has been largely contained after Ivorian authorities, Western governments and aid groups rushed into this impoverished and isolated part of the country with military build up and development projects.In 2024, the U.S. Africa Command provided over $65 million to projects in Ivory Coast, most of which focused on counterterrorism and border security in the northern part of the country, according to the groups website. The Pentagon said in a statement that it was not aware of any budget cuts that have undermined counterterrorism training or partnership programs in Africa.Ivory Coast has the second-highest GDP per capita in West Africa, but according to the U.N. it remains one of the worlds least developed countries. Many in remote villages like Kimbirila-Nord do not have access to running water.At first we thought that we only had to solve these problems with a military solution, Famy Rene, the prefect of Korhogo, the regions capital, said. But we saw that this was not enough. We had to put in place programs that strengthen the resilience of the population.Residents of Kimbirila-Nord had big plans before the U.S. froze aid. The U.S. was supposed to finance the first well in the village, help create a collective farm, and expand vocational training, Now they fear they have been left alone to deal with extremists.If you forget, they will come back, said Doumbia, the village chief. As long as there is war on the other side of the border, we must remain on a high alert.___For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse___The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. MONIKA PRONCZUK Pronczuk covers 22 countries across Central and West Africa for The Associated Press. She is based in Dakar, Senegal. twitter mailto

This image made from video by NASA shows the docking of the SpaceX capsule to the International Space Station Sunday, March 16, 2025. (NASA via AP)2025-03-16T04:05:26Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) Just over a day after blasting off, a SpaceX crew capsule arrived at the International Space Station on Sunday, delivering the replacements for NASAs two stuck astronauts.The four newcomers representing the U.S., Japan and Russia will spend the next few days learning the stations ins and outs from Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. Then the two will strap into their own SpaceX capsule later this week, one that has been up there since last year, to close out an unexpected extended mission that began last June.Wilmore and Williams expected to be gone just a week when they launched on Boeings first astronaut flight. They hit the nine-month mark earlier this month.The Boeing Starliner capsule encountered so many problems that NASA insisted it come back empty, leaving its test pilots behind to wait for a SpaceX lift. Their ride arrived in late September with a downsized crew of two and two empty seats reserved for the leg back. But more delays resulted when their replacements brand new capsule needed extensive battery repairs. An older capsule took its place, pushing up their return by a couple weeks to mid-March.Weather permitting, the SpaceX capsule carrying Wilmore, Williams and two other astronauts will undock from the space station no earlier than Wednesday and splash down off Floridas coast. ___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.

Destruction from a severe storm is seen Saturday, March 15, 2025, in Wayne County, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)2025-03-16T05:45:30Z PIEDMONT, Mo. (AP) Violent tornadoes and high winds decimated homes, wiped out schools and toppled semitractor-trailers as a monster storm that killed at least 32 people ripped its way across the central and southern U.S. Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in the debris Friday night outside what remained of his aunts house in hard-hit Wayne County, Missouri. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the state, authorities said.It was a very rough deal last night, Henderson said Saturday not far from the splintered home from which he said they rescued his aunt through a window of the only room left standing. Its really disturbing for what happened to the people, the casualties last night.Coroner Jim Akers of nearby Butler County described the unrecognizable home where one man was killed as just a debris field. The floor was upside down, he said. We were walking on walls.Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves announced six people died in three counties and three more people were missing late Saturday as storms moved further east into Alabama, where damaged homes and impassable roads were reported. Officials confirmed three deaths in Arkansas, where Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp did the same in anticipation of the storms shift eastward. Dust storms spurred by the systems early high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on 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. Extreme weather encompasses a zone of 100 million people The extreme weather conditions were forecast to impact an area that is home to more than 100 million people, with winds threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and fanning the wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state and nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed. Gov. Kevin Stitt said at a Saturday news conference that some 266 square miles (689 square kilometers) had burned, sharing that he lost a home of his own on a ranch northeast of Oklahoma City. To the north, the National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings for parts of far western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota starting early Saturday. Snow accumulations of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 centimeters) were expected, with up to a foot (30 centimeters) possible. Winds were expected to cause whiteout conditions.Still, experts said its not unusual to see such weather extremes in March. Tornadoes have been widespreadSignificant tornadoes continued late Saturday, with the region at highest risk stretching from eastern Louisiana and Mississippi through Alabama, western Georgia and the Florida panhandle, the Storm Prediction Center said.Bailey Dillon, 24, and her fiance, Caleb Barnes, watched from their front porch in Tylertown, Mississippi, as a massive twister struck an area about half a mile (0.8 kilometer) away near Paradise Ranch RV Park. They drove over afterward to see if anyone needed help and recorded video of snapped trees, leveled buildings and overturned vehicles.The amount of damage was catastrophic, Dillon said. It was a large amount of cabins, RVs, campers that were just flipped over. Everything was destroyed.Paradise Ranch said via Facebook that all staff and guests were safe and accounted for, but Dillon said the damage extended beyond the RV park itself.Homes and everything were destroyed all around it, she said. Schools and buildings are just completely gone.Some images from the extreme weather went viral online. Tad Peters and his father, Richard Peters, had pulled over to fuel up their pickup truck in Rolla, Missouri, on Friday night when they heard tornado sirens and saw other motorists fleeing the interstate to park. Whoa, is this coming? Oh, its here. Its here, Tad Peters can be heard saying on a video. Look at all that debris. Ohhh. My God, we are in a torn ... His father then rolled up the window. The two were headed to Indiana for a weightlifting competition but decided to return home to Norman, Oklahoma, about six hours away, where they then encountered wildfire.___Walker reported from New York, and Reynolds reported from Louisville, Kentucky. Bruce Shipkowski in Toms River, New Jersey, Jeff Roberson in Wayne County, Missouri, Gene Johnson in Seattle and Janie Har in San Francisco contributed.

A 28-year-old mother of four who was gang-raped by armed men while collecting firewood, enters a makeshift house in Juba displacement camp, South Sudan, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)2025-03-16T04:30:18Z JUBA, South Sudan (AP) After being gang-raped by armed men while collecting firewood, the 28-year-old tried in vain to get help. Some clinics were closed, others told her to return later and she had no money to access a hospital.Five months after the assault, she lay on a mat in a displacement camp in South Sudans capital, rubbing her swollen belly. I felt like I wasnt heard ... and now Im pregnant, she said. The Associated Press does not identify people who have been raped.Sexual assault is a constant risk for many women in South Sudan. Now one aid group is trying to bridge the gap with technology, to find and help survivors more quickly. But its not easy in a country with low connectivity, high illiteracy and wariness about how information is used.Five months ago, an Israel-based organization in South Sudan piloted a chatbot it created on WhatsApp. It prompts questions for its staff to ask survivors of sexual assault to anonymously share their experiences. The information is put into the phone while speaking to the person and the bot immediately notifies a social worker theres a case, providing help to the person within hours. IsraAID said the technology improves communication. Papers can get misplaced and information can go missing, said Rodah Nyaduel, a psychologist with the group. When colleagues document an incident, shes notified by phone and told what type of case it is. Tech experts said technology can reduce human error and manual file keeping, but organizations need to ensure data privacy. How do they intend to utilize that information, does it get circulated to law enforcement, does that information cross borders. Groups need to do certain things to guarantee how to safeguard that information and demonstrate that, said Gerardo Rodriguez Phillip, an AI and technology innovation consultant in Britain. IsraAID said its data is encrypted and anonymized. It automatically deletes from staffers phones. In the chatbots first three months in late 2024, it was used to report 135 cases.When the 28-year-old was raped, she knew she had just a few days to take medicine to help prevent disease and pregnancy, she said.One aid group she approached scribbled her information on a piece of paper and told her to return later to speak with a social worker. When she did, they said they were busy. After 72 hours, she assumed it was pointless. Weeks later, she found she was pregnant.IsraAID found her while doing door-to-door visits in her area. At first, she was afraid to let them put her information into their phone, worried it would be broadcast on social media. But she felt more comfortable knowing the phones were not personal devices, thinking she could hold the organization accountable if there were problems.Shes one of tens of thousands of people still living in displacement sites in the capital, Juba, despite a peace deal ending civil war in 2018. Some are afraid to leave or have no homes to return to.The fear of rape remains for women who leave the camps for firewood or other needs. Some told the AP about being sexually assaulted. They said there are few services in the camp because of reduced assistance by international aid groups and scant government investment in health. Many cant afford taxis to a hospital in town. U.S. President Donald Trumps recent executive order to freeze USAID funding during a 90-day review period is exacerbating the challenges. Aid groups have closed some services including psychological support for women, affecting tens of thousands of people.Technology isnt widely used by aid groups focused on gender-based violence in South Sudan. Some organizations say that, based on survivors feedback, the ideal app would allow people to get help remotely.Stigma surrounding sexual assault further complicates efforts to get help in South Sudan. Its especially hard for young girls who need to get permission to leave their homes, said Mercy Lwambi, gender-based violence lead at the International Rescue Committee. They want to talk to someone faster than a physical meeting, she said.But South Sudan has one of the lowest rates of mobile access and connectivity in the world, with less than 25% of market penetration, according to a report by GSMA, a global network of mobile operators. People with phones dont always have internet access, and many are illiterate.You have to be thinking, will this work in a low-tech environment? What are the literacy rates? Do they have access to devices? If so, what kind? Will they find it engaging, will they trust it, is it safe? said Kirsten Pontalti, a senior associate at Proteknon Foundation for Innovation and Learning, an international organization focused on advancing child protection.Pontalti has piloted two chatbots, one to help youth and parents better access information about sexual reproductive health and the other for frontline workers focused on child protection during COVID. She said technology focused on reporting abuse should include an audio component for people with low literacy and be as low-tech as possible.Some survivors of sexual assault say they just want to be heard, whether by phone or in person.One 45-year-old man, a father of 11, said it took years to seek help after being raped by his wife after he refused to have sex and said he didnt want more children they couldnt afford to support.It took multiple visits by aid workers to his displacement site in Juba before he felt comfortable speaking out.Organizations need to engage more with the community, he said. If they hadnt shown up, I wouldnt have come in.___For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse___The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. SAM MEDNICK Mednick is the AP correspondent for Israel and the Palestinian Territories. She focuses on conflict, humanitarian crises and human rights abuses. Mednick formerly covered West & Central Africa and South Sudan. twitter

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)2025-03-16T09:23:14Z CAIRO (AP) Iran on Sunday once again denied aiding Yemens Houthi rebels after the United States launched a wave of airstrikes against them and President Donald Trump warned that Tehran would be held fully accountable for their actions.The Houthi-run Health Ministry said the strikes killed at least 31 people, including women and children, and wounded over 100. The rebels said one strike hit two homes in northern Saada province, killing four children and a woman. The rebel-run Al-Masirah TV showed images of what it said were the bodies.The Houthis have repeatedly targeted international shipping in the Red Sea and launched missiles and drones at Israel in what the rebels said were acts of solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has been at war with Hamas, another Iranian ally.The attacks stopped when a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire took hold in Gaza in January, but the Houthis had threatened to renew them after Israel cut off the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza this month. The U.S. and others have long accused Iran of providing military aid to the Houthis and the U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made missile parts and other weaponry it said were bound for the militant group, which controls Yemens capital, Sanaa, and the countrys north. Gen. Hossein Salami, head of Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, denied his country was involved in the Houthis attacks, saying it plays no role in setting the national or operational policies of the militant groups it is allied with across the region, according to state-run TV. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, in a post on X, urged the U.S. to halt the strikes and said Washington cannot dictate Irans foreign policy.Trump on Saturday had vowed to use overwhelming lethal force until the Houthis cease their attacks on shipping along the vital maritime corridor. The airstrikes come a few days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing off Yemen in response to Israels latest blockade on Gaza. There have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two and killing four sailors, during their campaign targeting military and civilian ships between the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 and January of this year, when the ceasefire in Gaza took effect.The United States, Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen, but Saturdays operation was conducted solely by the U.S. It was the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration.___Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

Rescue workers stand in front of a club after massive fire broke out early Sunday in Kocani, North Macedonia, March 16, 2025. (Kocani TV via AP)2025-03-16T08:35:48Z SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) A massive nightclub fire killed 51 people early Sunday in North Macedonia s eastern town of Kocani, and injured about 100 more, interior minister Panche Toshkovski told a press conference.The blaze broke out around 2:35 a.m. during a concert by a local pop group, according to Toshkovski. He said the young clubgoers used pyrotechnics that caused the roof to catch fire. Videos showed chaos inside the night club, with young people running through the smoke as the musicians urged people to escape as quickly as possible. This is the worst tragedy in recent memory to befall the landlocked nation, whose population is less than 2 million.This is a difficult and very sad day for Macedonia. The loss of so many young lives is irreparable, and the pain of the families, loved ones and friends is immeasurable, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski wrote on X, formerly Twitter. The people and the government will do everything in their power to at least slightly alleviate their pain and help them in these most difficult moments.Officials said the injured have been taken to hospitals around the country, including the capital, Skopje, many with severe burns. The effort was being assisted by multiple volunteer organizations.Family members gathered in front of hospitals and Kocanis city offices begging authorities for more information.Toshkovski said police have arrested one man, but didnt provide details on the persons involvement. Deeply saddened by the tragic fire in Kocani North Macedonia, which claimed lives of too many young people, Marta Kos, the European Commissioner for Enlargement, wrote in a post on X. My thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and the whole of North Macedonia.North Macedonia is a candidate for EU membership.___AP writer Derek Gatopoulos contributed from Athens, Greece.

Texas guard Julian Larry (1) moves against Tennessee forward Cade Phillips (12) during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference tournament, Friday, March 14, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)2025-03-16T10:10:06Z The AP Top 25 mens college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season!Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. For bubble teams North Carolina and Texas, Selection Sunday will feel like the longest day of the year. For top seeds in waiting like Duke and Auburn, making it into the NCAA Tournament isnt a matter of if, only when and where.The March Madness bracket will be revealed Sunday evening, setting the schedule for more than two weeks of competition in a season that saw the Southeastern Conference dominate the rankings. The tournament opens Tuesday and Wednesday with play-in games and the first round opens Thursday and Friday, featuring 32 games at eight sites around the country. The Final Four is in San Antonio on April 5 and 7.Auburn is a slight favorite over Duke to win the national championship, with Florida and Houston not far behind, according to BetMGM Sportsbook. UConn will make the tournament and try for a threepeat as national champ, something that hasnt been done since the early 1970s, while Big East champion St. Johns is back as one of the top teams in the country under veteran coach Rick Pitino. Bubble watchBeyond the matchups, most of the drama will revolve around the Tar Heels and Longhorns, who are on the bubble and saw their chances of making the field of 68 shrink thanks to Colorado States run through the Mountain West Conference tournament. The Rams win positions the Mountain West to grab at least three, and possibly four bids if runner-up Boise State makes it. North Carolina and Texas each won two games in their conference tournaments, and for about a day, they looked securely in. Now, though, they wait. What the NCAA selection committee decides with those teams will play a role on the history their respective conferences are making or trying to avoid this season.If the Longhorns make it, the Southeastern Conference could place 14 teams in the bracket which would account for about 1 in 5 of all the March Madness spots and set a record. The old one for a single conference was 11, set by the Big East in 2011. If the Tar Heels get left out, the 18-team Atlantic Coast Conference would likely only place three teams in the tournament. The last time the ACC put that few teams in was 2000, back when it was a nine-team league.Texas and North Carolina will be paying attention to Sundays games between Memphis and UAB for the American Athletic Conference title and VCU vs. UAB in the Atlantic 10. If Memphis or VCU lose, another at-large spot could get gobbled up. Who will be the overall No. 1 seed?One of the ACCs tourney teams will be Duke, which on Saturday reassured the NCAA that its best player, Cooper Flagg, would be available for the tournament after sitting out the last two games of the ACC Tournament with an injured ankle. Even without Flagg, Duke defeated Louisville 73-62 to win the title.In picking the top overall seed, the selection committee will have to choose between Duke, with the uncertainty surrounding Flagg and its weaker strength of schedule, and Auburn, a semifinal loser in the SEC Tournament that, nevertheless, is helped by playing in the nations toughest conference.Big 12 champion Houston could also squeeze into the very top spot. The winner of the SEC title game Sunday between Florida and Tennessee was a good bet to get the final No. 1 seed.___AP March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

A person waves an Irish flag while watching the St. Patrick's Day parade, Sunday, March 17, 2024, in Boston's South Boston neighborhood. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)2025-03-16T04:23:20Z Its that time of year again when more than a million green-clad revelers fill the streets of Americas most Irish big city for the South Boston St. Patricks Day parade, celebrating the heritage and contributions of all those who hail from the Emerald Isle.Sundays parade dates back to the turn of the 20th century and marks both St. Patricks Day and Evacuation Day, which commemorates the day in 1776 when British troops left Boston after a protracted siege during the Revolutionary War.The 3.5-mile (5.6-kilometer) parade rolls through the neighborhood South Boston, a center of Irish-American heritage in a city where more than 1 in every 5 people are of Irish descent. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council organizes the parade and this years chief marshal is retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alanna Devlin Ball, who grew up in the neighborhood and represented the U.S. at the 2023 Invictus Games in Germany where she took home gold in powerlifting. Lt. Cdr. Devlin Balls 12 years career in the Navy serves as an inspiration to young women who seek to serve in todays military. We are grateful for her service, sacrifice and power of example, said U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, a South Boston native. The parade is scheduled to kick off slightly earlier in the morning than normal. Last years events were marred by violence and public intoxication that officials say they hope to curb on Sunday. The goal of the parade is keeping alive the tradition of honoring heritage and service, the war veterans council said in a statement.The parade also has been a source of political controversy in years past. The South Boston Allied War Veterans Council banned gay rights groups from marching in the parade up until a decade ago and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling upheld that right in the 1990s.Two gay and lesbian groups joined the parade in 2015. Organizers for one of the groups, Boston Pride, heralded the move as a point of progress at the time.Chicago held its St. Patricks Day parade on Saturday. Philadelphia also celebrates on Sunday and New York City holds its parade Monday. PATRICK WHITTLE Whittle is an Associated Press reporter based in Portland, Maine. He focuses on the environment and oceans. twitter mailto

Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., talks to attendees after holding a town hall meeting on Friday, March 14, 2025, in Evanston, Wyo. (AP Photo/Spenser Heaps)2025-03-16T12:16:08Z EVANSTON, Wyo. (AP) In two congressional districts and vastly different political environments, two Republican congressmen were met with far different reactions at public meetings they held late last week. Against the suggestion of their leader, House Speaker Mike Johnson, to refrain from holding public meetings with constituents, second-term Reps. Chuck Edwards and Harriet Hageman went ahead with their evening sessions. In Asheville, North Carolina, chants of opposition greeted Edwards on Thursday as opponents hooted at almost every answer he gave and chanted outside. In Evanston, Wyoming, at the southwestern corner of a sparsely populated and heavily Republican state, it was mostly Republicans who asked probing questions of Hageman in a quieter setting. In both cases, voters were curious about the scope and pace of action in Washington since President Donald Trump took office, if less boisterously in Wyoming than the event 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the southeast. Evanston, WyomingJoy Walton, a 76-year-old Republican from Evanston, had come to the meeting confused about tech billionaire Elon Musks role in the executive branch. Trump has charged Musk with leading a broad effort to shrink the size and cost of government. Hageman Liz Cheney s successor worked to clarify Musks place in the Trump administration, describing him as a special government employee with a top-secret security clearance. She praised him for his work targeting foreign aid contracts at the U.S. Agency for International Development, calling the department a monstrosity and waste of money. The meeting was tamer than some constituent meetings held by Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and the Senate. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican, adjourned such a meeting this month in northwest Kansas early when constituents became vocally angry about government personnel cuts. Still, Hagemans meeting Friday, with about 250 filling to capacity the meeting room in the restored Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse, was the liveliest event that evening in the train depot town of about 11,800 people.Some in the audience blurted comments to Hageman, though this was not unfriendly territory for Trump. The president received 80% of the vote in Uinta County, along the Utah border, en route to carrying Wyoming with nearly 72% of voters last year. Yet even some devout Republicans gave voice to concern about Musks recommendations as the head of the administrations Department of Government Efficiency.Former Wyoming Secretary of State Karl Allred, 60, said he was happy to see Trump slash wasteful spending, but noted that any serious reduction in federal spending needed to include the defense budget. I guarantee we waste a lot of money there, and in every department, Allred said regarding the military. Even Hageman suggested Musk was going too far in targeting the U.S. Postal Service, which has agreed to assist Musks group in its plan to cut 10,000 of the services 640,000 workers over the next month. Wyoming would be among the states hit hardest by cuts to the countrys mail service because of its small population, Hageman said. Asheville, North CarolinaEdwards was walking into a far different environment. Asheville, a mid-sized urban hub surrounded by the rural hills of western North Carolina, is the seat of Buncombe County, where Trump received 36.9% of the vote last year.Jay Carey, a 54-year-old Democrat, had said before the Thursday night constituent meeting at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, My plan is to call him out. About 20 minutes into Edwards meeting, Carey, a retired military veteran, started to yell at the representative to Do your job. Carey then stood, accused Edwards of lying and used a string of expletives until police escorted him out of the auditorium. For about 90 minutes, Edwards faced jeers, boos and pointed questions from many in the audience of 300, while another 1,000 echoed them from outside the building. Certainly, Carey, from the Asheville area, was part of a group of Democrats who attended the meeting, though not paid protesters as Johnson suggested were behind some of the more raucous gatherings. Careys home flooded with six feet of water during Hurricane Helene in September. He lost his small business and his family had to relocate from a house to a smaller apartment. Much of Edwards district was ravaged by the hurricane and remains in the early rebuilding phase, even as Trump has suggested eliminating the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Edwards seemed unruffled by the often hostile reception, telling reporters afterward, I appreciate the chance to talk about those things, even though there were some differences and some different opinions.Still, as protesters continued to chant outside, Edwards said, Were doing exactly what the American people sent us to Washington, D.C., to do.___Seminera reported from Asheville and Beaumont from Des Moines, Iowa. HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Schoenbaum is a government and politics reporter based in Salt Lake City, Utah. She also covers general news in the Rockies and LGBTQ+ rights policies in U.S. statehouses. twitter mailto MAKIYA SEMINERA Seminera is a state government reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. twitter mailto THOMAS BEAUMONT Beaumont covers national politics for The Associated Press. He is based in Des Moines, Iowa. twitter mailto

Prime Minister Mark Carney following a swearing in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday, March 14, 2025. (Adrian Wyld /The Canadian Press via AP)2025-03-16T12:27:23Z OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is heading to Paris and London on Monday to seek alliances as he deals with U.S. President Donald Trumps attacks on Canadas sovereignty and economy. Carney is purposely making his first foreign trip to the capital cities of the two countries that shaped Canadas early existence. At his swearing-in ceremony on Friday, Carney 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.The Trump factor is the reason for the trip. The Trump factor towers over everything else Carney must deal with, said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto.The 59-year-old former central banker will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday and later travel to London to sit down with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer in an effort to diversify trade and perhaps coordinate a response to Trumps tariffs. He will also meet with King Charles III, the head of state in Canada. The trip to England is a bit a homecoming, as Carney is a former governor of the Bank of England, the first noncitizen to be named to the role in the banks 300-plus-year history. Carney then travels to the edge of Canadas Arctic to reaffirm Canadas Arctic security and sovereignty before returning to Ottawa where hes expected to call an election within days. Carney 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.Sweeping tariffs of 25% and Trumps talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state have infuriated Canadians, and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can. Carneys government is reviewing the purchase of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets in light of Trumps trade war. The governing Liberal Party had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared economic war and repeatedly has said Canada should become the 51st state. Now the party and its new leader could come out on top.Robert Bothwell, a professor of Canadian history and international relations at the University of Toronto, said Carney is wise not to visit Trump. Theres no point in going to Washington, Bothwell said. As (former Prime Minister Justin) Trudeaus treatment shows, all that results in is a crude attempt by Trump to humiliate his guests. Nor can you have a rational conversation with someone who simply sits there and repeats disproven lies.Bothwell said that Trump demands respect, but its often a one-way street, asking others to set aside their self-respect to bend to his will.Daniel Bland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said it is absolutely essential that Canada diversify trade amidst the ongoing trade war with the United States. More than 75% of Canadas exports go to the U.S. Bland said Arctic sovereignty is also a key issue for Canada. President Trumps aggressive talk about both Canada and Greenland and the apparent rapprochement between Russia, a strong Arctic power, and the United States under Trump have increased anxieties about our control over this remote yet highly strategic region, Bland said.

Samantha Brasini, of Italy, kneels in front of the statue of Pope John Paul II as she prays for Pope Francis outside the Agostino Gemelli polyclinic in Rome, Italy, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)2025-03-16T08:46:42Z ROME (AP) Dozens of children toting yellow and white balloons gathered outside Romes Gemelli hospital to greet Pope Francis on his fifth Sunday hospitalized with double pneumonia. While the pope did not appear from the 10th-floor suite of windows, he acknowledged their presence in the traditional Sunday blessing.I know that many children are praying for me; some of them came here today to Gemelli as a sign of closeness, the pontiff said in the Angelus text prepared for the traditional prayer but not delivered live again. Thank you, dearest children! The pope loves you and is always waiting to meet you, Francis said.The Rev. Fortunato, the president of the pontifical committee for World Childrens Day who organized the event, said that the gathering of children with their parents was as a form of spiritual medicine for the 88-year-old pontiff, calling it the most beautiful caress. The children represent a symbolic medicine for Pope Francis, Fortunato said. Letting him know that so many children are here for him cheers the heart.They included 20 children accompanied by the St. Egidio charity and 50 children accompanied by UNICEF. The pope typically delivers the Angelus from a window overlooking St. Peters Square to the gathered faithful, who have grown more numerous due to the Jubilee year that Francis inaugurated in December.In the written text, Francis said he was thinking of others, who like him, are in a fragile state. Our bodies are weak, but even like this, nothing can prevent us from loving, praying, giving ourselves, being for each other, in faith, shining signs of hope, the pope said. The pope no longer in critical condition Along with a stop at St. Peters to seek indulgences by walking through the basilicas Holy Door, pilgrims are now also adding a stop at Gemelli, a 15-minute train ride from the Vatican.Doctors this week said the pontiff was no longer in critical, life-threatening condition, but they have continued to emphasize that his condition remained complex due to his age, lack of mobility and the loss of part of a lung as a young man.Still, they are issuing fewer medical bulletins as the pontiff has been on an upward trajectory. An X-ray this week confirmed that the infection was clearing.Francis has not been seen publicly since he was admitted to the hospital Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis that made it difficult for him to speak. Doctors soon added a diagnosis of double pneumonia and a polymicrobial (bacterial, viral and fungal) infection.The first three weeks of his hospitalization were marked by a rollercoaster of setbacks, including respiratory crises, mild kidney failure and a severe coughing fit.Doctors in the most recent medical update on Saturday said they were working to reduce the popes nighttime reliance on the non-invasive ventilation mask, which will allow his lungs to work more.Doctors underlined that while the popes condition is stable, he still requires hospitalization for treatment along with physical and respiratory therapy, which are showing further gradual improvements, the Vatican said Saturday in the first medical update in three days. The next update wont be issued until the middle of next week, the Vatican said.Associated Press writer Francesca Primavilla contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump listens as Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)2025-03-16T12:29:19Z The new populist president railed against the judiciary as they blocked his aggressive moves to restructure his countrys government and economy.This was in Mexico, where former President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador eventually pushed through changes that required every judge in his country to be elected rather than appointed. The reforms, and the promise of more by his successor, caused markets to lose confidence in his countrys reliability as a place to invest, which led its currency to weaken.It was one in a series of assaults that populists around the globe have launched on the courts in recent years, and legal observers now wonder if the United States could be next.As the courts deliver a series of setbacks to his dramatic attempt to change the federal government without congressional approval, President Donald Trumps supporters are echoing some of the rhetoric and actions that elsewhere have preceded attacks on the judiciary. Trumps deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, posted last week on X: Under the precedents now being established by radical rogue judges, a district court in Hawaii could enjoin troop movements in Iraq. Judges have no authority to administer the executive branch. Or to nullify the results of a national election. We either have democracy, said Miller, who once ran a legal group that sued to get judges to block former President Joe Bidens initiatives, or not. Trumps supporters in Congress have raised the specter of impeaching judges who have ruled against the administration. Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump backer whose Department of Government Efficiency has ended up in the crosshairs of much of the litigation, has regularly called for removing judges on his social media site, X.They dont like what theyre seeing in the courts, and this is setting up what may very well be a constitutional crisis about the independence of the judiciary, said Heidi Beirich, founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. Threats against constitutional governmentDespite the rhetoric, the Trump administration has so far not openly defied a court order, and the dozens of cases filed against its actions have followed a regular legal course. His administration has made no moves to seek removal of justices or push judicial reforms through the Republican-controlled Congress.Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University and voting rights expert who previously served in the Justice Departments civil rights division, said hes no fan of Trumps moves. But he said the administration has been following legal norms by appealing decisions it doesnt like.I think most of this is bluster, said Levitt, noting courts can imprison those who dont obey orders or levy crippling fines that double daily. If this is the approach the executive wants to take, its going to provoke a fight. Not everybody is going to be content to be a doormat the way Congress is.Even if no firm moves are underway to remove judges or blatantly ignore their rulings, the rhetoric has not gone unnoticed within the judiciary. Two Republican-appointed senior judges last week warned about the rising danger of the judiciary being targeted.Threats against judges are threats against constitutional government. Everyone should be taking this seriously, said Judge Richard Sullivan, whom Trump in his first term appointed to the federal appeals court in New York. Targeting judges an authoritarian instinctIn Mexico, Lpez Obrador was termed out of office last year. But several other populist Trump allies who have shown no inclination to leave power have made their judiciaries a central target.Hungarys Viktor Orbn lowered the mandatory retirement age for judges to force out some who might have blocked his agenda. In Brazil, former President Jair Bolsonaros supporters have feuded with that countrys high court. After Bolsonaro was charged with trying to overturn his 2022 election loss, his party is hoping to win enough seats in next years elections to impeach at least one of the justices. In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukeles party removed supreme court justices with whom he had clashed. Bukele has even egged Trump on to take on the judiciary: If you dont impeach the corrupt judges, you CANNOT fix the country, Bukele wrote on X, following a post by Musk urging Trump to follow the Salvadoran presidents lead.This is a basic authoritarian instinct, said Steven Levitsky, coauthor of How Democracies Die and a Harvard political scientist. You cannot have a democracy where the elected government can do whatever it wants.It would take two-thirds of the U.S. Senate to remove an impeached judge. With only 53 Republicans in the chamber, its highly unlikely that supermajority could be reached. The Trump administration, though, has expressed exasperation at the frequency with which lower courts are ruling against it. U.S. presidents have long clashed with the courtsJust Saturday, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked the Trump administration from deporting people under the presidents invocation of an 18th century wartime law against a Venezuelan gang. Another judge in San Francisco required the administration to rehire tens of thousands of federal workers he ruled had likely been improperly fired. The administration appealed several rulings putting on hold its effort to end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court.And the administration is still fighting with aid organizations that contend the government has not complied with a federal judges order to pay them for work performed under contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development.You have these lower-level judges who are trying to block the presidents agenda. Its very clear, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Friday, adding that judges have issued 16 orders blocking Trump initiatives compared to 14 against Biden during the previous four years.Presidents have groused about being checked by courts for decades. Biden complained when the courts blocked his efforts to forgive student loan debt. Former President Barack Obama warned the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn his landmark health care expansion.In the 1930s, then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tried to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court to get rid of its conservative majority, an idea some Democrats wanted to revisit during Bidens presidency.Respecting the courts a foundation of the rule of lawBut the anti-judicial rhetoric has not for decades reached the pitch that its at now, experts say. One reason for that is that Trump has issued more orders than any other new president. Many of them rely on novel legal theories about presidential power that go against longstanding judicial precedent or have never been tested in court.Anne Marie Slaughter, a former State Department official in the Obama administration, compared judges to referees in sports who enforce the rules. She said the U.S. has long advocated for the importance of the rule of law in young democracies and helped set up legal systems in countries ranging from India to South Africa to ensure they stayed free.At this point, I think many of our allies and peer countries are deeply worried and essentially no longer see us as a beacon of democracy and the rule of law, Slaughter said.Rafal Pankowski, a Polish activist, recalled mass protests that followed new requirements that countrys populist Law and Justice party placed on judges in 2019. They also drew sanctions from the European Union for interfering with judicial independence.Those demonstrations, Pankowski said, contributed to the party losing power in the following elections.Over time, it became difficult for people to follow technicalities of the legislation, Pankowski said, but the instinct to defend the independence of the judiciary has been one of the main things behind the democratic movement.

President Donald Trump gestures from the stairs of Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Friday, March 14, 2025, (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)2025-03-16T15:47:25Z The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday blocking the deportations but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order. OopsieToo late, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who agreed to house about 300 immigrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his countrys prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasbergs ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who negotiated an earlier deal with Bukele to house immigrants, posted on the site: We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars. Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasbergs verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the spirit of it. This just incentivizes future courts to be hyper specific in their orders and not give the government any wiggle room, Vladeck said.The immigrants were deported after Trumps declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times in U.S. history. The law, invoked during World Wars I and II and the War of 1812, requires a president to declare the United States is at war, giving him extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners who otherwise would have protections under immigration or criminal laws. It was last used to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians during World War II. The ACLU, which filed the lawsuit that led to Boasbergs temporary restraining order on deportations, said it was asking the government whether the removals to El Salvador were in defiance of the court.This morning, we asked the government to assure the Court that its order was not violated and are waiting to hear, as well as trying to do our own investigation, ACLUs lead lawyer, Lee Gelernt, said in a statement Sunday.A Justice Department spokesperson on Sunday referred back to an earlier statement from Attorney General Pam Bondi blasting Boasbergs ruling and didnt immediately answer questions about whether the administration ignored the courts order.Venezuelas government in a statement Sunday rejected the use of Trumps declaration of the law, characterizing it as evocative of the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps. Tren de Aragua originated in an infamously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nations economy came undone last decade. Trump seized on the gang during his campaign to paint misleading pictures of communities that he contended were taken over by what were actually a handful of lawbreakers.The Trump administration has not identified the immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the U.S,. It did also send two top members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang to El Salvador who had been arrested in the United States.Video released by El Salvadors government Sunday showed men exiting airplanes into an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had with their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down to have them bend down at the waist. The video also showed the men being transported to prison in a large convoy of buses guarded by police and military vehicles and at least one helicopter. The men were shown kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prisons all-white uniform knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs and placed in cells.The immigrants were taken to the notorious CECOT facility, the centerpiece of Bukeles push to pacify his once violence-wracked country through tough police measures and limits on basic rightsThe Trump administration said the president actually signed the proclamation contending Tren de Aragua was invading the United States Friday night but didnt announce it until Saturday afternoon. Immigration lawyers said that, late Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldnt be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights. They began to file lawsuits to halt the transfers. Basically any Venezuelan citizen in the US may be removed on pretext of belonging to Tren de Aragua, with no chance at defense, Adam Isacson of the Washington Office for Latin America, a human rights group, warned on X.The litigation that led to the hold on deportations was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans held in Texas who lawyers said were concerned theyd be falsely accused of being members of the gang. Once the act is invoked, they warned, Trump could simply declare anyone a Tren de Aragua member and remove them from the country.Boasberg barred those Venezuelans deportations Saturday morning when the suit was filed, but only broadened it to all people in federal custody who could be targeted by the act after his afternoon hearing. He noted that the law has never before been used outside of a congressionally-declared war and that plaintiffs may successfully argue Trump exceeded his legal authority in invoking it. The bar on deportations stands for up to 14 days and the immigrants will remain in federal custody during that time. Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Friday to hear additional arguments in the case.He said he had to act because the immigrants whose deportations may actually violate the constitution deserved a chance to have their pleas heard in court.Once theyre out of the country, Boasberg said, theres little I could do. _____Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela contributed to this report. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

This March 2025 image from the website of artificial intelligence company Xoltar shows a demonstration of one of their avatars for conducting video calls with a patients. (Xoltar via AP)2025-03-16T13:02:13Z The next time youre due for a medical exam you may get a call from someone like Ana: a friendly voice that can help you prepare for your appointment and answer any pressing questions you might have.With her calm, warm demeanor, Ana has been trained to put patients at ease like many nurses across the U.S. But unlike them, she is also available to chat 24-7, in multiple languages, from Hindi to Haitian Creole.Thats because Ana isnt human, but an artificial intelligence program created by Hippocratic AI, one of a number of new companies offering ways to automate time-consuming tasks usually performed by nurses and medical assistants.Its the most visible sign of AIs inroads into health care, where hundreds of hospitals are using increasingly sophisticated computer programs to monitor patients vital signs, flag emergency situations and trigger step-by-step action plans for care jobs that were all previously handled by nurses and other health professionals. Hospitals say AI is helping their nurses work more efficiently while addressing burnout and understaffing. But nursing unions argue that this poorly understood technology is overriding nurses expertise and degrading the quality of care patients receive.Hospitals have been waiting for the moment when they have something that appears to have enough legitimacy to replace nurses, said Michelle Mahon of National Nurses United. The entire ecosystem is designed to automate, de-skill and ultimately replace caregivers. This March 2025 image from the website of artificial intelligence company Xoltar, shows two of of their demonstration avatars for conducting video calls with patients. (Xoltar via AP) This March 2025 image from the website of artificial intelligence company Xoltar, shows two of of their demonstration avatars for conducting video calls with patients. (Xoltar via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Mahons group, the largest nursing union in the U.S., has helped organize more than 20 demonstrations at hospitals across the country, pushing for the right to have say in how AI can be used and protection from discipline if nurses decide to disregard automated advice. The group raised new alarms in January when Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the incoming health secretary, suggested AI nurses as good as any doctor could help deliver care in rural areas. On Friday, Dr. Mehmet Oz, whos been nominated to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, said he believes AI can liberate doctors and nurses from all the paperwork. Hippocratic AI initially promoted a rate of $9 an hour for its AI assistants, compared with about $40 an hour for a registered nurse. It has since dropped that language, instead touting its services and seeking to assure customers that they have been carefully tested. The company did not grant requests for an interview.AI in the hospital can generate false alarms and dangerous advice Hospitals have been experimenting for years with technology designed to improve care and streamline costs, including sensors, microphones and motion-sensing cameras. Now that data is being linked with electronic medical records and analyzed in an effort to predict medical problems and direct nurses care sometimes before theyve evaluated the patient themselves. In this photo provided by National Nurses United, nurses hold a rally in San Francisco on April 22, 2024, to highlight safety concerns about using artificial intelligence in health care. (National Nurses United via AP) In this photo provided by National Nurses United, nurses hold a rally in San Francisco on April 22, 2024, to highlight safety concerns about using artificial intelligence in health care. (National Nurses United via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Adam Hart was working in the emergency room at Dignity Health in Henderson, Nevada, when the hospitals computer system flagged a newly arrived patient for sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to infection. Under the hospitals protocol, he was supposed to immediately administer a large dose of IV fluids. But after further examination, Hart determined that he was treating a dialysis patient, or someone with kidney failure. Such patients have to be carefully managed to avoid overloading their kidneys with fluid. Hart raised his concern with the supervising nurse but was told to just follow the standard protocol. Only after a nearby physician intervened did the patient instead begin to receive a slow infusion of IV fluids.You need to keep your thinking cap on thats why youre being paid as a nurse, Hart said. Turning over our thought processes to these devices is reckless and dangerous.Hart and other nurses say they understand the goal of AI: to make it easier for nurses to monitor multiple patients and quickly respond to problems. But the reality is often a barrage of false alarms, sometimes erroneously flagging basic bodily functions such as a patient having a bowel movement as an emergency. In this photo provided by National Nurses United, Melissa Beebe, foreground, and other nurses hold a rally in San Francisco on April 22, 2024, to highlight safety concerns about using artificial intelligence in health care. (National Nurses United via AP) In this photo provided by National Nurses United, Melissa Beebe, foreground, and other nurses hold a rally in San Francisco on April 22, 2024, to highlight safety concerns about using artificial intelligence in health care. (National Nurses United via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Youre trying to focus on your work but then youre getting all these distracting alerts that may or may not mean something, said Melissa Beebe, a cancer nurse at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. Its hard to even tell when its accurate and when its not because there are so many false alarms. Can AI help in the hospital?Even the most sophisticated technology will miss signs that nurses routinely pick up on, such as facial expressions and odors, notes Michelle Collins, dean of Loyola Universitys College of Nursing. But people arent perfect either. It would be foolish to turn our back on this completely, Collins said. We should embrace what it can do to augment our care, but we should also be careful it doesnt replace the human element.More than 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to one estimate, the biggest staffing drop in 40 years. As the U.S. population ages and nurses retire, the U.S. government estimates there will be more than 190,000 new openings for nurses every year through 2032.Faced with this trend, hospital administrators see AI filling a vital role: not taking over care, but helping nurses and doctors gather information and communicate with patients. Sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes theyre notAt the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock, staffers need to make hundreds of calls every week to prepare patients for surgery. Nurses confirm information about prescriptions, heart conditions and other issues like sleep apnea that must be carefully reviewed before anesthesia.The problem: many patients only answer their phones in the evening, usually between dinner and their childrens bedtime.So what we need to do is find a way to call several hundred people in a 120-minute window -- but I really dont want to pay my staff overtime to do so, said Dr. Joseph Sanford, who oversees the centers health IT.Since January, the hospital has used an AI assistant from Qventus to contact patients and health providers, send and receive medical records and summarize their contents for human staffers. Qventus says 115 hospitals are using its technology, which aims to boost hospital earnings through quicker surgical turnarounds, fewer cancellations and reduced burnout.Each call begins with the program identifying itself as an AI assistant.We always want to be fully transparent with our patients that sometimes they are talking to a human and sometimes theyre not, Sanford said.While companies like Qventus are providing an administrative service, other AI developers see a bigger role for their technology.Israeli startup Xoltar specializes in humanlike avatars that conduct video calls with patients. The company is working with the Mayo Clinic on an AI assistant that teaches patients cognitive techniques for managing chronic pain. The company is also developing an avatar to help smokers quit. In early testing, patients spend about 14 minutes talking to the program, which can pickup on facial expressions, body language and other cues, according to Xoltar.Nursing experts who study AI say such programs may work for people who are relatively healthy and proactive about their care. But thats not most people in the health system.Its the very sick who are taking up the bulk of health care in the U.S. and whether or not chatbots are positioned for those folks is something we really have to consider, said Roschelle Fritz of the University of California Davis School of Nursing.___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.

Southern California guard JuJu Watkins (12) plays against UCLA 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)2025-03-16T10:10:07Z 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. UCLA is the top overall seed in the womens NCAA Tournament. The Bruins were joined by South Carolina, Southern California and Texas as the No. 1 seeds that the NCAA revealed Sunday night.Its the first time in school history that the Bruins are the top team in the tournament. They had two losses on the season, both of which came to the Trojans.Dawn Staley felt her team should get the No. 1 overall seed, but unlike last year when the Gamecocks finished off an undefeated season with a national title, this team has three losses heading into March Madness. Staleys team is looking to be the first team to repeat as champion since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. The Huskies, who are a two-seed, are looking to end that drought with star Paige Bueckers. Theyll have to go out west if they reach the Sweet 16 and a potential rematch with JuJu Watkins and the Trojans could be waiting in the Elite Eight. The path for all wont be easy: This year theres more parity in the sport. This NCAA Tournament will be only the second one in the past 19 years to have no teams entering March Madness with zero or one loss. The other time was in 2022. The Trojans and Bruins, newcomers in the Big Ten this season, will try to win the first national championship for the conference since 1999, when Purdue won the lone one. A record 12 teams from the Big Ten are in the field. The SEC has 10 and the ACC eight. The Big 12 has seven. The Ivy League received three bids to the tournament for the first time in conference history. Last season, Columbia earned the second at-large bid in league history. The Lions are back again as well as Princeton. Both are 11 seeds and will be competing in play-in games. Harvard, which won the conference tournament, is a 10 seed. Duke, TCU and N.C. State joined the Huskies on the 2-seed line. Notre Dame boasts wins over Texas and USC but slumped the last few weeks of the regular season and fell to a three-seed. William & Mary is one of six teams set to make its first appearance in the womens NCAA Tournament. The others are Arkansas State, Fairleigh Dickinson, George Mason, Grand Canyon and UC San Diego. Four teams are headed to the mens tournament for the first time: High Point, Omaha, SIU Edwardsville and UC San Diego.The Tribe (15-18) are the first sub-.500 team since Incarnate Word in 2022 to make the tournament.Payout timeFor the first time in NCAA history, there will be a financial incentive for womens teams. They will finally paid for playing games in the NCAA Tournament just like the men have for years.So-called performance units, which represent revenue, will be given to womens teams for each win they get. A team that reaches the Final Four could bring its conference roughly $1.26 million over the next three years in financial performance rewards.This comes a year after the womens championship game that saw South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark and Iowa do better TV ratings then the mens title game.Tournament sitesThe top 16 seeds in the 68-team field will host first- and second-round games, with the regional rounds being played at two neutral sites for the third straight year. Spokane, Washington, will host half of the Sweet 16 and Birmingham, Alabama, will host the other eight teams.The Final Four will be played in Tampa, Florida, on April 4, and the championship game is two days later. Tournament tidbitsOne team that didnt make the field was Stanford, which ended the Cardinals 36-year streak of playing in the NCAA Tournament. Its the first time since 1987 that Stanford wont play in the NCAAs. While that streak is over, Tennessee continued its NCAA Tournament run of appearing every year in the field since the first NCAA Tournament in 1982. The Lady Vols are a five-seed.___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

A crocodile nicknamed Karossa, after the name of a village it was captured from following the fatal attack of a man, rests with others inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)2025-03-17T01:01:47Z BUDONG-BUDONG, Indonesia (AP) Nearly seven months after a crocodile attack almost took her life, Munirpa walked to the estuary outside her home with her husband and her children, ready to brave a reenactment.Munirpa, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, recounted how one early morning in August, she threw her household garbage into a creek about 50 meters (164 feet) away from her house, as she normally would. She didnt see what was coming next. Munirpa, a crocodile attack survivor, stands for a portrait at the location where she was nearly killed by a four-meter-long crocodile, in Topoyo, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Munirpa, a crocodile attack survivor, stands for a portrait at the location where she was nearly killed by a four-meter-long crocodile, in Topoyo, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More By the time she realized a crocodile had attacked her, the four-meter-long (13-foot) beast had already sunk its teeth into most of her body, sparing only her head. She fought hard, trying to jab its eyes. Her husband, hearing her screams, ran over and tried to pull her by the thigh out of the crocodiles jaws. A tug-of-war ensued; the reptile whipped him with its tail. Fortunately, he saved Munirpa in time, eventually dragging her out of the crocodiles grip. People have long feared the ancient predators in the Central Mamuju district of Indonesias West Sulawesi, where the Budong-Budong River meets the sea. For Munirpa, 48, that fear turned into a brutal reality when she became one of nearly 180 recorded crocodile attack victims in Indonesia last year. Residents like her are learning to coexist with the crocodiles, a legally protected species in Indonesia, as they balance conservation with looking out for their safety. But as attacks rise, several residents and experts have called for better government interventions to stop the problem from getting even worse. Communities near the crocodiles are on edge A crocodile warning sign is displayed by the river in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. The sign reads Beware of crocodile! Please be on alert while doing activities in the river. Crocodile might be stalking. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A crocodile warning sign is displayed by the river in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. The sign reads Beware of crocodile! Please be on alert while doing activities in the river. Crocodile might be stalking. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Following the attack, Munirpa was hospitalized for a month and has had two surgeries. By February this year, her fear was still clearly visible, as were the scars on her legs and thighs. I am so scared. I dont want to go to the beach. Even to the back of the house, I dont dare to go, said Munirpa. I am traumatized. I asked my children not to go to the river, or to the backyard, or go fishing. A canal dug for a newly opened palm oil plantation is visible in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A canal dug for a newly opened palm oil plantation is visible in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A man sits on his motorbike as a newly opened palm oil plantation with its canals are visible in the background in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A man sits on his motorbike as a newly opened palm oil plantation with its canals are visible in the background in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More In the villages surrounding the Budong-Budong River, like Munirpas, crocodiles have become a daily topic of conversation. Their presence has become so common that warning signs now mark the areas where they lurk, from the river mouth to the waterways which were once a popular swimming spot for children. In 2024, there were 179 crocodile attacks in Indonesia, the highest number of crocodile attacks in the world, with 92 fatalities, according to CrocAttack, an independent database. Social media videos showing crocodile appearances and attacks in Sulawesi and other regions in Indonesia are also on the rise. Sudirman, front, and Irfan walk on a makeshift bridge as they inspect their fish and shrimp ponds in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Sudirman, front, and Irfan walk on a makeshift bridge as they inspect their fish and shrimp ponds in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Sudirman, left, and Irfan stand among the coconut trees as they inspect their fish and shrimp ponds in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Sudirman, left, and Irfan stand among the coconut trees as they inspect their fish and shrimp ponds in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The increase in attacks began about 12 years ago with the rise of palm oil plantations around the river mouth, said 39-year-old crocodile handler Rusli Paraili. Some companies carved artificial waterways, linking them to the larger part of the Budong-Budong River. That was when the crocodiles started straying, leaving the river and creeping to nearby residential areas, such as fish and shrimp ponds, he explained.Palm oil plantations now dominate the landscape in West Sulawesi, from the mountains to the coast, and patrolling for crocodiles has become part of peoples daily routine. When residents check the water pumps in their ponds, they have no choice but to keep out an eye for the beasts flashlights in hand, scouring up, down and across canals and waterways resigned to the uneasy reality of sharing their home with a predator.Balancing conservation and safety Crocodiles, mostly rescued after encounters with people, swim inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Crocodiles, mostly rescued after encounters with people, swim inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The saltwater crocodile has been a legally protected species in Indonesia since 1999, making it an animal that cannot be hunted freely. As a top predator, there is also no population control in nature. Paraili, the crocodile handler, said that while the law protects crocodiles from being killed, the rise in attacks is a major concern. In response, hes taken care of some of the crocs in a specially-designed farm away from human populations. Hes received some financial support from the government and community donations, as well as support from palm oil companies for the last five years. Rusli Paraili, a crocodile handler, feeds rescued crocodiles kept inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Rusli Paraili, a crocodile handler, feeds rescued crocodiles kept inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Rusli Paraili, left, a crocodile handler, feeds a rescued crocodile inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Rusli Paraili, left, a crocodile handler, feeds a rescued crocodile inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The farm has four ponds and around 50 reptiles. Some have names: Tanker, the largest, shaped like a ship, or Karossa, named after the sub-district the animal was caught after fatally attacking someone. When funds run low, he uses his own money to ensure theyre fed, at least once every four days. A crocodile nicknamed Karossa, after the name of a village it was captured from following the fatal attack of a man, rests with others inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A crocodile nicknamed Karossa, after the name of a village it was captured from following the fatal attack of a man, rests with others inside an enclosure in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Amir Hamidy, who studies reptiles at the National Research and Innovation Agency, worries the rise in attacks indicates that crocodile numbers are becoming far too dangerous. Hamidy supports better population control.Being a protected species does not necessarily mean that the population cannot be reduced when it is at a level that is indeed unsafe, he said.Improving protection for residents A cow jumps over the water near a stream where a crocodile attack occurred several months prior, in Topoyo, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A cow jumps over the water near a stream where a crocodile attack occurred several months prior, in Topoyo, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Around a year ago in Tumbu village, Suardi, who goes by one name, was harvesting coconuts when they fell into the river. When he went to retrieve them, he was attacked by a crocodile he initially didnt notice. Hes since made a full recovery. Still, the experience has made him more cautious. Yes, I am worried. But what else can we do, Suardi said. The important thing is that we are careful enough.Along with Munirpa, Suardi is one of 10 people in the region who was attacked by a crocodile last year. Three of those attacked were killed. Suardi, a crocodile attack survivor, shows a scar on his chest in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Suardi, a crocodile attack survivor, shows a scar on his chest in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Suardi, a crocodile attack survivor, shows the scars on his face in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Suardi, a crocodile attack survivor, shows the scars on his face in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Suyuti Marzuki, whos head of West Sulawesi Marine and Fisheries Agency, said the crocodile habitat shift is making peoples everyday activities like harvesting coconuts, fishing or even disposing of garbage like Munirpa very risky. Marzuki said the government is looking at possible options that can provide both safety and economic alternatives for residents.While he acknowledged that crocodile population numbers and ecosystems need to be protected, Marzuki also raised the possibility of bolstering the local economy through the crocodile skin trade. That industry is controversial because of conservation and animal welfare issues. Rusli Paraili, a crocodile handler, sits on the bow of a boat while looking for crocodiles on a river in Budong-Budong, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Rusli Paraili, a crocodile handler, sits on the bow of a boat while looking for crocodiles on a river in Budong-Budong, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Paraili, the crocodile handler, also urged serious government interventions.This is a matter of human lives. So when the government is not serious, then our brothers and sisters in the future in 5 or 15 years there will be even more who will die from being attacked by crocodiles, he said. Residents like Munirpa and Suardi are waiting for more immediate and realistic steps from the authorities to ensure their communitys and families safety.It is enough that Ive been bitten by a crocodile, Munirpa said. I wont let it happen to my children. A fisher walks in the water after setting up a fishing net near a beach in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) A fisher walks in the water after setting up a fishing net near a beach in Budong-Budong, West Sulawesi Island, Indonesia, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More ___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Friday, March 14, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)2025-03-17T04:22:15Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said he would speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he pushes to end the war in Ukraine. The U.S. leader disclosed the upcoming conversation to reporters while flying from Florida to Washington on Air Force One on Sunday evening.We will see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday. I will be speaking to President Putin on Tuesday, Trump said. A lot of works been done over the weekend. We want to see if we can bring that war to an end.Although Russia failed in its initial goal to topple Ukraine with its invasion three years ago, it still controls large swaths of the country.Trump said land and power plants are part of the conversation around bringing the war to a close. We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants, he said.Trump described it as dividing up certain assets. CHRIS MEGERIAN Megerian covers the White House for The Associated Press. He previously wrote about the Russia investigation, climate change, law enforcement and politics in California and New Jersey. twitter mailto

A grove of pine trees were destroyed by Saturday's tornado in Tylertown, Miss., shown on Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)2025-03-17T04:14:21Z TYLERTOWN, Miss. (AP) A severe storm on Monday swept through the U.S. Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, bringing thunderstorms, hail, damaging winds and the potential for tornadoes. Days earlier, the same ferocious weather system spawned violent twisters, blinding dust storms and fast-moving wildfires, leaving at least 39 people dead in the South and lower Midwest. Heres what to know about the unusually erratic and damaging weather.Whats expected Monday?Forecasters warned of dangerous winds from Florida all the way north to New Jersey, while heavy rain was likely across New York and New England. A tornado watch was in effect until early Monday for a large swath of North Carolina and Virginia, with gusts potentially reaching 70 mph and possible hail the size of ping pong balls, said the National Weather Service office in Blacksburg, Virginia. The dynamic storm that began Friday earned an unusual high risk designation from meteorologists. Still, experts said its not unusual to see such weather extremes in March. What happened in Mississippi and Missouri?In Tylertown, Mississippi, tornadoes ripped tall trees in half and wiped out entire neighborhoods. Six people were killed and more than 200 were displaced, Gov. Tate Reeves said.Hailey Hart and her fianc Steve Romero hunkered down with their three huskies inside their 1994 Toyota Celica as a twister ripped apart their home Saturday. Romero said he prayed out loud and hugged Hart as the car rolled onto its side, windows shattering, before it landed on its wheels again. It was a bad dream come true, Romero said. The couple escaped with only scratches. Wayne County, Missouri, resident Dakota Henderson said he and others rescuing trapped neighbors found five bodies scattered in rubble outside what remained of his aunts house. Scattered twisters killed at least a dozen people in the state Friday, authorities said.Coroner Jim Akers of Butler County, Missouri, described the home where one man was killed as just a debris field.The floor was upside down, he said. We were walking on walls. Where were the wildfires and dust storms? Wind-driven wildfires caused extensive damage in Texas and Oklahoma and officials warned that parts of both states would again face an increased risk of fire danger in the coming week.More than 130 fires were reported across Oklahoma and nearly 400 homes were damaged or destroyed, Gov. Kevin Stitt said.Nobody has enough resources to fight fires when the wind is blowing 70 mph, said Terry Essary, the fire chief of Stillwater, Oklahoma. Its an insurmountable task.Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management spokesperson Keli Cain said Sunday that two people were killed as a result of the wildfires and weather.Meanwhile, dust storms spurred by high winds claimed almost a dozen lives on 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. What has the president said?President Donald Trump said the White House was monitoring the storms and would assist state and local officials to help in the recovery. He said National Guard troops were deployed to Arkansas, where officials confirmed three deaths. Please join Melania and me in praying for everyone impacted by these terrible storms! Trump posted on his social media network on Sunday.At least three people, including an 82-year-old woman, were killed in central Alabama when multiple tornadoes swept across the state. In Troy, Alabama, parks officials said the recreation center where many residents had taken refuge had to be closed due to damage from overnight storms. No one was injured.We are thankful the Lord provided protection over our community, and over 200 guests at the Recreation Center storm shelter on Saturday night, the parks department said in a statement.

People hug as they wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut)2025-03-17T04:02:00Z KOCANI, North Macedonia (AP) After North Macedonias deadliest tragedy in recent memory, with dozens dying in a nightclub inferno, the tiny Balkan nation is struggling to grapple with so many young lives lost while trying to hold those responsible to account and prevent another calamity.The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday in the eastern town of Kocani leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked escape toward the buildings single exit.People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning.We are all in shock, and I am shocked myself: as a mother, as a person, as a president, North Macedonias President Gordana Davkova Siljanovska said in an address to the nation Sunday night. An aerial photograph shows the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) An aerial photograph shows the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Police officers hold plastic bags on the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu) Police officers hold plastic bags on the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A woman cries outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in a nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu) A woman cries outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in a nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More People wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) People wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More I still cannot believe that the terrible tragedy in Kocani is a reality. I do not know with what words to express my condolences to the parents and loved ones of the deceased, she said. No one responsible should escape the law, justice and punishment! Let us not allow anyone to endanger the lives of innocent people anymore.The fire that shook the nation of 2 million where close-knit extended family bonds made the disaster personal to many was the latest in a slew of deadly nightclub fires around the world. Allegation of bribery surrounding nightclubAuthorities say they are investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the nightclub that was crammed with young revelers and at double capacity. And North Macedonias government ordered a sweeping three-day inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country, starting Monday. An aerial photograph shows the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) An aerial photograph shows the site of a nightclub in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The country was in mourning as people watched harrowing scenes in the town of 25,000 people, where rescuers for hours carried out their grim task of removing the charred bodies of clubgoers. The fire caused the roof of the single-story building to partially collapse, revealing the charred remains of wooden beams and debris. Anxious parents gathered outside hospitals in Kocani and capital Skopje, some 115 kilometers (72 miles) west, eager for updates about the injured. Many of the most seriously injured were receiving treatment in Greece and other neighboring countries. Waiting outside the hospital in Kocani, Dragi Stojanov was among those who received the dreaded news that his 21-year-old son Tomce had perished.He was my only child. I dont need my life anymore. ... 150 families have been devastated, he told reporters. Children burnt beyond recognition. There are corpses, just corpses inside (the club). ... And the bosses (of organized crime), just putting money into their pockets. The death toll may rise furtherFlags around the country have been lowered to half-staff, and the death toll may rise further, with 20 of the injured in critical condition, Health Minister Arben Taravari said Sunday. Although the investigation into the fires cause is ongoing, videos showed sparkling pyrotechnics on the stage hitting Club Pulses ceiling and igniting the blaze as a band played.We even tried to get out through the bathroom, only to find bars (on the windows), 19-year-old Marija Taseva told The Associated Press. I somehow managed to get out. I fell down the stairs and they ran over me, trampled me. ... I barely stayed alive and could hardly breathe. She suffered an injury to her face. People wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) People wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Women cry and hug outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Women cry and hug outside a hospital in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski said 15 people had been detained for questioning after a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper license. He said the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case, he told reporters without elaborating.Condolences poured in from leaders around Europe as well as from the office of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for a month for double pneumonia. I have had many difficult moments and challenges in my life but today is by far the most difficult day of my life, Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in a televised address. My heart is breaking, and I have no strength to speak today. I am broken and my spirit is broken. Late Sunday, Kocanis residents held a candlelight vigil in support for mourning families, waiting in long lines to light church candles. Girls cry as they light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Girls cry as they light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More People hug as they wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) People hug as they wait in lines to light candles in the town of Kocani, North Macedonia, Sunday, March 16, 2025, following a massive fire in the nightclub early Sunday. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Beti Delovska, an economist from Skopje, said North Macedonia has never experienced a tragedy like this, with dozens of young people vanishing in minutes. And she noted that many young people with bright futures had already left the nation, in search of opportunities elsewhere.(North) Macedonia is on its death bed, Delovska, 64, said. We have no more credible institutions, the health system is completely dismantled, education is poor, judiciary is partisan and corrupted to the bone I do believe now that only God can save (North) Macedonia.___Testorides reported from Skopje, Macedonia

Jhoan Bastidas gives an interview at his father's house in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, after being deported from Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. (AP Photo/Juan Arraez)2025-03-17T04:04:48Z MARACAIBO, Venezuela (AP) Jhoan Bastidas was deported from the United States and spent 16 days at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, watched by cameras and eating small meals that left him hungry.I was locked up all day in a little room I counted the feet: 7 wide and 13 long without being able to do anything, without a book, looking at the walls, Bastidas, 25, said in his fathers middle-class home in the western city of Maracaibo, Venezuela.Three weeks after he was returned to Venezuela under President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown, Bastidas is just starting to make sense of it all how he is back in the once-prosperous hometown that he left as a teenager; how tattoos on his chest earned him a reputation as a criminal; and how he became one of the few migrants to set foot on the naval base best known for housing terrorism suspects. Piecing lives togetherBastidas and roughly 350 other Venezuelans who migrated to the U.S. are trying to piece their lives together after they were deported to their troubled country over the past few weeks. About 180 of them spent up to 16 days at the base in Guantanamo before being flown to Honduras by U.S. authorities and, from there, to Venezuela by the government of President Nicols Maduro.It is part of the White Houses efforts to deport a record number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Trumps government has alleged Venezuelans sent to the naval base are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which originated in the South American country, but it has offered little evidence to back that up. It was all very hard; all those experiences were very hard, Bastidas said.You have to be strong in the face of all those problems, you know, but I saw so much hate.More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their homeland since 2013, when its oil-dependent economy came undone and Maduro became president. Most settled in Latin America and the Caribbean, but after the COVID-19 pandemic, they increasingly set their sights on the U.S. Venezuela has refused to take back its own citizens from the U.S. for years, with brief, limited exceptions such as the recent flights.Over the weekend, the U.S. government transferred hundreds of immigrants to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador after Trump invoked an 18th century wartime law to speed up deportations of alleged Tren de Aragua members. The Trump administration, however, has not provided any evidence to back up the gang-membership claim. The immigrants were transferred even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring deportations under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to expedite mass deportations. Leaving VenezuelaBastidas, his mother and siblings left Maracaibo in 2018, one of the harshest years of the countrys protracted crisis. As they tested their luck in Peru and then settled in Colombia, people living in Venezuela lost jobs, formed long lines outside near-empty grocery stores and went hungry.Their hometown saw businesses shutter and entire families sell their belongings and move away. The hourslong power outages that became everyday occurrences starting in 2019 pushed even more people to abandon Maracaibo.He set off for Texas in November 2023, bankrolled by a brother whose promise of a car and a food delivery job in Utah convinced him to migrate.Bastidas turned himself in to U.S. authorities after reaching the border with Mexico and was taken to a detention facility in El Paso, Texas. He remained there until early February, when one morning he was handcuffed, driven to an airport and put in an airplane without being told where it was headed.After the aircraft landed, fellow passengers thought they were in Venezuela, but when he reached the door and only saw gringos, Bastidas said, he concluded they were wrong. When he saw Guantanamo written on the floor, it did not mean anything to him. He had never heard that word before. GuantanamoWhen inside the cell, Bastidas said, he could never tell the time of day because its only window was a small glass panel at the top of the door looking into the building. He said he only saw sunlight every three days for an hour, which was the recreation time he was allowed to spend in what he described as a cage.Bastidas said his hands and feet were shackled whenever he left his cell, including when he went to shower every three days. At one point, he and other detainees were given small Bibles, and they began praying together, reading Scripture loudly and placing their ears against the door to hear each other.We used to say that the one who was going to get us out was God because we didnt see any other solutions. We didnt have anyone to lean on, Bastidas added.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not respondto requests for comment. Trump has said he planned to send the worst to the base in Cuba, including members of the Tren de Aragua. Bastidas said he is not part of the gang and believes the U.S. authorities used his tattoos to wrongly catalog him as a member of the criminal organization.When asked which tattoos he thinks authorities misjudged, his father pulled down the neck of Bastidas white T-shirt and pointed to two black, eight-pointed stars, each inked on one side of the chest, below the collarbones. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit attempting to block further transfers to Guantanamo alleging cruelty by the guards and suicide attempts by at least three people held there.Bastidas and other Venezuelans returned to Venezuela from Guantanamo on Feb. 20. Armed state intelligence service agents dropped them off at their homes.Bastidas spent the next two weeks resting. He then began working at a hot dog stand.Back homeAbandoned storefronts and homes are everywhere in Maracaibo, which once was a magnet for immigrants looking for good-paying jobs in and around nearby oil fields. But corruption, mismanagement and eventual U.S. economic sanctions saw production and population decline steadily.Few people might know Bastidas by name in his sweltering hometown, but practically everyone in Maracaibo knows someone who has migrated. So, news of the Venezuelans transfer to Guantanamo was shared seemingly endlessly on social media and WhatsApp, setting off debates over their living conditions and alleged gang affiliations as well as the complex crisis that drove them to migrate in the first place.Bastidas is leaning into faith to ignore the noise and move forward.I see it as a kind of test that the Lord put me through, he said. He has another purpose for me. It wasnt for me to be (in the U.S.), and he kept me there (in detention) for some reason.___Salomon reported from Miami. GISELA SALOMON Salomon is a Miami-based reporter who covers Latin America and immigration affairs for The Associated Press.Salomon es una periodista que desde Miami cubre asuntos latinoamericanos y de inmigracion. twitter mailto

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.