Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08778-6Glutamate metabolically reprograms bone-marrow-derived macrophages, stabilizing HIF1, which transcriptionally activates WNT3 to promote YAP1-dependent hepatocyte proliferation, boosting liver regeneration.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00872-zMapping the density, molecular features and energy-transformation capacity of cell organelles called mitochondria in the brain reveals region- and cell-type-specific variability that tracks with evolutionary patterns. Correlations between mitochondrial and brain-imaging metrics could enable future non-invasive explorations of mitochondrial bioenergetics in the brain in health and disease.

Vice President JD Vance speaks at Marine Corps Air Station Quantico during a tour Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)2025-03-28T04:13:49Z U.S. Vice President JD Vance and his wife are due to visit an American military base in Greenland on Friday in a trip that was scaled back after an uproar by Greenlanders and Danes who were irked that the original itinerary was planned without consulting them.The couples revised trip to the semi-autonomous Danish territory comes as relations between the U.S. and the Nordic country have soured after U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly suggested that the United States should in some form control the mineral-rich territory of Denmark a traditional U.S. ally and NATO member.Fridays one-day visit to the U.S. Space Force outpost at Pituffik, on the northwest coast of Greenland, has removed the risk of violating potential diplomatic taboos by sending a delegation to another country without an official invitation. It will also reduce the likelihood that the Vance and his wife will cross paths with residents angered by Trumps annexation announcements. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday that the visit, which was originally set for three days, created unacceptable pressure. On Thursday she was cited by Danish public broadcaster DR as saying: We really want to work with the Americans on defense and security in the kingdom. But Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. Initially, Usha Vance had announced a solo trip to the Avannaata Qimussersu dogsled race in Sisimiut. Her husband then subsequently said he would join her on that trip, only to change that itinerary again after protests from Greenland and Denmark to a one-day visit of the couple to the military post only. Nonetheless, in an interview on Wednesday, Trump repeated his desire for U.S. control of Greenland. Asked if the people there were eager to become U.S. citizens, Trump said he didnt know but I think we have to do it, and we have to convince them. As the nautical gateway to the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, Greenland has broader strategic value as both China and Russia seek access to its waterways and natural resources.During his first term, Trump floated the idea of purchasing the worlds largest island, even as Denmark insisted it wasnt for sale. The people of Greenland also have firmly rejected Trumps plans.Vance has several times criticized long-standing European allies for relying on military support from the United States, openly antagonizing partners in ways that have generated concerns about the reliability of the U.S.In the meantime, opponents of Trumps plans to control Greenland, announced a rally in front of the American embassy in the Danish capital for Saturday, DR reported Thursday. The protesters were planning to speak out against American pressure against Greenland and Denmark and unwanted visits from the U.S. government, DR reported. KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Grieshaber is a Berlin-based reporter covering Germany and Austria for The Associated Press. She covers general news as well as migration, populism and religion. mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Debris of a French UTA jetliner seen in the desert of Niger, where the airliner crashed after exploding over the desert in September 1989. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere, File)2025-03-28T04:09:01Z The monthslong trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign is shedding light on Frances back-channel talks with the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.Sarkozy, 70, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied wrongdoing. French prosecutors were not convinced and on Thursday requested a seven-year prison sentence for Sarkozy. The verdict is expected at a later date.Some key moments in the trial focused on talks between France and Libya in the 2000s when Gadhafi was seeking to restore diplomatic ties with the West. Before that, Libya was considered a pariah state for having sponsored attacks.French families of victims of a 1989 plane bombing told the court about their shock and sense of betrayal as the trial questioned whether promises possibly made to Gadhafis government were part of the alleged corruption deal. The Lockerbie and UTA flight bombingsOn Sept. 19, 1989, the bombing of UTA flight 772 over Niger killed 170 people, including 54 French nationals on board, after an in-flight explosion caused by a suitcase bomb.The year before, a bomb planted aboard a Pam Am flight exploded while the plane was over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people from 21 countries including 190 Americans.Investigators tied both bombings to Libya, whose government had engaged in long-running hostilities with the U.S. and other Western governments. Now, families of victims are wondering whether French government officials close to Sarkozy promised to forget about the bombings in exchange for business opportunities with the oil-rich nation and possibly, an alleged corruption deal.What did they do with our dead? the daughter of a man who died in the bombing told the court. She said questions in her mind turn around whether the memories of the victims could have been used for bartering in talks between France and Libya.Sarkozy said he has never ever betrayed families of victims. I have never traded their fate for any compromise, nor pact of realpolitik, he said. Libyas push to restore ties with the WestLibya was long a pariah state for its involvement in the 1980s bombings.In 2003, it took responsibility for both the 1988 and 1989 plane bombings and agreed to pay billions in compensation to the victims families.Gadhafi also announced he was dismantling his nuclear weapons program, which led to the lifting of international sanctions against the country.Britain, France and other Western countries sought to restore a relationship with Libya for security, diplomatic and business purposes.In 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gadhafi to Paris with great honors for a five-day official visit, allowing him to bring his bedouin tent near the Elysee presidential palace.Sarkozy said during the trial he would have preferred to do without Gadhafis visit at the time but it came as a diplomatic gesture after Libyas release of Bulgarian nurses in a highly-mediatized case. Bulgarian nursesOn July 24, 2007, under an accord partially brokered by French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and EU officials, Libya released the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.The medics, who had spent over eight years in prison, faced death sentence on charges they deliberately infected hundreds of children with the AIDS virus in the late 1990s an allegation they denied.The release of the medics removed the last major obstacle to Libyas rejoining the international community.Sarkozy travelled to the capital, Tripoli, for talks with Gadhafi the day after the medics were returned to Bulgaria on a French presidential plane.He told the court his pride to have saved those six persons.If you did not discuss with Gadhafi, youd not get the release of the nurses, he said. Libyas spy chief at heart of questionsAccused of masterminding the attack on UTA Flight 772, Gadhafis brother-in-law and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi was convicted in absentia to life sentence by a Paris court in 1999 for the attack.An international arrest warrant was issued for him and five other suspects.Financial prosecutors have accused Sarkozy of having promised to lift the arrest warrant targeting al-Senoussi, in exchange for alleged campaign financing.In 2005, people close to Sarkozy, then interior minister, including his chief of staff Claude Guant and junior minister Brice Hortefeux, travelled to Tripoli, where they met with al-Senoussi.They both said during the trial it was a surprise meeting they were not aware of beforehand.Al-Senoussi told investigative judges millions have indeed been provided to support Sarkozys campaign. Accused of war crimes, he is now imprisoned in Libya.Sarkozy strongly denied that. Gadhafis son accusationsGadhafis son, Seif al-Islam, reiterated accusations in January, telling French news network RFI that he was personally involved in giving Sarkozy 5 million dollars in cash.Seif al-Islam sent RFI radio a two-page statement on his version of events. It was the first time he talked to the media about the case since 2011.He said Sarkozy initially received $2.5 million from Libya to finance his electoral campaign during the 2007 presidential election, in return for which Sarkozy would conclude agreements and carry out projects in favour of Libya.He said a second payment of $2.5 million in cash was handed over without specifying when it was given. According to him, Libyan authorities expected that in return, Sarkozy would end a legal case about the 1989 UTA Flight 771 attack including removing his name from an international warrant notice. Sarkozy denied any transfer of money, saying: youll never find one Libyan euro, one Libyan cent in my campaign.Theres no corruption money because there was no corruption, he added.Sarkozy turning his back to GadhafiThe Libyan civil war started in February 2011, with army units and militiamen loyal to Gadhafi opposing rebels.Sarkozy was the first Western leader to take a public stance to support the rebellion.On Feb. 25, 2011, he said the violence by pro-Gadhafi forces was unacceptable and should not go unpunished. Gadhafi must go, he said.On March 10 that year, France was the first country in the world to recognize the National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya.That was the Arab Spring, Sarkozy told the court. Gadhafi was the only dictator who had sent (military) aircrafts against his people. He had promised rivers of blood, thats his expression. SYLVIE CORBET Corbet is an Associated Press reporter based in Paris. She covers French politics, diplomacy and defense as well as gender issues and breaking news. twitter

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08797-3A study finds that RUVBL2 is a conserved component of eukaryotic circadian clocks and suggests that slow ATPase activity, which was initially discovered in cyanobacteria, is a shared feature of eukaryotic clocks.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08752-2Key measures of biodiversity were quantified and found to be affected by human pressures that shifted community composition and decreased local diversity across terrestrial, freshwater and marine ecosystems.

A New York City police officer keeps watch on the campus of Columbia University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)2025-03-28T04:06:25Z After decades of partnership with the U.S. government, colleges are facing new doubts about the future of their federal funding.President Donald Trumps administration has been using the funding spigot to seek compliance with his agenda, cutting off money to schools including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania. All the while, universities across the country are navigating cuts to grants for research institutions.The squeeze on higher education underscores how much American colleges depend on the federal government a provider of grants and contracts that have amounted to close to half the total revenue of some research universities, according to an Associated Press analysis.It adds up to a crisis for universities, and a problem for the country as a whole, say school administrators and advocates for academic freedom. Americas scientific and medical research capabilities are tightly entwined with its universities as part of a compact that started after World War II to develop national expertise and knowledge.It feels like any day, any university could step out of line in some way and then have all of their funding pulled, said Jonathan Friedman, managing director of free expression programs at PEN America. Tens of billions of dollars are at stakeThe AP analysis looked at federal funding for nearly 100 colleges currently under investigation for programs the administration has deemed as illegally pushing diversity, equity and inclusion, or for not doing enough to combat antisemitism. Those schools took in over $33 billion in federal revenue in the 2022-2023 academic year. Thats before taking into account federal student aid, which represents billions more in tuition and room-and-board payments.For most of the schools, around 10% to 13% of their revenue came from federal contracts or research funding, according to the analysis. For some prestigious research universities, however, federal money represented up to half of their revenue.The AP analyzed data from the National Center for Education Statistics and federal audit reports, with help from researchers Jason Cohn and James Carter at the Urban Institute.Perhaps no school is more vulnerable than Johns Hopkins University, which received $4 billion in federal funds, close to 40% of its revenue, according to the analysis. Much of that went to defense research, paying for projects like missile design, submarine technology and precision tracking systems in outer space. Billions of dollars also went to medical research for topics such as immunology and transplants, aging, neuroscience and mental health.Johns Hopkins is facing an antisemitism investigation, which threatens its federal money, but already it has been feeling the effects of cuts to research grants from the National Institutes of Health and other federal agencies. Earlier this month, it announced 2,200 layoffs.We face challenging times for the patients and families that rely on us for cures and treatments, and for the researchers dedicated to the pursuit of improving the health of all Americans, the university said in a statement. Trump extracted concessions from Columbia Trump has singled out Columbia University, making an example of the Ivy League school by withholding $400 million in federal money. The administration repeatedly accused Columbia of letting antisemitism go unchecked at protests against Israel that began at the New York City university last spring and quickly spread to other campuses a characterization disputed by those involved in the demonstrations.As a precondition for restoring that money along with billions more in future grants the Republican administration demanded unprecedented changes in university policy. Columbias decision last week to bow to those demands, in part to salvage ongoing research projects at its labs and medical center, has been criticized by some faculty and free speech groups as capitulating to an intrusion on academic freedom.At the White House on Wednesday, Trump expressed satisfaction with the pressure campaign on colleges.You see what were doing with the colleges, and theyre all bending and saying, Sir, thank you very much, we appreciate it, Trump said during an event for Womens History Month. In the 2022-2023 academic year, Columbia got close to a fifth of its revenue from federal sources, around $1.2 billion. An audit shows that much of Columbias federal money went to research and development, including $166 million for global AIDS programs, $99 million to study aging, $28 million for cancer biology and $24 million for drug abuse and addiction research. A new approach on enforcement of civil rights lawsFederal law allows the Education Department to terminate funding to colleges that violate civil rights laws, but only after taking certain steps. Title VI of the law says the department must first make a formal finding of noncompliance, offer a hearing, notify Congress and then wait 30 days before pulling aid.But the Trump administration has a new strategy, moving quickly from demands to penalties with little room for negotiating, and little indication of due process, legal experts say.At Penn, the administration suspended $175 million in federal funding from the Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services over a transgender swimmer who last competed for the school in 2022. The White House said the action came out of a review of discretionary money going to universities. It looks like much of the playbook is intimidation, more so than actual substantiated legal findings, said Michael Pillera, director of educational equity issues at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. I think all of this is designed as an attempt to intimidate all universities, not just the institutions under investigation.The cuts and the uncertainty have led some universities to accept fewer graduate students, cutting off pathways to careers. Many graduate students in science programs receive scholarships and stipends that come from federal research grants.Purdue University senior Alyssa Johnson had been planning to pursue graduate research on amphibian diseases, and she was accepted into a program. But she ultimately decided to change her course of study because of the uncertainty around funding. I kind of went through a little bit of career crisis, which was definitely catalyzed by whats going on with the current administration and their attitudes toward science and science communication, Johnson said. ___AP writers Kasturi Pananjady, Cheyanne Mumphrey and Chris Megerian contributed to this report. ___The Associated Press education 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. SHARON LURYE Lurye is the data reporter for The Associated Press Education Reporting Network. She is based in New Orleans. twitter facebook mailto JOCELYN GECKER Gecker is an Associated Press reporter covering education with a focus on social media and youth mental health. twitter mailto

Duke forward Cooper Flagg (2) reacts after making a three point basket against Arizona to end the first half of a Sweet 16 round NCAA college basketball tournament game, Thursday, March 27, 2025, in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)2025-03-28T04:33:30Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness.Get the AP Top 25 mens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Duke stud Cooper Flaggs highlight reel included a 3-pointer from just in front of the logo at the halftime buzzer, one no-look pass for an alley-oop and another for a 3, and a huge blocked shot into a row of Arizona cheerleaders.He needed all that to hold off an onslaught from the Wildcats and Dukes biggest nemesis, Caleb Love, for a 100-93 victory in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night that pushed the Blue Devils a win from the Final Four.Flaggs final line: 30 points, seven assists, six rebounds, three blocks. And his biggest college win yet.Thats one of the best tournament performances Ive ever coached or been a part of, said coach Jon Scheyer, who has seen plenty.Love, a thorn in Dukes side for the last five years, finished with 35 points, one short of his career high, including a streak of 15 straight for his fourth-seeded Wildcats (24-13) during a ferocious second-half run that cut a 19-point deficit to five with 1:56 left. But its the top-seeded Blue Devils (34-3) moving on. On Saturday comes a 1-vs.-2 showdown in the East Region, when Scheyers team faces Alabama, which set a March Madnessrecord for 3-pointers in a 113-88 win over BYU earlier in the evening. A win would put Duke in the Final Four for the 18th time. The last time, in 2022, Love played for North Carolina and scored 28 points to bring an end to legendary coach Mike Krzyzewskis career. This time, the 18-year-old Flagg ended Loves stay in college, and showed why he should be the top pick in the NBA draft if he decides to leave, too.What Ive wanted from him was not to defer, Scheyer said. Just wanted him to fully be him. I thought he was in his element tonight. He was loose, talking, competitive, the whole thing.Arizona chipped away at its big deficit and got within five when Carter Bryant made a 3-pointer with 1:56 left. Flagg made three of four free throws and Duke made 9 of 10 to salt away the win down the stretch.They were a machine on offense, Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. Duke shot 60% from the floor and 57.9% from 3 to close out a defense-optional night at the Prudential Center in which both winners hit triple digits.The fourth-seeded Wildcats sagged and hung on the 6-foot-9 freshman and made him work for everything. But he was just better than everyone on the court.There were too many highlights to count. Here were a few: At the end of the first half, when Duke rebounded Loves missed 3, worked the ball to Flagg and he swished his own 3, then turned around and screamed Lets go, man! as he ran to the locker room with a 48-42 lead. A spinning, no-look pass to Sion James, who made an open 3 early in the second half, as part of a run that built the lead to 19. Two alley-oops, one a no-look to Khaman Maluach, the other to Kon Knueppel. A massive rejection of Arizona guard KJ Lewis into the phalanx of Arizona cheerleaders on a possession that couldve trimmed the deficit to seven with about five minutes left.It was a show that brought a close to Loves vibrant college career one he wasnt willing to see end without a fight. He missed his first three shots but finished 11 for 21 and made five 3s to keep his team in it. Hes had an amazing career and Im so excited for his future, Lloyd said. He was tremendous today. Hes going to wake up tomorrow and hes going to smile. He has a lot to look forward to and so Im really, really proud of him.Love scored seven more than he did when he shut down Coach Ks career. In this one, he got the most help from Jaden Bradley, who finished with 15 points. But the Wildcats couldnt do enough to conjure a repeat of 2011, the last time these programs met in the tournament and Arizona knocked out the top-seeded Blue Devils.Brown back for DukeMaliq Brown returned to action for the Blue Devils after sitting out two weeks with an injured shoulder. Sporting a sleeve on his left shoulder and upper arm, the junior came into the game with 7:51 left in the first half. He played four minutes and finished with a rebound and an assist. Arizona gets recruiting winArizona did get a big win earlier Thursday, when one of the nations top high school prospects, Koa Peat, said on The Pat McAfee Show that he was committing to play for the Wildcats.Peat is expected to join another top recruit, LeBron James son Bryce, in coach Tommy Lloyds program next season.___AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00882-xA method for the degradation of forever chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) coupled with fluoride recovery has been developed by applying a phosphateenabled mechanochemical process. This approach reduces the environmental impact of PFAS and could supplement fluorspar, the fast-depleting mineral used for producing fluorochemicals.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08740-6The ability to physically partition the human brain at a spatial resolution comparable to neuroimaging methods enabled the development of a brain-wide atlas of mitochondrial content, specialization and enzymatic oxidation and phosphorylation activities.

A farmer displays eggs from his chickens in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)2025-03-28T06:09:37Z SCHOENEICHE, Germany (AP) The U.S. government is on a global egg hunt, seeking exports from countries in Europe and elsewhere to ease a severe shortage that has caused egg prices at grocery stores to hit record highs. Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden are among the nations the U.S. Department of Agriculture approached to address the shortage brought on by a bird flu outbreak, according to European industry groups. But supplying Americans with eggs would be complicated for foreign producers and not because of political tensions over the myriad import tariffs President Donald Trump has imposed or threatened to impose on his nations top trading partners.Even if they were eager to share, European countries dont have many surplus eggs because of their own avian flu outbreaks and the growing domestic demand ahead of Easter. One of the biggest obstacles, however, is the approach the United States takes to preventing salmonella contamination. U.S. food safety regulations require fresh eggs to be sanitized and refrigerated before they reach shoppers; in the European Union, safety standards call for Grade A eggs to be sold unwashed and without extended chilling. These are two systems that could not be more different, said Hans-Peter Goldnick, the president of the German Egg Association. Feathers on eggs at the supermarketIt is common in parts of Europe, for example, for consumers to buy eggs that still have feathers and chicken poop stuck to them.Farmer David Karlsch described the simple process that gets eggs from hens to customers of the family-owned Saballus poultry farm in Schoeneiche, a town just outside Germanys capital: The eggs are taken from nests, placed into cartons and sold on the premises or from a refrigerated vending machine just outside the property.The demand at Easter time is of course very, very high, as many children naturally want to paint eggs, Karlsch said. Poland, a major egg exporter, fielded a U.S. query about the availability of eggs, according to Katarzyna Gawroska, director of the National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers. The issue of washed vs. unwashed was a major factor as European officials considered such requests, she said. Eggs are not cleaned in most of the 27 EU member nations because of concerns that removing the natural protective coating from eggshells makes them more vulnerable to bacteria, Gawroska said.Polish veterinary officials are trying to determine if the country and its farmers can meet U.S. requirements, such as whether the exporting country has a comparable food safety inspection system or a significant bird flu outbreak. Powdered egg productsAlthough European Union regulations state that table eggs shall not be washed or cleaned, member countries have some leeway if they authorized egg baths at packing plants decades ago. Danish Egg Association CEO Jrgen Nyberg Larsen said national customs are part of it; washed eggs are the norm in Sweden, for example. But Sweden and Norway have informed the U.S. they dont have extra eggs to export, Larsen said. For now, any increased U.S. egg imports from Europe are more likely to arrive in powdered form or other products that can be shipped frozen or dried, Larsen said. Thats the response Polands trade association gave U.S. officials. If the U.S. certifies Poland as a source, the organizations members would have a limited number of shell eggs to sell but could supply very large volumes of egg processing products, Gawroska said.Processed eggs usually are pasteurized to prevent foodborne illnesses and then used in food manufacturing or by restaurants, hospitals and nursing homes, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Baked goods, pasta and sauces like mayonnaise are some of the commercial products made with egg powder. Europes own production problemsU.S. officials also tried to sound out farmers in northern Italys Veneto region for emergency egg supplies, according to Coldiretti, the main Italian agricultural lobbying organization. But Italy only produces enough eggs to cover the national demand so most of the regions producers said they could not help. Bird flu outbreaks since the start of last year also have taken a toll on the Italian poultry industry.Germany cannot contribute much either. Its domestic poultry industry generates about 73% of the eggs consumed in the country, and we ourselves essentially have to import eggs from Holland every day to keep everyone satisfied, the German Egg Associations Goldnick said. We have around 45 million eggs that we can collect from the chicken coops every day, and in America, theres a shortage of around 50 million eggs a day. That shows how difficult it is, he said. An improving US market and Easter demandOther countries the U.S. government contacted include Austria, Norway, Spain and Denmark. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said it secured new egg commitments from Turkey and South Korea in recent months, although it did not specify the amount or type. Imports of liquid, frozen and dried eggs may help free up some domestic shell eggs for consumers, but the U.S. made its appeal for foreign eggs amid a significant deficit; last month, the country produced 720 million fewer table eggs than in February 2024, a decline of nearly 10%. The U.S. also cut its own egg exports to boost supplies at home, the Agriculture Department said.While the informal trade talks continue, the U.S. market has shown signs of improvement. Its been nearly a month since a major bird flu outbreak impacted egg-laying hens, the department said. It reported the national wholesale price for large eggs dropped to $3.27 per dozen as of March 21, or less than half its peak of $8.15 per dozen on Feb. 21.U.S. consumers are just starting to see those falling wholesale prices translate to lower prices on grocery shelves, the department said. The big demand for eggs that usually accompanies Easter and Passover could cause prices to edge up again next month. Business is businessTrump hasnt exactly walked on eggshells with the people of Europe since starting his second term. The presidents repeated threats to seize Greenland, a Danish territory, infuriated many in Denmark. His posture toward Ukraine and disparaging remarks from top members of his administration have alarmed Americas European allies. The European Union, which is the third-largest trade partner of the U.S., was not exempted from the tariffs Trump ordered on steel, aluminum and automobiles. Bracing for more, it has prepared counter-tariffs on American products. But many officials in Europe say none of that would rule out exporting eggs.Goldnick said an egg producer friend recently told him that if the price is right, then Ill deliver. Any deals made or not would come down to business decisions, he said. I have two souls in my chest. On the one hand, I would say, No, we cant support this system, but thats not the right answer, he said, referring to the new U.S. tariffs on European goods. The right answer is we have to help where we can. And it concerns the people. It doesnt concern the government. You wouldnt prop them up or anything, but its just peoples demand at Easter, for eggs, and thats just as important to satisfy in America as it is here.___Gera reported from Warsaw, Poland. Pietro De Cristofaro in Schoeneiche, Dee-Ann Durbin in Detroit, Giada Zampano in Rome and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

Two boys look at a cellphone in a dark street in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)2025-03-28T05:25:43Z JARAMANA, Syria (AP) Rana Al-Ahmad opens her fridge after breaking fast at sundown with her husband and four children during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.Apart from eggs, potatoes and some bread, its empty because state electricity in Syria only comes two hours a day.We cant leave our food in the fridge because it will spoil, she said.Her husband, a taxi driver in Damascus, is struggling to make ends meet, so the family cant afford to install a solar panel in their two-room apartment in Jaramana on the outskirts of the capital.Months after a lightning insurgency ended over half a century of the Assad dynastys rule in Syria, the Islamist interim government has been struggling to fix battered infrastructure after a 14-year conflict decimated much of the country. Severe electricity shortages continue to plague the war-torn country. A truck sits on the side of a road as a car drives by along an otherwise dark road in the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) A truck sits on the side of a road as a car drives by along an otherwise dark road in the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians live in poverty and the Syrian government has only been able to provide about two hours of electricity every day. Millions of Syrians, like Al-Ahmad and her family, cant afford to pay hefty fees for private generator services or install solar panels. Syrias new authorities under interim leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa have tried to ease the countrys electricity crisis, but have been unable to stop the outages with patchwork solutions. Even with a recent gas deal with Qatar and an agreement with Kurdish-led authorities that will give them access to Syrias oil fields, the country spends most of its days with virtually no power. Reports of oil shipments coming from Russia, a key military and political ally of Assad, shows the desperation. Lights illuminate a few windows of a damaged building in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Lights illuminate a few windows of a damaged building in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Pitch blackAt Al-Ahmads home, she and her husband were only able to get a small battery that could power some lights.The battery we have is small and its charge runs out quickly, said Al-Ahmad, 37. Its just enough that her children can huddle in the living room to finish their homework after school.And the family is not alone. Everywhere in Syria, from Damascus to Daraa in the south, neighborhoods turn pitch black once the sun sets, lit only from street lamps, mosque minarets and car headlights. Residents walk along a poorly illuminated street in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Residents walk along a poorly illuminated street in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The downfall of Assad in December brought rare hope to Syrians. But the new interim authorities have scrambled to establish control across the country and convince Western nations to lift economic sanctions to make its economy viable again.The United States in January eased some restrictions for six months, authorizing some energy-related transactions. But it doesnt appear to have made a significant difference on the ground just yet.Battered and bruised fieldsWashington and other Western governments face a delicate balance with Syrias new authorities, and appear to be keen on lifting restrictions only if the war-torn countrys political transition is democratic and inclusive of Syrian civil society, women and non-Sunni Muslim communities. Some minority groups have been concerned about the new authorities, especially incidents of revenge attacks targeting the Alawite community during a counter-offensive against an insurgency of Assad loyalists.Fixing Syrias damaged power plants and oil fields takes time, so Damascus is racing to get as much fuel as it can to produce more energy. A worker operates a makeshift refinery on the outskirts of Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025, where oil is refined into gasoline and other products like diesel. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) A worker operates a makeshift refinery on the outskirts of Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025, where oil is refined into gasoline and other products like diesel. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Damascus is now looking towards the northeastern provinces, where its oil fields under Kurdish-led authorities are to boost its capacity, especially after reaching a landmark ceasefire deal with them.Political economist Karam Shaar said 85% of the countrys oil production is based in those areas, and Syria once exported crude oil in exchange for refined oil to boost local production, though the fields are battered and bruised from years of conflict.These crucial oil fields fell into the hands of the extremist Islamic State group, which carved out a so-called caliphate across large swaths of Syria and Iraq from 2014 to 2017.Its during that period where much of the damage to the (oil) sector happened, said Shaar, highlighting intense airstrikes and fighting against the group by a U.S.-led international coalition. Tankers line up as they prepare to head to the rural areas where oil and gas fields are located in the outskirts Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost its capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Tankers line up as they prepare to head to the rural areas where oil and gas fields are located in the outskirts Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost its capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More After IS fell, the U.S.-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces took control of key fields, leaving them away from the central government in Damascus. The new authorities hope to resolve this in a landmark deal with the SDF signed earlier this month.Kamran Omar, who oversees oil production in the Rmeilan oil fields in the northeastern city of Hassakeh, says shortages in equipment and supplies and clashes that persisted with Turkey and Turkish-backed forces have slowed down production, but told the AP that some of that production will eventually go to households and factories in other parts of Syria.The fields only produce a fraction of what they once did. The Rmeilan field sends just 15,000 of the approximately 100,000 barrels they produce to other parts of Syria to ease some of the burden on the state.The authorities in Damascus also hope that a recent deal with Qatar that would supply them with gas through Jordan to a major plant south of the capital will be the first of more agreements. The cornerstone of recovery Tankers line up as they prepare to head to the rural areas where oil and gas fields are located in the outskirts Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost its capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Tankers line up as they prepare to head to the rural areas where oil and gas fields are located in the outskirts Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost its capacity after a landmark ceasefire deal with them.(AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Electricity cables hang across a street in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Electricity cables hang across a street in Damascus, Syria, early Thursday March 27, 2025. Neighborhoods in most parts of the country turn pitch black once the sunsets, save on some lights from street lamps, Mosque minarets, and drivers with their floodlights on to see.(AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Syrias authorities have not acknowledged reports of Russia sending oil shipments to the country. Moscow once aided Assad in the conflict against armed Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that toppled the former president, but this shows that they are willing to stock up on fuel from whoever is offering.Interim Electricity Minister Omar Shaqrouq admitted in a news conference that bringing back electricity to Syrian homes 24 hours a day is not on the horizon.It will soon be four hours, but maybe some more in the coming days. Smoke rises from a tank used as makeshift refinery on the outskirts of Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025, where oil is refined into gasoline and other products like diesel. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost capacity following a landmark ceasefire deal with them. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Smoke rises from a tank used as makeshift refinery on the outskirts of Qamishli, northeast Syria, Saturday, March 22, 2025, where oil is refined into gasoline and other products like diesel. Damascus is urgently working to secure as much fuel as possible to increase energy production, focusing on the countrys northeastern provinces, where oil fields controlled by Kurdish-led authorities could help boost capacity following a landmark ceasefire deal with them. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Increasing that supply will be critical for the battered country, which hopes to ease the economic woes of millions and bring about calm and stability. Shaar, who has visited and met with Syrias new authorities, says that the focus on trying to bring fuel in the absence of funding for major infrastructural overhauls is the best Damascus can do given how critical the situation is.Electricity is the cornerstone of economic recovery, said Shaar. Without electricity you cant have a productive sector, (or any) meaningful industries.___Chehayeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalist Hogir El Abdo reported from Hassakeh, Syria. KAREEM CHEHAYEB Chehayeb is an Associated Press reporter in Beirut. twitter instagram mailto

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08795-5The RBPJNCOR repressor complex is identified as a negative regulator of FOXP3 expression through modulation of histone acetylation in induced regulatory T cells.

Rescuers work at the site of a high-rise building under construction that collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)2025-03-28T06:40:09Z BANGKOK (AP) A high-rise building under construction in Bangkok collapsed after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Thailand and neighboring Myanmar midday on Friday, police said, and possible casualties are not yet known.A dramatic video circulated on social media showed the multi-story building with a crane on top collapsing into a cloud of dust, while onlookers screamed and ran.Police told The Associated Press they were responding to the scene near Bangkoks popular Chatuchak Market, and had no immediate information on how many workers were on the site at the time of the collapse.The midday temblor was followed by a strong 6.4 magnitude aftershock, and people in Bangkok evacuated from their buildings were cautioned to stay outside in case there were more. All of a sudden the whole building began to move, immediately there was screaming and a lot of panic, said Fraser Morton, a tourist from Scotland, who was in one of Bangkoks many malls shopping for camera equipment. I just started walking calmly at first but then the building started really moving, yeah, a lot of screaming, a lot of panic, people running the wrong way down the escalators, lots of banging and crashing inside the mall. Like thousands of others in downtown Bangkok, Morton sought refuge in Benjasiri Park away from the tall buildings all around. I got outside and then looked up at the building and the whole building was moving, dust and debris, it was pretty intense, he said. Lots of chaos. The U.S. Geological Survey and Germanys GFZ center for geosciences said the earthquake was a shallow 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), with an epicenter in Myanmar, according to preliminary reports.In Mandalay, the countrys second-largest city and close to the epicenter, the earthquake damaged part of the former royal palace and buildings, according to videos and photos released on Facebook social media. While the area is prone to earthquakes, it is generally sparsely populated, and most houses are low-rise structures.In the Sagaing region just southwest of Mandalay, a 90-year-old bridge collapsed, and some sections of the highway connecting Mandalay and Myanmars largest city, Yangon, were also damaged.Residents in Yangon rushed out of their homes when the quake struck. There were no immediate reports of injuries or deaths. In the capital Naypyitaw, the quake damaged religious shrines, sending parts toppling to the ground, and some homes.In Bangkok, alarms went off in buildings as the earthquake hit around 1:30 p.m., and startled residents were evacuated down staircases of high-rise condominiums and hotels.The greater Bangkok area is home to more than 17 million people, many of whom live in high-rise apartments.Water from high-rise rooftop pools sloshed over the side as they shook, and debris fell from many buildings as the long-lasting earthquake rattled the city.I have experienced earthquakes twice before in Myanmar, but that was only one second, one big bang, but here it went on for at least, Id say, a minute, said Zsuzsanna Vari-Kovacs, a Hungarian resident of Bangkok, who had just finished eating at a restaurant when the quake hit. My husband was in a high-rise, I think thats even worse.Thailands Department of Disaster Prevention said the quake was felt in almost all regions of the country. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra called an emergency meeting to assess the impact of the quake._____Adam Schreck, Haruka Naga, Jerry Harmer and Penny Wong contributed to this report. DAVID RISING Rising covers regional Asia-Pacific stories for The Associated Press. He has worked around the world, including covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, and was based for nearly 20 years in Berlin before moving to Bangkok. twitter mailto

South Korean army soldiers work to prevent the further spread of wildfires in Uiseong, South Korea, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)2025-03-28T03:34:18Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) Rain and cooler temperatures are helping South Korean fire crews as they battle the countrys worst-ever wildfires on Friday, as the governor of the hardest-hit region called for overhauling response strategies to respond to the climate crisis that he says worsened the disaster. The wildfires, which have killed 28 people and razed vast swaths of land in the southeast in the last week, were 85% contained as of Friday morning, Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop told a televised briefing. He said authorities will launch all-out efforts to extinguish the remaining blazes by bringing more helicopters and fire fighters to the areas. The raging inferno has also destroyed thousands of houses, factories, vehicles and other structures, while mountains and hills were stripped of anything but a carpet of smoldering ashes. Hazes have been diminished because of the rain last night, so thats favorable for securing visibility. Also temperatures are now lower than the last few days, so things are very favorable to put out the wildfires, Lim said.Firefighters many in their 60s, a reflection of one of the worlds fastest-aging populations navigated forests in yellow helmets and red protective suits, spraying suppressants at flames that flickered near their feet. Helicopters dropped buckets of water over hills that glowed red in the night. Residents hunkered down in temporary shelters in places like schools and gyms, but the fire crept dangerously close to some of them too. A video shared by one evacuee shows blazes approaching a school soccer field under a sky choked with smoke. I just kept crying this morning, said 79-year-old Seo Jae Tak, an evacuee at a gym in Andong city, on Thursday. When I went back yesterday, the entire mountain had turned to ashes. Its just unbelievable, I cant even put it into words. All I can do is cry. Authorities were mobilizing about 9,000 people, 125 helicopters and hundreds of other vehicles to battle the wildfires, the governments disaster response center said.The wildfires have burned 47,860 hectares (118,265 acres) of land, forced more than 30,000 people to flee their homes and injured 37 others since last Friday. Officials said Friday that 8,000 residents remained at temporary shelters. The fires have been driven by strong winds and dry weather.While its hard to link any one event to climate change, officials and experts say that it is making wildfires more likely and more severe. Scientists have already warned the warming atmosphere around the world is driving ever more extreme weather events, including wildfires, flooding, droughts, hurricanes and heat waves that are killing people and causing billions of dollars in damage every year.We must completely overhaul our wildfire response strategy in the face of extreme climate conditions, said Lee Cheol-woo, governor of North Gyeongsang Province, in a news conference.Lee noted that the past week has shown how wildfires, fueled by dry and windy conditions, can quickly overwhelm the countrys resources. He said he would request that the government establish better evacuation guidelines, adopt more powerful firefighting tools including aircraft equipped with water cannons, and adopt other approaches to improve firefighting efforts during nighttime hours. We dont have the equipment for firefighting at night, Lee said. In the night, firefighting is done solely with manual efforts, but with the increased density of our forests compared to the past, its difficult to manage with just that.On Thursday, Lee Han-kyung, deputy head of the disaster response center, told a meeting that the wildfires showed the reality of climate crisis that we have yet experienced, according to Yonhap news agency.The people killed were mostly in their 60s or older. They include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire Wednesday and four firefighters and other workers who died earlier after being trapped by fast-moving flames. Officials say older people found it difficult to evacuate quickly but have not provided details of the civilian dead. In Uiseong, about 20 of the 30 structures at the Gounsa temple complex, which is said to have been originally built in the 7th century, have burned. Among them were two state-designated treasures: a pavilion overlooking a stream that dates to 1668, and a Joseon dynasty structure built in 1904 to mark the longevity of a king. ___Associated Press video journalist Yong Jun Chang in Andong, South Korea contributed to this report. HYUNG-JIN KIM Hyung-jin is an Associated Press reporter in Seoul, South Korea. He reports on security, political and other general news on the Korean Peninsula. twitter mailto 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

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00937-zStudy finds genetic imprints in three generations of Syrian refugees. Researchers urge caution in interpreting findings and call for replication.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00974-8Protein-structure-prediction tools have transformed biology, but RNA is a tougher nut to crack. Plus, the NIH is cancelling COVID-19 research funds and how qudits can boost quantum computing.

Britain's King Charles III is driven by car from Clarence House, his London home, along The Mall towards Buckingham Palace in London, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Ben Whitley/PA via AP)2025-03-28T11:02:14Z LONDON (AP) King Charles III smiled and waved to members of the public Friday as he left his home in London, the day after a brief hospitalization for the side effects from his cancer treatment.The kings appointments for the day were canceled following his short period of observation in hospital on Thursday, Buckingham Palace said. The kings health has been closely watched ever since early last year when he announced that he had been diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer.Charles was seen as he left Clarence House in the back of a black Audi.Tourist Julian Mati said he was relieved to see the king looked well. We were horrified when we heard the news yesterday, Mati said. We had come down to the palace today to take pictures but we never imagined we would see the king. To see him smiling and waving, its such a relief. Charles, 76, stepped away from public engagements for about three months but continued fulfilling state duties, such as reviewing government papers and meeting with the prime minister.Charles cancer diagnosis has heaped pressure on the British monarchy, which is still evolving after the 70-year reign of the late Queen Elizabeth II. When he succeeded his mother in September 2022, Charles task was to demonstrate that the 1,000-year-old institution remains relevant in a modern nation whose citizens come from all corners of the globe. But this task takes much time and energy. Although the duties of a constitutional monarch are largely ceremonial, the royal whirl can be exhausting. Besides the occasional procession in full royal regalia, there are meetings with political leaders, dedication ceremonies and events honoring the accomplishments of British citizens. That added up to 161 days of royal engagements during Charles first year on the throne.Charles illness came as his daughter-in-law, Kate, the Princess of Wales, was also diagnosed with cancer. Kate, the wife of Prince William, the heir to the throne, took more than six months off before returning to public duties in late September.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Atomflot, a service base for nuclear-powered fleet, in Murmansk, Russia, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (Sergei Karpukhin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)2025-03-28T09:12:11Z Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Friday to put Ukraine under external governance under the U.N. aegis as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement, a blustery statement that reflected the Kremlin leaders determination to achieve his war goals.Speaking to the crew of a Russian nuclear submarine in televised remarks broadcast early Friday, Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal. Under Ukraines constitution it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while its under martial law.Putin claimed that any agreement that is signed with the current Ukrainian government could be challenged by its successors and said new elections could be held under external governance.Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine, Putin said, adding that it would allow the country to hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty.He added that such external governance is just one of the options, without elaborating. Theyre playing for timePutins remarks came hours after the conclusion of a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that considered plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to cement an eventual peace deal. Macron said several other nations want to be part of the force alongside France and Britain.Russia has warned it wouldnt accept any troops from NATO members as part of a prospective peacekeeping force.Macron and other participants of the Paris summit on Thursday accused Russia of only pretending to want a negotiated settlement.They are playing games and theyre playing for time, said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. We cant let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion.Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a tentative U.S-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, but quickly accused each other of violations, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace. Drone attacks continueRussia launched 163 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine late Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said that 89 of them were downed and 51 more jammed. The drones damaged multiple residential buildings and injured a 19-year-old in Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said. In Poltava, drones damaged warehouses, administrative building, and a high-voltage transformer, according to regional head Volodymyr Kohut. Damage to buildings and infrastructure facilities was also reported by the authorities in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions.Ukraines state-run gas company, Naftogaz, said Friday that its facilities came under Russian fire without specifying its time and location.The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces struck a gas metering station in Sudzha in the Kursk region with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, completely destroying the facility. It said another Ukrainian strike on an energy facility in Russias Bryansk region led to a power cutoff, and added that air defenses downed 19 Ukrainian drones that attempted to strike an oil refinery in Saratov. The ministry said the continuing strikes show that Kyivs pledge of adherence to a U.S.-proposed halt on strikes on energy facilities was just another ruse by Zelenskyy to prevent the collapse of Ukrainian defenses and to restore military potential with the help of European allies.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy assets was a sign that Zelenskyy cant control his military.The Ukrainian armed forces arent following orders from the countrys leadership and are continuing attempts to strike Russias energy infrastructure, Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.He said that Russia will continue sticking to the halt on strikes on energy facilities but reserves the right to opt out of the deal if violations continue. While Ukraine has agreed to a full, 30-day ceasefire that Trump has proposed, Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraines military mobilization demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies. Russias battlefield gains and Putins demandsRussian troops have made slow but steady gains in several sectors of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 620-mile) frontline, and Zelenskyy warned Thursday that Russia was trying to drag out talks in preparation for bigger offensives.Putin declared in overnight remarks that the Russian troops have gained steam and are holding strategic initiative all along the line of contact.He noted that Russia is open to a peaceful settlement, but emphasized the need to remove root causes that led to the current situation. We certainly need to ensure Russias security for a long historic perspective, he said.Putin has demanded that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the four regions Moscow has partially seized. He also wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army and legally protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscows orbit.Russian officials also have said that any prospective peace deal should involve unfreezing Russian assets in the West and lifting other U.S. and European Union sanctions. The Trump administration has said it would consider potential sanctions relief.

Unsold 2025 Countryman utility vehicles sit on display at a Mini dealership Sunday, March 23, 2025, in Highlands Ranch, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)2025-03-28T12:41:56Z WASHINGTON (AP) An inflation gauge closely watched by the Federal Reserve remained high last month even before the impact of most tariffs has been felt. Americans spending rebounded in February after a steep fall last month and incomes increased.Fridays report from the Commerce Department showed that consumer prices increased 2.5% in February from a year earlier, matching Januarys annual pace. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, prices rose 2.8% compared with a year ago, higher than Januarys figure of 2.7%.Inflation remains a top economic concern for most Americans, even as it has fallen sharply from its 2022 peak. Donald Trump rose dissatisfaction with higher prices to the presidency and promised to quickly bring down inflation, but the yearly rate is higher now than in September, when it briefly touched 2.1%. Trump has slapped 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports, 25% import taxes on steel and aluminum, and on Wednesday said he would hit imported cars with another 25% duty. Most economists, and the Federal Reserve, now expect inflation to tick higher this year as a result of the tariffs. Fed Chair Jerome Powell last week said elevated inflation from the tariffs could be temporary. But he also added the outlook was unusually uncertain given the swift changes in policy from the White House. Consumer and business confidence in the economy has fallen sharply since Trump began rolling out tariffs, and a measure of Americans outlook for the future of the economy dropped to a 12-year low on Tuesday. Many polls find that most of the public sees the economy as fair or poor. A survey last month by the Pew Research Center found that 63% of Americans still see inflation as a very big problem. 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

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00984-6Researchers are looking to improve how ageing is measured, but the field is plagued with uncertainties.

Nature, Published online: 27 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00988-2A huge study paints the most detailed picture yet of the toll pregnancy and childbirth take on the body. Plus, scientists have discovered a new antibiotic in a lab technicians garden and artificial intelligence tools are making their way into the process of peer review to some researchers dismay.

Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)2025-03-28T11:45:41Z BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) Israel has launched an attack on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the first time since a ceasefire ended the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in November.Associated Press reporters in Beirut heard a loud boom and witnessed smoke rising from the area that Israels military had vowed to strike.It came after Israels army urgently warned people to evacuate parts of a Beirut suburb, vowing to retaliate against strikes which it said were launched from Lebanon into northern Israel. Israels defense minister said Friday that if there was no peace in Israels northern communities there would be no peace in Beirut either. Hezbollah denied firing the rockets at northern Israel, and accused Israel of seeking a pretext to continue attacking Lebanon.Lebanons government ordered all schools and universities in Beiruts southern suburb of Hadath to close for the day. Residents were seen fleeing the area in cars and on foot ahead of the strike. It was the first strike on Beirut since a ceasefire took hold on Nov. 27, 2024, between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group, although Israel has struck targets in southern Lebanon almost daily since then. Hezbollah began launching rockets, drones and missiles into Israel the day after Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. The Israel-Hezbollah conflict boiled over into all-out war in September as Israel carried out waves of airstrikes and killed most of the militant groups senior leaders. The fighting killed over 4,000 people in Lebanon and displaced about 60,000 Israelis. Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January under the ceasefire deal. The deadline was extended to Feb. 18, but Israel has remained in five locations in Lebanon across from communities in northern Israel. Meanwhile, Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon, saying it attacked Hezbollah, while continuing drone attacks that have killed several members of the militant group. Last week, Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Lebanon killed six people.The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, said the exchange of fire was deeply concerning. This is a critical period for Lebanon and the wider region, she said Friday.According to an Israeli official who was not authorized to speak to the media, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was meeting with top security officials to discuss an impending strike on the capital. The escalation comes as Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people in Gaza. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to Gazas roughly 2 million Palestinians.Israel has vowed to escalate the war until Hamas returns 59 hostages it still holds 24 of them believed to be alive. Israel is demanding that the group give up power, disarm and send its leaders into exile.Hamas has said it will only release the remaining captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The war was triggered by Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251.Israels retaliatory offensive has killed over 50,000 people, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. Associated Press reporter Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.-Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria smiles while visiting guests at a senior luncheon following a bingo game at the Connolly Center, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Everett. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)2025-03-28T04:03:30Z EVERETT, Mass. (AP) For years, the mayor of a Boston suburb dreaded Wednesdays. That was the day when a local weekly would publish shocking allegations that he was on the take, sexually harassing women or under investigation by the FBI.Friends trashed Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria on Facebook over what the Everett Leader Herald printed. His father threatened to disown him over stories the mayor knew were lies.They labeled me as a Kickback Carlo. Accusations that I was settling all kinds of sexual harassment lawsuits, that I put a knife to a girls throat and asked for sexual favors, DeMaria said. It was awful. It was disgusting.An unusual libel law winAlmost everything the paper wrote about DeMaria turned out to be fake, enabling him to win a $1.1 million settlement in December that finally shut down the nearly 140-year-old paper. A selection of Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper stories are displayed at the law firm representing Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) A selection of Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper stories are displayed at the law firm representing Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Two women walk past the Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Everett, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Two women walk past the Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Everett, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Such defamation victories are exceedingly rare under the Supreme Courts actual malice standard for public figures. That willing disregard for the truth became abundantly evident when the papers editor swore in court to tell the truth, and admitted to fabricating story after story in an unrelenting smear campaign.But DeMaria hardly had time to celebrate. Now preparing for his seventh mayoral campaign, hes been accused of padding his salary with bonus payments an issue the paper covered four years ago and this time, the state of Massachusetts is pressing the City Council to take action. A mayor and city on the way upFavoring sharp suits and slicked-back hair, DeMaria was schooled in a style of politics based on personal connections with fellow residents in the working-class town of about 49,000 across the Mystic River from Boston. As mayor in 2007, hes been praised for his leadership in improving infrastructure. Out-of-towners can now look beyond the Monsanto and Exxon Mobil facilities as they come to a glitzy casino and soon, possibly, a professional soccer stadium. Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria talks with guests while visiting a senior luncheon following a bingo game at the Connolly Center, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Everett. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria talks with guests while visiting a senior luncheon following a bingo game at the Connolly Center, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Everett. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Everett voters reelected DeMaria by landslides, and his annual compensation grew to $232,700, including a car allowance and a longevity bonus, approaching the $250,000 salary of Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston, a city nearly 14 times larger.Then, after a brutal 2021 campaign, he held onto office by just over 200 votes.Matthew Philbin had bought the Leader Herald in 2017 and hired a Boston-area reporter Joshua Resnek, to turn it into an attack machine, court records show. DeMaria believes Philbin was angry at him after he opposed his boarding house licenses as a councilman and then rejected giving him a city insurance contract after he became mayor.It was Blue Suit v. Kickback Carlo Resnek invented a City Hall insider he called the Blue Suit and in article after article, made up conversations accusing Kickback Carlo of extorting the city clerk in a land deal, shaking down people for contributions and sexually assaulting women.In an emotional press conference to announce his court victory, DeMaria stood with his wife and expressed vindication. Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria embraces resident Pamela Mavilio while visiting a senior luncheon following a bingo game at the Connolly Center, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Everett. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria embraces resident Pamela Mavilio while visiting a senior luncheon following a bingo game at the Connolly Center, Monday, Jan. 13, 2025, in Everett. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Attorney Jeffrey S. Robbins, who is with the firm representing Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, flips through a folder containing stories by the Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Attorney Jeffrey S. Robbins, who is with the firm representing Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, flips through a folder containing stories by the Everett Leader Herald News Gazette newspaper, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The size and scope of this settlement both in terms of the amount that the defendants have agreed to pay and in their agreement to shut down their newspaper is a reflection of just how egregious their conduct was, and of the volume of their admissions of their misconduct, DeMaria said. Neither Philbin, Resnek nor their lawyers responded to repeated requests for comment, but the papers final edition reported that the settlement leaves all parties satisfied that an agreeable arrangement was reached, making the necessity of a trial a moot point.Some residents grumbled about the loss of local news coverage.We need all kinds of voices, said Everett homeowner Peggy Serino, a regular at council meetings. Just because the administration didnt agree with something doesnt mean you shut it down. DeMarias joy proved short-lived Someone complained to the state Office of the Inspector General about the bonus payments in 2022, after the Leader Herald suggested they were illegal and quoted a mayoral challenger who called them greedy. DeMaria turned down his 2022 payment of $40,000, and the council limited his future payments to what other city workers get about $1,700 a year.After a lengthy investigation, the Inspector General concluded in February that DeMaria colluded with his finance officer and budget director to retroactively get $180,000 from 2016 to 2021, hiding the payments within other line-items. The IG also concluded that DeMaria may have violated state ethics law by participating in the drafting and approval of the ordinance that padded his pay. The City Council has turned on him since the report came out. It cant fire him, but councilors demanded repayment and launched an audit into nearly a decades worth of payments to him. They also requested details they could bring to the state ethics commission, which can fine an official up to $10,000 per violation and refer evidence of any crimes to prosecutors. DeMaria insists he never engaged in concealment and that law enforcement has not contacted him. Its all just small-town politics, he said.Those who have falsely accused me over the years are the ones who are guilty of the real wrongdoing, he said. I will continue to fight to protect my family, but also to undo the harm that has been done to the reputation of Everett and its residents by these unnecessary and unfounded attacks. Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, listens to a reporters question during an interview at his attorneys office, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Everett, Mass. Mayor Carlo DeMaria, listens to a reporters question during an interview at his attorneys office, Friday Dec. 20, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Think about your grandmotherDeMaria didnt attend a special meeting packed with city employees where his lawyer and his daughter came to defend him. Launching his reelection campaign weeks later, he asked supporters to withhold judgment until all the facts come out.Not everyone is willing to wait. The City Council approved a no-confidence vote and ended future longevity payments for him.This is a sad day for our community, City Councilor Peter Pietrantonio said. These are serious facts against the mayor and his administration ... To me, its appalling.Councilor at Large Guerline Alcy Jabouin asked the many city workers supporting DeMaria to look beyond their allegiances.Think about your property taxes. Think about the school that isnt getting enough money. Think about your grandmother, your grandfather that cannot afford to pay for their medication, Jabouin said. MICHAEL CASEY Casey writes about the environment, housing and inequality for The Associated Press. He lives in Boston. twitter mailto

The New York Stock Exchange, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)2025-03-28T04:27:43Z NEW YORK (AP) U.S. stocks are falling Friday following discouraging updates on inflation and how much U.S. households may be willing to spend given all the uncertainty about President Donald Trumps escalating trade war. The S&P 500 was down 1.5% in midday trading and on track to wipe out the last of what had been a winning week. That would make this the fifth losing week in the last six for the index, which set its all-time high just last month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 520 points, or 1.2%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 2.1% lower. Lululemon Athletica tumbled 15% to help lead the market lower, even though the seller of athletic apparel reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It warned that its revenue growth may slow this upcoming year, in part because consumers are spending less due to increased concerns about inflation and the economy, said CEO Calvin McDonald. Lululemon also said tariffs and shifting foreign-currency values may account for about half of its expected drop in a key measure of performance: how much profit it can squeeze out of each $1 of revenue. Oxford Industries, the company behind the Tommy Bahama and Lilly Pulitzer brands, likewise reported stronger results for the latest quarter than expected but still saw its stock fall 1.6%. CEO Tom Chubb said it saw a deterioration in consumer sentiment that also weighed on demand beginning in January, which accelerated into February. Theyre discouraging data points when one of the main worries hitting Wall Street is that Trumps trade war may cause U.S. households and businesses to freeze their spending. Even if the tariffs end up being less painful than feared, all the uncertainty may filter into changed behaviors that hurt the economy. A report on Friday morning showed all types of U.S. consumers are getting more pessimistic about their future finances, including Republicans, independents and Democrats. Two out of three consumers surveyed by the University of Michigan expect unemployment to worsen in the year ahead. Thats the the highest reading since 2009, and it raises worries about a job market thats been the linchpin keeping the U.S. economy solid. Another report released in the morning also raised concerns after it showed a widely followed, underlying measure of inflation was a touch worse last month than economists expected. The data followed reports on other measures of inflation for the month, but this one is what the Federal Reserve tracks most closely as it decides what to do with interest rates. The report also showed that an underlying measure of how much income Americans are making, which excludes government social benefits and some other items, has been treading water for the last three months, said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. Households arent in a good place to absorb a little tariff pain, he said. The Fed isnt likely to run to the rescue either as inflation moved up more than expected in February. The Fed has been keeping its main interest rate on hold this year after cutting it sharply in late 2024, in part because of worries about inflation remaining higher than its 2% target. While more cuts to interest rates would give the economy and financial markets a boost, they would also put upward pressure on inflation. The economy has so far been holding up relatively well, but if it were to weaken while inflation stays high, it would produce a worst-case scenario called stagflation. Policy makers in Washington have few good tools to fix it. Some of Wall Streets sharpest losses on Friday hit companies that need U.S. customers feeling confident enough to spend, and not just on yoga wear or dresses. Delta Air Lines lost 4.2%. Cruise operator Royal Caribbean Group fell 4%. Casino operator Caesars Entertainment dropped 3.9%.On the flip side, among the relatively few rising stocks on Wall Street were those that can make money almost regardless of what the economy does, such as utilities. American Water Works rose 1.8%, for example. Stock markets worldwide will likely remain shaky as an April 2 deadline approaches for more tariffs. Thats what Trump has called Liberation Day, when he will roll out tariffs tailored to the United States trading partners. In each case, he said the reciprocal tariff will match the burden the other country places on the United States, including things like value-added taxes. In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in Japan and South Korea as auto makers felt more pressure following Trumps announcement he plans to impose 25% tariffs on auto imports. Hyundai Motor fell 2.6% in Seoul, while Honda Motor fell 2.6%, and Toyota Motor sank 2.8% in Tokyo. On Wall Street, General Motors sank 1.6%, and Ford Motor fell 1.9%. Even U.S. automakers selling vehicles in the country can feel the pain of such tariffs because their supply chains are spread throughout North America. Trump says he wants more manufacturing to take place within the United States. Thailands SET lost 1% after a powerful earthquake centered in Myanmar rattled the region, causing the prime minister to declare a state of emergency for the capital, Bangkok.In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury tumbled to 4.28% from 4.38% late Thursday. It tends to fall when expectations for either U.S. economic growth or inflation are on the wane. ___AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.

Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States arrive at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Monday, March 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)2025-03-28T14:40:19Z Follow live updates on President Donald Trump and his administration WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law, while a court fight continues.The emergency appeal to the high court follows a rejection of the Republican administrations plea to the federal appeals court in Washington. By a 2-1 vote, a panel of appellate judges left in place an order temporarily prohibiting deportations of the migrants under the rarely used Alien Enemies ActThe Justice Department argued in court papers that federal courts shouldnt interfere with sensitive diplomatic negotiations. It also claimed that migrants should make their case in a federal court in Texas, where they are being detained. The order temporarily blocking the deportations was issued by U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, the chief judge at the federal courthouse in Washington. President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act for the first time since World War II to justify the deportation of hundreds of people under a presidential proclamation calling the Tren de Aragua gang an invading force. Here, the district courts orders have rebuffed the Presidents judgments as to how to protect the Nation against foreign terrorist organizations and risk debilitating effects for delicate foreign negotiations, acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote in the court filing. Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of five Venezuelan noncitizens who were being held in Texas, hours after the proclamation was made public.The court set a Tuesday deadline for a response from the ACLU.The case has become a flashpoint amid escalating tension between the White House and the federal courts.Boasberg imposed a temporary halt on deportations and ordered planeloads of Venezuelan immigrants to return to the U.S. That did not happen. The judge has since vowed to determine whether the government defied his order to turn the planes around. The administration has invoked a state secrets privilege and refused to give Boasberg any additional information about the deportations. Trump and his allies have called for impeaching Boasberg. In a rare statement, Chief Justice John Roberts said impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The Alien Enemies Act allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity for a hearing before an immigration or federal court judge.Boasberg ruled that immigrants facing deportation must get an opportunity to challenge their designations as alleged gang members. His ruling said there is a strong public interest in preventing the mistaken deportation of people based on categories they have no right to challenge.

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss getting fooled, the 'one big story' of the week, and Ghibli.SAM: I remembered earlier this week that its almost April Fools Day, because Joe showed us a post from a drone company thats doing something crazy, and Jason said it seemed fake. Its real (I think!?) but it did give me pause and make me look at the calendar. There was a time online when Brands started doing April Fools nonsense like, several days before April 1, especially if April 1 landed on a weekend, so its not impossible that a drone company would pull a joke stunt on March 27.Shortly after the drone thing, Jason dropped the anti-Erdoan Pikachu video into Slack, followed by what looked like a Getty Image-style photograph of Pikachu fleeing the police, taken from the ground.

This article was produced in collaborationwith Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records.Subscribe to them here.The FBI managed to track down and freeze millions of dollars of cryptocurrency Caesars Entertainment sent to a group of hackers that held the casinos computer systems ransom, according to a 404 Media and Court Watch review of a recently unsealed court document. According to the document, the FBI raced to stop the flow of funds before the hackers managed to move the entire $15 million ransom, with the FBI able to freeze much of it when the hackers appeared to try to convert it into other cryptocurrencies.The document provides more insight into the August 2023 ransomware attack against Caesars carried out by the loose-knit hacking group known as Scattered Spider. Around the same time, Scattered Spider also targeted MGM Resorts but that company refused to pay the ransom, and casino operations were disrupted for more than a week.The court document does not name Caesars, instead referring to the company as Victim A. But the document is clearly discussing the casino. It says Victim A was the victim of a cyber attack on August 18, 2023 (the same date that Caesars previously said hackers initially broke into Caesars); and that the hackers initially demanded $30 million before Victim A negotiated the ransom down to around $15 million (these are the same amounts as the Caesars hack).The court document says that the victim paid the extortion payment in two separate purchases of Bitcoin. The FBI then used a commercially available cryptocurrency tracing tool to follow the cryptocurrency to a bridge, which lets users essentially trade one cryptocurrency for another. For criminals, this might be beneficial if they want to move from Bitcoin to a more anonymous currency like Monero.The court document says whoever was in control of the cryptocurrency moved 402 BTC to an Avalanche Bridge wallet on January 19, 2024, several months after the hack itself. On that same day, the FBI contacted Ava Labs, Inc., the company behind the service, and asked it to voluntarily freeze the 402 BTC, the court document says.Ava Labs, Inc., agreed to voluntarily freeze the 277.56327614 BTC transferred from Extortion Wallet 2 to Avalanche Wallet 1 (which went to Combined Wallet 1 before Avalanche Wallet 1), until service of a civil forfeiture seizure warrant, the document says. That amount of Bitcoin was valued at around $11.8 million in January 2024.A screenshot of the court document.However, Ava Labs, Inc., was not able to voluntarily freeze the 125 BTC transferred from Extortion Wallet 1 to Avalanche Wallet 1 (which went to Combined Wallet 1 before Avalanche Wallet 1) because the 125 BTC had already been transferred from Avalanche Wallet 1, the document adds.In other words, the FBI was able to freeze some of the funds, but not before whoever controlled the wallet was able to move around 125 BTC, valued at just over $5 million in January 2024.Later that month, the cryptocurrency owners moved around $690,000 of cryptocurrency to another wallet run by Gate.io. The cryptocurrency transferred include around 519,845 USDT (Tether, a cryptocurrency allegedly pegged to the U.S. dollar) and around 1135 XMR (Monero).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.The next day, the FBI contacted Gate.io and asked it to freeze that USDT and XMR. On February 4, Gate.io confirmed it had done so, according to the document.The court document, signed by an FBI Special Agent, is the government formally asking to seize that USDT and XMR.The FBI, prosecutors, Caesars, Gate.io, and Ava Labs did not respond to a request for comment.Authorities have previously arrested a person allegedly linked to the MGM Resorts hack, as well as other people identified under the Scattered Spider umbrella.

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00968-6Two journals embarked on efforts to compensate reviewers, with different results.

Alexander Daniel, DDS, left, demonstrates fluoride treatment on resident Cameron Onken, right, at the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center, Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)2025-03-28T14:29:24Z SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Utah has become the first state to ban fluoride in public drinking water, despite widespread opposition from dentists and national health organizations.Republican Gov. Spencer Cox signed legislation late Thursday that bars cities and communities from deciding whether to add the mineral to their water systems.Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Utah lawmakers who pushed for a ban said putting fluoride in water was too expensive. Cox, who grew up and raised his own children in a community without fluoridated water, compared it recently to being medicated by the government. The ban comes weeks after U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has expressed skepticism about water fluoridation, was sworn into office. More than 200 million people in the U.S., or almost two-thirds of the population, receive fluoridated water through community water. The addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. But some cities across the country have gotten rid of fluoride from their water, and other municipalities are considering doing the same. A few months ago, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children. The president of the American Dental Association, Brett Kessler, has said the amounts of fluoride added to drinking water are below levels considered problematic.Opponents warn the ban will disproportionately affect low-income residents who may rely on public drinking water having fluoride as their only source of preventative dental care. Low-income families may not be able to afford regular dentist visits or the fluoride tablets some people buy as a supplement in cities without fluoridation.The sponsor of the Utah legislation, Republican Rep. Stephanie Gricius, acknowledged fluoride has benefits, but said it was an issue of individual choice to not have it in the water.

This photo provided by Jeng Hsu shows her son, Jaiwen Hsu, at the Children's National Hospital in Washington in August 2011, weeks before his last round of chemotherapy for bone cancer. (Jeng Hsu via AP)2025-03-28T14:41:09Z WASHINGTON (AP) A man who battled childhood cancer has received the first known transplant of sperm-producing stem cells, in a study aimed at restoring the fertility of cancers youngest survivors.Jaiwen Hsu was 11 when a leg injury turned out to be bone cancer. Doctors thought grueling chemotherapy could save him but likely leave him infertile. His parents learned researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center were freezing testicular cells of young boys with cancer in hopes of preserving their future fertility and signed him up.Hsu, now 26, is the first to return as an adult and test if reimplanting those cells might work.The science behind it is so incredibly new that right now its kind of a waiting game, said Hsu, of Vienna, Virginia. Its kind of eagerly crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.It may seem unusual to discuss future fertility when a family is reeling from the diagnosis of a childs cancer. But 85% of children with cancer now survive to adulthood and about 1 in 3 are left infertile from chemotherapy or radiation. Young adults with cancer can bank sperm, eggs or sometimes embryos ahead of treatment. But children diagnosed before puberty dont have that option because theyre not yet producing mature sperm or eggs. Boys are born with stem cells inside spaghetti-like tubes in the testes, cells that start producing sperm after puberty sparks a rise in testosterone. With funding from the National Institutes of Health, Pitt reproductive scientist Kyle Orwig studies how to preserve and potentially use testicular cells to restore fertility. It starts with a biopsy-like removal of a small amount of testicular tissue that contains millions of cells some of them precious sperm-producing stem cells. Since 2011, Orwigs team has frozen samples from about 1,000 prepubertal boys.Its impossible to tell if enough stem cells are in each tiny sample to matter. But in 2019, Orwig used preserved testicular tissue from a young male monkey that, in an animal version of IVF, led to the birth of a healthy baby monkey. By 2023, Orwig was ready to reimplant now-grown cancer survivors cells when Hsu not ready to start a family yet but curious about his long-ago study participation reached out.Were not expecting a miracle result, cautioned Orwig, whose colleagues transplanted Hsus thawed cells in November 2023.In a paper posted online this week, Orwig reported the injection, guided by ultrasound to the right spot, was safe and easy to perform. His work has not yet been reviewed by other scientists. And Orwig said its too soon to know if the experiment worked and standard tests likely wont tell, as animal testing found assisted reproduction techniques were needed to detect and retrieve small amounts of sperm. Still, he hopes the ongoing research will alert more families to consider fertility preservation so theyd have the option if it eventually pans out.Belgian researchers announced a similar experiment in January, implanting pieces of testicular tissue rather than cells in a childhood cancer survivor. These developments are of great importance, said researcher Ellen Goossens of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. While animal research was very promising, transplantations in humans will be the only way to tell if this really works.Similar research with immature ovarian tissue is underway for female childhood cancer survivors, too, noted Dr. Mahmoud Salama, who directs the Oncofertility Consortium at Michigan State University.Hsu said even if his experimental transplant doesnt work, it will guide further research. Hes grateful his parents years ago made a call that gave me the option to make the choice for myself today.___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.

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00879-6Study of more than 100,000 people supports your parents advice: eat your veggies.

Student negotiator Mahmoud Khalil is seen at a pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the Columbia University campus in New York, April 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)2025-03-28T04:05:07Z NEWARK, N.J. (AP) Lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests, urged a federal judge on Friday to move their clients case out of Louisiana, describing his imprisonment there as a Kafkaesque ploy to chill free speech.The longer we wait, the more chill there is, defense attorney Baher Azmy said. Everyone knows about this case and is wondering if theyre going to get picked off the street for opposing U.S. foreign policy.The parties appeared Friday morning before a judge in Newark, New Jersey, to debate where Khalils legal fight to be released from federal custody should play out.An attorney for the Department of Justice, August Flentje, countered that the case should be moved to Louisiana, where Khalil is currently being held in an immigration detention center, for jurisdictional certainty. Judge Michael Farbiarz said he would consider the tricky venue issues at play and issue a written decision soon. He declined to hear an argument for bail from Khalils attorneys, pointing to the need to settle the jurisdictional issue first. Khalils wife, Noor Abdallah, an American citizen who is due to give birth next month, sat in the front row of the courtroom, surrounded by supporters. Scores of demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse on Friday morning, chanting, Free Mahmoud, and hoisting signs featuring his face. No matter what happens in court, whats most important is for all of us to keep up the pressure, said Ramzi Kassem, one of Khalils lawyers, after the hearing. To let this government know that it cannot suppress speech.Khalil was arrested March 8 outside in the lobby of a university-owned apartment in Manhattan, then transferred overnight to an immigration detention facility in New Jersey. Hours later, he was put on a plane and whisked to a different immigration facility in Jena, Louisiana, where he remains. Azmy, his attorney, said the Trump administrations refusal to move the case back to New York rested on a radical reinterpretation of Habeas corpus, a legal process that allows individuals to challenge their detention. They keep passing around the body in an almost Kafkaesque way, he added.He also invoked the federal governments recent arrest of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student who was detained by immigration agents in Massachusetts this week and then immediately sent to Louisiana before her attorneys could secure a judges order blocking the transfer. If you dismiss and we file in Louisiana, before the papers hit, he could be in Texas, said Azmy. An attorney for the government replied that there were no immediate plans to move Khalil out of Louisiana. President Donald Trumps administration has, in recent weeks, ramped up efforts to arrest and deport student activists who participated in protests against Israel. In several cases, the government has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to deport noncitizens whose presence in the country threatens U.S. foreign-policy interests. Khalil was born in Syria but is a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen. The court fight in Newark continues one that began in New York City but was transferred across the Hudson River after a judge determined a federal court in New Jersey was the proper jurisdiction for the lawsuit.Khalil served as a negotiator for pro-Palestinian Columbia students as they bargained with university officials over an end to their campus tent encampment last spring. The university ultimately called in the police to dismantle the encampment and a faction of protesters who seized an administration building.Khalil was not among the people arrested in the Columbia protests and he has not been accused of any crime.But the administration has said it wants to deport Khalil because of his prominent role in the protests, which they say amounted to antisemitic support for Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. People involved in the student-led protests deny that their criticism of Israel or support of Palestinian territorial claims is antisemitic. U.S. officials also have accused Khalil of failing to disclose some of his work history on his immigration paperwork, including work at a British embassy and an internship with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.Other university students and faculty across the country have been arrested by immigration officials, had their visas revoked or been prevented from entering the U.S. because they attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians.Among them are a Gambian student at Cornell University in upstate New York, an Indian scholar at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., a Lebanese doctor at Brown Universitys medical school in Rhode Island, a Turkish student at Tufts University in Massachusetts and a Korean student at Columbia who has lived in the country since she was 7. JAKE OFFENHARTZ Offenhartz is a general assignment reporter in the New York City bureau of The Associated Press. twitter mailto

Firefighter John Ward works to control the Black Cove Fire, March 26, 2025, in Saluda, N.C. (AP Photo/Allison Joyce, File)2025-03-28T21:41:01Z In North Carolina, wildfires stoked by unusually dry air and debris from last years Hurricane Helene are burning out of control. In Florida, there are dozens of blazes, including one that scorched about 42 square miles in Miami-Dade County. And they continue to burn in Oklahoma, where four people have died this month due to wind-driven fires. Those states were just three of eight where large fires were being reported on Friday. Some 14,800 wildfires have burned 1,105 square miles so far this year well above the 10-year average, according to data released Friday by the National Interagency Fire Center. Most devastating were the Los Angeles wildfires in January, fueled by dry vegetation and howling winds, that destroyed entire neighborhoods.Wildfires have happened with such frequency in recent years that many U.S. fire officials say there is no longer a fire season, which traditionally ran from late spring through the fall. That is because climate change, caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal, has raised average global temperatures, creating drier conditions that allow wildfires, which are mostly mostly caused by humans, to burn longer and more intensely. While major fires often happen early in the year in February 2024, Texas experienced the largest wildfire in state history this year is a bit unusual because were seeing it happen in so many places, said Brad Rippey, a U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist who monitors drought. This week, 45% of the country is in drought, when historically its around 20% at any given time, Rippey said. That dried out lots of fuel just waiting for a spark from freeze-dried grasses in the southern Plains to downed trees and brush from hurricanes that ravaged parts of the southeast and southern Appalachians in recent years. The National Interagency Fire Centers significant wildfire outlook notes that several states still have debris from hurricanes Laura, Ida, Debby and Idalia in the past five years, as well as from ice storms and other severe weather. Add in gusty winds and low humidity, and youve got a pretty ripe situation for wildfires, Rippey said.In Hurricane Helene-devastated North Carolina, power lines downed by strong winds have been blamed for two of three large fires that have burned for more than a week in an area where the mean relative humidity this month has been the lowest on record, officials said. Impassable areas and lots of toppled trees are making it difficult to reach intense and erratic fires that are spreading rapidly because of high winds and dry weather.Many roads have either been covered with storm debris or they have just been completely washed away, said North Carolina Forest Service spokesman Philip Jackson, who said the fire danger could plague the state for years as more debris dries out.Much of Florida also is in drought, contributing to an earlier-than-normal fire season that included a massive brush fire in Miami-Dade County that at one point hindered travel to and from the Florida Keys. That fire is 95% contained while dozens of smaller fires continue to burn, according to the Florida Forest Service. Many counties are under red flag warnings, meaning conditions are favorable for fires to occur.West Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Missouri and South Carolina also report large wildfires.The greatest wildfire potential is in the southeast and the southern Plains, and will be significant into April in most of Texas and parts of New Mexico and Arizona, as well as several southeastern states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.La Nina a periodic cooling of the Pacific Ocean that can shift the jet stream and lead to cooler, drier air might have affected conditions in the southern U.S., said Tim Brown, director of the Western Regional Climate Center.But there also has been long-term drying in the southwest as temperatures overall increase with global warming, said Rippey, who has monitored drought for more than 25 years. Warmer temperatures have led to more erratic precipitation that tends to fall more heavily in short periods, leading much of it to run off rather than soak into the ground.I do think that contributes to more wildfires, he said. ___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.

The building for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau headquarters building is empty of CFPB signage as seen Friday, March 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)2025-03-28T20:47:54Z WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge agreed Friday to block the Trump administration from dismantling the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that was targeted for mass firings before the courts intervention.U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson agreed to issue a preliminary injunction that maintains the agencys existence until she rules on the merits of a lawsuit seeking to preserve the agency. The judge said the court can and must act to save the agency from being shuttered.Jackson ruled that, without a court order, President Donald Trumps administration would move quickly to shut down the agency that Congress created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.If the defendants are not enjoined, they will eliminate the agency before the Court has the opportunity to decide whether the law permits them to do it, and as the defendants own witness warned, the harm will be irreparable, Berman Jackson said in her order. Deepak Gupta, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the ruling blocks the unprecedented plan to dismantle the CFPB an agency that Congress created to protect Americans financial security. This ruling upholds the Constitutions separation of powers and preserves the Bureaus vital work. Were heartened by the decision and look forward to continuing to press our case in court, Gupta said.During a March 10 hearing, Jackson heard testimony about the chaos that erupted inside the agency after government employees were ordered to stop working last month. The bureaus chief operating officer, Adam Martinez, said the agency was in wind-down mode after Trump fired its previous director, Rohit Chopra, on Feb. 1. Trump installed a temporary replacement who ordered the immediate suspension of all agency operations, cancelled $100 million in contracts and fired 70 employees.Martinez said the agencys current leaders have adopted a more methodical approach than they initially did last month, when representatives of Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency arrived at its Washington headquarters. CFPB is responsible for protecting consumers from financial fraud and deceptive practices. It processes consumer complaints and examines banks to protect student loan borrowers.The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents more than 1,000 workers at the bureau, sued on Feb. 9 to block mass firings. Plaintiffs attorneys argue that the administration doesnt have the constitutional authority to eliminate an agency that Congress created by statute.The defendants unlawful action will have immediate consequences for the Americans that the CFPB was designed by Congress to protect, the lawyers wrote.Government lawyers have said the plaintiffs are seeking to impermissibly place the CFPB in a judicially managed receivership, with the court overseeing its day-to-day operations.Jackson started her 112-page ruling by quoting Trump and his allies own words about the bureau. Trumps billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, posted CFPB RIP on X, his social media platform, and added an emoji of a tombstone. White House budget director Russell Vought said it has been a woke and weaponized agency against disfavored industries and individuals for a long time. Trump called it a very important thing to get rid of. In sum, the Court cannot look away or the CFPB will be dissolved and dismantled completely in approximately thirty days, well before this lawsuit has come to its conclusion, Jackson wrote.Among the plaintiffs was 83-year-old Eva Steege, a Lutheran pastor in hospice care who had been working with CFPB to resolve her student loan debt before her death. The agency found she qualified for loan forgiveness and a $15,000 refund of overpayments, but the stop-work order went into effect before she could have a follow-up meeting and the official she was working with was fired.Steeges fear of leaving her surviving family members saddled with her student loan debt came to pass on March 15, when she died, the judge wrote.___Associated Press writer Lindsay Whitehurst contributed to this report.

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00924-4US researchers who must forage for their own salary by finding grants fear they will be the first to go as federal research dollars disappear.

Carlos Watson leaves Brooklyn federal court after testifying in his own defense in New York, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)2025-03-28T22:52:11Z WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Ozy Media co-founder Carlos Watson, a White House official said Friday, just before Watson was due to report to prison for a nearly 10-year sentence in a financial conspiracy case.Watson was convicted last year in a closely watched case that showcased the implosion of an ambitious startup company at a time of turmoil in the media industry. He had been ordered to surrender to prison on Friday.The commutation was confirmed by a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision and spoke on condition of anonymity. A lawyer who represented Watson didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.Trump has aggressively used his presidential power to commute sentences and issue pardons for people who he believes were treated unfairly by the justice system. The president himself was convicted last year in a case involving hush money payments, part of what he has described as a politically motivated witch hunt against him. Watsons commutation was among a string of other acts of clemency revealed by the White House on Friday. They included Trevor Milton, the founder of electric vehicle company Nikola, who had been sentenced to four years for fraudulently exaggerating the potential of his technology and was pardoned; and three entrepreneurs who founded and helped run the cryptocurrency exchange BITMEX, which was ordered to pay a $100 million fine earlier this year after prosecutors said it willfully flouted U.S. anti-money laundering laws to boost revenue. They had been sentenced to probation and were also pardoned. Ozy was founded in 2012 on a premise of providing a fresh, sophisticated-but-not-stuffy take on politics, culture and more billed as the new and the next while amplifying minority and marginalized voices. It announced it was shutting down in fall 2021 less than a week after a New York Times column raised questions about the media organizations claims of millions of viewers and readers while also pointing out a potential case of securities fraud. Watson was arrested in February 2023 after two of the companys top executives pleaded guilty to fraud charges.Prosecutors said Watson deceived investors and lenders by inflating revenue numbers and suggesting deals were final when they were not. At one point, Watsons co-founder pretended to be a YouTube executive on a phone call with potential investors, according to prosecutors. After Watsons sentencing, then-Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said the jury had determined that Watson was a con man who told lie upon lie upon lie to deceive investors into buying stock in his company.Ozy Media collapsed under the weight of Watsons dishonest schemes, Peace said. But Watson, who is Black, called the case a modern lynching and argued that he was the victim of selective prosecution.I made mistakes. Im very, very sorry that people are hurt, myself included, Watson said, but I dont think its fair. U.S. District Judge Eric Komitee said during sentencing that the quantum of dishonesty in this case is exceptional.Watson held degrees from Harvard University and Stanford Law School, worked on Wall Street, had on-air gigs at CNN and MSNBC, and boasted entrepreneurial chops. Ozy Media was his second startup, coming a decade after he sold a test-prep company that he had founded in his 20s.Mountain View, California-based Ozy produced TV shows, newsletters, podcasts and a music-and-ideas festival. Watson hosted several of the TV programs, including the Emmy-winning Black Women OWN the Conversation, which appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Network.Ozy snagged big advertisers, clients and grants. But beneath the outward signs of success was an overextended company that struggled and dissembled to stay afloat after 2017, according to insiders testimony.The company strained to make payroll, ran late on rent and took out pricey cash advances to pay bills, former finance vice president Janeen Poutre told jurors. Meanwhile, Ozy gave prospective investors much bigger revenue numbers than those it reported to accountants, according to testimony and documents.___Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. 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

This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)2025-03-28T23:29:10Z BOSTON (AP) A Tufts University doctoral student who was detained this week cant be deported to Turkey without a court order, a federal judge in Massachusetts said on Friday.Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken by masked immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on Tuesday. Ozturk was quickly moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in remote Basile, Louisiana, before her attorneys could secure a judges order blocking the transfer.On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper gave the government until Tuesday evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturks attorneys.To allow the Courts resolution of its jurisdiction to decide the petition, Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further order of this court, the judge wrote.Ozturk is among several people with ties to American universities who attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians during the war in Gaza and who have recently had visas revoked or been stopped from entering the U.S. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson has confirmed Ozturks detention and the termination of her visa, saying investigations found Oztruk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. The department did not provide evidence of that support. Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in an attack that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which about 250 hostages were seized. Israels retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Gazas Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave. Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last year that criticized the universitys response to student demands that Tufts acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.Friends have said Ozturk was not otherwise closely involved in protests against Israel. President Donald Trump s administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump stands with South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem during a campaign town hall at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center & Fairgrounds, Oct. 14, 2024, in Oaks, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)2025-03-29T04:00:43Z SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) As then-Gov. Kristi Noem crisscrossed the country stumping for President Donald Trump and boosting her political profile beyond her home state she refused to reveal what her extensive travel was costing taxpayers. In the weeks since Noem became Trumps Homeland Security secretary, that mystery has been solved: South Dakota repeatedly picked up the tab for expenses related to her jet-setting campaigning. An Associated Press analysis of recently released travel records found more than $150,000 in expenses tied to Noems political and personal activity and not South Dakota business. That included numerous trips to Palm Beach, Florida, where Trump resided before retaking office.Most of those costs covered the state-provided security that accompanied Noem, irrespective of the reason for her travel. Over her six years as governor, APs analysis shows, South Dakota covered more than $640,000 in travel-related costs incurred by the governors office. The expenditures include $7,555 in airfare for a six-day trip to Paris, where she gave a speech at a right-wing gathering, costs associated with a bear hunt in Canada with her niece and a book tour that included a stop in New York. An additional $2,200 stemmed from a controversial trip last year to Houston for dental work she showcased on Instagram. Expenses spark uproarThe expenses, released last month following a lawsuit by The Dakota Scout, have incensed Republicans in the deep-red state, with several GOP lawmakers accusing Noem of tapping state funds to fuel her own political ascendancy. The uproar comes as the Trump administration seeks to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse in government and as Noem has taken over DHS, the third-largest federal agency, with a budget and workforce many times the size of South Dakotas.The spending offends a lot of people, said Dennis Daugaard, a former Republican South Dakota governor, who added that costs generated by Noems ambition for higher office couldve been paid with campaign funds. Taffy Howard, a GOP state senator who clashed with Noem over her refusal to disclose her travel expenses, expressed shock at the price tag. It seems like an incredible amount of money, Howard told AP. A spokesman for Noem, Tim Murtaugh, declined to answer detailed questions about the expenses but did not dispute that some of the travel lacked an apparent connection to state business. Theres no indication the former governor broke any laws having the state foot the bill for security expenses even on trips that critics said benefited her more than South Dakota taxpayers. Unfortunately, bad guys tend to make threats against high-profile public officials, Murtaugh said. When it was a political or personal trip, she paid for her own travel out of her political or personal funds.Josie Harms, a spokesperson for Noems gubernatorial successor, said security requirements were a matter of state business no matter where the governor may be. The scope of that security is not up to the governor, Harms added. During her years in office, Noem frequently said that releasing the travel expenses would jeopardize her safety. Lax disclosure requirementsSouth Dakota has relatively lax disclosure requirements for such travel expenses. Governors from both parties have used state funds to finance the travel expenses of their security details and staffers. Critics called on Washingtons Jay Inslee, a Democrat, to reimburse the state for similar costs resulting from his unsuccessful 2019 presidential run. And Ron DeSantis, Floridas GOP governor, also came under fire for racking up hefty travel tabs for his security detail during his bid for higher office. Murtaugh, a spokesman for Noem in her personal capacity, questioned why Democratic governors were not being scrutinized for their travel on behalf of former Vice President Kamala Harris, their partys 2024 presidential nominee.They maintained aggressive political schedules on behalf of Kamala Harris but somehow escape media attention for costs associated with that, while Kristi Noem is being held to a different standard? Murtaugh wrote in an email. The more than 3,000 pages of records released to the Scout by Noems successor included hotel receipts, restaurant bills and credit card statements. Some expenses have no link to state businessThe AP obtained the same records, as well as dozens of additional documents that show state officials acknowledged that campaigning for Trump is not an official duty of the governor in denying one of several requests to release her travel expenses. The receipts are heavily redacted, so its not always clear who incurred the expense. Only 30 items totaling $2,056.72 were charged on the governors state-issued Mastercard, according to her attorney. Some expenses seemingly had no link to state business, such as $21 hotel-room movie purchases. Its also unclear who attended meals that included unnamed federal officials. The state auditor questioned some of the charges, including the governors offices use of a luxury airline travel agency for a flight to Paris and a $2,000 change fee.The state also ran up more than $3,300 in late fees and interest. The record doesnt indicate how much was paid in overtime for staff and security accompanying Noem on her political excursions.Spending for security detail, as well as where and when they are deemed necessary, falls under the discretion of the governor, Jenna Latham, a supervisor in the state auditors office, wrote to AP in an email. Most of the expenses were incurred as Noem became a rising star in Trumps Make America Great Again universe and a contender to be his 2024 running mate. Her fortunes appeared to have suffered a blow after she revealed in a memoir that she shot and killed her farm dog, Cricket, after it scared away some game during a pheasant hunt. This is not the first time Noems travel has come under the microscope. A state government accountability board in 2022 had requested an investigation into her use of the state plane to attend political events, but a prosecutor found no grounds for charges.State known for frugalityThe records raise questions about the necessity of the travel and the secrecy surrounding the expenses. Noems office refused to release records related to a 2020 speaking engagement at AmpFest, a gathering of Trump supporters near Miami, telling a public-records requester the trip was not for the purpose of the governors official duties and no receipts existed. But the newly released records include several transactions in South Florida on those days, including a rental car and a stay at the posh Trump National Doral Miami. Days later, South Dakota picked up the tab for gasoline and hotel rooms for Noems security so she could speak at a Republican fundraiser in New Hampshire. Noems travel doesnt pass the smell test, said Viki Harrison, program director for Common Cause, a nonpartisan group that seeks to limit big money in politics. There should be a huge firewall between campaigning and official business.Noems predecessors traveled less frequently in a low-tax state that values frugality, both on the farm and from elected officials. Daugaard, whose official statue features him pinching a penny, said he reimbursed staff for purchases like ice cream.Former Gov. Mike Rounds, now South Dakotas junior U.S. senator, said he tried to keep partisan activity at arms length from state resources and was careful about what he put on the governments dime. Such thriftiness was required, he said, because his state is so tight on everything to begin with, just in terms of having enough money to pay the bills. __ Goodman reported from Miami and Mustian from New York. Associated Press writers Stephen Groves in Washington and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report. JOSHUA GOODMAN Goodman is a Miami-based investigative reporter who writes about the intersection of crime, corruption, drug trafficking and politics in Latin America. He previously spent two decades reporting from South America. twitter mailto JIM MUSTIAN Mustian is an Associated Press investigative reporter for breaking news. twitter mailto SARAH RAZA Raza covers South Dakota for The Associated Press. She is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. twitter mailto

The National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall is seen on Friday, March 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)2025-03-29T04:01:56Z ATLANTA (AP) President Donald Trumps order accusing the Smithsonian Institution of not reflecting American history notes correctly that the countrys Founding Fathers declared that all men are created equal. But it doesnt mention that the founders enshrined slavery into the U.S. Constitution and declared enslaved persons as three-fifths of a person for the purpose of the Census. Civil rights advocates, historians and Black political leaders sharply rebuked Trump on Friday for his order, entitled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. They argued that his executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution is his administrations latest move to downplay how race, racism and Black Americans themselves have shaped the nations story.It seems like were headed in the direction where theres even an attempt to deny that the institution of slavery even existed, or that Jim Crow laws and segregation and racial violence against Black communities, Black families, Black individuals even occurred, said historian Clarissa Myrick-Harris, a professor at Morehouse College, the historically Black campus in Atlanta. The Thursday executive order cites the National Museum of African American History and Culture by name and argues that the Smithsonian as a whole is engaging in a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nations history. Instead of celebrating an unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness, the order argues that a corrosive divisive, race-centered ideology has reconstructed the nation as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. It empowers Vice President JD Vance to review all properties, programs and presentations to prohibit programs that degrade shared American values or divide Americans based on race. Trump also ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to determine if any monuments since January 2020 have been removed or changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history or inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures. Trump has long criticized the removal of Confederate monuments, a movement that gained steam after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. Critics argued the order is the latest move by the Trump administration to quash recognition of Black Americans contributions to the nation and to gloss over the legal, political, social and economic obstacles they have faced.Trumps approach is a literal attack on Black America itself, Ibram X. Kendi, the race historian and bestselling author, said. The Black Smithsonian, as it is affectionately called, is indeed one of the heartbeats of Black America, Kendi argued, and also one of the heartbeats of the nation at large.Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., suggested that Trump wants to distort the national narrative to racist ends. We do not run from or erase our history simply because we dont like it, she said in a statement. We embrace the history of our country the good, the bad, and the ugly. Trump once praised the Black Smithsonian The African American museum, one of 21 distinct Smithsonian entities, opened along the National Mall in 2016, the last year that President Barack Obama held office as the nations first Black chief executive. The museum chronicles chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation and its lingering effects, but also highlights the determination, successes and contributions of individual Black Americans and Black institutions throughout U.S. history.Former NAACP President Ben Jealous, who now leads the Sierra Club, said museums that focus on specific minority or marginalized groups enslaved persons and their descendants, women, Native Americans are necessary because historical narratives from previous generations misrepresented those individuals or overlooked them altogether.Attempts to tell the general history of the country always omit too much ... and the place that weve come to by having these museums is so we can, in total, do a better job of telling the complete story of this country, he said. And, indeed, Trump sounded more like Jealous when he visited the African American museum in 2017, at the outset of his first term, and declared it a national gem.Im deeply proud that we now have a museum that honors the millions of African American men and women who built our national heritage, especially when it comes to faith, culture and the unbreakable American spirit, Trump said following a tour that included Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and then-Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, both of whom are Black.I know President Obama was here for the museums opening last fall, Trump continued. Im honored to be the second sitting president to visit this great museum. Trumps war on woke targets historyTrump won his comeback White House bid with a notable uptick in support from non-white voters, especially among younger Black and Hispanic men. He ratcheted up attacks during his campaign on what he labeled woke culture and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, not just in government but the private sector. He also used racist and sexist tropes to attack Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold national office, and regularly accused her and other liberals of hating our country.Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has banned diversity initiatives across the federal government. The administration has launched investigations of colleges public and private that it accuses of discriminating against white and Asian students with race-conscious admissions programs intended to address historic inequities in access for Black students.The Defense Department, at one point, temporarily removed training videos recognizing the Tuskegee Airmen and an online biography of Jackie Robinson. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Joint Chiefs Gen. C.Q. Brown, a champion of racial diversity in the military who spoke about his experiences as a Black man after the murder of George Floyd. The administration has fired diversity officers across government, curtailed some agencies celebrations of Black History Month, and terminated grants and contracts for projects ranging from planting trees in disadvantaged communities to studying achievement gaps in American schools. Warnings of a chilling effectCivil rights advocates and historians expressed concern about a chilling effect across other institutions that study Black history.Kendi noted that many museums and educational centers across the country such as San Franciscos Museum of the African Diaspora, The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration in Montgomery, Alabama, and the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina exist with little to no federal or other governmental funding sources. Some already are struggling to keep their doors open.To me, thats part of the plan, to starve these institutions that are already starving of resources so that the only institutions that are telling Americas history are actually only telling political propaganda, Kendi said. ___Associated Press journalists Aaron Morrison in New York and Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report. BILL BARROW Bill Barrow covers U.S. politics. He is based in Atlanta. twitter mailto

A barber shaves a client at his newly opened barbershop in Daraya, Syria, Monday, March 17, 2025. Part of rural Damascus, Daraya was one of the centers of the uprising against Bashar Assad and suffered killings and saw massive damage during fighting. (AP Photo/Omar Sanadiki)2025-03-29T05:03:21Z DARAYA, Syria (AP) When Mariam Aabour learned of the ouster of Syrian leader Bashar Assad, she shed tears of joy. But as the time came to return to her homeland from Lebanon where she fled years earlier Aabour felt torn. She was happy about the homecoming, but sad to leave behind a son and a stepson who remained in Lebanon to work and pay off family debts. Months before her return, Aabours father died in Syria without her seeing him. Her Syrian home has been destroyed and theres no money to rebuild, she said. Thus its been bittersweet experiencing her first Ramadan the Muslim holy month since her return. Weve all lost dear ones, she said. Even after our return, we still cry over the tragedies that weve lived through. As they spend their first Ramadan in years in their homeland, many Syrians whove recently trickled back in from abroad have been celebrating the end of the Assad familys rule in December after a fast-paced rebel offensive. They are relishing some new freedoms and savoring some old traces of the lives they once knew. They enjoy family reunions but many also face challenges as they adjust to a country ravaged by a prolonged civil war and now grappling with a complex transition. As they do, they grieve personal and communal losses: Killed and missing loved ones, their absence amplified during Ramadan. Destroyed or damaged homes. And family gatherings shattered by the exodus of millions. A time for daily fasting and heightened worship, Ramadan also often sees joyous get-togethers with relatives over food and juices. Aabour one of the more than 370,000 Syrians the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says have returned to the country since Assads ouster delights in hearing the call to prayer from mosques signaling the end of the daily fast. In her Lebanon neighborhood, she said, there were no nearby mosques and she relied on phones to know when to break the fast. The hardest part, she added, is sitting for the fast-breaking meal known as iftar without some loved ones, including her father and a son, who she said was killed before the family fled Syria. She bitterly recalled how her child, who she said was about 10 when killed, liked a rice and peas dish for iftar and would energetically help her, carrying dishes from the kitchen. I used to tell him, Youre too young, but he would say, No, I want to help you, she said, sitting on the floor in her in-laws house which her family now shares with relatives. Faraj al-Mashash, her husband, said hes not currently working, accumulating more debt and caring for an ill father. The family borrowed money to fix his fathers home in Daraya. It was damaged and looted, but still standing. Many Daraya homes arent. Part of Rural Damascus and known for its grapes and its furniture workshops, Daraya was one of the centers of the uprising against Assad. The conflict devolved into armed insurgency and civil war after Assad crushed what started as largely peaceful protests; this Ramadan, Syrians marked the 14th anniversary of the civil wars start. Daraya suffered killings and saw massive damage during fighting. It endured years of government besiegement and aerial campaigns before a deal was struck between the government and rebels in 2016 that resulted in the evacuation of fighters and civilians and control ceded to the government. Today, in parts of Daraya, children and others walk past walls with gaping holes in crumbling buildings. In some areas, a clothesline or bright-colored water tank provides glimpses of lives unfolding among ruins or charred walls. Despite it all, al-Mashash said, its home. Isnt Daraya destroyed? But I feel like I am in heaven. Still, theres sadness, he added. A place is only beautiful with its people in it. Buildings can be rebuilt, but when a person is gone, they dont come back. In Lebanon, al-Mashash struggled financially and was homesick for Daraya, for the familiar faces that used to greet him on its streets. Shortly after Assads ouster, he returned. This Ramadan, hes re-lived some traditions, inviting people for iftar and getting invited, and praying at a mosque where he has cherished memories. Some of those who had left Daraya, and now returned to Syria, say their homes have been obliterated or are in no condition for them to stay there. Some of them are living elsewhere in an apartment complex that had previously housed Assad-era military officers and is now sheltering some families, mostly ones whove returned from internal displacement. The majority of those whove returned to Syria since Assads removal came from countries in the region, including Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, said Celine Schmitt, UNHCRs spokesperson in Syria. A main security fear for returnees is unexploded mines, Schmitt said, adding UNHCR provides mine awareness sessions in its community centers. It also offers legal awareness for those needing IDs, birth certificates or property documents and has provided free transportation for some who came from Jordan and Turkey, she said. The needs of returnees, so far a fraction of those whove left, are varied and big from work and basic services to house repairs or construction. Many, Schmitt said, hope for financial help to start a small business or rebuild, adding that more funding is needed.Were calling on all of our donors, she said. Theres an opportunity now to solve one of the biggest displacement crises in the world, because people want to go back.Many of those who havent returned cite economic challenges and the huge challenges they see in Syria as some of the reasons, she said. In January, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said living conditions in the country must improve for the return of Syrians to be sustainable. Umaya Moussa, also from Daraya, said she fled Syria to Lebanon in 2013, returning recently as a mother of four, two of whom had never seen Syria before. Moussa, 38, recalls, at one point, fleeing an area while pregnant and terrified, carrying her daughter and clutching her husbands hand. The horrors have haunted her. Id remember so many events that would leave me unable to sleep, she said. Whenever I closed my eyes, I would scream and cry and have nightmares. In Lebanon, she lived for a while in a camp, where she shared the kitchen and bathroom with others. We were humiliated ..., but it was still better than the fear weve lived through. Shed yearned for the usual Ramadan family gatherings. For the first iftar this year, she broke her fast with her family, including brothers who, she said, as fighters against the Assad government, had previously moved to then rebel-controlled Idlib province. Missing from the Ramadan meal was her father who died while Moussa was away. Like Moussa, Saeed Kamel is intimately familiar with the pain of a joy incomplete. This Ramadan, he visited the grave of his mother who had died when he was in Lebanon. I told her that weve returned but we didnt find her, he said, wiping away tears. And it wasnt just her. Kamel had been hopeful that with Assad gone, they would find a missing brother in his prisons; they didnt. Kamel had vowed never to return to a Syria ruled by Assad, saying he felt like a stranger in his country. His home, he said, was damaged and looted. But despite any difficulties, he held out hope. At least, he said, the next generation will live with dignity, God willing. Kamel fondly recalled how before their worlds changed his family would exchange visits with others for most of Ramadan and neighbors would send each other iftar dishes. Ramadan is not nice without the family gatherings, he said. Now, one can barely manage. He cant feel the same Ramadan spirit as before. The good thing, he said, is that Ramadan came while were liberated.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. MARIAM FAM Fam is a reporter with The Associated Press Global Religion team. She covers faith, and the many ways it intersects with culture and daily life, in the Middle East and beyond. mailto

Houthi supporters chant slogans during a weekly anti-U.S. and anti-Israel rally in Sanaa, Yemen, Friday March, 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Osamah Abdulrahman)2025-03-29T03:35:52Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Suspected U.S. airstrikes pounded Yemen overnight into Saturday, reportedly killing at least one person as the American military acknowledged earlier bombing a major military site in the heart of Sanaa controlled by the Houthi rebels. The full extent of the damage and possible casualties wasnt immediately clear, though the attacks followed an intense night of airstrikes early Friday that appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the campaign that began March 15. An Associated Press review has found the new American operation under President Donald Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the U.S. moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities. Meanwhile, an AP analysis of satellite photos show the American military also has moved long-range stealth B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean a base far outside of the range of the rebels that avoids using allies Mideast bases. New strikes come as US releases video of one bombingThe strikes into Saturday targeted multiple areas in Yemen under the control of the Iranian-backed Houthis, including the capital, Sanaa, and in the governorates of al-Jawf and Saada, rebel-controlled media reported. The strikes in Saada killed one person and wounded four others, the Houthi-run SABA news agency said. SABA identified the person killed as a civilian. Houthi fighters and their allies often arent in uniform. However, analysts believe the rebels may be undercounting the fatalities given the strikes have been targeting military and intelligence sites run by the rebels. Many of the strikes havent been fully acknowledged by the Houthis or the U.S. military while the rebels also tightly control access on the ground. One strike early Friday, however, has been confirmed by the U.S. militarys Central Command, which oversees its Mideast operations. It posted a black-and-white video early Saturday showing an airstrike targeting a site in Yemen. While it didnt identify the location, an AP analysis of the footages details corresponds to a known strike Friday in Sanaa. The footage shows the bomb striking the militarys general command headquarters held by the Houthis, something the rebels have not reported. Meanwhile, the Houthi-controlled Telecommunications and Information Technology Ministry in Sanaa said U.S. strikes Friday destroyed broadcasting stations, communication towers and the messaging network in Amran and Saada governorates. The strikes in Amran around the Jebel Aswad, or Black Mountain, had appeared particularly intense. US campaign follow Houthi shipping threats The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 58 people, started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting Israeli ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The rebels in the past have had a loose definition of what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning other vessels could be targeted as well.The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors during their campaign targeting ships from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none have been hit so far.The attacks greatly raised the Houthis profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting any dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemens decadelong stalemated war that has torn apart the Arab worlds poorest nation. 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 RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Auburn guard Denver Jones (2) celebrates during the second half in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA college basketball tournament against Michigan, Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)2025-03-29T04:23:03Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness.Get the AP Top 25 mens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. ATLANTA (AP) With Auburns season on the brink, Tahaad Pettiford and Denver Jones suddenly became unstoppable.On to the Elite Eight for the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.Pettitford and Jones scored 20 points apiece to lead a second-half barrage that rallied the Tigers to a 78-65 victory over Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.The Tigers (31-5) wiped out a nine-point deficit, outscoring No. 5 seed Michigan 39-17 over the final 12 1/2 minutes to advance to the Elite Eight for only the third time in school history. They also became the fourth Southeastern Conference team to reach a regional final, with the SEC joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (2016) and Big East (2009) as the only leagues to do that.Just the kids will to win, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. Denver got heated up. Tahaad got heated up. We went to them, and they delivered. Auburn will face Michigan State in the South Region final on Sunday, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The Spartans held off Mississippi 73-70 in the first game of the night in Atlanta.Johni Broome scored 22 points to go along with 16 rebounds, but it was Pettiford, a freshman, and Jones, a senior, who took control when Auburn needed them most. The Wolverines (27-10) built their biggest lead, 49-38, and seemed headed for their most improbable performance yet in a remarkable comeback season under first-year coach Dusty May. But Pettiford sparked the comeback with a step-back jumper from beyond the 3-point stripe, Jones knocked down two straight from long range before scoring on a drive to the hoop, and Pettiford finished off Michigan with two stunning shots: a trey after briefly losing the ball but getting it back, followed by a three-point play when he knocked one down before landing flat on his back after being fouled. I saw one go in, and I just saw the basket get bigger and bigger, Jones said. So I just kept shooting. Danny Wolf led No. Michigan with 20 points, but no one else on the Wolverines managed more than 10.Still, the Wolverines had plenty of reasons to be proud after bouncing back from an 8-24 debacle a year ago that set a school record for losses in a season and led to the firing of former Fab Five star Juwan Howard.They left a legacy, May said. They established an identity. They should be very, very proud of their body of work.The first half was played at a frantic but sloppy pace, with both teams plagued by turnovers and struggling to hit shots.One sequence epitomized the opening 20 minutes. Tre Donaldson threw the ball away with a lazy pass, but Auburn gave it right back when Chad Baker-Mazaras unnecessary behind-the-back effort was picked off by Roddy Gayle Jr. The Wolverines took off the other way, only to have Donaldson turn it over again with an errant lob that sailed way out of bounds. In just nine seconds, the teams combined for three turnovers.Auburn led 30-29 at halftime despite hitting just 12 of 37 shots (32.4%) from the field, including a 3-of-16 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, to go along with 10 turnovers. The Tigers gave themselves plenty of second and third chances, and even a fourth on one possession. They finished with 48-33 edge on the boards, including 19 rebounds at the offensive end. Broome and the rest of Auburns frontcourt held up just fine against Michigans two 7-footers, Wolf and Vladislav Goldin.We took the game personal, Broome said. Thats a great front line, but we wanted to challenge ourselves to make it tough on them.Home, sweet homeIt felt a bit like an Auburn home game with the Tigers playing only 110 miles from their campus just across the state line in eastern Alabama.The crowd, largely clad in orange and blue, broke into a Lets go Auburn! chant shortly after the tipoff at State Farm Arena. They really erupted when the Tigers rallied in the second half.It obviously helped to elevate their play, Pearl said. If youre the overall No. 1 seed, you should be able to play close enough to home so the fans can see it. It definitely felt like a road game to the Wolverines, who were cheered on by a much smaller contingent.Obviously in the second half, they hit a few shots and the crowd erupted, Wolf said. That was a huge momentum swing.TakeawaysAuburn: The Tigers lost in their first trip to the Elite Eight in 1986. They reached their lone Final Four in 2019, when a setback to eventual champion Virginia ended their season. ... Pearl did not like one line in particular on the stat sheet 15 turnovers. If Michigan can turn us over 15 times, Michigan State could turn us over 25 times, the coach said. Thats a concern.Michigan: Goldin was held to 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting. He also led the Wolverines with nine rebounds. ... Nimari Burnett scored 10 points as well. ... Michigan shot just 35.6% from the field (21 of 59), including 5 of 17 from outside the stripe. ... The Wolverines had only six assists, compared to 15 for Auburn.___AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

A youth walks a dog past a Last Energy prototype of a microreactor on display at the corner of 10th and V Street NW in Washington, Tuesday, March 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)2025-03-29T04:03:37Z HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) With the promise of newer, cheaper nuclear power on the horizon, U.S. states are vying to position themselves to build and supply the industrys next generation as policymakers consider expanding subsidies and paving over regulatory obstacles.Advanced reactor designs from competing firms are filling up the federal governments regulatory pipeline as the industry touts them as a reliable, climate-friendly way to meet electricity demands from tech giants desperate to power their fast-growing artificial intelligence platforms.The reactors could be operational as early as 2030, giving states a short runway to roll out the red carpet, and they face lingering public skepticism about safety and growing competition from renewables like wind and solar. Still, the reactors have high-level federal support, and utilities across the U.S. are working to incorporate the energy source into their portfolios. Last year, 25 states passed legislation to support advanced nuclear energy and this year lawmakers have introduced over 200 bills supportive of nuclear energy, said Marc Nichol of the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association whose members include power plant owners, universities and labor unions.Weve seen states taking action at ever-increasing levels for the past few years now, Nichol said in an interview. Smaller, more flexible nuclear reactors Smaller reactors are, in theory, faster to build and easier to site than conventional reactors. They could be factory-built from standard parts and are touted as flexible enough to plunk down for a single customer, like a data center or an industrial complex.Advanced reactors, called small modular reactors and microreactors, produce a fraction of the energy produced by the conventional nuclear reactors built around the world for the last 50 years. Where conventional reactors produce 800 to 1,000 megawatts, or enough to power about half a million homes, modular reactors produce 300 megawatts or less and microreactors produce no more than 20 megawatts.Tech giants Amazon and Google are investing in nuclear reactors to get the power they need, as states compete with Big Tech, and each other, in a race for electricity. States are embracing nuclear energyFor some state officials, nuclear is a carbon-free source of electricity that helps them meet greenhouse gas-reduction goals. Others see it as an always-on power source to replace an accelerating wave of retiring coal-fired power plants.Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee last month proposed more than $90 million to help subsidize a Tennessee Valley Authority project to install several small reactors, boost research and attract nuclear tech firms.Long a proponent of the TVAs nuclear project, Lee also launched Tennessees Nuclear Energy Fund in 2023, designed to attract a supply chain, including a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment plant billed as the states biggest-ever industrial investment.In Utah, where Gov. Spencer Cox announced Operation Gigawatt to double the states electricity generation in a decade, the Republican wants to spend $20 million to prepare sites for nuclear. State Senate President J. Stuart Adams told colleagues when he opened the chambers 2025 session that Utah needs to be the nations nuclear hub. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared his state is ready to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power as Texas lawmakers consider billions in nuclear power incentives.Michigan lawmakers are considering millions of dollars in incentives to develop and use the reactors, as well as train a nuclear industry workforce.One state over, Indiana lawmakers this month passed legislation to let utilities more quickly seek reimbursement for the cost to build a modular reactor, undoing a decades-old prohibition designed to protect ratepayers from bloated, inefficient or, worse, aborted power projects.In Arizona, lawmakers are considering a utility-backed bill to relax environmental regulations if a utility builds a reactor at the site of a large industrial power user or a retired coal-fired power plant. Big expectations, uncertain futureStill, the devices face an uncertain future.No modular reactors are operating in the U.S. and a project to build the first, this one in Idaho, was terminated in 2023, despite getting federal aid.The U.S. Department of Energy last year, under then-President Joe Biden, estimated the U.S. will need an additional 200 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity to keep pace with future power demands and reach net-zero emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change. The U.S. currently has just under 100 gigawatts of nuclear power operating. More than 30 advanced nuclear projects are under consideration or planned to be in operation by the early 2030s, Nichol of the NEI said, but those would supply just a fraction of the 200 gigawatt goal.Work to produce a modular reactor has drawn billions of dollars in federal subsidies, loan guarantees and more recently tax credits signed into law by Biden.Those have been critical to the nuclear industry, which expects them to survive under President Donald Trump, whose administration it sees as a supporter. Supply challenges and competition from renewablesThe U.S. remains without a long-term solution for storing radioactive waste, safety regulators are under pressure from Congress to approve designs and there are serious questions about industry claims that the smaller reactors are efficient, safe and reliable, said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.Plus, Lyman said, the likelihood that those are going to be deployable and instantly 100% reliable right out of the gate is just not consistent with the history of nuclear power development. And so its a much riskier bet.Nuclear also has competition from renewable energies.Brendan Kochunas, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at the University of Michigan, said advanced reactors may have a short window to succeed, given the regulatory scrutiny they undergo and the advances in energy storage technologies to make wind and solar power more reliable.Those storage technologies could develop faster, bring down renewables cost and, ultimately, make more economic sense than nuclear, Kochunas said.The supply chain for building reactors is another question. The U.S. lacks high-quality concrete- and steel-fabrication design skills necessary to manufacture a nuclear power plant, Kochunas said.That introduces the prospect of higher costs and longer timelines, he said. While foreign suppliers could help, there also is the fuel to consider.Kathryn Huff, a former top Energy Department official who is now an associate professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said uranium enrichment capacity in the U.S. and among its allies needs to grow in order to support reactor production.First-of-their-kind reactors need to get up and running close to their target dates, Huff said, in order for anyone to have faith that a second or third or fourth one should be built.___Follow Marc Levy on X at: https://x.com/timelywriter. MARC LEVY Levy covers politics and state government in Pennsylvania for The Associated Press. He is based in Harrisburg. twitter

Female Marines go through one of the obstacles in the so-called confidence course at Parris Island Recruit Depot, S.,C., on May 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Lolita Baldor, File)2025-03-29T04:03:29Z WASHINGTON (AP) The defense secretarys decision to review military standards on combat and physical fitness and appearance opens a Pandoras box of widely differing rules among the services. And it will raise a crucial question: Should there be a cookie-cutter approach, or should service differences, evolving social norms and recruiting realities play a role in policy decisions?Pete Hegseth has been very public about his opposition to women in combat jobs and his belief that standards were lowered to accommodate women, and he warned there would be reviews to address the issues. He is a staunch proponent of making all standards the same, regardless of gender, and military officials are braced for changes as reviews continue.In a memo March 12, Hegseth said the undersecretary for personnel must gather information on military standards pertaining to physical fitness, body composition, and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards. We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the worlds most lethal and effective fighting force, he wrote. The effort is seen as a broadside against women serving on the frontlines which they have been doing successfully for years. Hegseths memo calls for a review of how standards have changed and the impact of those shifts since Jan. 1, 2015 the year the Defense Department opened all combat jobs to women. And it raises questions about whether he wants to make all fitness tests the same for the services and make them all gender- and age-neutral or whether he will set minimum standards and allow the services to require more stringent requirements as desired. Eliminating the current policy of scoring annual fitness tests based on age and gender could hurt retention and recruitment if troops are suddenly told to meet a new, dramatically harder requirement. Such changes are generally phased in over time.Heres a look at the current standards. Physical fitness testsThe military has long had what is largely a two-part system for physical fitness standards: Routine annual fitness tests with different requirements based on gender and age. More grueling standards for specific combat, special operations, infantry, armor, parajumpers and other jobs that are the same for everyone in that occupation, and are not adjusted for age or gender.Right now, the fitness tests are a hodgepodge.Each service has basic tests that all service members must pass once or twice a year. For every service, the tests vary. Scoring is adjusted for gender and age. For example: A 20-year-old man must complete a run in a faster time than a woman or a 30-year-old man in order to receive the maximum score.Fitness tests used to be simpler: a run, push-ups and sit-ups. They evolved over time and now can include options. For example, Air Force service members can do either a 1 1/2-mile run or a sprint. Other services will at times allow biking or rowing as a cardio substitute for the run; planks are now more widely used than sit-ups. The Army and Marines have more extensive fitness tests..The Army, in a major overhaul several years ago, expanded its fitness test to six events, including a dead lift, run, planks, push-ups, standing power throw and a combination sprint/drag/carry. The events were meant to mimic real-world military circumstances. An early plan to make that test gender and age neutral was scrapped after studies showed problems.The Marine Corps has two tests a year. In the first half, Marines take a physical fitness test that includes a three-mile run, pull-ups and planks. In the second half of the year, they take a combat fitness test that includes an 880-meter run in combat boots, an ammo-can lift and an exercise that mimics troops maneuver under fire.The maneuver portion includes an obstacle course with a low crawl, high crawl and sprint, as well as dragging a person and using the firemans carry. Job-specific courses and standardsSpecific military jobs like special operations, infantry, armor and parajumping require different, higher-level physical and often mental and psychological tests, requirements and qualification courses.Those standards require everyone to meet the same gender- and age-neutral requirements. For example, an Army soldier who wants to be a Green Beret or a sailor who wants to be a SEAL must pass those grueling months-long qualification courses.Also, after the Pentagon allowed women to be in all combat jobs, the Army set specific fitness standards for each military occupation that are the same regardless of sex or age. Recruits who want to serve in an infantry or armor job must pass a specific physical assessment that has higher, more significant demands, in order to sign a contract for that specialty. Other standardsOver the years, a wide array of standards and requirements have been adjusted for reasons ranging from religious tolerance to recruiting and evolving societal trends. In large part, they are driven by recruiting struggles and the need to woo those from a changing universe of American young people, including those with less academic schooling or people from states where marijuana is legal. The Navy, for example, began in 2022 to enlist more recruits who score very low on the Armed Services Qualification Test. That was to help meet recruiting goals. A year later it began to bring in people who didnt graduate from high school or get a GED. Both were shifts that the other services have largely avoided. The Navy argued that it needed those lower-scoring recruits to fill jobs that involve intense manual labor.Hegseth has said little about that type of standard and has focused on physical rather than mental fitness.In addition, several services have changed policies on hair and beards. They now allow different buns and ponytails for women, and beards in certain circumstances for either medical or religious reasons. And most of the services have relaxed policies on marijuana in recent years.Similarly, they have all loosened restrictions on the size and placement of tattoos, opening the door to full-sleeve tattoos. Most now allow small ones on the neck or finger. LOLITA C. BALDOR Baldor has covered the Pentagon and national security issues for The Associated Press since 2005. She has reported from all over the world including warzones in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria. twitter mailto

In this provided by Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade press service, servicemen of 3rd mechanized battalion, practice on the training ground at an undisclosed location in the east of Ukraine, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP)2025-03-29T04:03:43Z KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Russian forces are preparing to launch a fresh military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize the pressure on Ukraine and strengthen the Kremlins negotiating position in ceasefire talks, Ukrainian government and military analysts said.The move could give Russian President Vladimir Putin every reason to delay discussions about pausing the fighting in favor of seeking more land, the Ukrainian officials said, renewing their countrys repeated arguments that Russia has no intention of engaging in meaningful dialogue to end the war.With the spring fighting season drawing near, the Kremlin is eyeing a multi-pronged push across the 1,000-kilometer (621-mile) front line, according to the analysts and military commanders.Citing intelligence reports, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is getting ready for new offensives in the northeast Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizizhia regions. Theyre dragging out the talks and trying to get the U.S. stuck in endless and pointless discussions about fake conditions just to buy time and then try to grab more land, Zelenskyy said Thursday in a visit to Paris. Putin wants to negotiate over territory from a stronger position. Two G7 diplomatic officials in Kyiv agreed with that assessment. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press.Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, and the feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea was thrown into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions. Battlefield success is clearly in Putins mind.On the entire front line, the strategic initiative is completely in the hands of the Russian armed forces, Putin said Thursday at a forum in the Arctic port of Murmansk. Our troops, our guys are moving forward and liberating one territory after another, one settlement after another, every day. Kremlin forces keep pressing forwardUkrainian military commanders said Russia recently stepped up attacks to improve its tactical positions ahead of the expected broader offensive.They need time until May, thats all, said Ukrainian military analyst Pavlo Narozhnyi, who works with soldiers and learns about intelligence from them.In the north, Russian and North Korean soldiers have nearly deprived Kyiv of an essential bargaining chip by retaking most of Russias Kursk region, where Ukrainian soldiers staged a daring incursion last year. Battles have also escalated along the eastern front in Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.A concern among some commanders is whether Russia might divert battle-hardened forces from Kursk to other parts of the east.It will be hard. The forces from Kursk will come on a high from their wins there, said a Ukrainian battalion commander in the Donetsk region, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe his concerns.They are preparing offensive actions on the front that should last from six to nine months, almost all of 2025, said Ukrainian military analyst Oleksii Hetman, who has connections to the militarys general staff. Fighting intensifies on parts of the front lineRussia entered negotiations with a clear advantage in the war. Now, after recapturing 80% of its territory in the Kursk region ahead of talks, its forces have intensified their fighting across other parts of the front line.The number of clashes on the front line is not decreasing, Hetman said. If they wanted to stop the war, their actions certainly dont show it.Russia ramped up reconnaissance missions to find and destroy firing positions, drone systems and other capabilities that could impede a future onslaught, two Ukrainian commanders said.These can be all signs that an attack is being prepared in the near future, Hetman said.Fighting also intensified in the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of Ukraines main defensive strongholds and a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. Its capture would bring Russia closer to its stated aim of capturing the entire region.The Russians were significantly exhausted over the past two months. During 10 days of March, they took a sort of pause, military spokesman Maj. Viktor Trehubov said of the situation in Pokrovsk. In mid-March, the attack resumed. This means the Russians have simply recovered. Russia increases reconnaissance missionsA Ukrainian soldier with the call sign Italian said Russia was conducting intensive reconnaissance in his area of responsibility in the Pokrovsk region. Radio intercepts and intelligence show a buildup of forces in the area around Selidove, a city in the Pokrovsk region, and the creation of ammunition reserves, he said.The buildup includes large armored vehicles, and the many new call signs overheard in radio transmissions suggest that fresh forces are coming in, he said.Further south, a military blog run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former officer of the Russian Defense Ministrys press section, noted last week that Russian troops recently unleashed a new offensive west of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region. The offensive will allow Russian forces to move toward the city of Zaporizhzhia and force the enemy to redeploy its troops from other sectors, leaving Robotyne and Mala Tokmachka badly protected, the blog known as Rybar said, adding that the new offensive could be the first step toward the liberation of the Zaporizhzhia region.On Friday, Vladyslav Voloshyn, a spokesman for the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine, said the situation in the region is fraught after Russia amassed more forces to conduct assaults with small groups of infantry.The tactic of using these small groups brings results to Russia in other parts of the front line, he said.Russian analysts project optimism that a future offensive will succeed.Both sides are actively preparing for the spring-summer campaign, Sergey Poletaev, a Moscow-based military analyst, wrote in a recent commentary. Theres a growing sense that the Ukrainian forces may be struggling to prepare for it adequately. Despite being worn down from combat, the Russian army has a real chance of achieving decisive success in the next six months to a year. This could lead to the collapse of Ukrainian defenses.Little progress reported at negotiating tableMeanwhile at the negotiating table, Russian demands have curtailed the results of much-anticipated negotiations brokered by the U.S.Earlier this month, after Russia effectively turned down the U.S. proposal for a complete, monthlong halt in the fighting, Moscow tentatively agreed to a partial ceasefire on Black Sea shipping routes.But that agreement was quickly cast into doubt by Russias insistence on far-reaching conditions that its state bank be reconnected to the SWIFT international payment system, something Kyiv and the EU rejected outright.Along the front line, the reported ups and downs of the talks fuel frustration and worry.No one believes in them, said the Ukrainian soldier known as Italian, who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his call sign in keeping with military protocol. But there is still hope that the conflict will move in another direction. Everyone is waiting for some changes in the combat zone because it is not good for us now. We really dont want to admit that.___Associated Press journalists Volodymyr Yurchuk and Dmytro Zhyhinas contributed to this report. 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

In this image provided by The Myanmar Military True News Information Team, Myanmar's military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, inspects victims caused by an earthquake Friday, March 28, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. (The Myanmar Military True News Information Team via AP)2025-03-29T04:19:39Z BANGKOK (AP) The death toll from a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar has jumped to nearly 700, according to the government, state-run media reported Saturday.MRTV reported that 694 people have now been found dead and another1,670 injured, with 68 others injured, according to a statement from the military-led government.The earthquake struck midday Friday with an epicenter not far from Mandalay, Myanmars second biggest city, sending buildings in many areas toppling to the ground and causing other widespread damage. DAVID RISING Rising covers regional Asia-Pacific stories for The Associated Press. He has worked around the world, including covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, and was based for nearly 20 years in Berlin before moving to Bangkok. twitter mailto

A protestor waves a Palestinian flag at the University of New Mexico Palestine solidarity encampment in Albuquerque, N.M., on May 14, 2024. (Chancey Bush/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)2025-03-29T04:11:24Z NEW YORK (AP) When a protester was caught on video in January at a New York rally against Israel, only her eyes were visible between a mask and headscarf. But days later, photos of her entire face, along with her name and employer, were circulated online.Months of them hiding their faces went down the drain! a fledgling technology company boasted in a social media post, claiming its facial-recognition tool had identified the woman despite the coverings.She was anything but a lone target. The same software was also used to review images taken during months of pro-Palestinian marches at U.S. colleges. A right-wing Jewish group said some people identified with the tool were on a list of names it submitted to President Donald Trumps administration, urging that they be deported in accordance with his call for the expulsion of foreign students who participated in pro-jihadist protests. Other pro-Israel groups have enlisted help from supporters on campuses, urging them to report foreign students who participated in protests against the war in Gaza to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency. The push to identify masked protesters using facial recognition and turn them in is blurring the line between public law enforcement and private groups. And the efforts have stirred anxiety among foreign students worried that activism could jeopardize their legal status. Its a very concerning practice. We dont know who these individuals are or what theyre doing with this information, said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Essentially the administration is outsourcing surveillance.Its unclear whether names from outside groups have reached top government officials. But concern about the pursuit of activists has risen since the March 8 arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student of Palestinian descent who helped lead demonstrations against Israels conduct of the war. Immigration officers also detained a Tufts University student from Turkey outside Boston this week, and Trump and other officials have said that more arrests of international students are coming.Now theyre using tools of the state to actually go after people, said a Columbia graduate student from South Asia who has been active in protests and spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns about losing her visa. We suddenly feel like were being forced to think about our survival.Uncertainty about the consequencesAyoub said he is concerned, in part, that groups bent on exposing pro-Palestinian activists will make mistakes and single out students who did nothing wrong.Some groups pushing for deportations say their focus is on students whose actions go beyond marching in protests, to those taking over campus buildings and inciting violence against Jewish students.If youre here, right, on a student visa causing civil unrest ... assaulting people on the streets, chanting for peoples death, why the heck did you come to this country? said Eliyahu Hawila, a software engineer who built the tool designed to identify masked protesters and outed the woman at the January rally. He has forwarded protesters names to groups pressing for them to be deported, disciplined, fired or otherwise punished. Have a news tip?Contact APs global investigative team at [emailprotected]. For secure and confidential communications, use the free Signal app +1 (202) 281-8604. If we want to argue that this is freedom of speech and they can say it, fine, they can say it, Hawila said. But that doesnt mean that you will escape the consequences of society after you say it.Pro-Israel groups that circulated the protesters photo claim that she was soon fired by her employer. An employee who answered the phone at the company confirmed that the woman had not worked there since early this year. In a brief phone conversation, the protester, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing, declined to comment on the advice of an attorney. Calls to report students to the governmentThe unearthing and spreading of personal information to harass opponents has become commonplace in the uproar over the war in Gaza. The practice, known as doxing, has been used to expose both activists in the U.S. and Israeli soldiers who recorded video of themselves on the battlefield.But the use of facial-recognition technology by private groups enters territory previously reserved largely for law enforcement, said attorney Sejal Zota, who represents a group of California activists in a lawsuit against facial recognition company ClearviewAI.Were focused on government use of facial recognition because thats who we think of as traditionally tracking and monitoring dissent, Zota said. But there are now all of these groups who are sort of complicit in that effort.The calls to report protesters to immigration authorities have raised the stakes.Please tell everyone you know who is at a university to file complaints about foreign students and faculty who support Hamas, Elizabeth Rand, president of a group called Mothers Against Campus Antisemitism, said in a Jan. 21 post to more than 60,000 followers on Facebook. It included a link to an ICE tip line. Rands post was one of several publicized by New York Universitys chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Rand did not respond to messages seeking comment. NYU has dismissed criticism that she had any influence with its administrators.In early February, messages from a different group were posted in an online chat group frequented by Israelis living in New York.Do you know students at Columbia or any other university who are here on a study visa and participated in demonstrations against Israel? one message said in Hebrew. If so, now is our time!An accompanying message in English by the group End Jew Hatred included a link to the ICE hotline. The group did not respond to requests for comment.Facial recognition looms over protestsWeeks before Khalils arrest, a spokesman for right-wing Jewish group Betar said the activist topped a list of foreign students and faculty from nine universities it submitted to officials, including then-incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who made the decision to revoke Khalils visa.Rubio was asked this week how the names of students targeted for visa revocation were reaching his desk and whether colleges or outside groups were providing information. He declined to answer.Were not going to talk about the process by which were identifying it because obviously were looking for more people, he told reporters late Thursday during the return flight from a diplomatic trip to Suriname.In a one-sentence statement, the Department of Homeland Security, which includes ICE, said the immigration agency is not working with Betar, nor has it received any hotline tips from the group. But DHS declined to answer specific questions from The Associated Press about how it was treating reports from outside groups or the usage of facial recognition.Betar spokesman Daniel Levy said that some people on its list were identified using the facial-recognition tool called NesherAI created by Hawilas company, Stellar Technologies, which was launched from his Brooklyn apartment. The software takes its name from the Hebrew word for eagle.Demonstrating the software for a reporter recently, Hawila paused repeatedly to tweak computer code to account for what he said was the just-completed ingestion of thousands of additional photos scraped from social media accounts.After some delay, the software matched a screenshot of a fully masked protester seen on video confronting Hawila at a recent march with publicity photos of a woman who described herself online as a New York artist. He said he would report her to the police for assault.Hawila, a native of Lebanon, is no stranger to controversy. He was the subject of news stories in 2021 when, after marrying an ultra-orthodox woman in New York, he was confronted with accusations that he lied about being Jewish. Religious authorities have since confirmed that his mother was Jewish and certified his faith, he said.Hawila said he no longer works directly with Betar but continues to share protesters names with it and other pro-Israel groups and said he has discussed licensing his software to some of them. He showed an email exchange with one group that appeared to confirm such contact.Technology, when used in good ways, makes the world a better place, he said.Trump promised to crack down during campaignAs a candidate, Trump campaigned on a promise to crack down on campus antisemitism and threatened to deport activists with student visas that he called violent radicals.Soon after the election, Betar claimed on social media that it was working to identify and report international student protesters to the incoming administration.Entire university departments have been corrupted by jihadis, Levy said in a recent e-mail exchange with the AP.Days before his arrest, Khalil said in an interview that he was aware of Betars call for his deportation and that it and other groups were trying to use him as a scapegoat.Students protesting Israels conduct in Gaza have been unsure what to make of Betar, which the Anti-Defamation League recently added to its list of extremist groups. The ADL has also voiced support for revoking the visas of foreign student activists.At the University of Pittsburgh, leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine said they spoke with police in November after an online message from Betar that said it would be visiting the school to give you beepers an apparent reference to Israels detonation of thousands of electronic pagers last fall to kill and wound members of Lebanons Hezbollah militia.Ross Glick, who was Betars executive director at the time, said that the message was a tongue-in-cheek dark joke, not a threat.Both sides said police eventually decided no action was warranted. Months later, Betar said that Pitt students were among those on its deportation list.Students dependent on visas fear being targetedThe efforts to target protesters have fueled anxiety among international students involved in campus activism.Theyve abducted someone on our campus, and that is a key source of our fear, said the Columbia student from South Asia.She recounted cancelling spring break plans to travel to Canada, where her husband lives, for fear she would not be allowed to reenter the U.S. She has also shut down her social media accounts to avoid drawing attention to pro-Palestinian posts.And, because her apartment is off campus, she said she offered accommodation to other international students who live in university housing and are wary of visits by immigration officers.Leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at George Washington University and Pittsburgh said some international students have asked to have their email addresses and names removed from membership lists to avoid scrutiny.A Columbia graduate student from the United Kingdom said that when he joined a pro-Palestinian encampment last year, he never considered whether it might affect his immigration status.Now hes rethinking an incident in October, when someone scattered fliers in a campus lounge celebrating the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war. A classmate who supports Israel accused him and others in the room of being responsible for the fliers and snapped their photos, according to the student, who said he had nothing to do with the material distributed.My main worry is that he shared those photos and identified us and shared it with a larger group of people, the student said.Other students have been dismayed by an atmosphere that encourages students to inform on their classmates.It really bothered me because this cultivates this environment of reporting on each other. It kind of gives memories of dictatorship and autocratic regimes, said Sahar Bostock, who was among a group of Israeli students at Columbia who wrote an open letter criticizing efforts to report pro-Palestinian protesters.I had to say, Do you think this is right?___Associated Press reporters Jake Offenhartz and Noreen Nasir in New York and Matthew Lee in Miami contributed to this report. ADAM GELLER Geller is an Associated Press national writer based in New York. He is part of a team focused on in-depth enterprise reporting. mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A Pakistani browses children's clothes at a market as he shops for the upcoming Eid al-Fitr celebrations, which marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Muhammad Sajjad)2025-03-29T08:44:35Z CAIRO (AP) Muslims around the world are bidding farewell to the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and will soon start celebrating the holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Eid is typically greeted with joy and excitement and is marked with congregational prayers and festivities that usually include family visits, gatherings, outings and new clothes.For some Muslims, this years Eid comes amid significant changes in their communities. In Gaza, this will be the second Eid al-Fitr to fall during the Israel-Hamas war. Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas in Gaza by launching a surprise wave of strikes that killed hundreds of people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the strikes after Hamas refused Israeli demands to free half of the remaining hostages as a precondition for extending the ceasefire. Earlier this month, Israel halted deliveries of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza. The resumption of war changed the fortunes of Palestinians in Gaza who had started observing Ramadan under a fragile ceasefire. Israels campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry. The war was sparked by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages. Elsewhere in the Middle East, Syrians will celebrate their first Eid al-Fitr since the end of more than half a century of the Assad familys iron-fisted rule. The countrys first Ramadan since the ouster of Bashar Assad, who was the president, saw many Syrians relieved, but has also witnessed a bloody and worrisome bout of violence amid a complex transition.In the United States, several supporters of Palestinian causes with ties to American universities have been detained in the Trump administrations crackdown on immigrants. What is Eid al-Fitr?Its an Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the month when devout Muslims fast daily from dawn to sunset. Ramadan is a time for increased worship, charity, and good deeds. It also typically sees festive gatherings to break the fast.Eid al-Fitr means the feast, or festival, of breaking the fast. When is Eid al Fitr?Islam follows a lunar calendar and so Ramadan and Eid cycle through the seasons. This year, the first day of Eid al-Fitr is expected to be on or around March 30; the exact date may vary among countries and Muslim communities.What are some common Eid greetings?Eid Mubarak, or Blessed Eid, and Happy Eid.What are some of the traditions and customs associated with Eid al-Fitr?In Indonesia, many people embark on an exodus to their hometowns to celebrate the holiday with loved ones in a homecoming tradition known locally as mudik.In recent Eid celebrations, Indonesians have packed airports or crammed into trains, ferries, buses and onto motorcycles as they poured out of major cities amid severe traffic congestion to return to their villages to celebrate the holiday with families.Before the holiday, popular markets teem with shoppers buying clothes, shoes, cookies and sweets. In Malaysia, Muslims also have a homecoming tradition for Eid. The first day usually begins with a morning prayer in the mosque, seeking forgiveness from family and friends, and visiting loved ones graves. Theres an open house spirit that sees friends and families trading visits to celebrate Eid and enjoy traditional delicacies such as ketupat, rice cooked in a palm leaf pouch, and rendang, a meat dish stewed in spices and braised in coconut milk.Older Muslims give money in green packets to children and guests who visit their homes.In Egypt, families partake in Eid prayers amid a festive atmosphere. Many visit relatives, friends or neighbors and some travel to vacation spots. Children, usually wearing new Eid outfits, receive traditional cash gifts known as eidiya.Making or buying Eid cookies dusted with powdered sugar is another fixture of marking the holiday in the country.In the United States, where Muslims make up an ethnically and racially diverse minority, many come together for Eid prayers and for festivals featuring fun activities for children and families. These often include such things as face painting and balloon twisting. ___Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed.___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. MARIAM FAM Fam is a reporter with The Associated Press Global Religion team. She covers faith, and the many ways it intersects with culture and daily life, in the Middle East and beyond. mailto

Vice President JD Vance arrives at Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)2025-03-29T10:56:02Z NUUK, Greenland (AP) The Danish foreign minister on Saturday scolded the Trump administration for its tone in criticizing Denmark and Greenland, saying his country is already investing more into Arctic security and remains open to more cooperation with the U.S.Foreign Minister Lars Lkke Rasmussen, make the remarks in a video posted to social media after U.S. Vice President JD Vances visit to the strategic island.Many accusations and many allegations have been made. And of course we are open to criticism, Rasmussen said speaking in English. But let me be completely honest: we do not appreciate the tone in which it is being delivered. This is not how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies.Vance on Friday said Denmark has underinvested in Greenlands security and demanded that Denmark change its approach as President Donald Trump pushes to take over the Danish territory. Vance visited U.S. troops on Pituffik Space Base on mineral-rich Greenland alongside his wife and other senior U.S. officials for a trip that was ultimately scaled back after an uproar among Greenlanders and Danes who were not consulted about the original itinerary. Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland, Vance said Friday. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change. Vance said the U.S. has no option but to take a significant position to ensure the security of Greenland as he encouraged a push in Greenland for independence from Denmark.I think that they ultimately will partner with the United States, Vance said. We could make them much more secure. We could do a lot more protection. And I think theyd fare a lot better economically as well. The reaction by members of Greenlands parliament and residents has rendered that unlikely, with anger erupting over the Trump administrations attempts to annex the vast Arctic island. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pushed back on Vances claim that Denmark isnt doing enough for defense in the Arctic, calling her country a good and strong ally.And Greenlandic lawmakers on Thursday agreed to form a new government, banding together to resist Trumps overtures. Four of the five parties elected to Greenlands parliament earlier this month have agreed to form a coalition that will have 23 of 31 seats in the legislature.Lkke Rasmussen, in his video, reminded viewers of the 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the United States. Since 1945, the American military presence in Greenland has decreased from thousands of soldiers over 17 bases and installations on the island, he said, to the remote Pituffik Space Base in the northwest with some 200 soldiers today.The 1951 agreement offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland, the foreign minister said. If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it.Lkke Rasmussen added that Denmark has increased its own investment into Arctic defense. In January, Denmark announced 14.6 billion Danish kroner (US$2.1 billion) in financial commitments for Arctic security covering three new naval vessels, long-range drones and satellites. __Grieshaber reported from Berlin and Madhani from Washington. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio in Berlin contributed to this report. KIRSTEN GRIESHABER Grieshaber is a Berlin-based reporter covering Germany and Austria for The Associated Press. She covers general news as well as migration, populism and religion. mailto AAMER MADHANI Madhani covers the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto