Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00934-2An exploration of weird and wonderful birds across the world sometimes takes theories of sexual selection to the extreme but entertains throughout.

Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by U.S. airstrikes in Sanaa, Yemen, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo)2025-03-31T03:28:47Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Suspected U.S. airstrikes struck around Yemens rebel-held capital overnight into Monday morning, attacks that the Iranian-backed Houthis said killed at least three people. The full extent of the damage wasnt immediately clear. The attacks followed a night of airstrikes early Friday that appeared particularly intense compared to other days in the campaign that began March 15. The strikes around Sanaa, Yemens capital held by the Houthis since 2014, and Hajjah governorate also wounded 12 others, the rebels said. Their Al-Masirah satellite news channel aired footage of broken glass littering homes in Sanaa after the concussive blast of the bombs, but continued not to show the targets of the attacks suggesting the sites had a military or intelligence function. Strikes there killed one person, the rebels said. Another strike targeting a pickup truck in Hajjah killed two people and wounded a child, the Houthis said. It marked the first, publicly known time the American strikes targeted a vehicle in this campaign. An Associated Press review has found the new American operation against the Houthis 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. The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 61 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 loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning other vessels could be targeted. The Houthis had targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none has 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

A member of the military looks on in front of newly-installed concertina wire lining one of two border walls separating Mexico from the United States during a news conference on joint operations involving the military and the Border Patrol, March 21, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)2025-03-31T11:14:46Z WASHINGTON (AP) Immigration remains a strength for President Donald Trump, but his handling of tariffs is getting more negative feedback, according to a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.About half of U.S. adults approve of Trumps approach to immigration, the survey shows, but only about 4 in 10 have a positive view of the way hes handling the economy and trade negotiations.The poll indicates that many Americans are still on board with Trumps efforts to ramp up deportations and restrict immigration. But it also suggests that the Republican presidents threats to impose tariffs which have been accompanied by tumbling consumer confidence and wild stock market swings might be erasing his advantage on another issue that he made central to his winning 2024 campaign.The economy was a drag on then-President Joe Biden, who saw the share of Americans who approved of his handling of the economy fall to a low of roughly 3 in 10 in 2023. Trump drew considerable strength in November from voters who prioritized the economy, but just before he took office in January, an AP-NORC poll found that few Americans had high confidence that hed make progress on lowering prices in his first year. Views of Trumps job performance overall are more negative than positive, the survey found. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, and more than half disapprove. Negative opinions are also stronger than positive opinions about 4 in 10 U.S. adults strongly disapprove of Trumps job performance, while about 2 in 10 strongly approve. Trumps job approval is highest on immigrationMore U.S. adults say they approve of Trumps handling of immigration than his approach to the presidency as a whole.That trend even extends to Democrats. Relatively few, about 2 in 10, say theyre on board with how Trump is approaching immigration, but thats higher than the roughly 1 in 10 who approve of his handling of the economy and his job as a whole.The durability of Trumps appeal on immigration underscores that many U.S. adults support his tough approach, which he has prioritized in the first few months of his second term.In the past few weeks, Trumps administration has been locked in a court struggle over the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under an 18th century wartime law, made moves to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at colleges, and attempted to suspend the nations refugee admissions system.Voters who said immigration was their most important issue last November overwhelmingly favored more restrictive policies, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 120,000 voters. The issue was also a higher priority for Americans heading into 2025 than it had been the previous year.Signs of potential weakness on trade and the economyThere are warning signs for Trump in the poll, too, particularly in Americans assessment of his work on tariffs and the economy.Trade negotiations with other countries is the issue on which hes rated especially negatively, with about 6 in 10 U.S. adults saying they disapprove of his job performance. Its a relative low point, even among Republicans. About 7 in 10 Republicans approve of Trumps handling of trade still relatively high, but lower than the roughly 9 in 10 who approve of his approach on immigration. Trumps approach on other issues including managing the federal government, his handling of foreign conflicts, Social Security and the economy roughly track with his overall job approval.But even though the economy doesnt stand out quite as starkly as trade negotiations, Trumps relatively low rating on that issue could be a problem for him going forward. During his first term, the economy was an issue on which Americans frequently gave Trump good marks. In October 2020, just before he lost reelection, an AP-NORC poll found that about half of U.S. adults approved of Trumps handling of the economy, putting the rating far above his performance on race relations and the COVID-19 pandemic. Prices and economic growth were also a major motivator for the voters who sent Trump back to the White House for a second term. Trump won overwhelmingly among voters who said the economy was the most important issue facing the country, AP VoteCast found, and he was also the choice of most voters who said that inflation was the most important issue for their vote.Now, Trumps stewardship of the economy is being put to the test again and the AP-NORC poll isnt the only sign that his threats of tariffs are making everyday Americans nervous. Consumer confidence has been falling over the past few months. Trump has argued that tariffs would bring more jobs in the auto industry to the U.S. and narrow the budget deficit, but prices on imported cars could also rise steeply if some of the costs of the taxes are passed along to consumers. ___The AP-NORC poll of 1,229 adults was conducted March 20-24, using a sample drawn from NORCs probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Thomson-DeVeaux is the APs editor for polling and surveys. LINLEY SANDERS Sanders is a polls and surveys reporter for The Associated Press. She develops and writes about polls conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, and works on AP VoteCast. twitter

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00936-0Marine ecologist Gemma Galbraith builds remotely operated vehicles and uses them to assess how coral reefs are being affected by climate change.

In this photo taken from video distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Sunday, March 30, 2025, a Russian Army 2S5 howitzer Giatsint-S fires towards Ukrainian positions in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)2025-03-31T12:11:33Z Russia views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as a drawn-out process, a Kremlin spokesman said Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries leaders as he tries to bring about a truce.We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce. This is a drawn-out process because of the difficulty of its substance, he said when asked about Trumps anger at Russian President Vladimir Putins comments dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyys legitimacy to negotiate a deal.Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. The feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea, used by both countries to transport shipments of grain and other cargo, was cast into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions. Trump promised during last years U.S. election campaign that he would bring Europes biggest conflict since World War II to a swift conclusion. Peskov didnt directly address Trumps criticism of Putin on Sunday when he said he was angry, pissed off that Putin had questioned Zelenskyys credibility as leader.But he said that Putin remains absolutely open to contacts with the U.S. president and was ready to speak to Trump. Both countries are preparing for a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield, analysts and Ukrainian and Western officials say.Zelenskyy said late Sunday that there has been no let-up in Russias attacks as it drives on with its invasion of its neighbor that began in February 2022. He said the attacks demonstrated Russias unwillingness to forge a settlement.The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldnt care less about diplomacy, Zelenskyy said in his daily address. And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes, he said.He urged further international pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to negotiate, including new sanctions.Trump said he would consider adding further sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, came under another Russian drone attack overnight, injuring three people, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Monday.Russia also fired two ballistic missiles and 131 Shahed and decoy drones, the Ukrainian air force said.Meanwhile, Russias Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 66 Ukrainian drones early Monday over three Russian regions.The continuing attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russias energy facilities show the complete lack of respect for any obligations related to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by the Kyiv regime, the ministry said in a statement.___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pictured during a television interview at the Capitol in Washington, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)2025-03-31T11:43:00Z PHOENIX (AP) The Democratic base is angry. Not just at President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Make America Great Again movement. Rank-and-file Democrats are mad at their own leaders and increasingly agitating to replace them.Arizona Democrats pushed out their party chair, and Georgia Democrats are on their way to doing the same. And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York postponed a book tour in the face of protests amid calls from progressives that he face a primary challenge.The losing party after a presidential election often spends time in the wilderness, but the visceral anger among Democrats toward their party leaders is reaching a level reminiscent of the tea party movement that swept out Republican incumbents 15 years ago.They should absolutely be worried about holding onto power, because theres a real energy right now against them, Paco Fabin, deputy director of Our Revolution, a grassroots group allied with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, said of Democratic incumbents. And as soon as somebody figures out how to harness it, theyre going to be in deep trouble. A deeper hole than previous lossesElections on Tuesday could give national Democrats a boost. In Wisconsin, the officially nonpartisan race for a state Supreme Court seat has become a test of Musks influence as his political organization boosts conservative Brad Schimel and progressives back liberal Susan Crawford, who has made anti-Musk messaging a centerpiece of her campaign. And two U.S. House special elections in Florida feature Democrats who are outraising their Republican counterparts in sharply pro-Trump districts.But the current depth of frustration among Democrats is clear and shows no signs of going away. According to a February Quinnipiac poll, about half disapprove of how Democrats in Congress are handling their job, compared with about 4 in 10 who approve. Thats a stark contrast from the beginning of Joe Bidens presidency in 2021, when more than 8 in 10 Democrats approved of how their party was doing its job in Congress, and the start of Trumps first term in 2017, when about 6 in 10 Democrats approved. In 2017, as they do now, Democrats lacked control of either congressional chamber. A February CNN/SSRS poll found about three-quarters of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents thought Democrats in Congress werent doing enough to oppose Trump.Facing a coordinated and long-planned Republican effort to remake government and fire tens of thousands of federal workers, Democrats have struggled with a unified response. Frustration on the left with elected Democrats began early, when some Democratic senators backed Trump Cabinet nominees and supported legislation targeting illegal immigration. It escalated following Trumps joint address to Congress, when Democratic lawmakers protested by wearing coordinated clothes and holding up signs expressing their discontent. A handful of Democrats then voted with Republicans to censure U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who interrupted Trumps speech to Congress and was escorted out of the chamber. Schumer faced the most serious backlash after he refused to block a Republican-led government spending bill and shut down the government. Schumer said blocking the bill would have backfired and played into Trumps hands, but many on the left saw it as capitulation.I want the opposition to be a lot more animated, said Stefan Therrien, a 22-year-old engineering student in Tempe, Arizona, who called Democratic leaders in Congress very passive in a misguided effort to appeal to centrists. Democrats should attack harder.Ken Human, a retired attorney who went to a town hall organized by Democrats in Lexington, Kentucky, said: You have to stand up to bullies because otherwise theyll walk all over you. Anger from a partys base is not unusual after a party loses the presidency.Establishment Republicans faced fierce backlash after Democrat Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, which fueled the rise of the tea party movement that overthrew some of the partys most powerful incumbents and brought in a new cadre of lawmakers laser-focused on obstructing Obamas agenda. Democrats, likewise, were dejected after Republican President George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, but his popularity soon tanked and Democrats could foresee the massive wins they would notch in the 2006 midterms, said Robert Shapiro, a Columbia University professor focused on American politics.Ronald Reagans victory in 1980 was a bigger shock to Democrats because it brought with it a period of Republican ascendance. The GOP won a Senate majority for the first time in nearly 30 years, though Democrats retained control of the House.The setback was significant and startling, but not as much as whats happened today, where you have Trump winning the election at the same time the Republicans have control of both houses of Congress, Shapiro said. Grassroots Democrats were incensed by Trumps first victory with some talk then of primary challengers to leaders but they mostly channeled their anger toward the president and the GOP, planning marches and organizing community groups to prepare for the midterms.Those midterms led to at least one primary upset with future implications: New York Rep. Joe Crowley, the No. 4 House Democrat, fell to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, then a virtual unknown.Angry town halls and new challengersThousands have packed rallies to hear Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez, outsiders who rose to prominence for their sharp criticism of the Democratic establishment. Democrats are getting an earful from constituents at some of the town halls, including events theyre organizing in GOP-controlled districts to draw attention to Republicans avoiding unscripted interactions with voters.In Arizona, which went for Biden in 2020 before flipping to Trump last year, furious party leaders ousted their chair, Yolanda Bejarano. The result was a shock; Bejarano had support from every prominent Democrat in the state and was widely expected to get a second term.U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, the chair of the Georgia Democratic Party, is in a similarly perilous position after Trump flipped Georgia in 2024. The Georgia partys state committee approved a rules change Saturday making its chairmanship a full-time role, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. That will make it increasingly likely that Williams, keeping her congressional seat, will step down as chair before her term ends in 2027.Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old liberal journalist with a big social media following, decided to run for Congress, saying most Democrats work from an outdated playbook in an announcement video thats fiercely critical of party leaders. They arent meeting the moment, and their constituents are absolutely livid, Abughazaleh said in an interview. She said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, the 80-year-old Democrat who has represented a suburban Chicago district since 1999, has an admirable progressive record, but something needs to change culturally ... about how we do politics and how we campaign.Im done sitting around waiting for someone else to maybe do it, Abughazaleh said. ___Associated Press writer Bruce Schreiner in Lexington, Ky., contributed to this report. JONATHAN J. COOPER Cooper writes about national politics from Arizona and beyond for The Associated Press. Now based in Phoenix, he previously covered politics in Oregon and California. twitter mailto

Naruemol Thonglek, right, with her daughter, waits for news of her partner, who is missing after the collapse of an under-construction high-rise building after an earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, March, 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)2025-03-31T11:42:49Z BANGKOK (AP) When the earthquake that hit Myanmar sent its tremors to Thailand, Naruemon Thonglek didnt immediately know it also had collapsed a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok.Seeing images of the debris on television news later, Naruemon immediately recognized the building where her long-time Burmese partner, his son and four of her friends had worked for the past month.My legs gave up. I lost all strength in my hands, she said. After the quake stopped I called him, messaged him, but there was no response. I couldnt contact him. I sent him voice messages and he never read it. Then I knew for sure that he must have been inside.At least 18 people died in Bangkok, Thailands capital, more than 800 miles (1,287 kilometers) from the center of the magnitude 7.7 quake in Myanmar on Friday, which killed more than 1,700 people there. In Bangkok, 78 people remain missing. Thai authorities are racing against time to find anyone left alive under the ruins as the crucial 72-hour mark passes. While the authorities have said they detected possible sounds of life, so far only one person was pulled alive from the rubble. Tavida Kamolvej, Bangkoks deputy governor, told reporters at the site Monday that crews are speeding up the search.Every second really counts, she said.Among those missing are the mother and younger sister of Chanpen Kaewnoi, who had been working at the site for a couple of months. Chanpen said she couldnt contact them after the quake, but later was told by a survivor that they had been on the fifth floor of the 30-story building.He told me that they ran from the fifth floor, and once he reached the ground, the building just collapsed, she said. He said he couldnt find my mom and my sister. He said it was just a split second and he lost them.Naruemon said her partner, Kyi Tan, and the other five were assigned to work much higher up on the 26th floor. While her partner had extensive construction experience, this was his first high-rise project. As he left home on the morning of the quake, he said he would stay late in the hope of finishing his work by the end of the month. Naruemon and Chanpen said they never heard their family members raise safety concerns while working at the building.The authorities said they are investigating the cause of the building collapse as criticisms and concerns grow over safety and quality standards of Bangkok buildings. Chadchart Sittipunt, the city governor, has ordered a blanket inspection of all high-rise buildings in the capital.Videos of the collapse show the building, which was meant to be a new State Audit Office, shaking a little before tumbling to the ground, sending a huge plume of dust into the sky as people scream and run away.When Naruemon arrived at the site the following day, the scene of the ruins broke her spirit.I had a meltdown. I could only pray. I kept calling for them, she said. I wanted them to come back. I was so devastated. I didnt know what to do.For two days, Naruemon walked around near the site with her family and friends, hoping to see any developments as heavy machines and rescue crews searched for survivors. She prayed and performed a religious rite asking the spirits to protect her loved ones.I want everyone trapped there to be found. In whatever conditions, Im ok with it, she said. Ive already made some peace with it. Its been a few days already. A part of me still hopes they will survive, for a miracle, if it exists. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A Rocket Companies sign is displayed on the exterior of the New York Stock Exchange, Aug. 6, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, file)2025-03-31T11:46:31Z The mortgage company Rocket is buying competitor Mr. Cooper in an all-stock deal valued at $9.4 billion, just weeks after acquiring real estate listing company Redfin.Rocket Cos. said Monday that bringing Mr. Cooper Group Inc. into the fold will create a business representing one in every six mortgages in the United States and give it almost 7 million additional clients. The deal will boost loan volumes, the company said, while lowering client acquisition costs. By combining Mr. Cooper and Rocket, we will form the strongest mortgage company in the industry, offering an end-to-end homeownership experience backed by leading technology and grounded in customer care, Mr. Cooper Chairman and CEO Jay Bray, who will become president and CEO of Rocket Mortgage, said in a statement. Bray will report to Rocket Cos. CEO Varun Krishna. Mr. Cooper shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 11 Rocket shares for each share of Mr. Cooper common stock. Mr. Cooper is based in Coppell, Texas. Rocket shareholders will own approximately 75% of the combined company, while Mr. Cooper stockholders will own about 25%. The combined companys board will have 11 members, with nine being from Rocket and two from Mr. Cooper. Earlier this month Rocket, based in Detroit, announced that it was buying Redfin in an all-stock deal worth $1.75 billion, giving Rocket the ability to provide more of a one-stop shopping experience for potential home buyers. Redfin, which was founded in 2004, has more than 1 million for sale and rental listings on its online platform.The National Association of Realtors announced this month that existing home sales rose 4.2% in February from January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.26 million units. That was in part thanks to easing mortgage rates and more properties on the market encouraging home shoppers.The U.S. housing sales began to slump in 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years.

Its probably not a coincidence that some of the most famous tech company CEOs have instantly recognizable looks. Steve Jobss black turtleneck and blue jeans. Palmer Luckys Hawaiian shirts and flip flops. Mark Zuckerbergs wedgieable jeans and t-shirt era followed by his current hypebeast transformation. Much like infamous dictators throughout history, the leaders style at some of the most powerful organizations in the world today lends itself and benefits from a cult of personality and iconography.At this very moment, no company is more powerful and no tech leader fashion item is more iconic than Nvidia CEOs Jensen Huangs leather jacket, which he has been wearing for keynotes and media interviews for years. As his and Nvidias status grew in the tech industry, Huang has leaned into the signature look. For example, he recently promoted robotics company 1X Technologies by accepting a new leather jacket bedazzled with Nvidias stock ticker from one of its robots.The companys chips are in high demand, but judging by the sheer number of online retailers who are trying to steal and sell Huangs look, it appears that his leather jacket is as well.To name just a few examples, a site called Victoria Jacket sells a $97 Jensen Huang Black Leather Jacket. Wilson Jackets sells a $92 Jensen Huang Nvidia CEO Leather Jacket. Paragon Jackets sells a $94 (down from $209!) Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang Leather Jacket. Movie Jackets sells a $99-$129 Jensen Huang Black Leather Jacket.BE THE BOSS OF THE FASHION WORLD, a product description for the jacket on hitjacket.com says. Even if you dont have the idea you need something for the working girl style. That is why we are bringing you the working girl staples with a twist. You probably need this kind of Jensen Huang Black Leather Jacket that is sure to uplift the persona of any fashionista. It is one of the coolest picks that has been styled by the popular legendary NVIDIA CEO who has shown the fashion followers a real way to take the styling to the next level.Overall, weve seen 21 different online retailers sell something that claims to be one of Huangs jackets and all of them used his image to promote them.If you know anything about fashion and leather jackets then you already know these prices are highly suspect. Jensens Tom Ford jackets, for example, can run around $10,000. While the descriptions all say they are made of both real leather and faux leather, its more likely to be almost entirely the latter. Additionally, $100 today barely gets you a hoodie at J. Crew, so whatever youll get in the mail if you order one of these is bound to be low quality.I have never heard of those brands. I suspect they're all scam sites or one of the many places using workshops in low-wage countries to do rip-off versions of something in a photo, Derek Guy, a fashion industry writer also known as the menswear guy on X, told me in an email. The work is often bad but they hope that it'll be too much trouble for you to file a refund. You see these companies all over ebay nowadays.Guy told me that hes never seen fashion brands try to promote clothing with an image of a CEO, but that its typical for these brands to take any photo that is popular, including product images from bigger retailers like Mr. Porter, and claim they can reproduce it. The Instagram pages for one of the sites, Hit Jacket, shows exactly what Guy is talking about. It is a wall of images of celebrities that invites viewers to click the link in bio to buy the clothing theyre wearing in the photographs.It's ludicrous to me to think that someone can make that jacket for under $100, Guy said.All the product descriptions Ive seen for these jackets on different retailers are also identical, suggesting that its the same product promoted by different sites. All the sites where the jackets are sold also have very similar layouts and features. They all include business addresses which appear to point to seemingly random places, primarily in the U.S. but at least one address was in China. Some of the addresses I looked up pointed to single family homes, and one address in New York City did not exist. All the sites also featured different phone numbers. I called four of them, which instantly put me on hold with the same holding music.Nvidia and Huang have entered the public consciousness in the last couple of years because the generative AI boom, powered primarily by Nvidia chips, has briefly made it the most powerful company in the world. Among gamers, who have relied on Nvidias GPUs to run the most graphically demanding video games for decades, Huang and his leather jackets are a familiar sight. As you can tell by the images above, theres not one leather jacket Huang is known for, but they all have a similar look and are stylized the same.The leather jacket has a dangerous allure. We all think they look cool, but few of us can pull them off. I was surprised to hear that Guy, whos known for roasting mens bad fashion choices online, thinks that Huang is doing a good job.I think he's pretty stylish, especially for a tech CEO, Guy said. He's narrowed his look to a Steve Jobs calculussticking to the same thing so he doesn't have to choose a new outfit every morning. But it's well put together. I don't know what I would call it, but plenty of people have paired black jeans with black leather jackets, black shirts, and black boots for a chic look. I think he looks good.

Jude Addo-Chidie, a Ph.D. student in agronomy at Purdue University, places a probe in soil as he takes samples from a corn field July 12, 2023, at the Southeast-Purdue Agricultural Center in Butlerville, Ind. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File)2025-03-31T13:38:24Z Erin McGuire spent years cultivating fruits and vegetables like onions, peppers and tomatoes as a scientist and later director of a lab at the University of California-Davis. She collaborated with hundreds of people to breed drought-resistant varieties, develop new ways to cool fresh produce and find ways to make more money for small farmers at home and overseas.Then the funding stopped. Her lab, and by extension many of its overseas partners, were backed financially by the United States Agency for International Development, which Trumps administration has been dismantling for the past several weeks. Just before it was time to collect data that had been two years in the making, her team received a stop work order. She had to lay off her whole team. Soon she was laid off, too.Its really just been devastating, she said. I dont know how you come back from this. The U.S. needs more publicly funded research and development on agriculture to offset the effects of climate change, according to a paper out in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month. But instead the U.S. has been investing less. United States Department of Agriculture data shows that as of 2019, the U.S. spent about a third less on agricultural research than its peak in 2002, a difference of about $2 billion. The recent pauses and freezes to funding for research on climate change and international development are only adding to the drop. Its a serious issue for farmers who depend on new innovations to keep their businesses afloat, the next generation of scientists and eventually for consumers who buy food. If scientists have reliable backing, they can keep improving crop varieties to better withstand perilous weather conditions like droughts or floods, find new uses for existing crop species, figure out how to protect workers, develop new technology to aid in planting and harvesting or create more effective ways of fighting pests. They can also investigate agricultures potential role in fighting climate change. This is terrible news for the U.S. agricultural sector, said Cornell associate professor Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, the lead author of the paper. Katrina Cornish, a professor at Ohio State University who studies rubber alternatives, harvests rubber dandelion seeds inside a greenhouse, Feb. 6, 2024, in Wooster, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) Katrina Cornish, a professor at Ohio State University who studies rubber alternatives, harvests rubber dandelion seeds inside a greenhouse, Feb. 6, 2024, in Wooster, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Soil researcher Asmita Gautam, a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University, prepares a soil sample for carbon content analysis, July 13, 2023, in West Lafayette, Ind. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) Soil researcher Asmita Gautam, a Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University, prepares a soil sample for carbon content analysis, July 13, 2023, in West Lafayette, Ind. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Trump administration hastens funding cuts As the Trump administration pauses and shutters research programs funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, USDA and other agencies, Ortiz-Bobea and other experts have seen field trials stopped, postdoctoral positions eliminated and a looming gap forming between the reality of climate change and the tools farmers have to deal with it.The EPA declined to comment, and the USDA and USAID did not respond to Associated Press queries.Ortiz-Bobea and his team quantified overall U.S. agricultural productivity, estimated how much it would be slowed by climate change in coming years and calculated how much money would need to be invested in research and development to counteract that slowdown.Think of it like riding a bike into a headwind, Ortiz-Bobea said. To maintain the same speed, you have to pedal harder; in this case, R&D can be that extra push. Some countries are heading that direction. China spends almost twice as much as the U.S. on agricultural research, and has increased its research investments by five times since 2000, wrote Omanjana Goswami, a scientist with the Food and Environment team at the Union of Concerned Scientists, in an email.Spending cutbacks have also shuttered agricultural research across almost all of the Feed the Future Innovation Labs, of which McGuires was one. Those 17 labs across 13 universities focused on food security, technical agriculture research, policy and various aspects of climate change. The stop-work orders at those labs not only disappointed researchers, but made useless much of their work.There are many, many millions of dollars of expenditure that will generate nothing now because the work couldnt be finished, said David Tschirley, a professor who had been directing another one of those programs, the Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research, Capacity and Influence at Michigan State University, since 2019. Bill Werner, Lead Greenhouse Manager of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis, walks between plants and evaporative cooling pads at the Core Greenhouse Complex in Davis, Calif., May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) Bill Werner, Lead Greenhouse Manager of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis, walks between plants and evaporative cooling pads at the Core Greenhouse Complex in Davis, Calif., May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Finding new funding for agricultural researchSome researchers hope that other sources of funding can fill the gaps: Thats where private sector could really step up, said Swati Hegde, a scientist in the Food, Land, and Water Program at the World Resources Institute.From an agricultural point of view, climate change is really scary, with larger and larger regions exposed to temperatures above healthy growing conditions for many crops, said Bill Anderson, CEO of Bayer, a multinational biotechnology and pharmaceutical company that invested nearly $3 billion in agricultural research and development last year. But private companies have their own constraints on R&D investment, and he said Bayer cant invest as much as it would like in that area. I dont think that private industry can replicate how federal funding typically supports early stage, speculative science, he said, because the economics dont really work. He added that industry tends to be better suited to back ideas that have already been validated. Goswami, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, also expressed concerns that private research funding isnt as trackable and transparent as public funding. And others said even sizeable investments from companies dont give anywhere near enough money to match government funding. Researchers, farmers and consumers feel the falloutThe full impact may not be apparent for many years, and the damage wont easily be repaired. Experts think it will be a blow in other countries where climate change is already decimating yields, driving hunger and conflict. I really worry that if we dont really look at the global food situation, we will have a disaster, said David Zilberman, a professor at UC Berkeley who won a Wolf Prize in 2019 for his work on agriculture.But even domestically, experts say one thing is almost certain: this will mean even higher prices at the grocery store now and in the future.More people on the Earth, you need more productivity to prevent food prices going crazy, said Tom Hertel, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University. Even if nothing changes right away, he thinks 10 years from now, 20 years from now, our yield growth will surely be stunted by cuts to research on agricultural productivity.Many scientists said the wound isnt just professional but personal. People are very demoralized, especially younger researchers who dont have tenure and want to work on international food research, said Zilberman.Now those dreams are on hold for many. In carefully tended research plots, weeds begin to grow. A villager tends to his vegetable garden in a plot that is part of a climate-smart agriculture program funded by the United States Agency for International Development in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli, File) A villager tends to his vegetable garden in a plot that is part of a climate-smart agriculture program funded by the United States Agency for International Development in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Ufumeli, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More ___Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.___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. MELINA WALLING Walling covers the intersections of climate change and agriculture in the Midwest and beyond for The Associated Press. She is based in Chicago. twitter instagram facebook mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

People listen to Elon Musk during a town hall Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Green Bay, Wis. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Phelps)2025-03-31T11:12:27Z GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) Elon Musk and his political operatives have tried to shape the closely watched Wisconsin Supreme Court race in ways that are not immediately obvious but could be critical to Tuesdays outcome.Musks America PAC has sent paid canvassers across Wisconsin since early February, before conservative Brad Schimel advanced in a nonpartisan primary to face liberal Susan Crawford for an open seat on the states highest court, where liberal justices hold a 4-3 majority and retirement this year of a liberal justice puts majority control of the court in play.Over the eight weeks since, canvassers are expected to have reached hundreds of thousands of potential Schimel voters, based on the more than $4.3 million alone that spending records a week before the election showed America PAC had poured into this labor-intensive aspect of the campaign. As I travel around the state, Ive been hearing from quite a few folks who say theyve got America PAC knocks at their doors, said Brian Schimming, the state Republican chairman. And its not just in the big areas. Though the group has been aggressive in GOP-heavy Waukesha County in suburban Milwaukee, Schimming and others report hearing that America PAC canvassers have appeared in Racine County, a blue-collar area south of Milwaukee and areas such as Sauk County northwest of Madison. They have been on this more than anybody, Schimming said. Musk played up the stakes at an America PAC event Sunday night in Green Bay, saying Schimel was in danger of losing and calling for a movement to dragnet the state. Everybodys going to mobilize everywhere like crazy for the next 48 hours, he said. And I think this will be important for the future of civilization. Its that significant. You dont hear me saying that very often. Its a big deal. He encouraged attendees to sign up at America PACs website to be a block captain, for which they could earn $20 for knocking on doors in their neighborhoods and uploading a photo as proof. Its ... thumbs up and hold a picture of Judge Schimel. And thats it, and you get $20, he said.Though America PAC declined to discuss details of its work, the groups commitment confirms Musks uniquely powerful role in Republican politics as someone working closely with President Donald Trump and willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to boost Trump and his allies. During the 2024 presidential election, Musk, the worlds richest person, committed more than $200 million to America PACs work on Trumps behalf in the seven most competitive states, including Wisconsin, where Trump won by fewer than 30,000 votes, less than a percentage point. The Wisconsin Supreme Court comes as the court is expected to rule on abortion rights, congressional redistricting, union power and voting rules that could affect the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. Musk and America PAC are trying to elevate Schimel, who has attached himself publicly to Trump and Musk. America PAC representatives were working the crowd Friday at a Schimel rally in Beaver Dam, northeast of Madison. They were seeking petition signatures to oppose activist judges. The political action committee promised $100 for each Wisconsin voter who signed the petition and another $100 for each signer they referred. Musk has become a Democratic target and the center of the partys messaging against Schimel. Crawford, who is backed by liberal billionaires including George Soros and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, referred to her opponent in their debate as Elon Schimel. Many standing nearby waved signs in protest to Musk.Musk Hates Judges Who Do Their Job!, said one mans cardboard sign, held over his head. The man next to him held one that simply said, NO DOGE, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency, Trumps government cost-cutting effort, which Musk directs.Musk drew widespread attention with the Sunday rally in Green Bay and his $1 million giveaways to people who sign the petition decrying judicial activism. Groups linked to Musk have spent more than $17 million to support Schimel in whats become the most expensive judicial race in American history. A significant portion of that money is going into the tedious but critical work of voter turnout. As of one week before the election, America PAC had spent $4.3 million on canvassing alone, according to figures compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that advocates for transparency in campaign spending.Americans for Prosperity, a group founded by anti-tax billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, is also canvassing in the supreme court race and also was active in Wisconsin during the 2024 campaign. But the group also was a distant second in the Supreme Court race, having spent only about a sixth of America PAC $712,000 on canvassing, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. While the millions America PAC has spent on canvassing are far beyond what other groups have committed, America PAC also had spent as of last week at least another $4 million on mail, printing, online advertising, phone-banking, text messaging and other organizing costs, also far ahead of other groups. The group was canvassing this month in Sauk County, where the presidential candidate who took the state has won in five straight elections. Trump last year won Sauk split between Democratic-leaning areas closer to Madison and a more conservative rural northwest by 626 votes after Democrat Joe Biden won the county by 615 votes in 2020. America PAC canvassers were in Sauk County knocking on doors last fall, trying to reach voters who had voted Republican in the past but had not been reliably active. America PAC is in our neck of the woods, said Jerry Helmer, the countys Republican chairman. They were up knocking on doors in the Wisconsin Dells this month. America PAC has been doing a really good job in our area. They are just killing it in Sauk County. THOMAS BEAUMONT Beaumont covers national politics for The Associated Press. He is based in Des Moines, Iowa. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01004-3Following the firms bankruptcy, researchers hope that they will be able to continue accessing the valuable data set even if it is sold to new owners.

A rabbi delivers an eulogy next to the coffin containing the remains of Israeli-Moldovan rabbi Zvi Kogan in Kfar Chabad, Israel, Monday Nov. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)2025-03-31T15:19:38Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced three people to death for the killing of Israeli-Moldovan Zvi Kogan, state media reported Monday.The state-run WAM news agency announced the verdicts of the three after a trial in Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeals State Security Chamber. It said a fourth person who aided the killing received a life sentence.It did not identify those charged. However, three Uzbek nationals had been arrested in Turkey and brought back to the UAE over the killing in November. The defendants had tracked and murdered the victim, the WAM report said. The evidence presented by the State Security Prosecution to the court included the defendants detailed confessions to the crimes of murder and kidnapping, along with forensic reports, post-mortem examination findings, details of the instruments used in the crime and witness testimonies. Authorities in the UAE have not offered a motive for the killing, nor any details about how Kogan was kidnapped and slain. However, it came amid the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which has inflamed anger across the wider Muslim world. Diplomatic ties between Israel and the UAE have remained intact, though strained, by the war as Israel maintains a consulate in Dubai and an embassy in Abu Dhabi.While not directly blaming Iran, Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others have referred to an axis of evil being responsible for Kogans killing a phrase Israel in the past has used to refer to Iran and its allies. Irans Embassy in Abu Dhabi has denied Tehran was involved in the rabbis slaying and the UAE itself has not made the allegation. However, Western officials believe Iran runs intelligence operations in the UAE and keeps tabs on the hundreds of thousands of Iranians living across the country. Iranian intelligence services also have carried out past kidnappings in the UAE. Iran also has used criminal gangs in the past to target dissidents and its enemies.Kogan, 28, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi, ran a kosher grocery store in the futuristic city of Dubai, where Israelis have flocked for commerce and tourism since the two countries forged diplomatic ties in the 2020 Abraham Accords. The UAE has a burgeoning Jewish community, with synagogues and businesses catering to kosher diners.Kogan was an emissary of the Chabad Lubavitch movement, a prominent and highly observant branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism based in Brooklyns Crown Heights neighborhood in New York City. He was buried in Israel. The UAE is an autocratic federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and is also home to Abu Dhabi. Capital cases are rare in the country of 9 million people, but executions typically come swiftly after defendants have their appeals exhausted. Typically, the UAE uses firing squads to execute the condemned. 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

A child shoots a basketball on a street court in Tocorn, Venezuela, Saturday, March 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)2025-03-31T15:10:23Z TOCORON, Venezuela (AP) Tocorn once had it all. A nightclub, swimming pools, tigers, a lavish suite and plenty of food.This was not a Las Vegas-style resort, but it felt like it for some of the thousands who until recently lived in luxury in this sprawling prison in northern Venezuela.Here, between parties, concerts and weeks-long visits from wives and children, was the birthplace of the Tren de Aragua, a dangerous gang that has gained global notoriety after U.S. President Donald Trump put it at the center of his anti-immigrant narrative.Kidnappings, extortion and other crimes were planned, ordered or committed from this prison long before Trumps rhetoric.The tiny, impoverished town where the Aragua Penitentiary Center is used to bustle with residents selling food, renting phone chargers and storing bags for prison visitors. Now, the prison is back under government control, and streets in the town, also called Tocorn, are mostly deserted. The community has a few convenience stores, evangelical and Catholic churches, and an informal liquor store. A few people sit around, drinking beer and playing board games, or gather for a youth baseball game. Residents still hesitate to speak about the notorious gang that used to control their lives. Some who dare speak lower their voices or look around for anyone listening as they narrate encounters with the gang. This, here, Tocorn, was all highly controlled, Miguel Ponce said pointing to the prison behind him and the town around it. I couldnt have talked to you a while back. We werent allowed to move around.Even now, he said, perhaps he was talking too much. The beginnings of Tren de AraguaTren de Aragua, meaning Train of Aragua, came together in Venezuela just as the South American country came apart.In 2013, a crisis was taking hold in the country, as corruption, mismanagement and a drop in crude prices wrecked the oil-dependent economy. Hunger became widespread, grocery store shelves emptied, inflation soared, jobs disappeared and millions fell into poverty.Around the same time, a notorious criminal, Hctor Guerrero, returned to Tocorn to serve time for the murder of a police officer and other convictions.The prison, like others across Venezuela, was badly run, and serious allegations of torture and government corruption abounded. The criminal, nicknamed Nio Guerrero, and a few other inmates saw a profitable opportunity, expanding what had been a budding gang.Once these prisoners realized they had more weapons and more power than the military force guarding them, they assumed control and administration, Ronna Rsquez, author of a book on the Tren de Aragua, said.Guerrero and others established an organization within the prison that controlled the inmates through force and extortion. Guards looked the other way or colluded with gang members.The gangs largest source of revenue was the weekly fee it charged inmates, which Rsquez said added up to $3.5 million a year. Other funds came from crimes committed inside or outside prison. Over time, Rsquez said, that turned Tocorn into the gangs recruitment center and a kind of city tailored to the groups needs, with amenities like a zoo, baseball field, casino and restaurants. 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. Inmates who followed the gangs rules, paid their weekly fees and had extra money could order a meal from a tin-roof steakhouse or other food-court vendors. Their wives could visit them for weeks at a time. Their children could run around a colorful playground. Those who could not pay fees or crossed the gang suffered. Some even died. Guerrero had his own lavish suite inside the prison. But the most famous feature at Casa Grande, the name the gang gave the prison, was Club Tokyo, where inmates and some members of the public partied to live music and shows of scantily clad dancers. Prison walls do not contain the gangOver a decade, Tren de Araguas activities extended well beyond Tocorn. By 2023, the gang had about 4,000 members across the country, operating in 11 of the 23 states, according to the independent organization, Venezuelan Observatory of Violence.The gang extorted businesses, charging owners regular fees, and trafficked drugs. It also carried out kidnappings as some of its members serving time in Tocorn were allowed to leave the prison for several hours a day.Venezuelas severe food shortages in the second half of last decade added to the gangs control. Often, prisoners wives would travel to Tocorn from faraway states to do their shopping, said a convenience store manager in Maracay, the states capital. The manager, who asked not to be named out of fear of retaliation, explained that food was available inside the prison when it could not be found anywhere else. Much of the coffee, flour, rice and other products sold inside Tocorn came from highway piracy. Thieves scouted a crucial interstate, stopped trucks and took their loot to the prison. That prompted Venezuelans to avoid being outdoors or driving after sundown. Some gang victims left Venezuela, joining the exodus of more than 7.7 million people who migrated in search of better living conditions. Among them was retiree Manuel Marquez son.He had a convenience store... and they wanted to charge him a vaccine, Marquez, 71, said using the colloquial term in Spanish for a protection fee that criminals charge businesses. They came in, tied him up, and took everything. Anyone who refuses (to pay), lets just say it, is looted. Thats how things work here, its unfortunate.Marquezs son relocated to Ecuador after the gang emptied his convenience store in Maracay.The Tren de Aragua also spread terror with phone calls and WhatsApp messages meant to extort hundreds or thousands of dollars from average Venezuelans.The first time, thank God, my daughter-in-law was home, and she told me to hang up, but it was hard and I was trembling, said Maracay dentist Esperanza de Andrade, who received three calls. They told me my name, my childrens names, where they went to school, and that, of course, alarmed me greatly. They directly threatened my life and the lives of my children.De Andrade said the last call happened around Sept. 20, 2023, when 11,000 soldiers stormed the prison to regain control. The gang hits other countriesAfter they lost the prison, some members of the gang scattered, and Guerrero got away.Members of the military used heavy equipment to destroy some of the amenities the gang had built. But the massive operation in Tocorn came too late to prevent the gang from crossing Venezuelas borders. Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Chile all with large populations of Venezuelan migrants have accused the group of being behind violent crimes.The gangs initial work abroad focused on exploiting Venezuelan migrants through loan sharking, human trafficking and the smuggling of contraband goods to and from Venezuela. But as migrants settled in their host countries, Tren de Aragua members joined or clashed with local criminal organizations engaged in drug trafficking, extortion of local businesses and murders for hire. The gang became known in Colombia in 2022 after authorities found at least at least 19 bodies in the capital, some dismembered, and linked Guerrero associates to the killings. And in Chile last year, authorities blamed the gang for the killing of a Venezuelan officer who had fled there after taking part in a failed plot to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro.Earlier this month, the U.S. government announced it will extradite three Tren de Aragua members to Chile for their involvement in the case.As the gang loses influence at home, it becomes a talking point in the U.S. The Tren de Aragua has been on the radar of U.S. authorities for years. The administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden sanctioned the gang in July 2024, and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three of its leaders, including Guerrero.But it wasnt until Trump campaigned for a second White House term that the Tren de Aragua became widely known in the U.S., as he and his allies turned the gang into the face of the alleged threat posed by immigrants living in the country illegally.Trump has taken the extraordinary steps to designate the group a foreign terrorist organization, and earlier this month, an invading force, by invoking an 18th-century wartime law that allows the U.S. to deport noncitizens without any legal recourse, including rights to appear before an immigration or federal court judge.Under those decisions, the Trump administration has sent Venezuelan immigrants to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. It has alleged that the transferred individuals were Tren de Aragua members, though it has not provided any evidence to back up that claim.The parents of some of those immigrants categorically rejected the gang-affiliation allegation and said their children do not have criminal records in the U.S. or Venezuela.A September 2024 slide presentation from the Texas Department of Public Safety showed Tren de Aragua activity in six states and claimed members had identifiable tattoos, including stars on shoulder to indicate rank and trains and dice.Some recently deported Venezuelans have said U.S. authorities wrongly judged their tattoos to accuse them of gang activity. Rsquez did not doubt that members of the gang are currently in the U.S., but she said tattoos, which are commonly used by Central American gangs, are not required for those affiliated with the Tren de Aragua.The problem is which Tren de Aragua members are in the U.S., where they are, how many there are, Rsquez said. That is not clear, and with all the latest events, this is becoming less and less clear.

The creator of an open source genetic database is shutting it down and deleting all of its data because he has come to believe that its existence is dangerous with a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments in the United States and elsewhere.The largest use case for DTC genetic data was not biomedical research or research in big pharma, Bastian Greshake Tzovaras, the founder of OpenSNP, wrote in a blog post. Instead, the transformative impact of the data came to fruition among law enforcement agencies, who have put the genealogical properties of genetic data to use.OpenSNP has collected roughly 7,500 genomes over the last 14 years, primarily by allowing people to voluntarily submit their own genetic information they have downloaded from 23andMe. With the bankruptcy of 23andMe, increased interest in genetic data by law enforcement, and the return of Donald Trump and rise of authoritarian governments worldwide, Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media he no longer believes it is ethical to run the database.Ive been thinking about it since 23andMe was on the verge of bankruptcy and been really considering it since the U.S. election. It definitely is really bad over there [in the United States], Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media. I am quite relieved to have made the decision and come to a conclusion. Its been weighing on my mind for a long time.Greshake Tzovaras said that he is proud of the OpenSNP project, but that, in a world where scientific data is being censored and deleted and where the Trump administration has focused on criminalizing immigrants and trans people, he now believes that the most responsible thing to do is to delete the data and shut down the project.DNA of 15 Million People for Sale in 23andMe BankruptcyThere is no way to know what a buyer will want to do with the reams of genetic information it has collected. Customers, meanwhile, still have no way to change their underlying genetic data.404 MediaJason KoeblerMost people in OpenSNP may not be at particular risk right now, but there are people from vulnerable populations in here as well, Greshake Tzovaras said. Thinking about gender representation, minorities, sexual orientation23andMe has been working on the whole gay gene thing, its conceivable that this would at some point in the future become an issue.In his blog post, Greshake Tzovaras says that he is particularly concerned about the rise of DNA phenotyping, which is a dubious process in which DNA portraits of potential suspects are generated based on a DNA sample; he called the practice unreliable nonsense, and said that a startup had once approached OpenSNP to help them create a DNA phenotyping product to sell to law enforcement. "That's something we don't want to see in the world," he said.Across the globe there is a rise in far-right and other authoritarian governments. While they are cracking down on free and open societies, they are also dedicated to replacing scientific thought and reasoning with pseudoscience across disciplines, Greshake Tzovaras wrote. The risk/benefit calculus of providing free & open access to individual genetic data in 2025 is very different compared to 14 years ago. And so, sunsetting openSNP along with deleting the data stored within it feels like it is the most responsible act of stewardship for these data today.Greshake Tzovaras said he understands that it may seem ironic to delete scientific data during a time when the Trump administration is itself deleting scientific data from the internet. But he says he believes its better to put the safety of people first.The interesting thing to me is there are data preservation efforts in the U.S. because the government is deleting scientific data that they dont like. This is approaching that same problem from a different direction, he added. We need to protect the people in this database. I am supportive of preserving scientific data and knowledge, but the data comes secondthe people come first. We prefer deleting the data.Greshake Tzovaras says that when he started OpenSNP 14 years ago, he believed that having an open source genetic database would lead to medical breakthroughs and would help scientists and academics do research. OpenSNP has been used for various scientific papers, most notably to show that an earlier paper about chronic fatigue syndrome pulled from 23andMe data could not be replicated and was based on erroneous science.At a time when genetic data was locked into the commercial siloes of direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companiesand only made accessible to the pharma companies that could afford buying access to itopenSNP should open up access to everyone, he wrote in the blog post announcing the closure of OpenSNP. Regardless of financial means and institutional status or credentials, it should provide free access to the data. And equally important: It would give the individual the choice to contribute to this open data resource, instead of having researchers or companies broker the access.He said he has come to believe over time that, while there remains promise in genetic research for new drugs, disease prediction and prevention, and personalized medicine, the idea that OpenSNP and genetic databases in general would lead to widespread better outcomes for people was in retrospect naive.This ambition came from a (in retrospect nave) data-centric belief that genetic data would be a key driver for improving human health and medicine, he wrote. In 2025, my view on that is a lot more sober (and bleaker): Today it seems clear to me that the biggest impact on improving healtheven in the rich, allegedly developed nationswould come from providing food security and access to stable housing. And not from trying to find genetic confounders of common diseases that are a lot more rooted in those environmental & societal factors.Greshake Tzovaras told 404 Media that there have been very important and useful findings from genetic research, but that many countries are still failing at the basics: Thats not to dismiss genetic data as useless, but we have spent I dont know how many billions of dollars, and the health outcome improvements are minor if you compare them to improving housing and access to nutrition, he said. We are really lacking at the basics still.

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01001-6Improvements to braincomputer interfaces are bringing the technology closer to natural conversation speed.

This photo provided by researchers at UCSF and UC Berkeley shows Ann, a participant in a study on speech neuroprostheses, in California in 2023. (Noah Berger/UCSF, UC Berkeley via AP)2025-03-31T15:01:52Z Scientists have developed a device that can translate thoughts about speech into spoken words in real time.Although its still experimental, they hope the brain-computer interface could someday help give voice to those unable to speak.A new study described testing the device on a 47-year-old woman with quadriplegia who couldnt speak for 18 years after a stroke. Doctors implanted it in her brain during surgery as part of a clinical trial.It converts her intent to speak into fluent sentences, said Gopala Anumanchipalli, a co-author of the study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience.Other brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, for speech typically have a slight delay between thoughts of sentences and computerized verbalization. Such delays can disrupt the natural flow of conversation, potentially leading to miscommunication and frustration, researchers said. This is a pretty big advance in our field, said Jonathan Brumberg of the Speech and Applied Neuroscience Lab at the University of Kansas, who was not part of the study. A team in California recorded the womans brain activity using electrodes while she spoke sentences silently in her brain. The scientists used a synthesizer they built using her voice before her injury to create a speech sound that she would have spoken. They trained an AI model that translates neural activity into units of sound. It works similar to existing systems used to transcribe meetings or phone calls in real time, said Anumanchipalli, of the University of California, Berkeley. The implant itself sits on the speech center of the brain so that its listening in, and those signals are translated to pieces of speech that make up sentences. Its a streaming approach, Anumanchipalli said, with each 80-millisecond chunk of speech about half a syllable sent into a recorder. Its not waiting for a sentence to finish, Anumanchipalli said. Its processing it on the fly. Decoding speech that quickly has the potential to keep up with the fast pace of natural speech, said Brumberg. The use of voice samples, he added, would be a significant advance in the naturalness of speech.Though the work was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health, Anumanchipalli said it wasnt affected by recent NIH research cuts. More research is needed before the technology is ready for wide use, but with sustained investments, it could be available to patients within a decade, he said. ___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. LAURA UNGAR Ungar covers medicine and science on the APs Global Health and Science team. She has been a health journalist for more than two decades. twitter mailto

Actor Gene Hackman with wife Betsy Arakawa in June 1993. (AP Photo, File)2025-03-31T04:10:18Z SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) A New Mexico court is weighing whether to block the disclosure of an array of records from an investigation into the deaths of actor Gene Hackman and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, at the request of the couples estate.Santa Fe-based Judge Matthew Wilson scheduled a hearing Monday to consider a request from estate representative Julia Peters to seal photos, video and documents to protect the familys constitutional right to privacy. The court put a temporary hold on the release of records pending the hearing.The partially mummified remains of Hackman and Arakawa were found in their Santa Fe home on Feb. 26, when maintenance and security workers showed up at the home and alerted police. Authorities have confirmed Hackman, 95, died of heart disease with complications from Alzheimers disease about a week after his wifes death. Hackman may have been unaware Arakawa, 65, was dead. Her cause of death was listed as hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, which is a rare, rodent-borne disease. New Mexicos open records law blocks public access to sensitive images, including depictions of dead bodies. Experts also say some medical information is not considered public record under the state Inspection of Public Records Act. Peters has emphasized the possibly shocking nature of photographs and video in the investigation and potential for their dissemination by media in the bid to block them from being released. The Hackman family estates lawsuit also seeks to block the release of autopsy reports by the Office of the Medical Investigator and death investigation reports by the Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office.The bulk of death investigations by law enforcement and autopsy reports by medical investigators are typically considered public records under state law in the spirit of ensuring government transparency and accountability. Authorities unraveled the mysterious circumstances of the couples deaths and described their conclusions at a March 7 news conference without releasing most related written and photographic records.One of the couples three dogs, a kelpie mix named Zinna, also was found dead in a crate in a bathroom closet near Arakawa. Two other dogs survived.The written request to seal the records notes the couple placed a significant value on their privacy and took affirmative vigilant steps to safeguard it during their lives, including after they moved to Santa Fe and Hackman retired. The state capital is known as a refuge for celebrities, artists and authors.Arakawa had no children, while Hackman is survived by three children from a previous marriage. Privacy likely also will play a role as the couples estate is settled. According to probate court documents, Hackman signed an updated will in 2005 leaving his estate to his wife, while the will she signed that same year directed her estate to him. With both of them dying, management of the estate is in Peters hands.A request is pending to appoint a trustee to administer assets in two trusts associated with the estate. Without trust documents being made public, its unclear who the beneficiaries are and how the assets will be divided. Attorneys who specialize in estate planning in New Mexico say its possible more details could come out if there were any legal disputes over the assets. Even then, they said, the parties likely would ask the court to seal the documents.

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00986-4The months sharpest science shots, selected by Natures photo team.

Mourners gather around the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)2025-03-31T17:51:58Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Palestinians held funerals Monday for 15 medics and emergency responders killed by Israeli troops in southern Gaza, after their bodies and mangled ambulances were found buried in an impromptu mass grave, apparently plowed over by Israeli military bulldozers.The Palestinian Red Crescent says the slain workers and their vehicles were clearly marked as medical and humanitarian personnel and accused Israeli troops of killing them in cold blood. The Israeli military says its troops opened fire on vehicles that approached them suspiciously without identification. Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Mourners react during the funeral of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners react during the funeral of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Mon day, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, during their funeral in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Mon day, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The dead included eight Red Crescent workers, six members of Gazas Civil Defense emergency unit and a staffer from UNRWA, the U.N.s agency for Palestinians. The International Red Cross/Red Crescent said it was the deadliest attack on its personnel in eight years.Since the war in Gaza began 18 months ago, Israel has killed more than 100 Civil Defense workers and more than 1,000 health workers, according to the U.N.Here is what we know about what happened. Missing for daysThe emergency teams had been missing since March 23, when they went at around noon to retrieve casualties after Israeli forces launched an offensive into the Tel al-Sultan district of the southern city of Rafah.The military had called for an evacuation of the area earlier that day, saying Hamas militants were operating there. Alerts by the Civil Defense at the time said displaced Palestinians sheltering in the area had been hit and a team that went to rescue them was surrounded by Israeli troops. The available information indicates that the first team was killed by Israeli forces on 23 March, the U.N. said in a statement Sunday night. Further emergency teams that went to rescue the first team were struck one after another over several hours, it said. All the teams went out during daylight hours, according to the Civil Defense. Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The Israeli military said Sunday that on March 23, troops opened fire on vehicles that were advancing suspiciously toward them without emergency signals.It said an initial assessment determined that the troops killed a Hamas operative named Mohammed Amin Shobaki and eight other militants. Israel has struck ambulances and other emergency vehicles in the past, accusing Hamas militants of using them for transportation.However, none of the dead staffers from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense had that name, and no other bodies were reported found at the site, raising questions over the militarys suggestion that alleged militants were among the rescue workers. The military did not immediately respond to requests for the names of the other alleged militants killed or for comment on how the emergency workers came to be buried.After a ceasefire that lasted roughly two months, Israel relaunched its military campaign in Gaza on March 18. Since then, bombardment and new ground assaults that have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry. The ministrys count does not distinguish between militants and civilians, but it says over half those killed are women and children.Aid workers say ambulance teams and humanitarian staff have come under fire in the renewed assault. A worker with the charity World Central Kitchen was killed Friday by an Israeli strike that hit next to a kitchen distributing free meals. A March 19 Israeli tank strike on a U.N. compound killed a staffer, the U.N. said, though Israel denies being behind the blast. Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners carry the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial from a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Mass graveFor days, Israeli forces would not allow access to the site where the emergency teams disappeared, the U.N. said.On Wednesday, a U.N. convoy tried to reach the site but encountered Israeli troops opening fire on people.The convoy saw a woman who had been shot lying in the road. The dashboard video shows staff talking about retrieving the woman. Then two people are seen walking across the road. Gunfire rings out and they flee. One stumbles, apparently wounded, before he is shot and falls onto his face to the ground. The U.N. said the team retrieved the body of the woman and left. On Sunday, the U.N. said teams were able to reach the site after the Israeli military informed it where it had buried the bodies, in a barren area on the edges of Tel al-Sultan. Footage released by the U.N shows workers from PRCS and Civil Defense, wearing masks and bright orange vests, digging through hills of dirt that appeared to have been piled up by Israeli bulldozers.The footage shows them digging out multiple bodies wearing orange emergency vests. Some of the bodies are found piled on top of each other. At one point, they pull out a body in a Civil Defense vest out of the dirt, and it is revealed to be a torso with no legs. Several ambulances and a U.N. vehicle, all heavily damaged or torn apart, are also buried in the dirt. Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave, said Jonathan Whittall, with the U.N. humanitarian office OCHA, speaking at the site in the video. Were digging them out in their uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives.Its absolute horror what has happened here, he said. Mourners follow the convoy carrying the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Mourners follow the convoy carrying the bodies of 8 Red Crescent emergency responders, recovered in Rafah a week after an Israeli attack, as they are transported for burial in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on Monday, March 31, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More FuneralsA giant crowd gathered on Monday outside the morgue of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as the bodies of the eight slain PRCS workers were brought out for funerals. Their bodies were laid out on stretchers wrapped in white cloth with the Red Crescent logo on it and their photos, as family and others held funeral prayers over them. Funerals for the seven others followed.They were killed in cold blood by the Israeli occupation, despite the clear nature of their humanitarian mission, Raed al-Nimis, the Red Crescent spokesperson in Gaza, told the AP.Israeli troops have killed at least 30 Red Crescent medics over the course of the war. Among them were two killed in February 2024 when they tried to rescue Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old girl who was killed along with six other relatives when they were trapped in their car under Israeli fire in northern Gaza. From Geneva, the head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Jagan Chapagain, said the staffer killed last week wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked.All humanitarians must be protected, he said.___Keath and Khaled reported from Cairo LEE KEATH Keath is the chief editor for feature stories in the Middle East for The Associated Press. He has reported from Cairo since 2005. twitter mailto

The U.S. Supreme Court is seen near sunset in Washington, Oct. 18, 2018. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)2025-03-31T17:34:02Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court appeared Monday to be leaning toward a Catholic charitable organization pushing back against the state of Wisconsin in the latest religious rights case to come before the court.In a case that could have wide-ranging effects, the justices suggested the Catholic Charities Bureau should not have to pay unemployment taxes because the work of the social services agency is motivated by religious beliefs, and the state exempts religious groups from the tax.Isnt it a fundamental principle of our First Amendment that the state shouldnt be picking and choosing between religions? Justice Neil Gorsuch said. The dispute is one of three cases involving religion under consideration this term by the justices who have issued a string of decisions siding with churches and religious plaintiffs. The others involve religious objections to books read in public schools and public funding for religious schools. The charities dont qualify for the tax exemption because the day-to-day services it provides dont involve religious teachings, Colin Roth, an attorney for Wisconsin, argued. Catholic Charities has paid the tax for over 50 years, and if the court finds it can claim the exemption that could open the door to big employers like religiously-affiliated hospitals pulling out of the state unemployment system as well, he said. While Roth faced a grilling from both liberal and conservative justices, some like Amy Coney Barrett also raised questions about how far such exemptions would go. One of the problems here is figuring out what the line is, she said. The Trump administration weighed in to support the charity, urging the court to toss out a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling siding with the state. The state high court misinterpreted a federal law when it found that both the motivations and the work itself has to be religious for organizations to avoid paying the tax, Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon said. I do think that the Wisconsin Supreme Court deserves to know that it was incorrect, he said. The arguments coincidentally come the day before a closely watched Wisconsin Supreme Court election thats drawn the involvement of billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk.Catholic Charites argues the state supreme court decision violates religious freedoms protected by the First Amendment by making determinations about what work qualifies as religious. Liberal Justice Elena Kagan was among those questioning Wisconsins contention that one way organizations can get the exemption is by actively proselytizing. Some faiths, she pointed out, purposely avoid attempting to convert people. I thought it was pretty fundamental that we dont treat some religions better than other religions, she said. Wisconsin exempts church-controlled organizations from unemployment tax if they are operated primarily for religious purposes. The Catholic Charities Bureau, though, has paid the tax since 1972. Much of the groups funding is from public money, and neither employees or people receiving services have to subscribe to any faith, according to court papers from the state. If the Supreme Court sides with the charity, employees would be covered by the faiths unemployment system, an option it argues is better than the states system. The state says the costs are about the same, but the state offers more due process for employees who feel claims were wrongly denied. A decision is expected by late June. LINDSAY WHITEHURST Whitehurst covers the Supreme Court, legal affairs and criminal justice for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C. Past stops include Salt Lake City, New Mexico and Indiana. twitter mailto

Police guard trucks loaded with avocados on their way to the city of Uruapan in Santa Ana Zirosto, Michoacan state, Mexico, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Armando Solis, File)2025-03-31T20:43:39Z NEW YORK (AP) As the trade wars launched by U.S. President Donald Trump continue to escalate, all eyes are on Wednesday.Trump has repeatedly called April 2 Liberation Day, with promises to roll out a set of tariffs, or taxes on imports from other countries, that he says will free the U.S. from a reliance on foreign goods. To do this, Trump has said hell impose reciprocal tariffs to match the duties that other countries charge on U.S. products. But a lot remains unknown about how these levies will actually be implemented. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Trump would unveil his plans to place reciprocal tariffs on nearly all American trading partners on Wednesday, but maintained that the details are up to the president to announce.Since taking office just months ago, Trump has proven to be aggressive with tariff threats, all while creating a sense of whiplash through on-again, off-again trade actions. And its possible that well see more delays or confusion this week. Trump has argued that tariffs protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition, raise money for the federal government and provide leverage to demand concessions from other countries. But economists stress that broad tariffs at the rates suggested by Trump could backfire. Tariffs typically trickle down to the consumer through higher prices and businesses worldwide also have a lot to lose if their costs rise and their sales fall. Import taxes already in effect, coupled with uncertainty around future trade actions and possible retaliations, have already roiled financial markets and lowered consumer confidence while enveloping many with questions that could delay hiring and investment.Heres what you need to know. What will happen on April 2?Details around Trumps plans remain uncertain. Reciprocal tariffs could take the form of product-by-product duties, for example, or more broad averages imposed across all goods from each country or perhaps something else entirely. The rates could reflect what other countries charge as well as their value added taxes and subsidies to domestic companies.White House trade adviser Peter Navarro told Fox News Sunday that the tariffs could raise $600 billion annually, which would imply an average rate of 20%.Trump has talked about taxing the European Union, South Korea, Brazil and India, among other countries, through these levies. On Monday, Leavitt said Trump had been presented with several proposals by his advisers. She added that the president would make a final decision, but right now was not contemplating any country-wide exemptions from the tariffs.Previously-delayed import taxes could take effect very soon. Trumps month-long delay for many goods from Canada and Mexico, for example, is set to elapse in early April. Earlier this month, Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that the extension granted for Mexican imports covered by the USMCA runs through April 2. But further confirmation around a specific date has not been issued since. Which of Trumps tariffs are about to start?Trump has said he will place a 25% tariff on all imports from any country that buys oil or gas from Venezuela, which includes the U.S. itself, starting Wednesday in addition to imposing new tariffs on the South American country.His 25% tariffs on auto imports will start being collected Thursday, with taxes on fully-imported cars kicking off at midnight. The tariffs are set to expand to applicable auto parts in the following weeks, through May 3.The White House says it expects to raise $100 billion in revenue annually from these new duties, but economists stress this trade action will upend the auto industrys global supply chain and lead to higher prices for consumers. Which tariffs have already gone into effect?Trump imposed a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports beginning Feb. 4, a levy he later doubled to 20% from March 4 onward. And China has hit back with retaliatory tariffs covering a range of U.S. goods, including a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products and 10% tariff on crude oil from the U.S. that took effect Feb 10. China also imposed tariffs of up to 15% on key U.S. farm exports starting March 10.Trumps expanded steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect earlier this month, too. Both metals are now taxed at 25% across the board with Trumps order to remove steel exemptions and raise aluminums levy from his previously-imposed 2018 import taxes taking effect March 12. Canada and Mexico, Americas two largest trading partners, have also faced steep tariffs. Earlier this month, Trump implemented a partial, month-long delay of his 25% tariffs on both countries delaying taxes for auto-related imports as well as goods that comply with the 2020 US-Mexico-Canada Agreement until early April. But other imports are still levied, as well as a lower 10% duty on potash and Canadian energy products. In response to these tariffs, as well as the new steel and aluminum import taxes, Canada has rolled out a series of counter measures amounting to billions of dollars on U.S. goods. Mexico, meanwhile, has yet to formally impose new levies signaling it may still hope to de-escalate the trade war, although the country previously promised retaliation to Trumps actions. Can we expect additional tariffs down the road? Even more tariffs from Trump are likely, with the president also threatening import taxes on products like copper, lumber, pharmaceutical drugs and computer chips.And many countries have promised retaliatory measures if not already imposed them, like Canada. Trump has said he wont negotiate with other countries on Wednesdays tariffs until after theyre imposed, though he has said his 25% taxes on auto imports would be permanent.In response to Trumps steel and aluminum tariffs, the European Union announced measures on U.S. goods worth some 26 billion euros ($28 billion) to target steel and aluminum products, but also American beef, poultry, bourbon, motorcycles, peanut butter and jeans. The 27-member bloc had intended to roll out this retaliatory trade action in two phases, on Tuesday and April 13, but later said it will delay it until mid-April, without giving a specific date.Well potentially see more retaliatory announcements this week, particularly if Trump confirms more details of sweeping reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday._________Associated Press Writers Josh Boak and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS Grantham-Philips is a business reporter who covers trending news for The Associated Press. She is based in New York. twitter mailto

French far right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen attends a party meeting in Nanterre, France, Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon. File)2025-03-31T19:41:57Z PARIS (AP) For years, Marine Le Pen stood at the gates of power poised, relentless and rising. She stripped the French far right of its old symbols, sanded down its roughest edges and built in its place a sleek, disciplined machine with the single goal of winning the countrys presidency.In 2022, she came closer than anyone thought possible, winning more than 40% of the vote in the runoff against Emmanuel Macron. The lyse Palace seemed within reach. Far-right leader Marine Le Pen poses prior to an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris. (Thomas Samson, Pool via AP) Far-right leader Marine Le Pen poses prior to an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris. (Thomas Samson, Pool via AP) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Now her political future may lay in ruins. On Monday, a French court convicted Le Pen of embezzling European Union funds and barred her from holding office for five years. The sentence may have done more than just potentially remove her from the next presidential race. It may have ended the most sustained far-right bid for power in Western Europe since World War II surpassed only, in outcome, by Italys prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.But the political earthquake Le Pen set in motion will rumble for years to come. Honorary President of far-right party National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen, left, and his daughter French far-right leader and National Front Party candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections, Marine Le Pen, react during a campaign meeting, in Marseille, southern France, March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) Honorary President of far-right party National Front Jean-Marie Le Pen, left, and his daughter French far-right leader and National Front Party candidate for the 2012 French presidential elections, Marine Le Pen, react during a campaign meeting, in Marseille, southern France, March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A family inheritance reforgedLe Pen was born in 1968 into a family already on the fringes of French politics. In 1972, her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, founded the National Front party rooted in racism, antisemitism and a yearning for Frances lost empire.She was just 8 years old when a bomb destroyed the familys apartment in Paris in what was widely seen as an assassination attempt on her father. No one was seriously hurt, but the blast marked her for life. She has said it gave her a lasting sense that her family was hated, and that they would never be treated like other people. As a young woman, she studied law, became a defense attorney and learned how to argue her way through hostile rooms. In politics, she didnt wait her turn. In 2011, she wrested control of the party from her father. In 2015, she expelled him after one of his Holocaust-denying tirades.She renamed the party the National Rally. She replaced leather-jacketed radicals with tailored blazers and talking points. She talked less about race, more about the French way of life. She warned of civilizational threats, called for bans on headscarves and promised to put French families first. Her tone changed. Her message didnt.In one of her sharpest political maneuvers, she sought out a group long despised by her father: the LGBTQ community. Le Pen filled her inner circle with openly gay aides, skipped public protests against same-sex marriage and framed herself as a protector of sexual minorities against Islamist danger.Critics called it pinkwashing a cosmetic tolerance masking deeper hostility. But it worked. A surprising number of gay voters, especially younger ones, started backing her. Many saw strength, clarity and the promise of order in a world spinning too fast. Far-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters after the second round of the legislative election, July 7, 2024, at the party election night headquarters in Paris. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File) Far-right National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen answers reporters after the second round of the legislative election, July 7, 2024, at the party election night headquarters in Paris. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More From the fringe to the front lineShe ran for president three times: 2012, 2017 and 2022. Each time, she climbed higher. In her final campaign, she was confident, calm and media savvy. She leaned into her role as a single mother, posed with her cats and repeated her calls for national priority. She no longer shocked. She convinced.Behind her stood a constellation of far-right leaders cheering her on: Hungarys Viktor Orbn, Italys Matteo Salvini, the Netherlands Geert Wilders. They saw in her not only an ally, but a leader. Her mix of cultural nationalism, social media fluency and calculated restraint became a blueprint.Marine Le Pen posts pictures of her cat, talks about being a mother. But when it comes to policy, theres no softening, said Pierre Lefevre, a Paris-based consultant. It makes extreme positions seem more palatable, even to people who might otherwise be put off.When she lost in 2022, she didnt vanish. She regrouped, stayed present in parliament and prepared for 2027. Polls had her leading. Macron cannot run again.Then came Mondays verdict. French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the National Rally headquarters after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla) French far-right leader Marine Le Pen leaves the National Rally headquarters after a French court convicted Marine Le Pen of embezzlement and barred her from seeking public office for five years, Monday, March 31, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The fallThe court found that Le Pen had siphoned millions of euros in public funds while serving in the European Parliament, paying party staff with money intended for EU assistants. Prosecutors described it as deliberate and organized. The court agreed.She was sentenced to two years of house arrest, fined 100,000 ($108,200) and banned from holding public office for five years. She said she would appeal. The house arrest sentence will be suspended during the appeal, but the ban on holding office takes effect immediately.Her allies erupted in outrage. Orbn declared, Je suis Marine I am Marine. Salvini called the ruling a declaration of war by Brussels. In Paris, her supporters called it political persecution. Her opponents fist-pumped in the streets. French far-right leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in Nice, southern France, Thursday April 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) French far-right leader and presidential candidate Marine Le Pen addresses supporters during an election campaign rally in Nice, southern France, Thursday April 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Claude Paris, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A changed political landscapeEven in disgrace, Le Pen remains one of the most consequential political figures of her time. She took a name that once evoked hatred and transformed it into a serious vehicle for national leadership. She made the far right electable. She blurred the line between fringe and power.Her party, the National Rally, became the largest last year in Frances lower house of parliament. Her handpicked successor, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, now leads it. He is polished and popular, but he lacks broad political experience and name recognition.Whether Le Pen returns after her ban, fades into silence or reinvents herself again, her mark is permanent. She forced mainstream rivals to adapt to her language. She turned fear into votes and redefined what was politically possible in a republic once seen as immune to extremism.She never became president, but she changed the race and the rules.

A student protester stands in front of the statue of John Harvard, the first major benefactor of Harvard College, draped in the Palestinian flag, at an encampment of students protesting against the war in Gaza, at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)2025-03-31T20:41:29Z WASHINGTON (AP) Harvard University has become the latest target in the Trump administrations approach to fight campus antisemitism, with the announcement of a new comprehensive review that could jeopardize billions of dollars for the Ivy League college.A federal antisemitism task force is reviewing more than $255 million in contracts between Harvard and the federal government to make sure the school is following civil rights laws, the administration announced Monday. The government also will examine $8.7 billion in grant commitments to Harvard and its affiliates.The same task force cut $400 million from Columbia University and threatened to slash billions more if it refused a list of demands from President Donald Trumps administration. Columbia agreed to many of the changes this month, drawing praise from some Jewish groups and condemnation from free speech groups, who see it as a stunning intrusion by the federal government. Dozens of other universities have been put on notice by the Trump administration that they could face similar treatment over allegations of antisemitism. The federal government is a major provider of revenue for American universities through grants for scientific research. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said Harvard symbolizes the American Dream but has jeopardized its reputation by promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry. Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus, McMahon said in a statement.The announcement didnt say whether the government had made any specific demands of Harvard. The Education Department, the Health and Human Services Department and the U.S. General Services Administration are leading the review.The review will determine whether orders to halt work should be issued for certain contracts between Harvard and the federal government, the government said. The task force is also ordering Harvard to submit a list of all contracts with the federal government, both directly with the school or through any of its affiliates. The Task Force will continue its efforts to root out anti-Semitism and to refocus our institutions of higher learning on the core values that undergird a liberal education, said Sean Keveney, acting general counsel for Health and Human Services. We are pleased that Harvard is willing to engage with us on these goals.____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. COLLIN BINKLEY Binkley covers the U.S. Education Department and federal education policy for The Associated Press, along with a wide range of issues from K-12 through higher education. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00969-5More than 200 federal grants for research related to HIV and AIDS have been abruptly terminated in the last few weeks.

Astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore talk to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)2025-03-31T19:45:02Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASAs celebrity astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said Monday that they hold themselves partly responsible for what went wrong on their space sprint-turned-marathon and would fly on Boeings Starliner again.SpaceX recently ferried the duo home after more than nine months at the International Space Station, filling in for Boeing that returned to Earth without them last year. In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Stations Harmony module and Boeings Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP, File) In this photo provided by NASA, Boeing Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore, left, and Suni Williams pose for a portrait inside the vestibule between the forward port on the International Space Stations Harmony module and Boeings Starliner spacecraft on June 13, 2024. (NASA via AP, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More In their first news conference since coming home, the pair said they were taken aback by all the interest and insisted they were only doing their job and putting the mission ahead of themselves and even their families.Wilmore didnt shy from accepting some of the blame for Boeings bungled test flight. Ill start and point the finger and Ill blame me. I could have asked some questions and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide, he told reporters. All the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this. Astronaut Butch Wilmore talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Astronaut Butch Wilmore talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Both astronauts said they would strap into Starliner again. Because were going to rectify all the issues that we encountered. Were going to fix them. Were going to make it work, Wilmore said, adding hed go back up in a heartbeat.Williams noted that Starliner has a lot of capability and she wants to see it succeed. The two will meet with Boeing leadership on Wednesday to provide a rundown on the flight and its problems.The longtime astronauts and retired Navy captains ended up spending 286 days in space 278 days more than planned when they blasted off on Boeings first astronaut flight on June 5. The test pilots had to intervene in order for the Starliner capsule to reach the space station, as thrusters failed and helium leaked. Astronaut Suni Williams talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Astronaut Suni Williams talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Their space station stay kept getting extended as engineers debated how to proceed. NASA finally judged Starliner too dangerous to bring Wilmore and Williams back and transferred them to SpaceX. But the launch of their replacements got stalled, stretching their mission beyond nine months. President Donald Trump urged SpaceXs Elon Musk to hurry things up, adding politics to the stuck astronauts ordeal. The dragged-out drama finally ended March 18 with a flawless splashdown by SpaceX off the Florida Panhandle.NASA said engineers still do not understand why Starliners thrusters malfunctioned; more tests are planned through the summer. If engineers can figure out the thruster and leak issues, Starliner is ready to go, Wilmore said. The space agency may require another test flight with cargo before allowing astronauts to climb aboard. That redo could come by years end. Despite Starliners rocky road, NASA officials said they stand behind the decision made years ago to have two competing U.S. companies providing taxi service to and from the space station. But time is running out: The space station is set to be abandoned in five years and replaced in orbit by privately operated labs. Astronaut Butch Wilmore talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Astronaut Butch Wilmore talks to reporters during a press conference at Johnson Space Center on Monday, March 31, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More ___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. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Venezuelan migrants deported from the United States peer through windows of an Eastern Airlines plane upon arriving at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Sunday, March 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Cristian Hernandez)2025-03-31T22:14:46Z SAN FRANCISCO (AP) A federal judge on Monday paused plans by the Trump administration to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a week before they were scheduled to expire.The order by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco is a relief for 350,000 Venezuelans whose Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire April 7. The lawsuit was filed by lawyers for the National TPS Alliance and TPS holders across the country. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has also announced the end of TPS for an estimated 250,000 additional Venezuelans in September.Chen said in his ruling that the action by Noem threatens to: inflict irreparable harm on hundreds of thousands of persons whose lives, families, and livelihoods will be severely disrupted, cost the United States billions in economic activity, and injure public health and safety in communities throughout the United States. He said the government had failed to identify any real countervailing harm in continuing TPS for Venezuelan beneficiaries and said plaintiffs will likely succeed in showing that Noems actions are unauthorized by law, arbitrary and capricious, and motivated by unconstitutional animus. Chen, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, a Democrat, said his order applies nationally. He gave the government one week to file notice of an appeal and the plaintiffs one week to file to pause for 500,000 Haitians whose TPS protections are set to expire in August. Alejandro Mayorkas, the previous secretary, had extended protections for all three cohorts into 2026. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Congress created TPS, as the law is known, in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife, giving people authorization to live and work in the U.S. in increments of up to 18 months if the Homeland Security secretary deems conditions in their home countries are unsafe for return. The reversals are a major about-face from immigration policies under former President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and come as Republican President Donald Trump and his top aides have ratcheted up attacks on judges who rule against them, with immigration being at the forefront of many disagreements. At a hearing last Monday, lawyers for TPS holders said that Noem has no authority to cancel the protections and that her actions were motivated in part by racism. They asked the judge to pause Noems orders, citing the irreparable harm to TPS holders struggling with fear of deportation and potential separation from family members. Government lawyers for Noem said that Congress gave the secretary clear and broad authority to make determinations related to the TPS program and that the decisions were not subject to judicial review. Plaintiffs have no right to thwart the secretarys orders from being carried out, they said. But Chen found the governments arguments unpersuasive and found that numerous derogatory and false comments by Noem and by Trump against Venezuelans as criminals show that racial animus was a motivator in ending protections. Acting on the basis of a negative group stereotype and generalizing such stereotype to the entire group is the classic example of racism, he wrote.Biden sharply expanded use of TPS and other temporary forms of protection in a strategy to create and expand legal pathways to live in the United States while suspending asylum for those who enter illegally.Trump has questioned the the impartiality of a federal judge who blocked his plans to deport Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador, levelling his criticism only hours before his administration asked an appeals court to lift the judges order.The administration has also said it was revoking temporary protections for more than 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who have come to the U.S. since October 2022 through another legal avenue called humanitarian parole, which Biden used more than any other president. Their two-year work permits will expire April 24.

A protester wearing a mask of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol attends a march during a rally calling for Yoon to step down in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 29, 2025. The banner reads "Dismiss Yoon Suk Yeol." (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)2025-04-01T01:49:11Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Koreas Constitutional Court will rule Friday on whether to dismiss impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol.The opposition-controlled National Assembly in December voted to impeach Yoon over his short-lived martial law decree that plunged South Korea into political turmoil.The Constitutional Court has since been deliberating whether to uphold Yoons impeachment and formally remove him from office or reinstate his presidential powers.The Constitutional Court announced Tuesday it would issue the ruling Friday.

In this image provided by SpaceX shows from left: Eric Philips, a polar guide from Australia; Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Germany; Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen and Chun Wang, a Chinese-born bitcoin investor who is paying for the whole spaceflight and now lives in Malta. (SpaceX via AP)2025-04-01T01:48:24Z CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) A bitcoin investor who bought a SpaceX flight for himself and three polar explorers blasted off Monday night on the first rocket ride to carry people over the north and south poles.Chun Wang, a Chinese-born entrepreneur, hurtled into orbit from NASAs Kennedy Space Center. SpaceXs Falcon rocket steered southward over the Atlantic, putting the space tourists on a path never flown before in 64 years of human spaceflight.Wang wont say how much he paid Elon Musks SpaceX for the 3 -day ultimate polar adventure. The first leg of their flight from Florida to the South Pole was expected to take barely a half-hour. From the targeted altitude of some 270 miles (430 kilometers), their fully automated capsule will circle the globe in roughly 1 hours including 46 minutes to fly from pole to pole.Wang has already visited the polar regions in person and wants to view them from space. The trip is also about pushing boundaries, sharing knowledge, he said ahead of the flight. Now a citizen of Malta, he took along three guests: Norwegian filmmaker Jannicke Mikkelsen, German robotics researcher Rabea Rogge and Australian polar guide Eric Philips. Mikkelsen, the first Norwegian bound for space, has flown over the poles before, but at a much lower altitude. She was part of the 2019 record-breaking mission that circumnavigated the world via the poles in a Gulfstream jet to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrins moon landing. The crew plans two dozen experiments including taking the first human X-rays in space and brought along more cameras than usual to document their journey called Fram2 after the Norwegian polar research ship from more than a century ago. Until now, no space traveler had ventured beyond 65 degrees north and south latitude, just shy of the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The first woman in space, the Soviet Unions Valentina Tereshkova, set that mark in 1963. Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and other pioneering cosmonauts came almost as close, as did NASA shuttle astronauts in 1990. A polar orbit is ideal for climate and Earth-mapping satellites as well as spy satellites. Thats because a spacecraft can observe the entire world each day, circling Earth from pole to pole as it rotates below.Geir Klover, director of the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway, where the original polar ship is on display, hopes the trip will draw more attention to climate change and the melting polar caps. He lent the crew a tiny piece of the ships wooden deck that bears the signature of Oscar Wisting, who with Roald Amundsen in the early 1900s became the first to reach both poles.Wang pitched the idea of a polar flight to SpaceX in 2023, two years after U.S. tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman made the first of two chartered flights with Musks company. Isaacman is now in the running for NASAs top job.SpaceXs Kiko Dontchev said late last week that the company is continually refining its training so normal people without traditional aerospace backgrounds can hop in a capsule ... and be calm about it. Wang and his crew view the polar flight like camping in the wild and embrace the challenge. Spaceflight is becoming increasingly routine and, honestly, Im happy to see that, Wang said via X last week.Wang said hes been counting up his flights since his first one in 2002, flying on planes, helicopters and hot air balloons in his quest to visit every country. So far, hes visited more than half. He arranged it so that liftoff would mark his 1,000th flight. ___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.

This photograph released by Taiwan Ministry of National Defense taken from a Taiwan Air Force P-3C Orion anti-submarine aircraft, shows a Chinese Cloud Shadow WZ-10 drone near Taiwan, Monday, March 17, 2025. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)2025-04-01T02:42:44Z TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) The Chinese military launched large-scale drills in the waters around Taiwan on Tuesday, as it warned the self-ruled island against seeking independence.The joint exercises involve navy, air ground and rocket forces, according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Peoples Liberation Armys Eastern Theater Command. The drills are meant to be a severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan independence, Shi said in a statement.China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de facto independence and democratic status.Taiwans Ministry of National Defence said it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. The drills come just two weeks after a large-scale exercise in mid-March, when Beijing sent a large number of drones and ships toward the island. Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a daily basis, seeking to wear down Taiwanese defenses and morale, although the vast majority of the islands 23 million people reject its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. Faced with the rising threat from China, Taiwan has ordered new missiles, aircraft and other armaments from the U.S., while revitalizing its own defense industry.Taiwan and China split amid civil war 76 years ago, but tensions have risen in recent years as communication between the two governments has stopped.

Texas forward Madison Booker (35) shoots against TCU guard Donovyn Hunter (4) during the first half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, March 31, 2025. in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)2025-04-01T01:17:56Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness. Get the AP Top 25 womens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Madison Booker scored 18 points and No. 1 seed Texas used its stifling defense to reach the Final Four of the womens NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2003, beating well-traveled point guard Hailey Van Lith and second-seeded TCU 58-47 on Monday night.The Longhorns (35-3) will face defending champion South Carolina on Friday night in Tampa, Florida, for a spot in the national title game.Texas and won a regional final for the first time in four tries under coach Vic Schaefer, who previously made two Final Four trips with Mississippi State. The Longhorns 35 wins are one more than its only national title-winning squad had in 1986 under Jody Conradt, who was in the stands Monday night and led Texas to its three previous Final Fours.Van Lith scored 17 points in her collegiate finale for TCU (34-4), but Texas neutralized the Horned Frogs star center, Sedona Prince, who had four points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 6:32 left in the game. TCU had never made it past the second round of March Madness, but Van Lith helped the Horned Frogs make program history while taking her third school to the Elite Eight. Booker, Texas offensive dynamo, scored 14 points in the second half. Rori Harmon added 13 points, 11 in the first half.Nothing came easy for the Horned Frogs high-scoring trio of Van Lith, Prince and Madison Conner. Van Lith shot 3 of 15 from the field but made 10 of 11 free throws. The 6-foot-7 Prince attempted only four shots, and Conner scored nine points.___AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-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. ALANIS THAMES Thames is an Associated Press sports writer based in Miami. She previously covered sports for the New York Times.

Sunlight shines through the flags of Canada and the United States, held together by a protester outside on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Feb. 1, 2025.(Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP, File)2025-04-01T04:04:07Z WASHINGTON (AP) With President Donald Trumps so-called Liberation Day of tariff implementation fast approaching, Senate Democrats are putting Republican support for some of those plans to the test by forcing a vote to nullify the emergency declaration that underpins the tariffs on Canada.Republicans have watched with some unease as the presidents attempts to remake global trade have sent the stock market downward, but they have so far stood by Trumps on-again-off-again threats to levy taxes on imported goods. Even as the resolution from Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia offered them a potential off-ramp to the tariffs levied on Canadian imports, Republican leaders were trying to keep senators in line by focusing on fentanyl that comes into the U.S. over its northern border. It was yet another example of how Trump is not only reorienting global economics, but upending his partys longtime support for ideas like free trade. I really relish giving my Republican colleagues the chance to not just say theyre concerned, but actually take an action to stop these tariffs, Kaine told The Associated Press in an interview last week. Kaines resolution would end the emergency declaration that Trump signed in February to implement tariffs on Canada as punishment for not doing enough to halt the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S. If the Senate passes the resolution, it would still need to be taken up by the Republican-controlled House. A small fraction of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. enters from Canada. Customs and Border Protection seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the northern border during the 2024 fiscal year, and since January, authorities have seized less than 1.5 pounds, according to federal data. Meanwhile, at the southern border, authorities seized over 21,000 pounds last year.Kaine warned that tariffs on Canadian goods would ripple through the economy, making it more expensive to build homes and military ships. Were going to pay more for our food products. Were going to pay more for building supplies, he said. So people are already complaining about grocery prices and housing costing too much. So you raise the cost of building supplies and products. Its a big deal.Still, Trump has claimed that the amount of fentanyl coming from Canada is massive and pledged to follow through by executing tariffs Wednesday.There will never have been a transformation of a Country like the transformation that is happening, for all to see, in the United States of America, the president said on social media Monday.Republican leaders in the Senate have signaled they arent exactly fans of tariffs, but argued that Trump is using them as a negotiating tool.I am supportive of using tariffs in a way to accomplish a specific objective, in this case ending drug traffic, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters last month. He said this week that his advice remains the same.While Trumps close allies in the Senate were standing steadfastly by the idea of remaking the U.S. economy through tariffs, others have begun openly voicing their dissatisfaction with trade wars that could disrupt industries and raise prices on autos, groceries, housing and other goods. Im keeping a close eye on all these tariffs because oftentimes the first folks that are hurt in a trade war are your farmers and ranchers, said Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican.Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said he would prefer to see the U.S. and its trading partners move to remove all tariffs on each other, but he conceded that Trumps tariff threats had injected uncertainty into global markets.Were in uncharted waters, Kennedy told reporters. Nobody knows what the impact of these tariffs is going to be. STEPHEN GROVES Groves covers Congress for The Associated Press. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A damaged apartment is seen after being hit by an Israeli targeted strike in Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, April 1, 2025. The IDF reported that it conducted a strike on a southern Beirut suburb, aiming at a Hezbollah operative, marking the second such attack since the November ceasefire.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)2025-04-01T01:38:55Z BEIRUT (AP) The Israeli military struck a building in Beiruts southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least three people, in an attack it said said it targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.The airstrike came without warning days after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday for the first time since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group in November. The Israeli military had warned residents in the crowded suburbs before the attack after two projectiles were launched from southern Lebanon, which Hezbollah denied firing.At least seven other people were wounded in the airstrike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.The Israeli military said in a statement the latest strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip in attacks against Israel. It said the airstrike was under the direction of the Shin Bet, Israels domestic intelligence agency. Hezbollah did not comment on the strike. There was no immediate word on casualties.Photos and videos widely shared on local and social media showed the top three floors of an apartment building damaged following the strike. Piles of debris covered cars below the building. Jets were heard in parts of the Lebanese capital before the strike near the Hay Madi neighborhood. During Israels last war with Hezbollah, Israeli drones and jets regularly pounded the southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has wide influence and support. Israel sees the area as a militant stronghold and accuses the group of storing weapons there. We were at home. It was Eid al-Fitr, said Hussein Nour El-Din, a resident in the neighborhood, referring to the Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. We didnt know where it happened, but once the smoke cleared we saw it was the building facing us. The leader of Lebanons Hezbollah group, Sheikh Naim Kassem, warned Saturday that if Israels attacks on Lebanon continued and if Lebanons government does not act to stop them, the group would eventually resort to other alternatives.Under the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that ended the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war, Israeli forces were supposed to withdraw from all Lebanese territory by late January, while Hezbollah had to end its armed presence south of the Litani River along the border with Israel.Israel has launched daily strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon since the U.S.-brokered ceasefire went into effect, saying it targets Hezbollah officials and infrastructure. The Lebanese military has gradually deployed in the countrys southern region, and Beirut has urged the international community to pressure Israel to stop attacks and withdraw its forces still present on five hilltops in Lebanese territory. KAREEM CHEHAYEB Chehayeb is an Associated Press reporter in Beirut. twitter instagram mailto

Khalid Ahmad holds a poster of his 17-year-old son, Waleed, who died in an Israeli prison, that reads in Arabic, "The hero prisoner Martyr, mercy and eternity for our righteous Martyrs," in the West Bank town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah Wednesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)2025-04-01T04:10:37Z JERUSALEM (AP) A 17-year-old from the West Bank who was held in an Israeli prison for six months without being charged died after collapsing in unclear circumstances, becoming the first Palestinian teen to die in Israeli detention, officials said.Walid Ahmad was a healthy high schooler before his arrest in September for allegedly throwing stones at soldiers, his family said. Rights groups have documented widespread abuse in Israeli detention facilities holding thousands of Palestinians who were rounded up after Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.Prison authorities deny any systematic abuse and say they investigate accusations of wrongdoing by prison staff. But the Israeli ministry overseeing prisons acknowledges conditions inside detention facilities have been reduced to the minimum level allowed under Israeli law. Israels prison service did not respond to questions about the cause of death. It said only that a 17-year-old from the West Bank had died in Megiddo Prison, a facility that has previously been accused of abusing Palestinian inmates, with his medical condition being kept confidential. It said it investigates all deaths in detention. Khalid Ahmad, Walids father, said his son was a lively teen who enjoyed playing soccer before he was taken from his home in the occupied West Bank during a pre-dawn arrest raid.Six months later, after several brief court appearances during which no trial date was set, Walid collapsed on March 23 in a prison yard and struck his head, dying soon after, Palestinians officials said, citing eyewitness accounts from other prisoners. The family believes Walid contracted amoebic dysentery from the poor conditions in the prison, an infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and dizziness and can be fatal if left untreated.Walid is the 63rd Palestinian prisoner from the West Bank or Gaza to die in Israeli custody since the start of the war, according to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank. Palestinian prisoner rights groups say that is about one-fifth of the roughly 300 Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The Palestinian Authority says Israel is holding the bodies of 72 Palestinian prisoners who died in Israeli jails, including 61 who died since the beginning of the war. Conditions in Israeli prisons have worsened since the start of the war, former detainees told The Associated Press. They described beatings, severe overcrowding, insufficient medical care, scabies outbreaks and poor sanitary conditions.Israels National Security Ministry, which oversees the prison service and is run by ultranationalist Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has boasted of reducing the conditions of Palestinian detainees to the minimum required by law. It says the policy is aimed at deterring attacks. Dont worry about meIsrael has rounded up thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, saying it suspects them of militancy. Many have been held for months without charge or trial in what is known as administrative detention, which Israel justifies as a necessary security measure. Others are arrested on suspicion of aggression toward soldiers but have their trials continuously delayed, as the military and Israels security services gather evidence. Walid sat through at least four court appearances over videoconference, his father said, but each time the judge delayed, eventually setting an April 21 trial date. Each session was about three minutes, Walids father said. In a February session, four months after Walid was detained, his father noticed that his son appeared to be in poor health.His body was weakened due to malnutrition in the prisons in general, the elder Ahmad said. He said Walid told him he had gotten scabies a contagious skin rash caused by mites that causes intense itching but had been cured. Dont worry about me, his father remembers him saying.Khalid Ahmad later visited his sons friend, a former soccer teammate who had been held with Walid in the same prison. The friend told him Walid had lost weight but that he was OK.Four days later, the family heard that a 17-year-old had died in the prison. An hour and half later, they got the news that it was Walid.We felt the same way as all the parents of the prisoners and all the families and mothers of the prisoners, said Khalid Ahmad. We can only say Indeed, we belong to Allah, and indeed to him we shall return. Cause of death is unknownWalids lawyer, Firas al-Jabrini, said Israeli authorities denied his requests to visit his client in prison. But he says three prisoners held alongside Walid told him that he was suffering from dysentery, saying it was widespread among young Palestinians held at the facility.They said Walid suffered from severe diarrhea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness, the lawyer said. He said they suspected the disease was spreading because of dirty water, as well as cheese and yogurt that prison guards brought in the morning and that sat out all day while detainees were fasting for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Megiddo, in northern Israel, is the harshest prison for minors, al-Jabrini said. He said he was told that rooms designed for six prisoners often held 16, with some sleeping on the floor. Many complained of scabies and eczema.Thaer Shriteh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Authoritys detainee commission, said Walid collapsed and hit his head on a metal rod, losing consciousness. The prison administration did not respond to the prisoners requests for urgent care to save his life, he said, citing witnesses who spoke to the commission.The lawyer and the Palestinian official both said an autopsy is needed to determine the cause of death. Israel has agreed to perform one but a date has not been set.The danger in this matter is that the Israeli occupation authorities have not yet taken any action to stop this (disease) and have not provided any treatment in general to save the prisoners in Megiddo prison, Shriteh said.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war JULIA FRANKEL Frankel is an Associated Press reporter in Jerusalem. twitter mailto

Herders and farmers from left, Adama Sow, Oumar Ba and Daka Sow walk outside Niti Yone, northern Senegal, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Jack Thompson)2025-04-01T05:13:21Z DAKAR, Senegal (AP) Rusting pipes in a barren field and unpaid workers are what remain after a U.S. company promised to turn a huge piece of land in Senegal about twice the size of Paris into an agricultural project and create thousands of jobs.In interviews with company officials and residents, The Associated Press explored one of the growing number of foreign investment projects targeting Africa, home to about 60% of the worlds remaining uncultivated arable land. Many, like this one, fail, often far from public notice.Internal company documents seen by the AP show how the Senegalese-government-endorsed plans for exporting animal feed to wealthy Gulf nations fell apart.At first glance, the landscape of stark acacia trees on the edge of the Sahara Desert doesnt hold much agricultural promise. But in an age of climate change, foreign investors are looking at this and other African landscapes. The continent has seen a third of the worlds large-scale land acquisitions between 2000 and 2020, mostly for agriculture, according to researchers from the International Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands. But 23% of those deals have failed after sometimes ambitious plans to feed the world.In 2021, the Senegalese village of Niti Yone welcomed investors Frank Timis and Gora Seck from a U.S.-registered company, African Agriculture. Over cups of sweet green tea, the visitors promised to employ hundreds of locals and, one day, thousands. Timis, originally from Romania, was the majority stakeholder. His companies have mined for gold, minerals and fossil fuels across West Africa.Seck, a Senegalese mining investor, chaired an Italian company whose biofuel plans for the land parcel had failed. It sold the 50-year lease for 20,000 hectares to Timis for $7.9 million. Seck came on as president of African Agricultures Senegalese subsidiary and holds 4.8% of its shares. Now the company wanted the communitys approval.The land was next to Senegals largest freshwater lake, for which the company obtained water rights. African Agriculture planned to grow alfalfa and export it to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both traditionally buy alfalfa from the U.S., but land in alfalfa production there has dropped by 38% in the last 20 years, largely due to drought caused by climate change, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The proposal divided the community of subsistence farmers. Herders that raised livestock on the land for generations opposed it. Others, like Doudou Ndiaye Mboup, thought it could help ease Senegals unemployment crisis.I bought their dream. I saw thousands of young Africans with jobs and prosperity, said Mboup, who was later employed as an electrician and now leads a union of employees. Despite the formation of an opposition group called the Ndiael Collective, African Agriculture moved ahead, hiring about 70 of the communitys 10,000 residents.After planting a 300-hectare pilot plot of alfalfa, the company announced in November 2022 it would go public to raise funds. African Agriculture valued the company at $450 million. The Oakland Institute, an environmental think tank in the U.S., questioned that amount and called the deal bad for food security as well as greenhouse gas emissions.The company went public in December 2023, with shares trading at $8 on the NASDAQ exchange. It raised $22.6 million during the offering but had to pay $19 million to the listed but inactive company it had merged with.That payment signaled trouble to investors. It showed that the other company, 0X Capital Venture Acquisition Corp. II, didnt want to hold its 98% of stock. And it highlighted the way African Agriculture had used the merger to bypass the vetting process needed for listing.One year later, shares in African Agriculture were worth almost nothing.Now, security guards patrol the lands barbed-wire perimeter, blocking herders and farmers from using it. The company has been delisted.Mboup said he and others havent been paid for six months. The workers took the company to employment court in Senegal to claim about $180,000 in unpaid wages. In February, they burned tires outside the companys office. Mboup later said an agreement was reached for back wages to be paid in June. I took out loans to build a house and now I cant pay it back, said Mboup, who had been making $200 a month, just above average for Senegal. Ive sold my motorbike and sheep to feed my children and send them to school, but many are not so lucky.Timis didnt respond to questions. Seck told the AP he was no longer affiliated with African Agriculture. Current CEO Mike Rhodes said he had been advised to not comment.Herders and farmers are furious and have urged Senegals government to let them use the land. But that rarely happens. In a study of 63 such foreign deals, the International Institute of Social Studies found only 11% of land was returned to the community. In most cases, the land is offered to other investors. We want to work with the government to rectify this situation. If not, we will fight, warned Bayal Sow, the areas deputy mayor.The Senegalese minister of agriculture, food sovereignty and herding, Mabouba Diagne, did not respond to questions. The African Agriculture deal occurred under the previous administration.The failed project has undermined community trust, said herder Adama Sow, 74: Before we lived in peace, but now theres conflict for those of us who supported them.Meanwhile, African Agricultures former CEO has moved on to a bigger land deal elsewhere on the continent with experts raising questions again.In August, South African Alan Kessler announced his new company, African Food Security, partnering with a Cameroonian, Baba Danpullo. It has announced a project roughly 30 times the size of the Senegal one, with 635,000 hectares in Congo and Cameroon.The new company seeks $875 million in investment. The companys investor prospectus, obtained by the AP, says it planned to register in Abu Dhabi.In an interview with the AP in January, Kessler blamed the failure of the Senegal project on the way African Agricultures public offering was structured. He said there were no plans for a public offering this time.He claimed his new companys project would double corn production in these countries, and described African Food Security as the most incredibly important development company on the planet. He said they have started to grow corn on 200 hectares in Cameroon.Experts who looked over the prospectus raised concerns about its claims, including an unusually high projection for corn yields. Kessler rejected those concerns.When he was CEO of African Agriculture, Kessler also made lofty claims about food production, job creation, exports and investment returns that did not pan out, said Rene Vellv, co-founder of GRAIN, a Spain-based nonprofit for land rights.Hype without proof was a key strategy for African Agriculture, said its former chief operating officer, Javier Orellana, who said he is owed 165,000 euros in unpaid salary after leaving the company in 2023.He told the AP he had been suspicious of the companys $450 million valuation.I know the agriculture industry well and ($450 million) didnt add up, Orellana said, adding he stayed on because the company gave him what he called a very attractive offer.In the end, a share in African Agriculture is now worth less than a penny.We are looking forward to going back to Senegal, Kessler said. We were appreciated there. Weve been welcomed back there. ___For more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse___The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01007-0China has already taken steps to reduce retractions of papers from its hospitals

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01005-2Action needed to mitigate effects of slashing USAID

Myanmar's rescuers work through rubble of a collapsed building following Friday's earthquake in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo)2025-04-01T06:46:24Z BANGKOK (AP) The death toll from the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit Myanmar has surpassed 2,700, with thousands more injured, Myanmar media reported Tuesday.The head of Myanmars military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum in the capital, Naypyitaw, that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, the Western News online portal reported.With many areas hit by Fridays earthquake still not reached by rescue crews, those numbers are still expected to rise.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.BANGKOK (AP) Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmars capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war. The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred at midday Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours. Death toll numbers forecast to increaseThe earthquakes epicenter was near the countrys second-largest city, Mandalay, and the military-run government has reported 2,065 people killed so far, more than 3,900 injured and 270 missing. Those figures are widely expected to rise, but the earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, leaving the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.Most of the reports so far have come from Mandalay and Naypyitaw.The needs are massive, and they are rising by the hour, said Julia Rees, UNICEFs deputy representative for Myanmar. The window for lifesaving response is closing. Across the affected areas, families are facing acute shortages of clean water, food, and medical supplies.Myanmars fire department said that 403 people have been rescued in Mandalay and 259 bodies have been found so far. In one incident alone, 50 Buddhist monks who were taking a religious exam in a monastery were killed when the building collapsed and 150 more are thought to be buried in the rubble. Structural damage is extensiveThe World Health Organization said that more than 10,000 buildings overall are known to have collapsed or been severely damaged in central and northwest Myanmar.The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing a high-rise building under construction to collapse and burying many workers. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble on Monday but dozens were still missing. Overall, there were 20 people killed and 34 injured in Bangkok, primarily at the construction site. In Myanmar, search and rescue efforts across the affected area paused briefly at midday on Tuesday as people stood for a minute in silent tribute to the dead. Relief efforts moving at a sluggish paceForeign aid workers have been arriving slowly to help in the rescue efforts, but progress was still slow with a lack of heavy machinery in many places.In one site in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, workers formed a human chain, passing chunks of brick and concrete out hand-by-hand from the ruins of a collapsed building. The Myanmar military governments official Global New Light of Myanmar reported Tuesday that a team of Chinese rescuers saved four people the day before from the ruins of the Sky Villa, a large apartment complex that collapsed during the quake. They included a 5-year-old and a pregnant woman who had been trapped for more than 60 hours. The same publication also reported two teenagers were able to crawl out of the rubble of the same building to where rescue crews were working, using their cellphone flashlights to help guide them. The rescue workers were then able to use details from what they told them to locate their grandmother and sibling.International rescue teams from several countries are on the scene, including from Russia, China, India, the United Arab Emirates and several Southeast Asian countries. The U.S. Embassy said an American team had been sent but hadnt yet arrived. Aid pledges pouring in as officials warn of disease outbreak riskMeantime, multiple countries have pledged millions in aid to assist Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.Even before the earthquake, more than 3 million people had been displaced from their homes by Myanmars brutal civil war, and nearly 20 million were in need, according to the U.N. Many were already lacking in basic medical care and standard vaccinations, and the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure by the earthquake raises the risk of disease outbreaks, warned the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.The displacement of thousands into overcrowded shelters, coupled with the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, has significantly heightened the risk of communicable disease outbreaks, OCHA said in its latest report. Vulnerability to respiratory infections, skin diseases, vector-borne illnesses such as dengue fever, and vaccine-preventable diseases like measles is escalating, it added. The onset of monsoon season also a worryShelter is also a major problem, especially with the monsoon season looming. Since the earthquake, many people have been sleeping outside, either because homes were destroyed or out of fear of aftershocks.Civil war complicates disaster reliefMyanmars military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into significant armed resistance and a brutal civil war.Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places were dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach even before the quake.Military attacks and those from some anti-military groups have not stopped in the aftermath of the earthquake, though the shadow opposition National Unity Government has called a unilateral ceasefire for its forces.The NUG, established by elected lawmakers who were ousted in 2021, called for the international community to ensure humanitarian aid is delivered directly to the earthquake victims, urging vigilance against any attempts by the military junta to divert or obstruct humanitarian assistance.We are in a race against time to save lives, the NUG said in a statement. Any obstruction to these efforts will have devastating consequences, not only due to the impact of the earthquake but also because of the juntas continued brutality, which actively hinders the delivery of lifesaving assistance.It wasnt immediately clear whether the military has been impeding humanitarian aid. In the past, it initially refused to allow in foreign rescue teams or many emergency supplies after Cyclone Nargis in 2008, which resulted in well more than 100,000 deaths. Even once it did allow foreign assistance, it was with severe restrictions.In this case, however, the head of Myanmars military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, pointedly said on the day of the earthquake that the country would accept outside help. Tom Andrews, a monitor on rights in Myanmar commissioned by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said on X that to facilitate aid, military attacks must stop.The focus in Myanmar must be on saving lives, not taking them, he said.___Grant Peck in Bangkok and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this story. 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

FILE -Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit arrives on board the Israeli Navy Ship Atzmaut in the Mediterranean Sea, Sept. 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)2025-04-01T07:27:50Z The Israeli military struck a building in Beiruts southern suburbs early Tuesday, killing at least three people, in an attack it said targeted a member of the Hezbollah militant group.The airstrike came without warning days after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday for the first time since a ceasefire ended fighting between Israeli forces and the Hezbollah militant group in November. At least seven other people were wounded in Tuesdays airstrike, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.The Israeli military said in a statement the latest strike targeted a Hezbollah member who had been helping the Palestinian Hamas group in the Gaza Strip in attacks against Israel.___Heres the latest: Netanyahu withdraws his nomination to lead internal security agencyIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn his nomination of a former navy commander to lead the countrys internal security agency after a flurry of criticism.Netanyahus office said in a statement early Tuesday after meeting with Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit that he intends to examine other candidates, without elaborating.The nomination announced on Monday had provoked widespread criticism from allies and opponents.Critics of Netanyahu are already up in arms over his move to fire Ronen Bar, the current head of the Shin Bet domestic security agency, viewing it as part of a broader assault on state institutions at a time when Netanyahu is on trial for alleged corruption and his aides are being investigated over links to the Gulf Arab nation of Qatar. Israels Supreme Court froze Bars dismissal pending further hearings but cleared the way for Netanyahu to interview candidates for the job.The nomination of Sharvit angered some of Netanyahus allies after Israeli media reported that he had taken part in protests against Netanyahus plans to overhaul the judiciary in 2023.The move also brought an unexpected rebuke from Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump, who tweeted an excerpt of an op-ed Sharvit had written for an Israeli technology news website in January 2024 criticizing Trumps climate policies. Graham called the nomination beyond problematic. Israeli military says it intercepted a projective fired from GazaThe Israeli military says it intercepted a projectile fired from the Gaza Strip early Tuesday that set off sirens in nearby communities.Palestinian militants have fired a small number of rockets, without causing any casualties or damage, since Israel ended its ceasefire with Hamas last month.Israel has launched waves of airstrikes and limited ground operations, killing hundreds of Palestinians.Hamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack into Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals. Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.Israels offensive has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which does not say how many were combatants or civilians.

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00932-4Regulatory efforts to purge PFASs from drinking water have led to a rush for technologies that can capture and destroy the chemicals.

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00985-5The global scientific community must keep studying LGBT+ health

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen addresses European Parliament members on new plans to ramp up defense spending agreed at last week's summit, Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France. (AP Photo/Pascal Bastien)2025-04-01T08:34:35Z BRUSSELS (AP) A top European Union official warned the U.S. on Tuesday that the worlds biggest trade bloc holds a lot of cards when it comes to dealing with the Trump administrations new tariffs and has a good plan to retaliate if forced to.U.S. President Donald Trump has promised to roll out taxes on imports from other countries on Wednesday. He says they will free the U.S. from reliance on foreign goods.Hes vowed to impose reciprocal tariffs to match the duties that other countries charge on U.S. products, dubbing April 2 Liberation Day.Europe has not started this confrontation. We do not necessarily want to retaliate, but if it is necessary, we have a strong plan to retaliate and we will use it, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told EU lawmakers.The commission, the EUs executive branch, negotiates trade deals on behalf of the blocs 27 member countries and manages trade disputes on their behalf. Europe holds a lot of cards, from trade to technology to the size of our market. But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm counter measures if necessary. All instruments are on the table, von der Leyen said, at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, France. The commission already intends to impose duties on U.S. goods worth some $28 billion in mid-April in response to Trumps steel and aluminum tariffs. The EU duties will target steel and aluminum products, but also textiles, home appliances and farm goods. A lot remains unknown about how Trumps levies will actually be implemented, notably the reciprocal tariffs, and the EU wants to assess their impact before taking retaliatory action.So many Europeans feel utterly disheartened by the announcement from the United States, von der Leyen said. This is the largest and most prosperous trade relationship worldwide. We would all be better off if we could find a constructive solution. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A Ukrainian military boat CB90 of Military Naval Forces patrols Black Sea coast line of Odesa region, Ukraine, on March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)2025-04-01T08:46:11Z Germanys chief diplomat on Tuesday described U.S. President Donald Trumps efforts to secure a truce in the three-year war between Russia and Ukraine as deadlocked, while Chinas foreign minister said it was encouraging that the talks between Washington and Moscow on finding a settlement are continuing.German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, arriving in Kyiv for an unannounced visit, said that due to the deadlock between the U.S. and Russia on forging a ceasefire deal, European allies continued support for Ukraine in the war is absolutely crucial.Trump on Sunday scolded Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, expressing frustration at the continued fighting in a war that he had pledged to swiftly stop.Trump insisted progress was being made in the negotiations, but said that he would consider imposing further sanctions on Moscow and accused Zelenskyy of trying to back out of a deal with the U.S. on access to Ukraines mineral resources. Putin has effectively refused a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting, despite Trumps prodding. Also, a partial ceasefire in the Black Sea that could allow safer shipments has fallen foul of conditions imposed by Kremlin negotiators. Russia is holding out on a Black Sea deal in order to stall efforts toward a general ceasefire and extract additional concessions from the West, according to an assessment late Monday by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank. Putin previously has ruled out a temporary break in hostilities, saying that it would only benefit Ukraine and its Western allies by letting them replenish their arsenals. He has insisted that Moscow wants a comprehensive agreement that would ensure a lasting settlement.Meanwhile, deadly attacks by both Russia and Ukraine have continued, and they are gearing up for spring campaigns in their war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. Overnight, Russia fired no Shahed drones at Ukraine for the first time in more than five months, according to authorities.But Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraines Security Council, detected no change in Russian strategy.For now, this means nothing, he said on Telegram.Ukraines European backers say they will keep supporting Kyivs efforts to defeat Russias invasion. Putin is getting military help from North Korea and Iran.China, too, has given diplomatic support to Russia and has provided economic help through trade in energy and consumer goods.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, on a visit to Moscow, was quoted as saying Tuesday that certain results have been achieved in Washingtons attempt to stop the war as U.S.-Russia relations have improved under Trump.He said in an interview with Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Beijing supports the goal of a fair, long-term, binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties involved.Wang was to meet Tuesday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. He was also expected to meet with Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said without saying when it might happen.___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00931-5As governments fight to regulate access to materials important for many technologies, the people mining them are left behind.

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01006-1Minerals will shape future geopolitical order

The Department of Health and Human Services building is seen in Washington, April 5, 2009.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)2025-04-01T11:14:40Z Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department began receiving notices of dismissal on Tuesday in an overhaul ultimately expected to lay off up to 10,000 people. The notices come just days after President Donald Trump moved to strip workers of their collective bargaining rights at HHS and other agencies throughout the government.Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan last week to remake the department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance programs for nearly half of the country. The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America. The layoffs are expected to shrink HHS to 62,000 positions, lopping off nearly a quarter of its staff 10,000 jobs through layoffs and another 10,000 workers who took early retirement and voluntary separation offers. Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington predicted the cuts will have ramifications when natural disasters strike or infectious diseases, like the ongoing measles outbreak, spread.They may as well be renaming it the Department of Disease because their plan is putting lives in serious jeopardy, Murray said Friday. Beyond layoffs at federal health agencies, cuts are beginning to happen at state and local health departments as a result of an HHS move last week to pull back more than $11 billion in COVID-19-related money. Local and state health officials are still assessing the impact, but some health departments have already identified hundreds of jobs that stand to be eliminated because of lost money, some of them overnight, some of them are already gone, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Union representatives for HHS employees received a notice Thursday that 8,000 to 10,000 employees will be terminated. The departments leadership will target positions in human resources, procurement, finance and information technology. Positions in high cost regions or that have been deemed redundant will be the focus of the layoffs.Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient sprawling bureaucracy in a video Thursday announcing the restructuring. He said the departments $1.7 trillion yearly budget, has failed to improve the health of Americans.I want to promise you now that were going to do more with less, Kennedy said.The department on Thursday provided a breakdown of some of the cuts.__ 3,500 jobs at the Food and Drug Administration, which inspects and sets safety standards for medications, medical devices and foods.__ 2,400 jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which monitors for infectious disease outbreaks and works with public health agencies nationwide. __ 1,200 jobs at the National Institutes of Health, the worlds leading health and medical research institution.__ 300 jobs at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the Affordable Care Act marketplace, Medicare and Medicaid.At the CDC, most employees have not been unionized, but interest rose sharply this year as the Trump administration took steps to reduce the federal workforce. Roughly 2,000 CDC employees in Atlanta belonged to the American Federation of Government Employees local bargaining unit, with hundreds more who had petitioned to join in recent days being added.But on Thursday night, Trump signed an executive order that would end collective bargaining for a large number of federal agencies, including the CDC and other health agencies.The erosion of collective bargaining rights was decried by some Democratic lawmakers.President Trumps brazen attempt to strip the majority of federal employees of their union rights robs these workers of their hard-fought protections, Reps. Gerald Connolly and Bobby Scott, both of Virginia, said in a joint statement Friday.This will only give Elon Musk more power to dismantle the peoples government with as little resistance from dedicated civil servants as possible further weakening the federal governments ability to serve the American people. ___Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington and Mike Stobbe in New York contributed. ___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. CARLA K. JOHNSON Johnson covers research in cancer, addiction and more for The Associated Press. She is a member of APs Health and Science team. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A sign for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is displayed outside their offices in Silver Spring, Md., Dec. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)2025-04-01T12:04:50Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Food and Drug Administrations chief tobacco regulator has been removed from his post amid sweeping cuts at the agency and across the federal health workforce handed down Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.In an email to staff, FDA tobacco director Brian King said: It is with a heavy heart and profound disappointment that I share I have been placed on administrative leave.King was removed from his position and offered reassignment to the Indian Health Service, according to a person familiar with the matter who did not have permission to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.Dozens of staffers in FDAs tobacco center also received notices of dismissal Tuesday morning, including the entire office responsible for enforcing tobacco regulations.King, who joined the agency in 2022, has been vigorously criticized by vaping lobbyists for ordering thousands of companies to remove their fruit and candy-flavored e-cigarettes from the market. During his time at FDA, teen vaping has fallen to a 10-year low. His removal comes just days after FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks was forced out, citing health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s support for vaccine misinformation and lies in his resignation letter. The latest changes mean that nearly all of FDAs top leaders overseeing drugs, food, vaccines, medical devices and now tobacco products have resigned or retired in recent months. The leadership vacuum comes as Kennedy moves to fire 3,500 FDA staffers and pushes ahead with plans to scrutinize ultra-processed foods, childhood vaccines, antidepressants and other long-established products.The wave of departures means incoming FDA commissioner Marty Makary who was confirmed last week will inherit an agency without many of its top experts and a beleaguered workforce that has been rocked by weeks of layoffs and a chaotic return-to-office process. Only a handful of FDA employees are political appointees, with nearly all of the agencys scientific reviews and decisions overseen by career officials. Neither Makary nor Kennedy have said much about how tobacco policy fits into their plan to Make America Healthy Again. Despite historically low rates of smoking, tobacco-related diseases remain the nations leading preventable cause of death, blamed for more than 490,000 annually. In recent years, the FDAs tobacco center has been besieged by criticism from all sides including congressional lawmakers, anti-smoking advocates, and tobacco and vaping companies.Politicians, parents and anti-tobacco groups want the FDA to do more to stamp out unauthorized vaping products that can appeal to teens, many of which are imported from China. Tobacco and vaping companies say the FDA has been too slow to approve newer products for adult smokers including e-cigarettes that generally carry much lower risks than traditional cigarettes.Under King, the FDA rejected applications for millions of flavored e-cigarettes, citing insufficient data that the products would help adult smokers while not becoming popular with underage kids. Those rejections have resulted in multiple lawsuits against FDA from vape makers, including one that was argued before the Supreme Court in December. The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, has been running ads urging Trump to follow through on a campaign pledge he made to save the flavored vaping industry.The FDA has authorized a handful of e-cigarettes for adults, mostly from major vaping brands owned by legacy tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Vuse and Altrias Njoy.Other recent FDA departures include: Deputy commissioner for foods, Jim Jones, who resigned in February after dozens of his staffers were fired. Director of FDAs drug center, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, who stepped down days before President Donald Trump took office. The agencys second-ranking official. Dr. Namandje Bumpus, who resigned late last year. FDAs longtime medical devices director, Dr. Jeffrey Shuren, who retired last summer.Many deputies and senior scientists have also retired or stepped down in recent weeks. ___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.

This article was produced in collaborationwith Court Watch, an independent outlet that unearths overlooked court records.Subscribe to them here.Two former OnlyFans subscribers are suing the platform in a class-action lawsuit, claiming that they were defrauded because creators allegedly werent interacting directly with them, but were instead employing agencies to impersonate the models they thought they were speaking to.The plaintiffs, M. Brunner and J. Fry, both from Illinois, claim that they thought the creators they subscribed tosome of whom have hundreds of thousands of subscriberswere talking to them in direct messages and video clips. Both also say that if theyd known they werent speaking directly to the creators themselves, they wouldnt have subscribed, or would have paid less to subscribe. If OnlyFans stopped creators from using agencies to talk to fans they would consider going back to spending money on the platform, they say.Do you have a tip about OnlyFans, as a creator or a subscriber? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at sam.404. Otherwise, send me an email at sam@404media.co.The complaint is brought against OnlyFanss parent companies Fenix Internet, LLC and Fenix International Limited.The plaintiffs dont provide proof in the complaint that they were talking to agency chatters and not the creators themselves, but say that they became suspicious after subscribing, including realizing that a single individual could not send the number of direct messages or videos that generating revenue from 700,000 fans, in one creators case, would require.Plaintiff Fry created an account primarily in order to engage in friendly conversations with models and share photographs of his cooking creations, the complaint says. Fry alleges that he began to become suspicious of who he was actually communicating when he started getting contradicting information and errors in messages.By exercising its discretion to enrich itself while participating in the deception of its customers, OnlyFans consciously and deliberately frustrates the agreed common purposes of the contract and disappoints the reasonable expectations of Plaintiffs and Class Members, thereby depriving them of the benefit of their bargain, the complaint states.OnlyFans agencies have been a well-documented industry for yearsespecially the chatting aspect, where people employed by an agency manage creators messages and in some cases, respond to fans. Not all OnlyFans creators use agencies or chatters, but there are dozens of agencies that advertise the service. A November 2021 lawsuit against Unruly Agency alleged that the company preyed on and defrauded fans into divulging their "deepest and innermost personal secrets including sexual fantasies and fetishes, marital troubles, suicidal ideations, and other private desires to account managers and senior account managers."Creators may choose to work with a wide range of third parties, including photographers, videographers, talent managers and agencies, to curate and monetise their content, an OnlyFans spokesperson told Cosmopolitan last year for a story about OnlyFans models who use agencies to be more productive. Any third party that a creator elects to work with does not work on behalf of OnlyFans and is not affiliated with the company in any way.In July 2024, five OnlyFans users also filed a class action complaint against OnlyFans parent company claiming that chatter scams defraud fans. Last month, a judge ordered that the case would go to trial in 2027.OnlyFans did not respond to 404 Medias requests for comment about the new class action complaint.

Nature, Published online: 31 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01012-3Two experiments show that small payments can speed up peer review, but there might be unintended consequences. Plus, US grant cuts are ending scientific careers and Lyft drivers data reveals speeding-ticket racism.

Nature, Published online: 28 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01000-7The gender gap in research publishing is improving but slowly. Plus, climate disasters are creating an insurance crisis and scientists discovered a promising antibiotic in a box of dirt theyd left under a lab bench for a year.