United States catcher Cal Raleigh, left, and pitcher Mason Miller, right, celebrate after their win over Canada in a World Baseball Classic quarterfinal game, Friday, March 13, 2026, in Houston. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)2026-03-14T05:35:06Z HOUSTON (AP) The United States is heading to the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic after a different level of focus helped this All-Star-studded team rebound from a shocking loss.The U.S. beat Canada 5-3 on Friday night for a spot in the semifinals Sunday against the Dominican Republic. The big win came after an 8-6 loss to Italy in pool play left them needing help to advance to Fridays game.Guys really locked in, Yankees star Aaron Judge said. We saw a different level of focus at our workout the other day and then even pregame today. It felt like the boys were locked and ready to go.The loss to Italy elicited criticism of the team and particularly manager Mark DeRosa after he prematurely said on a television interview the morning of the loss to Italy that: Our tickets punched to the quarterfinals.Judge said he knows a lot of people had negative things to say about them after the Italy game, but they didnt pay it any mind. Theres a lot of noise thats been going on with that, he said. And I think it just speaks volumes to the players in this room, the manager weve got, everybody, that no matter whats being said about us, whats going on, we still got a job to do on the field. First baseman Bryce Harper echoed Judges sentiments that they didnt worry about what outsiders were saying about the team.People are going to have their opinion about us, he said. I dont think any of them are going to be sitting at our dinner table or our Thanksgiving dinner, so it doesnt really matter what anybody says, thats always been my call on that kind of stuff. The Americans did eventually punch their ticket to the quarterfinals when Italy beat Mexico to win Pool B and give the U.S. second place.Starter Logan Webb, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings Friday night, said the teams path to the semifinals was not ideal but he was proud that the guys got the job done. It kind of feels like a second chance and... I felt like it was a newfound energy today, he said. Third baseman Alex Bregman appreciated the professionalism in the clubhouse as the team dealt with the adversity from the loss to Italy.One of the biggest things that you see around all these great players is everyones present and theyre not worried about the future or the past, he said. Theyre worried about that game, that moment, that pitch, the next pitch. And it was just a good, good response today.Now the challenge gets even bigger as the U.S. faces a Dominican t eam that beat South Korea 10-0 Friday in seven innings to advance to the semifinals.The Americans will send reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes to the mound Sunday to contend with a roster that is also chock full of All-Stars.I expect it to be like one of the best games of all time, DeRosa said.Judge is thrilled that the team is heading to Miami and cant wait for whats waiting for the U.S. there.The boys are excited, thats for sure, he said. Definitely getting a taste for playoff atmosphere in March, definitely gets the juices flowing a little bit.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, settle at the Bir Hassan Technical Institute, which has been turned into a shelter, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)2026-03-14T06:05:20Z BEIRUT (AP) Fatima Nazha slept on the street for two days after she and her family fled their home in Beiruts southern suburbs following an Israeli mass evacuation order.All of the schools the government turned into shelters were full, and the family couldnt afford a hotel or an apartment, so she and her husband eventually moved into a tent in the countrys biggest stadium while their kids and grandchildren found shelter near the southern coastal city of Sidon. In just 10 days, more than 800,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced by war, just over a year since the last conflict uprooted over a million Lebanese from their homes. Thats one in every seven people in the tiny country, according to humanitarian organization the Norwegian Refugee Council. Many dont have a place to stay, and the cash-strapped government has only been able to accommodate roughly 120,000 people as it scrambles to open shelters and bring in more supplies. Nazha, who uses a wheelchair, said being forced from her home has been far more difficult this time than when Israel and Hezbollah were last at war more than a year ago. The strikes targeting the Iran-backed militant group have been more intense and unpredictable, and Israels evacuation order came abruptly, leaving her unable to gather all her belongings.The strikes used to target a specific area, but now theyre hitting all the areas, she said, taking a drag off her cigarette. Lebanons Health Ministry said Friday that more than 700 people, including 103 children, have died in the war. Divisions simmer in LebanonIsrael ramped up its strikes on its northern neighbor after Hezbollah fired several rockets into Israel following the killing of Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the start of the war.Most Lebanese were hoping Hezbollah wouldnt respond to the attack on Iran, as the militant groups support for another Iran-backed group, Hamas, in 2023 led to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Resentment toward Hezbollah and its backers has surged in Lebanon, as internal tensions and divisions in the deeply divided country continue to simmer. Fearing becoming a target, landlords have been hiking apartment rents to dissuade new tenants. Hotels, meanwhile, have been vetting guests more strictly since Israel struck two hotel rooms, saying it was targeting Iranian Revolutionary Guard members who were operating in Beirut. Some who dont have family and friends to stay with or cant afford an apartment or a hotel room have been sleeping on the streets or in their cars around central Beirut, trading comfort for safety. That sense of safety was shattered, though, after an overnight Israeli strike killed at least eight people and wounded more than 30 others in the capitals Ramlet el-Bayda neighborhood, where many displaced people pitched tents by the sea or slept on mattresses on the boardwalk.Humanitarian groups, saddled by years of underfunding, are struggling to keep up. They warn of a humanitarian crisis.The needs are escalating much faster than our capacity to respond, Mathieu Luciano, the head of the International Organization for Migration in Lebanon, said during a recent press briefing. No time to prepareThe government, meanwhile, is using Lebanons largest sports stadium as a makeshift shelter, where Nazha, her husband and more than 800 other people have been sleeping in the semiopen corridors under the stands. It has toilets and sinks, but no showers and only sporadic electricity.Its not enough that they bring us food. A tin of sardines or a loaf of bread or a gallon of water, thats not enough, Nazha said Thursday from her foldout bed.In the parking lot of the stadium where Lebanons national soccer team regularly plays in peacetime, children played a pickup game as an Israeli drone flew overhead, recognizable by its whirring. From there, one can see and hear the bombs that have been exploding daily in nearby neighborhoods.Naji Hammoud, who oversees sporting facilities for the Lebanese Youth and Sports Ministry, said he didnt expect to have to take on such a heavy responsibility. Its a race against time, Hammoud said as aid workers and volunteers scrambled to pitch tents.More than a million people were displaced in the last war, but that was toward the end of it after a year of limited fighting that gradually escalated. This time, what took months took days.Hezbollahs initial rocket attack followed by Israels swift bombardments overnight rattled Lebanon and the mass evacuation notices caught people off-guard. Israel first called on dozens of villages south of the Litani River to flee north. It later warned residents to evacuate Dahiyeh, an area of predominantly Shiite suburbs on Beiruts southern edge that is one of the countrys most densely populated places.All of the main roads leading to the capital from southern Lebanon were gridlocked as people scrambled to find somewhere safe to stay. We were on the road for two days until we found this place here that accepted us, said Seganish Gogamo, a worker from Ethiopia who fled the southern city of Nabatieh and found shelter in a Beirut church hosting migrant workers from Asia and Africa. She fled in the middle of the night after intense airstrikes.Uncertainty aboundsThere is no end in sight to the fighting, as some 100,000 Israeli troops have amassed along the U.N.-mandated Blue Line which divides the two countries in an anticipated ground invasion. Many fear the Israel-Hezbollah conflict could continue beyond the Iran war.Joe Sayyah was among dozens of residents who remained in their border village, Alma al-Shaab, during the first few days of the war, hoping they wouldnt have to leave. Its a Christian village, and Israel has mostly targeted Shiite communities where Hezbollah operates.Sayyah and others appealed to the Vatican and the U.S., describing themselves as bystanders in the conflict, insisting there was no military presence or activity among them. They also spent days sheltering in a church.But when his friend was killed in an Israeli drone strike while watering his plants, they knew it was time to leave. He and the others rang the church bell one last time before they left for the capital in a convoy escorted by United Nations peacekeepers.After arriving at a church in the northern outskirts of Beirut to hold a funeral Mass for his friend, Sayyah said the sense of relief that came with reaching somewhere safe was quickly replaced by the grim realization that this war could be different from the last.This time around, theres a huge possibility we may not be able to go back to our village, he said.___Associated Press reporters Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Fadi Tawil in Beirut contributed to this story. KAREEM CHEHAYEB Chehayeb is an Associated Press reporter in Beirut. twitter instagram mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

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Customers stand in line to get birth and death certificates at the Columbus Public Health Department in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, March, 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Julie Carr Smyth)2026-03-14T12:47:37Z COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Joshua Bogdan was born and raised in the United States. The only time the New Hampshire resident has left the country was for a day and a half in seventh grade, when he went to Canada to see Niagara Falls.Even so, that did not mean proving his U.S. citizenship in last falls local elections was easy.The 31-year-old arrived at his voting place in Portsmouth and handed the poll worker his drivers license, just as he had done in other towns when arriving to vote. She said that would no longer do.The poll worker said that under the states new proof-of-citizenship law, which took effect for the first time during town elections in 2025, Bogdan would need a passport or his birth certificate because he had moved and needed to reregister at his new address. A scramble ensued, turning the voting process that he had always found fun and invigorating into a nerve-wracking game of beat the clock.I didnt know that anything had officially changed walking in there, he said. And then being told that I had to provide a passport that Ive never had or a birth certificate thats usually tucked away somewhere safe just to cast my vote which Ive done before it was frustrating. A national push, despite noncitizen voting being rare Bogdans experience in New Hampshire is a glimpse into the future for potentially millions of voters across the country. That is if Republican voting legislation being pushed aggressively by President Donald Trump passes Congress and a show your papers law is put in place in time for the November elections.The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE America Act, cleared the U.S. House last month on a mostly party-line basis. Republicans say it would improve election integrity. Trump has called its safeguards common sense. The bill is scheduled to come up in the U.S. Senate next week for voting and debate. Republican messaging has mostly highlighted a less divisive provision in the bill that would require voters to show a photo ID, but the mandate for people to provide documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections is likely to have the most wide-ranging consequences. Noncitizens already are prohibited from voting in federal elections, and it is not allowed by any state. Cases where it occurs are rare.Obtaining the necessary documents under the SAVE Act is not as easy as it might sound. A similar effort was tried in Kansas a decade ago and turned into a debacle that eventually was blocked by the courts after more than 30,000 eligible citizens were prevented from registering. A long list of documents to use, but with caveats Rebekah Caruthers, president and CEO at the Fair Elections Center, said the legislations strict documentation requirements could move the U.S. in the opposite direction of representative democracy.If this bill passes, it would deny millions of eligible Americans their fundamental freedom to vote, she said in an email. This includes millions of people who make up your communities, including married women, people of color and voters who live in rural areas.The list of qualifying documents in the SAVE Act for proving citizenship appears long, but many of them come with qualifiers. Under the bill, a REAL ID -compliant drivers license would have to indicate that the applicant is a citizen, but not all do. Only five states Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Vermont and Washington offer the type of enhanced REAL IDs that explicitly indicate U.S. citizenship. Standard drivers licenses, generally available to both citizens and noncitizens, often do not include a citizenship indicator. Some states, including Ohio, have recently added them.The stipulations continue, buried in the fine print. While military ID cards are listed as qualifying documents under the act, they will not suffice on their own. The bill says a military ID must be accompanied by a military record of service that indicates the persons birthplace was in the U.S.A DD214, the current standard-issue certificate of release or discharge for all military service branches, does not currently fulfill that requirement. According to the Pentagon, that document only lists where someone lived at points of entry and discharge and a persons current home of record. It does not list where someone was born. Obtaining a passport requires time and moneyFor most provisions, the SAVE Act contains no phase-in period that would give voters and local election offices time to adjust. If passed by Congress and signed by Trump, its documentary proof-of-citizenship mandate would apply immediately, meaning it would be in place for this years midterm elections.That could lead to a rush to obtain documents by those who want to register or need to reregister. A 2025 University of Maryland study estimates that 21.3 million Americans who are eligible to vote do not have or have easy access to documents to prove their citizenship, including nearly 10% of Democrats, 7% of Republicans and 14% of people unaffiliated with either major party. A passport would most effectively meet the requirement, but only about half of American adults have one, according to the State Department, and the SAVE Act requires the passport to be current. An expired one does not count.Obtaining a passport in time for a looming voter registration deadline is another potential hurdle.Workers who process passports had layoffs at the State Department reversed, but just last month the department forbid passport processing at certain public libraries that had long helped relieve pressure at the department. Government libraries, post offices, county clerks and others still provide the service.It takes four weeks to six weeks to get a passport, according to the departments website, excluding mailing time. A new passport costs $165 for adults while renewals cost $130, and the photo costs $10 or $20 more. The turnaround time can be sped up to two weeks or three weeks for an additional $60 and for even faster processing, add $22 more. The fully expedited process for a new passport would cost at least $257.Birth and marriage certificatesA birth certificate may be a quicker and cheaper choice for most people, but there are twists.The SAVE Act requires a certified birth certificate issued by a state, local government or tribal government. What does not appear to qualify is the certificate signed by the doctor that many new parents are given in the hospital when their child is born. It provides information similar to a certified birth certificate, but would not meet the letter of the federal legislation. Like passports, birth certificates can sometimes take weeks to obtain. Those who live near their birthplaces can visit the local vital statistics office, but staffing shortages and escalating demand for REAL IDs have caused significant backlogs in some states. In New York, the waiting period for certified copies is four months, the state said. Average processing times for online certificate requests vary widely by state, from as few as three days to 12 weeks or longer.People whose birth certificates dont match their current IDs mostly women who changed their names when they married would likely need additional documentation to register to vote under the bill. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found about 80% of women in opposite-sex marriages in the U.S. take their husbands last name.A major change to the voting process, but with no extra moneyNotably, the SAVE Act does not provide any money to help states and local governments implement the changes or promote them to voters.For Bogdan, that was part of the problem when New Hampshires proof-of-citizenship law took effect. People who have voted elsewhere in the state are not required to show proof of citizenship in their new towns if poll workers confirm their registration history, but Bogdan said workers at his polling place did not seem to know that or try to look up the information.He eventually was able to cast his ballot because, by luck, he had recently retrieved his birth certificate from his parents house more than an hour away so he could apply for a REAL ID. But he said government notices to voters would help prevent possible disenfranchisement.Young voters like myself dont always carry around our birth certificate, Social Security card, all that important stuff, because its not used ever or very often, he said. And so all those young kids who are going to go out and try and vote will be held back from that. JULIE CARR SMYTH Smyth covers government and politics from Columbus, Ohio, for The Associated Press. She was part of the AP team honored as a finalist for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in breaking news. twitter mailto

Soldier Field is seen for an MLS soccer match between the Chicago Fire and the CF Montral, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Matt Marton, File)2026-03-14T07:38:31Z SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) A turf war over a football team is developing between two Midwestern states with a sometimes-discordant history. The storied Chicago Bears want to leave historic Soldier Field, where theyve played for half a century. Indiana lawmakers are attempting to lure them from the Windy City with a plan to finance and build a domed stadium in Hammond, Indiana, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) from their current home on Lake Michigans shore.The Illinois General Assembly has responded with legislation that would give tax breaks to so-called megaprojects of at least $100 million, a plan that would encompass the Bears proposal to build a complex in the northwest Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, about the same distance from Soldier Field as Hammond.Critics complain its a bad deal for Illinois, where property taxes are already among the highest in the nation especially when taxpayers still owe hundreds of millions of dollars on a Soldier Field renovation from two decades ago.Heres a look at whats shaping up to be a showdown. Why the big deal?The Bears, one of only two remaining NFL founding members, are legend. Their nine championships, including a Super Bowl win, are second only to the rival Green Bay Packers though recent decades have brought mostly heartbreak. The franchise carries an $8.9 billion price tag, among the most valuable of the NFLs 32 teams, according to Forbes.Born in the central Illinois city of Decatur in 1920, the Bears have called Chicago home for 105 years. Losing them to the Hoosier State would be a major thumb in the eye. Whats wrong with Soldier Field?With 61,500 seats, its the NFLs smallest. The Bears have always rented their facilities the Cubs Wrigley Field from 1921 to 1970, and Soldier Field, maintained by the Chicago Park District, since. Like most teams, they want to own a stadium, giving them control over operations, scheduling and revenue streams from ticket sales, concessions, parking, naming rights and more. And Soldier Field is open air. An enclosed facility would allow for other marquee sporting events: Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours or WrestleMania, for instance. Why the imbroglio between the states?Along with the states established cultural and economic differences and an intense college basketball rivalry, the political fissure between Democrat-dominated Chicago and conservative Indiana has widened. It amped up last year when Indiana adopted a commission to study changing the states boundaries to include some central Illinois counties whose voters have approved ballot measures calling for secession from Chicagoland. Arlington Heights, back to Chicago, to HammondThe Bears have threatened to leave Chicago previously. When they broached moving in 1975, then-Mayor Richard J. Daley replied, Like hell they will.But the City of Big Shoulders heaved an anxious sigh in 2023 when the Bears paid about $200 million for a 326-acre (132-hectare) former horse-racing track in Arlington Heights. They have envisioned a $5 billion, taxpayer-assisted development for a domed stadium and campus of housing, hotels, entertainment and retail space. In 2024, the Bears offered a $5 billion plan, partially taxpayer-funded, for an enclosed stadium next to Soldier Field, which garnered little interest in the capital of Springfield. Late last fall, the team turned to Indiana. Where the proposals stand Indianas lure creates the Northwest Indiana Stadium Authority to finance, construct and lease a domed stadium near Wolf Lake in Hammond. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed it into law on Feb. 26. The Bears would agree to a 35-year lease. Borrowed state money would cover the as-yet-unknown cost of construction, repaid by increased local hospitality taxes.In Illinois, majority Democrats have advanced legislation in the House that would provide incentives for any so-called megaproject of at least $500 million or less, down to $100 million, depending on the number of jobs created. Developers would pay property taxes frozen at the parcels pre-construction value for as long as 45 years. During that time, they would make annual payments in lieu of taxes negotiated with local governments. There would also be a sales tax exemption on building materials for up to 15 years. Critics claim weakness in Illinois planOpponents say the Illinois legislation, with its decades-long property tax freeze, would simply mean increased taxes for homeowners and other businesses the payment in lieu of taxes would be a bonus. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, who supports the plan, last week countered that the proposal would encourage development on land that isnt producing property taxes while ensuring increased revenue for local governments. Meanwhile, a substantial debt remains on the last accommodation. Taxpayers in 2001 put up $399 million to finance a $587 million renovation of Soldier Field. With interest, the remaining tab is $467 million, according to the states Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability. The Bears $7 million annual lease runs through 2033. Breaking it would cost the Bears a $10.5 million penalty for each year left on the agreement.

Republican Rick Jackson speaks to schoolchildren after qualifying to run for governor on Friday, March 6, 2026, at the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)2026-03-14T12:15:52Z ATLANTA (AP) Burt Jones seemed like the inevitable Republican nominee for governor in Georgia.He is the current lieutenant governor, he has lots of family money and perhaps most important, he has President Donald Trumps endorsement.But that certainty crumbled after health care tycoon Rick Jackson unexpectedly cannonballed into the race in February, dumping more than $30 million of his money into television ads. That already is more than any candidate has ever spent in a primary race for Georgia governor, with more than two months before the May 19 election.The blitz has left Jones clinging to Trumps endorsement like a life preserver while Jackson consciously evokes Trump. Jackson even descended in a glass elevator at his office building to announce his candidacy, echoing Trumps 2016 campaign start when he rode down a golden escalator in his eponymous New York skyscraper. Jay Morgan, a former executive director of the state Republican Party, said theres no template for what Jackson is doing in Georgia.Were on a different playing field, he said. Its like going from Little League to major leagues. Jacksons emergence is yet another challenge to Trumps influence in a critical battleground state. The presidents kingmaker record in Georgia is shaky, failing to dislodge Gov. Brian Kemp and others in 2022 and backing Herschel Walker in a Senate loss that year. More recently, Trump nudged Clay Fuller to the front of a crowded Republican field in the special congressional election to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene. Fuller advanced to a runoff against a Democratic opponent. Jones could be the Georgia politician most closely tied to Trump in this years campaigns, and a loss would again show the limits to the presidents sway over the party.The Trump endorsement is still valuable to get but cant it be the be-all and end-all, said University of Georgia political scientist Charles Bullock. I guess $50 million or whatever Rick Jackson is spending will be a real test of that. Trump sticks with JonesIn all, it is a picture of an election turned upside down. The two other top Republican candidates Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Attorney General Chris Carr have largely stayed out of the crossfire, but are struggling for attention.Democrats want to break a Republican winning streak that dates to 2002. Among the candidates are former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Geoff Duncan, a onetime Republican lieutenant governor.Trump has stood by Jones, who risked facing criminal charges when he tried to help Trump overturn his election loss in 2020. Burt Jones has been here and been with you and been with me right from the beginning, Trump said Feb. 19 at an event in Rome, Georgia.Jones is trying to counter Jackson by questioning his Make America Great Again bona fides, noting his history of giving to Republicans other than Trump and saying his health care staffing company assisted Planned Parenthood and gender-affirming care. Jackson swatted back on Monday, filing a lawsuit claiming Jones was defaming him. Jones responded with a negative ad barrage the next day. Jacksons entry into the race was preceded by a $19 million bombardment from a mystery dark money group accusing Jones of using his office to enrich himself. There is little evidence to support the most serious claims that Jones used his position as lieutenant governor to promote a giant data center development his family partly owns. Jackson has repeatedly denied that he is bankrolling the ads that began in November.On Feb. 4, Jackson launched his candidacy at the faux Italian office park he custom-built for Jackson Healthcare in suburban Alpharetta. Jackson likened himself to Trump as a businessman inspired to enter politics and said he would be Trumps favorite governor.I saw a so-called front-runner who was as weak as can be and as lazy as the day is long, Jackson said of Jones. Really, he wants the title of governor, but not the job. A Jackson lawsuit has at least temporarily cut off a key source Jones money his leadership committee. That unusual Georgia fundraising vehicle lets Jones and a few other entities raise unlimited contributions. A federal judge ruled the structure illegal because Jacksons contributions from others remain subject to Georgias $8,400 limit. Jones was ordered not to spend from the committee during the primary.The court case could help Jackson maintain a financial advantage over Jones. Although Jones has ramped up his spending, political consultants said Jackson has purchased so many television spots already that he may crowd out his competitors. From foster child to richesJackson is a former foster child who now calls himself a billionaire. His fortune stems from Jackson Healthcare, which recruits medical workers and leases them as well-credentialed temp workers. Among his biggest clients has been the state of Georgia. His companies have collected nearly $1 billion from state government in recent years, including providing medical workers during the pandemic.Hes been a force in Georgia politics for more than a decade as a Republican megadonor and policy advocate. In the early 2010s, he bankrolled an unsuccessful effort in Georgia and Florida to overhaul medical malpractice claims. He unsuccessfully pushed to privatize Georgias foster care system. Later, he successfully backed efforts to increase support for foster children. While Jackson has aired hard-edged ads pledging to cut taxes, deport immigrants and block gender-affirming care to minors, some said he is driven by Christian faith and concern for others.Hes a rock-solid conservative and just a terrific guy, said Eric Tanenblatt, a Republican operative who has worked for Jackson. Hes obviously a successful business person, but also someone with just a genuinely kind heart. Jackson made powerful Republican friends over the years. He put former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on his companys advisory board, and Jackson and his company gave more than $1 million to a political action committee backing Bushs failed 2016 presidential bid. Thats now part of Jones attack that Jackson is a never Trumper. Jones also slams donations to Nikki Haley, who unsuccessfully opposed Trump in 2024, and to former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheneys PAC.Jackson has tried to offset that history, writing a $1 million check to Trumps MAGA Inc. PAC on Dec. 10. Jones supporters arent buying it.My Chihuahua Izzy is closer to being MAGA than Rick Jackson is, said pro-Jones Republican activist Debbie Dooley.Even if people question Jacksons pro-Trump credentials, his entry seems to have stifled a push by Republican officials to crown Jones. Before Jackson entered the race, Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, and the states two Republican National Committee members sought to waive a party rule against taking sides in primaries so the party could back Jones. But with local party groups condemning the move, the national party now says it wont wade in.Were not spending any money in that race, the RNC chairman, Joe Gruters, told WSB-AM on Feb. 19. Being a huge self-funder doesnt guarantee election success. Republican Kelly Loeffler and her husband pumped more than $34 million into her unsuccessful Georgia Senate campaign in 2020. Of 65 candidates who spent more than $1 million of their own seeking federal office in 2024, only 10 won, according to Open Secrets, a group that tracks spending.But for now, Jacksons money makes his message feel inescapable.The landscape that we were looking at 30 days ago looks radically different today, Morgan said. JEFF AMY Amy covers Georgia politics and state government for The Associated Press. He began work with the AP in 2011 and covered Mississippi for eight years before transferring to the Atlanta bureau in 2019. twitter RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Police tape hangs outside the Temple Israel synagogue Friday, March 13, 2026, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)2026-03-13T21:18:16Z WASHINGTON (AP) In New York City, two men who federal authorities say were inspired by the Islamic State brought powerful homemade bombs to a far-right protest outside the mayoral mansion.In Michigan, a naturalized citizen from Lebanon rammed his vehicle into a synagogue, where he was shot at by security before he shot himself to death. In Virginia, a man previously imprisoned on a terrorism conviction was heard yelling Allahu akbar before opening fire in a university classroom in an attack that officials said ended when the shooter was killed by students.The three acts of violence in the last week have laid bare a heightened terrorism threat unfolding against the backdrop of the U.S. war with Iran and as the countrys counterterrorism system is strained by the departures of experienced national security professionals at the FBI and Justice Department. The firings and resignations, along with the diversion of resources and personnel over the last year to meet other Trump administration priorities, have fueled concerns about the capability to head off a potential surge in threats. So much experience has been decimated from the ranks, said Frank Montoya, a retired senior FBI official. The folks that were best positioned to get to the bottom of it before something really bad happened are in many cases no longer with the government, he said, meaning less experienced personnel assigned to the threat are starting from way behind. The FBI said it would not comment on personnel numbers and decisions, but issued a statement saying agents and staff are dedicated professionals working around the clock to defend the homeland and crush violent crime. The FBI continuously assesses and realigns our resources to ensure the safety of the American people. Iran has a history of plotting attacks, targeted killings inside the USIran has vowed revenge for the killing by the U.S. and Israel of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and though the fighting has so far been confined to the Middle East, the Islamic Republic has long professed its determination to carry out violence on American soil. Iranian operatives, for instance, responded to the 2020 assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani during the first Trump administration with a disrupted murder-for-hire plot targeting former national security adviser John Bolton.A Pakistani business owner who says he was carrying out instructions from a contact in Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard was convicted in New York last week of trying to hire hit men in 2024 for assassination plots targeting public figures, including President Donald Trump, who was then running for president. Though much attention has focused on Irans use of proxies or hired hands to carry out plots, the countrys capability to organize a large-scale assault on the U.S. remains unclear despite clear angst over the potential. The FBI warned in a recent bulletin to law enforcement about Irans aspiration to conduct a drone attack targeting California, but after the warning was publicized, officials emphasized the intelligence was unverified and that no specific plot was known to exist. Lone actors have been a persistent concern for the FBIThe U.S. government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks overhauled its intelligence and national security apparatus to prevent similarly catastrophic events. But in the years since, lone actors radicalized online have nonetheless carried out shootings like the 2015 ambush attacks at a pair of military sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee and a rampage at an Orlando nightclub the following year by a gunman who killed 49 people and raged against the filthy ways of the west.Those plots by self-directed individuals have proved notoriously difficult to prevent and have occurred even when the FBI has not been roiled by firings and internal upheaval like during the first year of the Trump administration.Theyre self-directed, said retired FBI official Edward Herbst. Thats what makes them really lethal. You never know when theyre going to rise up. You never know when and where theyre going to attack.Terrorism concerns typically rise during times of international conflict when military action overseas is accompanied by increased vigilance, including outreach from agents to their sources, more active sharing of tips between federal and local law enforcement and closer coordination among FBI joint terrorism task forces, said Claire Moravec, a former FBI national security official who served as deputy homeland security adviser in Illinois. Officials have said there is no indication that either the men arrested in connection with the explosives in New York, or the man responsible for Thursdays Old Dominion University shooting, were motivated explicitly by the Iran war. The man who crashed into Temple Israel synagogue near Detroit on Thursday lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official in Lebanon said. Regardless, wars like the one in Iran can function as accelerants, raising the volume and intensity of grievances for the disaffected, Moravec said. Ultimately, the goal during these periods is not surveillance but maintaining a broad awareness of how international events could translate into domestic security risks, so that threats can be identified and disrupted early, she said in an email.Resignations, firings at the FBI and Justice DepartmentThe Justice Departments National Security Division was established in 2006 to address threats of terrorism, espionage and other concerns. In the last year, lawyers in the division found themselves assigned to review the Jeffrey Epstein files to prepare them for release, and elite sections dedicated to prosecuting terrorists and catching spies have endured turnover.About half of the divisions counterterrorism prosecutors have left since the beginning of the Trump administration, along with about a third of its senior leadership, according to estimates from Justice Connection, a network of department alumni. A Justice Department spokesperson said the divisions singular focus remains keeping the American people safe from threats foreign and domestic and that there are no known or credible threats to the homeland.FBI Director Kash Patel has fired dozens of agents, most recently about a dozen employees who worked on the counterintelligence investigation into Trumps retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.This is not an exaggeration to say that they are not as capable as they were a year and a half ago, Matthew Olsen, who led the National Security Division during the Biden administration, said this week on the Lawfare podcast, adding that theyve lost, forced out, fired, the most capable, the most experienced FBI agents, FBI officials and DOJ prosecutors, that were working on the Iran threat. In the national security realm, where experience and source development are vital, the loss of institutional knowledge and community relationships can be a crushing blow, said Montoya, the former FBI official.There was no transition, Montoya said of the agents who have been abruptly fired. These guys were just walked out of the building. The new guys can call them and say, Hey, can you tell me what you were doing? but even so, youre still introducing a brand new face into the equation. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department. twitter mailto ALANNA DURKIN RICHER Richer covers the Justice Department and federal courts. She joined The AP in 2013 and is based in Washington. twitter

U.S. Army's armored vehicles move during a joint river-crossing exercise between South Korea and the United States as a part of the Freedom Shield military exercise in Yeoncheon, South Korea, Saturday, March 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)2026-03-14T05:01:49Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) North Korea on Saturday fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the eastern sea, South Koreas military said, staging its own show of force as the rival South conducts a joint military exercise with the United States.South Koreas Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from an area in Sunan, the site of Pyongyangs international airport, and flew about 350 kilometers (220 miles). Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the weapons landed outside the countrys exclusive economic zone and that there were no reports of damage to planes or ships.The Souths Joint Chiefs said the military has stepped up surveillance and is maintaining readiness against possible additional launches while closely sharing information with the U.S. and Japan.The launches came as the U.S. and South Korean militaries conduct their annual springtime exercises involving thousands of troops while the Trump administration also wages an escalating war in the Middle East. The war has raised concerns about potential security lapses in South Korea, as local media citing security camera footage and other images have speculated that the U.S. is relocating some missile defense assets stationed in the country to support operations against Iran. When asked by The Associated Press this week whether U.S. Forces Korea was moving interceptor missiles from its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system in Seongju to the Middle East, South Korean President Lee Jae Myungs office said it could not confirm details about U.S. military operations. The office said the potential relocation of U.S. military assets would not affect the allies defense posture against nuclear-armed North Korea, while also citing South Koreas conventional military strength. It earlier gave a similar response to reports about the possible relocation of Patriot missile defense systems from South Korea. The launches came hours after South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, Seouls No. 2 official after Lee, met U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington and expressed hope for renewed diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang. Lee seeks improved inter-Korean relations, and some of his top officials have said Trumps expected visit to China, starting March 31, may create an opening with Pyongyang. But Saturdays launches appeared to dim such hopes, signaling defiance by Pyongyang, which in recent months has hardened its stance toward Seoul and urged Washington to drop denuclearization demands as a precondition for talks.North Korea has long described the allies drills as invasion rehearsals and often uses them as a pretext to dial up its own military demonstrations or weapons testing.The North in previous years has conducted numerous salvo launches of missiles or artillery while describing them as simulations of nuclear attacks against targets in South Korea.The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday criticized Washington and Seoul for proceeding with their drills at a perilous moment for global security, and warned that any challenge to the Norths safety would bring terrible consequences. Without directly referring to the Iran war, Kim Yo Jong said the U.S.-South Korea drills undermine regional stability at a time when the global security structure is collapsing rapidly and wars break out in different parts of the world due to the reckless acts of outrageous international rogues. North Koreas Foreign Ministry has released separate statements denouncing the joint U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran and expressing support for Tehrans new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.The 11-day Freedom Shield exercise, which runs through March 19, is one of two annual command post exercises conducted by the militaries of the United States and South Korea. The largely computer-simulated drills are designed to test the allies joint operational capabilities, while incorporating evolving war scenarios and security challenges. Freedom Shield will be accompanied by a field training program called Warrior Shield. North Korea has repeatedly rejected Washington and Seouls calls to resume diplomacy aimed at winding down its nuclear program. Talks derailed in 2019 following the collapse of Kim Jong Uns second summit with Trump during his first term.Kim has made Russia the priority of his foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large amounts of military equipment to support Moscows war in Ukraine, possibly in exchange for aid and military technology.AP journalists Yuri Kageyama and Mayuko Ono contributed from Tokyo. KIM TONG-HYUNG Kim has been covering the Koreas for the AP since 2014. He has published widely read stories on North Koreas nuclear ambitions, the dark side of South Koreas economic rise and international adoptions of Korean children. twitter mailto

Welcome back to the Abstract! These are the studies this week that searched for life in the dark, stood up for hedgehogs, dropped some wisdom, and died in an inexplicably epic explosion.First, aliens might be riding around interstellar space on exomoons, just in case thats of interest to you. Then: an ultrasonic solution to roadkill, the limits of metrification, and an answer to a cosmic mystery.As always, for more of my work, check out my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens or subscribe to my personal newsletter the BeX Files.bThe view from a rogue exomoonDahlbdding, David et al. Habitability of Tidally Heated H2-Dominated Exomoons around Free-Floating Planets.Living on a planet with a boring old Sun is for normies. In a new study, astronomers suggest that alien life could potentially emerge in a much more unexpected placeexomoons that orbit free-floating planets in interstellar space.There are likely trillions of rogue planets wandering through the Milky Way, untethered to any star, raising the tantalizing mystery of whether any of them could be habitable. Now, researchers led by David Dahlbdding of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) extend this question to exomoons that were dragged out into interstellar space with their planets.The search for exomoons within conventional stellar systems continues with no confirmed detection to date, the team said. Thus, free-floating planets might offer an alternative pathway for the first discovery of an exomoon.In other words, astronomers have never clearly seen an exomoon. But new techniques for spying free-floating worldssuch as microlensing, which reveals objects through the warped light of their gravitycould provide the sensitivity that is required for this long-sought detection.With regard to potential habitability, Dahlbdding and his colleagues focused specifically on exomoons that orbit planets with thick hydrogen atmospheres. If such a pair were to be kicked out of a star system, the exomoons orbit could become stretched out into a far more elliptical shape. This shift would cause the planet to exert more intense tidal forces onto its satellite, generating heat that could keep liquid water flowing on the moon over vast timescales.Close encounters before the final ejection even increase the ellipticity of the moons orbit, boosting tidal heating over millions to billions of years, depending on the moons and free-floating planets properties, the team said. The tidal forces and atmospheric components could also create favourable conditions for RNA polymerisation and thus support the emergence of life.These potentially habitable moons could be detected through a variety of techniques, including microlensing, the researchers added, though they noted that actually analyzing their atmospheres may not be feasible with any instruments currently in operation.While we may not be able to spot signs of life on these worlds anytime soon, it would be exciting just to discover a planet and a moon bound together, but unbound from any star, which is a genuine near-term possibility.In other newsUltra-sonic the hedgehogRasmussen, Sophie Lund et al. Hearing and anatomy of the ear of the European hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus. Biology Letters.Hedgehogs have long been ubiquitous in Europe, but cars now kill up to one-third of their population each year. Even more nightmarish, the advent of robotic lawn mowers has led to an uptick in hedgehog deaths.To help protect these iconic critters, scientists suggest testing out acoustic repellents. A series of experiments with 20 hedgehogs from a wildlife rescue established that hedgehogs can perceive a broad ultrasonic range, with peak sensitivity around 40 kHz.Rasmussen, who goes by Dr. Hedgehog, with a hedgehog. Image: Joan OstenfeldtThe results show a potential for the development of targeted ultrasonic sound repellents to deter hedgehogs temporarily from potential dangers such as the particular models of robotic lawn mowers found to be hazardous to hedgehog survival, and more importantly, cars, said researchers led by Sophie Lund Rasmussen of the University of Oxford.Designing sound repellents for cars to reduce the high number of road-killed hedgehogs enhances animal welfare and supports conservation of this declining flagship species, the team concluded.To channel the old joke, why did the hedgehog cross the road? Answer: Ideally it didnt, due to scientific intervention. (Ill be here all night).Dropping in on science historyCornu, Armel et al. The drop and the metric system: how an unruly unit survived revolutions. Annals of Science.The metric system has been adopted by every country except Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States. But even as metrication was rapidly embraced in the 17th and 18th centuries, a far more imprecise systemthe droprefused to drop out.People have measured liquids in drop form for thousands of years, and still do in many contexts today. Researchers led by Armel Cornu of Uppsala University have now explored how such non-standard units survive lengthy waves of standardization. The paper is worth a read for its many interesting asides, like how acids were tested by counting the number of dropsthat could be placed on the skin before one witnessed the effects. Gnarly.It also gets into the political dimensions of metrication, including this proto-populist justification for standardizing units: Numerous complaints about the diversity of measurements and their lack of cross-readability were directed with a special ire at powerful lords who abused standards in order to extort the population, Cornus team said. The metric system was one response to "the discontent of peasants and the little people against the powerful.Anyway, a little bit of drop-related science history never hurt anyoneunless you volunteered to be an acid tester.A (dead) star is bornFarah, Joseph et al. LenseThirring precessing magnetar engine drives a superluminous supernova. Nature.Astronomers have discovered the mysterious power source of rare and radiant stellar explosions called Type I superluminous supernovae which are ten times brighter than regular supernovae.The secret superluminous sauce, as it turns out, is the birth of a magnetar, a highly magnetized stellar remnant, according to a supernova first observed in December 2024. The light from this stellar explosion contained imprints of the LenseThirring effect, in which spacetime is dragged around by massive and rapidly rotating objects, a key sign of a magnetar origin.Artists conception of a magnetar surrounded by an accretion disk exhibiting Lense-Thirring precession. Image: Joseph Farah and Curtis McCullyOur observations are consistent with a magnetar centrally located within the expanding supernova ejecta, said researchers led by Joseph Farah of Las Cumbres Observatory. These results provide the first observational evidence of the LenseThirring effect in the environment of a magnetar and confirm the magnetar spin-down model as an explanation for the extreme luminosity observed in Type I superluminous supernovae.We anticipate that this discovery will create avenues for testing general relativity in a new regimethe violent centres of young supernovae, the team concluded.Forget stellar as slang for great; we have graduated to superluminous.Thanks for reading! See you next week.

Max Verstappen said every lap is survival mode with his Red Bull at the moment as he cannot control the car, a situation that is "just really not how it should be."

Kimi Antonelli became F1's first-ever teenager to claim a pole position.

Her best-selling book encouraged people to tidy up homes and lives as death approached as a gift for loved ones and to revisit memories.

President Trump is the first American leader to embrace fighting a full-fledged, joint war with Israel. Washington has tried to avoid that level of coordination in the past.

A survey from West Health-Gallup found that nearly one in 10 adults say theyve postponed retirement because of healthcare costs, with many respondents also reporting delaying job changes, home buying, or having a child. What do you think?I take it the other 9 in 10 arent retiring at all?Kara Schulz, Scaffolding ExpertMy HMO specifically says all life decisions are decided in-network.Jaxon McCurdy, Curtain TasselerIts fiscally irresponsible to live past 60.Leon Talbot, Jerky PackagerThe post Poll: Nearly 1 In 10 Adults Have Postponed Retirement Due To Healthcare Costs appeared first on The Onion.

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A crane unloads a container at the Uiwang ICD Terminal in Uiwang, South Korea, Thursday, March 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)2026-03-14T13:00:06Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration this week stepped up its ambitious effort to replace about $1.6 trillion in lost tariff revenue that was eliminated by the Supreme Courts decision to strike down a range of the presidents import taxes. Recovering that lost revenue, which the White House was counting on to help offset the steep, multi-trillion dollar cost of its tax cuts, is possible but will be challenging, experts say. The administration has to use different legal provisions to impose new duties, and those provisions require longer, complex processes that U.S. companies can use to seek exemptions. It could be months or more before it is clear how much revenue the replacement tariffs will yield. I wouldnt bet against this administration being able to get back on paper the same effective tariff rate they had before, said Elena Patel, co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. But the new approach will make it easier for people to contest the tariffs, which is going to put a big asterisk on the revenue until all that is settled. On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the administration will investigate 16 economies including the European Union over whether their governments are subsidizing excessive factory capacity in a way that disadvantages U.S. manufacturing. The investigation will also cover China, South Korea, and Japan, Greer said. In addition, he said there would be a second investigation of dozens of countries to see if their failure to ban goods made by forced labor amounts to an unfair trade practice that harms the United States. That investigation will also cover the EU and China, as well as Mexico, Canada, Australia, and Brazil. Both investigations are being conducted under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, which requires the administration to consult with the targeted countries, as well as hold public hearings and allow affected U.S. industries to comment. A hearing as part of the factory capacity investigation will be held May 5, while a hearing on the forced labor investigation will occur April 28. Its a far cry from the emergency law that President Donald Trump relied on in his first year in office, which allowed him to immediately impose tariffs on any country, at nearly any level, simply by issuing an executive order. Moments after the Supreme Courts ruling, Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all imports under a separate legal authority, but that duty can only last for 150 days. The president has said he would raise it to 15%, the maximum allowed, but has yet to do so. Some two dozen states have already challenged the new tariffs. The administration is aiming to complete its Section 301 investigations before the 10% duties expire. The effort underscores the importance that the Trump White House has placed on tariffs as a revenue-raiser at a time when the federal government is facing huge annual budget deficits for decades into the future. Previous administrations, by contrast, used tariffs more sparingly to narrowly protect specific industries. Erica York, vice president of federal tax policy at the Tax Foundation, noted that the first investigation covers roughly 70% of imports, while the second would cover nearly all of them. That breadth suggests the goal isnt to address the issues at hand, but instead to recreate a sweeping tariff tool, she said.Trump sees tariffs as a way to force foreign countries to essentially help pay the cost of U.S. government services, even though all recent economic studies find that American companies and consumers are paying the duties, including ones from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and economists at Harvard University. In his state of the union address last month, Trump even touted his tariffs as a potential replacement for the income tax, which would return the United States tax regime to the late 19th century. Trump also wants tariffs to help pay for the tax cuts he extended in key legislation last year. The tax cut legislation is expected, according to the most recent estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, to add $4.7 trillion to the national debt over a decade, while all Trumps duties, including ones not struck down by the court, were projected to offset about $3 trillion or two-thirds of that cost. The courts ruling Feb. 20 that he could no longer impose emergency tariffs eliminated about $1.6 trillion in expected revenue over the next decade, according to the CBO. Some of Trumps tariffs remain place, including previous duties on China and Canada that were imposed after earlier 301 investigations. The administration has also slapped tariffs on some specific products, including steel, lumber, and cars. Those, combined with the 10% tariff for part of this year, should yield about $668 billion over the next decade, the Tax Foundation estimates. Its going to take a really big patchwork of these other investigations to make up for the (lost) tariffs, York said. The administrations efforts are also unusual because they reflect an overreliance on tariffs to bring in more government revenue. Trump has also said the duties are intended to return manufacturing to the United States, and he has used them to leverage trade deals. What makes this really different, said Kent Smetters, executive director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, it is really the first time tariffs have been mainly used as a revenue raiser. Patel, meanwhile, argues that raising revenue can be done more reliably and straightforwardly by Congress. Laws like Section 301 are traditionally intended to be used to address specific trade policy concerns in particular countries. Its not supposed to be there to raise revenue, she said. If we want to raise revenue through tariffs, then Congress should impose a broad based tariff. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. twitter mailto

Residents inspect the site of a strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Barackatullah Popal)2026-03-14T10:34:51Z ISLAMABAD (AP) Pakistans president on Saturday warned neighboring Afghanistans Taliban government that it had crossed a red line by launching drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan and said the administration in Kabul has brought grave consequences upon itself. The statement by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was the latest in what has become the deadliest fighting yet between the two neighbors. The cross-border clashes, which erupted late last month, have shown no signs of abating despite efforts by China and Turkey to broker a ceasefire. Pakistan said its forces intercepted the drones launched on Friday but that falling debris injured two children in the city of Quetta and two people elsewhere in the country. On Friday, the Afghan Taliban government accused Pakistan of conducting airstrikes in Kabul, the countrys capital, and other areas in eastern Afghanistan, saying at least six civilians were killed and 15 other were injured. Hours later, Kabul claimed its air force responded by targeting military installations near Islamabad, Pakistans capital, and in northwestern Pakistan. Pakistan denied targeting civilians, saying its operations are focused on Pakistani Taliban militants and their support networks. Islamabad has referred the conflict as an open war adding to concerns among the international community about the regional stability as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has engulfed the Middle East and beyond. The Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that Pakistani aircraft also struck fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near the airport in the southern city of Kandahar, which he said supplies civilian and U.N. flights.Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban government of harboring Pakistani militant groups mainly the Pakistani Taliban that cross the porous volatile border between the two countries to stage attacks against Pakistani forces and also of allying with its archrival, India. kabul denies harboring militant groups. On Friday, a roadside bomb targeting Pakistani police killed seven officers in the northwestern district of Lakki Mawat.Zardari slammed the government in Kabul. While the Afghan terrorist regime seeks negotiations with our friendly countries, it crossed a red line by attempting to target our civilians, he said. Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday urged for a peaceful resolution of the Afghanistan-Pakistan dispute, warning the use of force worsens tensions and threatens regional stability. His remarks were reported Saturday by Chinas official Xinhua News Agency, which said Wang had spoken with Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.Wang said Chinas special envoy is shuttling between the two countries in an effort to promote restraint and encourage a ceasefire. Muttaqi said Afghanistan seeks regional peace and does not want a military conflict, adding that dialogue remains the only solution and urging China to play a greater role.A Qatari-mediated ceasefire in October briefly reduced tensions, but subsequent talks in Turkey failed to produce a lasting agreement.___Qahar reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writer Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Kimi Antonelli became the youngest pole-sitter in Formula 1 history after George Russell was struck down by a gearbox problem in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

No one was hurt in the explosion at a Jewish school in Amsterdam, or in an earlier one at a Rotterdam synagogue.

Please tell us how youre using A.I. tools to fulfill your job responsibilities. We may include your experiences in an article.

People, mostly Iranians who crossed from Iran at the Kapikoy border crossing, pull luggage in Turkey's eastern Van province, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Murat Kocabas)2026-03-14T13:23:06Z KAPIKOY BORDER CROSSING, Turkey (AP) After bombs exploded near her home in the eastern Iranian city of Golestan, hairdresser Merve Pourkaz decided to leave.Pourkaz, 32, said she traveled nearly 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) to an alpine border crossing in the hopes of reaching the safety of the nearby Turkish city of Van.If they let me, I will stay in Van until the war ends, she told The Associated Press recently while waiting at the crossing. If the war doesnt end, maybe Ill go back and die.Pourkaz is one of the 3.2 million people in Iran who the U.N. refugee agency estimates have been displaced since the U.S.-Israel war with Iran started. While some are seeking shelter in safer parts of Iran or one of its neighboring countries, others are returning from abroad, heading toward the fighting to protect their families and homes. So far, relatively few people have chosen to leave: The U.N. estimates that only about 1,300 Iranians have fled via Turkey each day since the war started, and on some days, more people return to Iran than depart. But Irans neighbors and Europe are growing increasingly concerned about a possible migration crisis should the war drag on and are making contingency plans. As Pourkaz was entering Turkey, Leila Rabetnezhadfard was headed the other way.Rabetnezhadfard, 45, was in Istanbul preparing to marry a German university professor when the fighting started. She postponed the ceremony and left for home in Shiraz, in southern Iran. How can I feel safe in Istanbul when my family is living in Iran during the war? said Rabetnezhadfard, explaining that bringing her family to Istanbul wasnt an option because her apartment is small, her brother needs medical care, and life there is expensive.I will not leave Iran until the war ends, she said. Fleeing the fightingThe U.N. has warned that continued fighting will likely push more Iranians to flee their homes.As in the 12-day conflict last year, many Iranians are now sheltering in place, without money to flee or perhaps because of U.S. President Donald Trumps Feb. 28 warning.Stay sheltered. Dont leave your home. Its very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere, he said.Although large numbers of Iranians havent fled the country yet, people have been leaving major cities for the relative safety of the countryside bordering the Caspian Sea north of the capital, Tehran, according to the International Organization for Migration.Movement out of Iran appears limited mainly because people are prioritizing staying with their families, as well as the safety of their families and property, and due to security conditions and logistical constraints, said Salvador Gutierrez, chief of the IOMs mission in Iran.If Irans critical infrastructure is destroyed, that could lead to waves of people trying to cross into one of Irans neighbors: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey and Iraq.If Tehran, a city of 10 million people, doesnt have water, theyre going to go somewhere, said Alex Vatanka, a fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.Iran is already grappling with one of the worlds largest refugee populations: roughly 2.5 million forcibly displaced people mostly from Afghanistan and Iraq. Neighbors brace for impactIf the crisis deepens, aid groups say the most likely destinations for refugees are Irans borders with Iraq and Turkey, which stretch roughly 2,200 kilometers (1,367 miles) through rough alpine terrain that is home to many Kurdish communities and are difficult to police.Turkey had a so-called open-door policy that allowed millions of Syrian refugees to enter the country during their countrys long civil war. But it has abandoned that approach for various reasons.Instead, it has prepared plans to shelter Iranian refugees in buffer zones along the border, or in tent cities or temporary housing inside Turkey, the countrys Hurriyet newspaper quoted Turkish Interior Minister Mustafa Ciftci as saying.Iranians who have fled the war will likely not seek refugee status in Turkey because asylum claims might take years to process, if at all, said Sara Karakoyun, an aid worker at the independent Human Resource Development Foundation based near the border. They dont want to wait in limbo for years for a refugee status they might not get, she said.Turkeys defense ministry said in January that Turkey had hardened its border with Iran by adding 380 kilometers of concrete walls, 203 optical towers and 43 observation posts.Turkey will likely send troops to secure its border and tightly control the flow of people into the country while seeking European Union funds to help deal with refugees, said Riccardo Gasco, an analyst at the IstanPol Institute. Europe taps network to prepare for the worstThe relationship between the EU and Turkey was redefined by the Syrian refugee crisis a decade ago. Nearly two-thirds of the 4.5 million Syrians fleeing the civil war ended up in Turkey. Many then made their way to Europe via small boats.In 2016, Brussels and Ankara forged a migration deal where the EU offered Turkey incentives and up to 6 billion euros ($7.1 billion) in aid for Syrian refugees on its territory to persuade Ankara to stop tens of thousands of migrants from setting out for Greece.Aid groups said that deal created open-air prisons with squalid conditions. But for the EU leadership, the deal saved people, kept many migrants from reaching EU territory, and bettered the lives of refugees in Turkey.Renewal of that deal is up this year, but Turkish citizens have soured on Syrian refugees and anti-immigrant right-wing parties have surged in popularity in parts of Europe.And another refugee crisis is already underway even closer to Europe, with fighting in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah displacing more than 800,000 people so far.Weve got a situation (in the Middle East) that could have grave humanitarian consequences right at a time where humanitarian funding has been completely slashed, said Ninette Kelley, chair of the World Refugee & Migration Council, pointing to the Trump administrations gutting of USAID. Is the world ready for another humanitarian disaster?___McNeil reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Fay Abuelgasim in Cairo, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report. SAM McNEIL McNeil covers Europe and beyond with a focus on conflict and the environment. twitter instagram facebook mailto

Josh Nass, a lawyer and lobbyist, had recently represented Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive pardoned by the president late last year.

The $5 billion project in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to produce up to 10 billion barrels of oil by the end of this decade. Critics say it could endanger people and marine life.

The large fee is the latest example of the White Houses inserting itself into corporate deal making in unusual and aggressive ways.

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The DOGE deposition videos a judge ordered removed from YouTube on Friday after they had gone massively viral have since been backed up across the internet, including as a torrent and to the Internet Archive. The videos included DOGE members unable or unwilling to define DEI; discussing how they used ChatGPT and terms such as black and homosexual to flag grants for termination but not white or caucasian, and acknowledgements that despite their aggressive cuts they failed to achieve the stated goal of lowering the government deficit.The news shows the difficulty in trying to remove material from the internet, especially that which has a high public interest and has already been viewed likely millions of times. Its also an example of the Streisand Effect, a phenomenon where trying to suppress information often results in the information spreading further.Do you know anything else about this case? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at joseph.404 or send me an email at joseph@404media.co.DOGE deposition videos in Depositions for MLA-ACLS-AHA Lawsuit About the NEH, the title of the page on the Internet Archive reads. The page says the files were uploaded on Saturday. On the Data Hoarder subreddit, multiple users said they had downloaded a torrent of the videos. Once a torrent of files has been shared, it becomes much harder to fully delete off of the internet because its distribution has been decentralized. 404 Media verified that the torrent did contain the DOGE deposition videos.The depositions come from a lawsuit the Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and American Historical Association brought against the National Endowment for the Humanities and others over its cutting of hundreds of millions of grants. DOGE members Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh were a driving force behind those cuts. The deposition videos, which the MLA uploaded to YouTube earlier this month, included depositions of Fox, Cavanaugh, and NEH officials Adam Wolfson and Michael McDonald. View this post on Instagram A post shared by 404 Media (@404mediaco)The videos went viral when 404 Media and other outlets reported on their contents and clipped certain segments. Those included Fox not being able or unwilling to define DEI.On Friday, government lawyers in the lawsuit filed a court record which said they asked the plaintiffs to remove the videos from the internet due to concerns that the publication of the videos could subject the witnesses and their family members to undue harassment and reputational harm. The filing then said that Fox specifically has been subject to harassment and has received a number of death threats since the videos and video clips were publicized and circulated.In response, Judge Colleen McMahon ordered the plaintiffs to immediately take any and all possible steps to claw back the videos of the depositions of the witnesses identified in the Governments motion. As of Friday, the videos were no longer available on the MLAs YouTube channel.Notably, the judges order is only directed at the plaintiffs, and not a specific platform or other people who upload the videos. It is unclear if the plaintiffs are expected to take steps to try to remove these uploads as well. The plaintiffs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.On Friday the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion saying, Defendants never designated the video depositions in question as Confidential under the Protective Order, and Defendants have never alleged in their correspondence with ACLS Plaintiffs that ACLS Plaintiffs violated the protective order presently in place.The judge denied the emergency motion, and scheduled a hearing for Tuesday about the matter.

Josh Nass, a lawyer and lobbyist, had recently represented Joseph Schwartz, a former nursing home executive pardoned by the president late last year.

The United States helped create safeguards to limit the brutality of war, and now I fear President Trump is dismantling them.

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Giant wind turbine blades for the Vineyard Winds project are stacked on racks in the harbor, July 11, 2023, in New Bedford, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)2026-03-14T15:02:00Z Construction is finished on a major Massachusetts offshore wind farm, the first project to reach this stage during President Donald Trumps time in office.Offshore construction was completed Friday night on Vineyard Wind with the installation of the final blades, Craig Gilvarg, a spokesperson for the project, said Saturday. Trump, who often talks about his hatred of wind power, has said his goal is to not let any windmills be built. Vineyard Wind was one of five major East Coast offshore wind projects the Trump administration halted construction on days before Christmas, citing national security concerns. Developers and states sued, and federal judges allowed all five to resume construction, essentially concluding that the government did not show that the national security risk was so imminent that construction must halt.Another one of the five, Revolution Wind, began sending power for the first time to New Englands electric grid on Friday and will scale up in the weeks ahead until it is fully operational. While Revolution Wind just began delivering power, Vineyard Wind has been doing so for over a year as more turbines were finished. Vineyard Wind is a joint venture between Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, located 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket, Massachusetts. It has 62 turbines that will generate a total of 800 megawatts. That is enough clean electricity to power about 400,000 homes. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has said the completion of this project is essential to ensuring the state can lower costs, meet rising energy demand, advance its climate goals and sustain thousands of good-paying jobs. The Trump administration has been particularly critical of the Vineyard Wind project because of a blade failure. Fiberglass fragments of a blade broke apart and began washing onto Nantucket beaches in July 2024 during the peak of tourist season. Manufacturer GE Vernova agreed to pay $10.5 million in a settlement to compensate island businesses that suffered losses. Vineyard Wind submitted state and federal project plans to build an offshore wind farm in 2017. Massachusetts had committed to offshore wind by requiring its utilities to solicit proposals for up to 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power by 2027. In what might have been a fatal blow, federal regulators delayed Vineyard Wind by holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement in 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Keating said at the time the Trump administration was trying to stymie the renewable energy project just as it was coming to fruition.The Biden administration signed off on it in 2021, as it sought to ramp up offshore wind as a climate change solution. Construction began onshore in Barnstable, Massachusetts.The first U.S. offshore wind farm opened off Rhode Islands Block Island in 2016, at the end of President Barack Obamas tenure. But with just five turbines, its not a commercial-scale wind farm. The nations first commercial-scale offshore wind farm officially opened in March 2024, when President Joe Biden was in office. Danish wind energy developer Orsted and the utility Eversource built that 12-turbine wind farm, called South Fork Wind, 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Montauk Point, New York. Trump began reversing the countrys energy policies his first day in office with a spate of executive orders aimed at boosting oil, gas and coal. White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said Friday night that Trump reversed course on Joe Bidens costly green energy agenda that gave preferential treatment to intermittent, unreliable energy sources and instead is aggressively unleashing reliable and affordable energy sources to lower energy bills, improve our grid stability and protect our national security. ___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. JENNIFER McDERMOTT McDermott is a reporter on the Associated Press Climate and Environment team. She focuses on the transition to clean energy. twitter mailto

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In his top post at the Department of Homeland Security, David Harvilicz sets policy on protecting the nations elections infrastructure, including voting machines.Hes also the co-founder of a company with James Penrose, who helped hatch debunked conspiracy theories blaming hacked voting machines for Donald Trumps loss in the 2020 presidential election. Penrose assisted in a push to seize voting machines to overturn Trumps defeat.On social media, Harvilicz has called for doing away with voting machines, saying they are eminently vulnerable to exploitation. In a March post, he wrote that DHS needs to ban voting machines for all federal elections. The time is now. He also has repeatedly questioned the validity of Democratic electoral victories and pushed for Republicans to overhaul electoral systems to their advantage.David Harvilicz in 2015 Sam Comen/The New York Times/ReduxElection experts as well as current and former DHS officials say Harviliczs central role in overseeing the security of electoral systems and voting machines is especially concerning at a time when the administration is taking unprecedented steps to relitigate Trumps baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen. That includes the FBIs seizure of 2020 voting records from Fulton County, Georgia, and having a team working for Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, take custody of voting machines used in Puerto Rico in 2020.The security of our election infrastructure depends on leadership that is trusted, impartial and grounded in evidence not individuals who have promoted conspiracy theories about the very systems they are now responsible for protecting, said Danielle Lang, vice president for voting rights and the rule of law at the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan pro-democracy organization. Placing someone with that background in charge of policies affecting election security can undermine public confidence in our elections at a time when trust is already fragile.DHS didnt answer detailed questions about Harvilicz or his team, providing a more general statement about the work done by the agency. DHS and its employees are focused on keeping our elections safe, secure, and free, it said. Every single day appointees at the Department of Homeland Security work to implement the Presidents policies and keep our Homeland safe.Harvilicz didnt respond to questions about his DHS role. Harviliczs X account notes his post as DHS assistant secretary for cyber, infrastructure, risk and resilience policy but says hes been detailed to the Defense Department. (Such temporary assignments are typically done in 120-day increments.)Get InvolvedDo you have information you can share about David Harvilicz or other federal officials working on elections or any of the other individuals named in this article? Contact reporter Doug Bock Clark at doug.clark@propublica.org or on Signal at 678-243-0784. If youre concerned about confidentiality, check out our advice on the most secure ways to share tips.Harvilicz was appointed to the DHS job around July, taking on a role that in the past has largely focused on shaping policy to protect the nations critical infrastructure, including its election systems.But current and former DHS officials say Harvilicz and his team have transformed their functions to become more hands-on. Theyve been deeply engaged with facilitating multiple administration data-gathering efforts aimed at scouring voter rolls for noncitizens, the officials said. ProPublica has reported on one such effort, which has led to hundreds of citizens being incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens.Harviliczs team includes Heather Honey, the deputy assistant secretary of election integrity. ProPublica has reported that Honey was previously a leader in the Election Integrity Network, a conservative group that has challenged the legitimacy of American election systems. Honey worked closely with Cleta Mitchell, the networks leader, who played a prominent role in helping Trump try to overturn his 2020 loss.Also reporting directly to Harvilicz is Samantha Anderson, a data specialist who previously worked to elect Trump through the advocacy arm of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank closely associated with the president.Multiple officials and elections experts said they were worried that Harvilicz and Honey would have prominent parts in assessing and describing the cybersecurity of the coming election, both to the public and to administration leaders. They also expressed concern that if Trump again wanted to get control of voting machines after the election, perhaps if Republicans lose seats in the midterms, that Harvilicz is ideally positioned to help them do so.It would be super easy for them to get the voting machines, a current DHS official said, adding they can describe it as they want, if they dont like the results.Harvilicz co-founded Tranquility AI, which has developed an artificial intelligence tool for law enforcement, with Penrose, and they are listed on its 2025 patents as developing its systems together.Penrose, a former intelligence officer, played a leading role in the campaign to help Trump in his failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, ProPublica has reported. Penrose also participated in multiple attempts to clandestinely seize voting machines, including in Michigan, where prosecutors accused him of breaking into some of the machines. (Penrose wasnt charged in the case.) He appeared to be an unindicted co-conspirator in the failed Georgia prosecution in which Trump was accused of conspiring to overturn the election results, according to The Washington Post.Penrose didnt respond to a request for comment for this article.One of the purported uses of Tranquility AIs product is for election integrity, according to the companys website. It didnt provide more details in response to a question from ProPublica.Tranquility AIs tools, which help law enforcement agents process data and assemble cases, have been employed by New Orleans district attorney, and the company says it has partnered with dozens of law enforcement agencies nationwide. In July 2025, a large government IT contractor announced a partnership with Tranquility AI.Harvilicz started his career working at law firms on Wall Street and in tech. Then, in 2004, when he was 29, he launched a losing bid for a Maryland congressional seat. After that, he helped lead a crowdfunding company, a movie marketing business, a film production business that worked with former intelligence officers and several cyber security ventures (including one at which he worked with Penrose). He also did a stint in the first Trump administration, serving as cybersecurity official in the Department of Energy.In advance of Harvilicz getting the DHS position, Tranquility AI made a $100,000 donation to Trumps inaugural fund through a newly created nonprofit based at Harviliczs home address, according to The Intercept. In response to questions from The Intercept, Harvilicz said the donation was designed to help them meet administration policymakers. The Intercept first reported his ties to Penrose in connection with the donation.Harvilicz has posted prolifically to social media, sharing hundreds of posts of conservative content. After Trump won a second presidential term, he wrote: We will now dismantle the near communist takeover of America and return her to greatness.In 2020, Harvilicz purchased a $3.3 million home outside of Los Angeles.After the Palisades Fire destroyed it around the beginning of Trumps second term, Harvilicz stood on a roadside to greet the presidents tour of the disaster area with his young son on his shoulders. His son held aloft a picture of a bloodied Trump punching the air after surviving an assassins bullet.Even then, elections were not far from his mind. He told a reporter for the Los Angeles Times that he supported Trump making disaster aid conditional on the Democratic state implementing voter ID.I hope he saw us, Harvilicz told the Times reporter.The post This DHS Official Oversees the Security of Federal Elections. He Wants to Ban Voting Machines. appeared first on ProPublica.

The number doctors use to demarcate hypertension keeps going down, a trend applauded by many experts, who point to studies linking high blood pressure and dementia.