Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at a news conference in Dallas, June 22, 2017. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)2025-04-03T12:08:33Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department quietly decided in the final weeks of the Biden administration not to prosecute Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, effectively ending the corruption investigation that cast a long shadow over the political career of a close ally of President Donald Trump, The Associated Press has learned. The decision not to bring charges which has never been publicly reported resolved the high-stakes federal probe before Trumps new Justice Department leadership could even take action on an investigation sparked by allegations from Paxtons inner circle that the Texas Republican abused his office to aid a political donor.The move came almost two years after the Justice Departments public integrity section in Washington took over the investigation, removing the case from the hands of federal investigators in Texas who had believed there was sufficient evidence for an indictment. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton makes a statement at his office, May 26, 2023, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Two people familiar with the matter, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, confirmed the departments decision to decline to prosecute. Though the date of the decision was not immediately clear, it was made in the final weeks of the President Joe Bidens presidency, one of the people said. Politically appointed Justice Department leadership was not involved in the decision, which was recommended by a senior career official who had concerns about prosecutors ability to secure a conviction, according to another person briefed on the matter. Political appointees are not typically involved in public integrity section matters to avoid the appearance of political interference. One of Paxtons lawyers, Dan Cogdell, told the AP on Wednesday night that he had not been informed by the Justice Department of any decision in the investigation but noted: I never thought they had a case they could make. The Department of Justice declined to comment.Paxton is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate next year, setting up a potential primary against Republican Sen. John Cornyn, ambitions that reflect his political durability despite spending years under clouds that also included felony securities fraud charges and an investigation by the Texas state bar over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Biden. The federal investigation had been the most serious inquiry still facing Paxton, who settled the securities fraud case and was acquitted of corruption charges in the Texas Senate in 2023 following a historic impeachment. Paxton agreed last year to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution under a deal to end criminal securities fraud charges over accusations that he duped investors in a tech startup near Dallas.The allegations against Paxton were stunning in part because of who made them. Eight of his closest aides reported him to the FBI in 2020, accusing him of bribery and abusing his office to help one of his friends and campaign contributors, Nate Paul, who also employed a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having had an extramarital affair. The same allegations led to Paxtons impeachment on articles of bribery and abuse of public trust, but he was acquitted by the Republican-led Texas Senate, where his wife is a senator but did not cast a vote during the trial. Paul pleaded guilty in January to a federal charge after he was accused of making false statements to banks to obtain more than $170 million in loans.After the November election, the DOJ accepted a guilty plea from Nate Paul and is apparently letting Ken Paxton escape justice, TJ Turner and Tom Nesbitt, attorneys for two of the whistleblowers, said in a statement to the AP. DOJ clearly let political cowardice impact its decision. The whistleblowers all strong conservatives did the right thing and continue to stand by their allegations of Paxtons criminal conduct.The Justice Departments public integrity section, which oversees public corruption cases, took over the Paxton investigation in 2023. The Justice Department has never publicly explained its decision to recuse the federal prosecutors in west Texas who had been leading the investigation. The move was pushed for by Paxtons attorneys. Paxton said last year that he would not contest whistleblowers claims in a lawsuit that they were improperly fired for reporting Paxton to the FBI. His push to end the whistleblowers lawsuit came as he faced the likelihood of having to sit for a deposition and answer questions under oath. Paxton has become one Trumps most loyal supporters and defenders in recent years, and his name had been floated as a contender to lead the Justice Department under Trumps second term. Paxton went to court in a show of support last year when Trump stood trial in his New York hush-money case, which ended in a conviction. And he was among several Republican attorneys general who traveled to Washington last month for Trumps campaign-style speech at the Justice Department in which the president vowed retribution for what he described as the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls. There had been investigative activity in the corruption probe as late as last August. Aaron Reitz, who was recently confirmed as Trumps pick to lead the Justice Departments Office of Legal Policy, was questioned that month before a grand jury about Paxtons firing of the whistleblowers in 2020, Bloomberg Law reported.Reitz, who served as a Paxton aide, was asked by members of Congress weighing his Justice Department nomination to detail what he told the grand jury. Reitz declined to answer in a questionnaire sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee in February, stating the federal investigation was ongoing. I believe that Attorney General Paxton is innocent and has committed no crimes, Reitz told the committee. Grand jury records from 2021 obtained by The Texas Newsroom last year showed that federal authorities were investigating Paxton for several potential crimes, including bribery and witness retaliation. Its unclear whether the scope or focus of the investigation changed when the public integrity section in Washington took it over. During Paxtons impeachment trial, former advisers testified that he pressured them to help the campaign donor, Paul, who was under FBI investigation. The testimony included arguments over who paid for home renovations, whether Paxton used burner phones and how his alleged extramarital affair became a strain on the office. Paxton decried the impeachment effort as a politically motivated sham. ERIC TUCKER Tucker covers national security in Washington for The Associated Press, with a focus on the FBI and Justice Department. twitter mailto

Last week, the Financial Times reported that Nintendo shifted half of its production capabilities for the upcoming Switch 2 to Cambodia and Vietnam, in part to avoid Donald Trumps trade war on China. Wednesday morning, Nintendo formally announced the Switch 2, and its $449 price, which is $150 more than the Switch. A few hours later, Trump announced tariffs on the entire world, with particularly large fees on China, Vietnam, and Cambodia.There are going to be far more important and damaging impacts of Trumps unilateral trade war on everyone than the price of an already expensive game console likely going up. The U.S. stock market has already plunged. But the timing and narrative around the Switch 2the successor to one of the most popular games consoles of all timehighlights how destabilizing this is likely to be, the interconnectedness of the global economy, and the fact that Trump cannot just snap his fingers and onshore manufacturing to the United States without massive pain. Gamers, understandably, are pissed, and award-winning economists say they are right to be. I thought it'd be useful to discuss the broader impact of the tariffs with leading economics by focusing on the Switch 2, because it's such a high-profile item.The policy announcement is astonishing for its stupidity, Gene Grossman, a global trade expert and Princeton professor who won the Onassis Prize in International Trade, told 404 Media. It seems like a joke! He added that it is hard to know exactly what will happen given the overall sea of idiocy brought on by the tariffs.Since Trumps announcement, it has become clear that the administration calculated the tariffs for each country based on a crude formula that takes each countrys trade deficit with the United States, divides it by two, and sticks a percent sign at the end. This means new tariffs on Vietnamese-made goods will be 46 percent and new tariffs on Cambodian-made goods will be 49 percent.If [the Switch 2] is something that consumers are dying to have at any price, then the price will go up. If consumers can readily switch to something else, then if Nintendo wants to sell these things, it will have to lower the price, Grossman said. Yes, I think it is quite possible that the price will go even higher than $449.99. Some expectations of a tariff may have been built into this price, as you suggest, but I dont think anyone expected a 46% tariff on Vietnam, not even close.Kimberly Clausing, a professor of tax law and policy at UCLA School of Law, told 404 Media that the tariffs announced will definitely increase prices further over what is baked into price levels currently, and that Nintendo will have other markets they can sell to tariff-free, so they have no reason to sell at a special low price in the United States, certainly not enough to offset the full tariff.Felix Tintelnot, an associate professor of economics at Duke University, told 404 Media it can be costly for companies to change their publicly announced prices."I think two things are true at the same time: 1. It is likely that Nintendo did not expect the tariff on Vietnam to be 46%," Tintelnot told 404 Media. "2. It is costly for firms to change prices, particularly after publicly announcing one. So I would think it is somewhat uncertain what they will do. One possibility would be for the price to remain unchanged, but the price of complementary goods to increase, such as games."Jason Cherubini, an executive in residence of finance at Loyola University Maryland, said its possible Nintendo had already priced in some unknown level of tariffs prior to the announcement, and that he thinks the price for the Switch 2 is unlikely to change because video game companies have historically sold consoles at a loss and then made money back on the sale of games.Nintendo started to diversify their manufacturing away from China with the impending threat of tariffs but also to move away from geopolitical concentration in China. But these tariffs were not wholly unexpected, he said. I think the price they announced is the price thats going to stick, because with consoles a lot of pricing is strategic pricing as opposed to being based on the true cost of manufacturing it especially Nintendo, who really keeps all of their IP, their games, so much of that is in-house, its probably even more important for Nintendo to get people to have the console, so that way they're buying Zelda, they're buying Mario, they're buying all of these IP that Nintendo then profits off of. Getting people to purchase it is more important than them making money on the console itself.We dont know what is actually going to happen with the Switch 2 yet, but prices are almost definitely going to go up for almost everything across the entire economy, Grossman said.While I cant say confidently about this item, I can say that prices will go up for a whole range of goods, starting with cars and right on down to clothing, he said.Trump has announced these tariffs with the nominal goal of moving manufacturing to the United States. Reshoring manufacturingespecially of high tech goodshas been a goal of various administrations over the years, and was a goal of Joe Bidens CHIPS Act, which the Trump administration has sought to gut.There are numerous practical problems with trying to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States. They include the fact that lots of factory work is so underpaid and grueling that people in China dont even want to do it anymore; the average age of factory workers in China is rising and companies there have begun shifting jobs to more developing nations like Vietnam and Cambodia.Many of the raw materials and components needed for tech manufacturing are not mined or made in the United States, meaning those components and rare earth metals are going to be subject to tariffs. American companies do not have the expertise or ability to build lots of products in the United States, and setting up factories and supply chains to do so is not going to be an overnight process, it will be one that takes years or decades depending on the product.Nintendo would need to spend billions to open a factory in the US, Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners and a video game market analyst, tweeted. It'd probably take 4-5 years to complete this. Not to mention the time and cost to rebuild supply chain infrastructure and source components (which would be subject to tariffs because they're made outside the US). Nintendo would have to pay each worker about 10x to 15x more than they would for a worker in Vietnam. Then after you add up the initial capital expenditure, labor cost, supply chain cost, operational costs etc... you'd be able to buy a US manufactured Nintendo Switch 2 in 5 years for a significantly higher price than $450. And the kicker is that by the time they've done all that, the US will have a new president who most likely removes all the reciprocal tariffs anyway.Cherubini said that reshoring electronics manufacturing is not something you can just flip a switch on. Optimistically youre looking at a year for simpler manufacturing, but a lot of it is a multi-year process.I have covered attempts by the electronics industry to create high tech factories and mining operations in the United States; many of them are not going particularly well. The United States has only one rare earth minerals mine (in California), which has been mining for less than 10 years. Foxconn and TSMC factories in the United States have had a mixed record and do not have anywhere near the sophistication or capacity as their factories in Taiwan and China.This is all to say that, based on where things stand this morning, we are in for a world of economic pain.

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01010-5Dozens of problematic papers remain in the literature, after a publication hit by fraudsters pledged to tackle the issue.

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08954-8Hidden states and dynamics of fractional fillings in twisted MoTe2 bilayers

Southern California guard JuJu Watkins goes to the basket against Notre Dame forward Liatu King as guard Olivia Miles (5) looks on during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)2025-04-03T16:01:47Z 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. TAMPA, Fla. (AP) JuJu Watkins, the sensational sophomore who led Southern California to its best season in nearly 40 years, was honored Thursday as The Associated Press womens college basketball Player of the Year.Watkins, whose Trojans won the Big Ten regular-season title for its first conference crown in 31 years, received 29 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. Notre Dames Hannah Hidalgo got the other two. Both were first-team AP All-Americans. I think whats so significant about this award is that this was a year that didnt have an absence of talent and stars, and JuJu found a way to elevate herself and her team, USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said. Watkins became just the fourth player to win the award in her sophomore year, joining Oklahomas Courtney Paris (2007) and UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014). The AP first started giving out the award in 1995 and Watkins is the first Trojans player to win it. She makes a lot of things that arent easy look easy, Gottlieb said. Its one thing to say shes a generational talent, but another to actually do it and put yourself up with names like Stewie, Maya and Courtney Paris. Watkins is already in the top 10 on USCs all-time scoring list, ranking sixth in just two years. She was averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists before her season was cut short in the NCAA Tournament with an ACL injury suffered in the second round against Mississippi State. Watkins raised her game against the best opponents. In the six games against teams in AP top 10, she averaged 26.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while shooting 35.4% from behind the 3-point line.She performed her best at the biggest moments, Gottlieb said. I thought she really throughout the course of the year learned how to dominate and empower the others. Watkins is already one of the top draws in the sport with endorsement deals to match and seeing her in person has become a hotter ticket.The Trojans average home attendance rose to 5,932 this season from last years 4,421. Celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Jason Sudeikis, Michael B. Jordan and Sanaa Lathan, who starred in Love & Basketball, one of Watkins favorite movies, have shown up. The year before she arrived attendance averaged 1,037.Its hard to miss Snoop Dogg in his custom JuJu jacket, Gottlieb said. This happened organically and authentically. She decided to stay home and cares about her city and has the magnetism to attract people. Its the way she carries herself. Shes confident, but very humble and true to her community. Its amazing to see her impact.___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.

Jason, Sam, and Emanuel talk about Miyazaki being turned into a meme, the guys suing OnlyFans after being surprised to learn they were not actually talking to models, and the depravity of "brainrot" AI. Articles discussed: Hayao Miyazaki, Who Said AI Is Insult to Life Itself, Reduced to AI-Generated Meme by OpenAIOnlyFans Sued After Two Guys Realized They Might Not Actually Be Talking to Models 'Brainrot' AI on Instagram Is Monetizing the Most Fucked Up Things You Can Imagine (and Lots You Can't)Subscribe to 404 Media to get access to the full podcast including a bonus segment each week, which you can find below:

Stacks of lumber are set up on shelves at a local Lowes store Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)2025-04-03T16:53:16Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trumps expansive new tariff regime flips on its head a decades-long global trend of lower trade barriers and is likely, economists say, to raise prices for Americans by thousands of dollars each year while sharply slowing the U.S. economy. The White House is gambling that other countries will also suffer enough pain that they will open up their economies to more American exports, leading to negotiations that would reduce the tariffs imposed Wednesday. Or, the White House hopes, more companies both American and foreign will reverse their moves toward global supply chains and bring more production to the United States to avoid higher import taxes.But a key question for the Trump administration will be how Americans react to the tariffs. If prices rise noticeably and jobs are lost, voters could turn against the duties and make it harder to keep them in place for the length of time needed to encourage companies to return to the U.S. The Yale Budget Lab estimates that all the Trump administrations tariffs would cost the average household $3,800 in higher prices this year. The figure includes the impact of the 10% universal tariff announced Wednesday, plus much higher tariffs on about 60 countries, as well as previous import taxes on steel, aluminum, and cars. Inflation could top 4% this year, from 2.8% currently, while the economy may barely grow, according to estimates by Nationwide Financial. The average U.S. tariff could rise to nearly 25% when the tariffs are fully implemented April 9, economists estimate, higher than it has been in more than a century and higher than the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs that are widely blamed for worsening the Great Recession. The president just announced the de facto separation of the U.S. economy from the global economy, Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Relations, said. The stage is set for higher prices and slower growth over the long term. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in an interview on CNBC Thursday, said the policies will help open markets overseas for U.S. exports.I expect most countries to start to really examine their trade policy towards the United States of America, and stop picking on us, he said. This is the reordering of fair trade.Americans, a day after the announcement, have mixed feelings. Bob Lehmann, 73, stopped by a Best Buy in Portland, Oregon to buy a keyboard Wednesday. He opposed the tariffs. Theyre going to raise prices and cause people to pay more for daily living, he said.Mathew Hall, a 64-year-old paint contractor, said he thought the tariffs were a great idea and that potential price increases in the short term were worth it.I believe in the long term, its going to be good, he said, adding that he felt the U.S. had been taken advantage of.Outside a Tractor Supply store in Castle Rock, a town south of Denver, two family members on opposite sides of the political spectrum debated the tariffs. Chris Theisen, 62 and a Republican, was enthused about the tariffs, arguing the measures could bring jobs to America. I feel a good change coming on, I feel its going to be hard, but you dont go to the gym and walk away and say, God, I feel great, he said. Nayen Shakya, a Democrat and Theisens great nephew, said higher prices are already a hardship. At the restaurant where he works, menu prices have been raised to account for higher cost of ingredients, specifically rice, in recent weeks. Its really easy sometimes to say some things in a vague way that everyone can agree with that is definitely more complex under the surface, said Shakya. The burden of the increased prices is already going to the consumer.Listening to his nephew, Theisen added, I understand this side of it, too, he said, motioning to Shakya. I aint got no crystal ball. I hope it works out good.___AP Writers Paul Wiseman, Jesse Bedayn, and Claire Rush contributed to this report. Rush reported from Portland and Bedayn from Colorado. CHRISTOPHER RUGABER Rugaber has covered the Federal Reserve and the U.S. economy for the AP for 16 years. He is a two-time finalist for the Gerald Loeb award for business reporting. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01031-0The new administration is reshaping the research landscape in the United States in profound ways. What do you think of all the changes?

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00971-xLunar soil processed to form moonglass allows the creation of efficient, radiation-resistant solar panels.

President Donald Trump walks to the Oval Office after signing an executive order during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden of the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)2025-04-03T18:10:24Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump promised tariffs that would raise U.S. import taxes high enough to mirror what other assess as trade penalties on American goods.What hes actually imposing is based on far more complicated math. Heres a look at how the White House got its numbers: Why do the new tariff rates often differ by country? The Trump administration has declared an economic emergency to bypass Congress and impose a 10% tariff on nearly all countries and territories. It has set even higher levies for about 60 nations that it says are the worst offenders. The 10% global tariffs take effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The higher tariffs set for specific countries are due to kick in at one minute past midnight on April 9. Among the so-called worst offenders is China, which Trump argues protect its producers through malicious trade practices in addition to tariffs. Those efforts include actions such as imposing value added taxes on all goods, dumping overproduced products on markets to artificially deflate prices, or manipulating currency. To determine how much higher those nations rates should be, the White House says it calculated the size of each countrys trade imbalance on goods with the United States and divided that by how much America imports from that nation. It then took half that percentage and made it the new tariff rate. Why not just charge reciprocal rates? The White House says its calculations kept new tariffs from going even higher for many countries and demonstrate that Trump is being kind to global trading partners. The administration maintains that creating a baseline levy with few exemptions is necessary to keep China and others from skirting the new tariffs by manufacturing goods and then shipping them to Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico or elsewhere to then be sent to the U.S.Thats why the White House list of tariffed locations includes obscure places like the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are uninhabited. They are 2,550 miles (4,100 kilometers) from the coast of mainland Australia, which claims them as a territory. Is every country affected? No. Canada and Mexico are excluded because they already are facing 25% taxes on most imported goods that Trump announced last month, in an attempt to force both to crack down on fentanyl smuggling into the U.S.The White House originally said all others would be affected by at least the 10% tariff. But administration officials clarified on Thursday that countries already subject to stiff U.S. sanctions for example, Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine, as well as Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Belarus and Venezuela will not face the new, 10% global base tariff. Official said that is because sanctions and other existing barriers mean the U.S. has so little trade with those places that deficits are minimal. Why is Trump doing this? The president has spent months insisting America was at its wealthiest at the end of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when it imposed high tariffs as the key means to generating revenue for the federal government. Trump even suggested Wednesday that the U.S. moving away from higher tariffs and toward a federal income tax in 1913 helped trigger the Great Depression of the 1930s a claim that economists and historians roundly reject. A more contemporary explanation might be found in Project 2025, a comprehensive blueprint compiled by leading conservatives about how to shrink the federal workforce and push Washington further to the right. It spelled out how Trump might impose high tariffs around the globe, giving his administration more room to negotiate lower levies with trading partners in exchange for U.S. priorities.White House officials insist the new tariffs are more about closing trade deficits, stimulating U.S. manufacturing and generating government revenue than eventually negotiating new trading deals.But Trump has shown he is willing to back off on threats of tariffs in exchange for offers of concessions. His administration has said the president is always ready to make deals, a sign the new tariffs may prove to be more bargaining chip than permanent policy. Why do US trade imbalances matter? American trade policy created a U.S. trade imbalance worth $1.2 trillion last year, a gap that some experts believe should be addressed in order to ensure the countrys long-term economic strength. But many economists say the trade imbalances that Trump is looking to correct are based on more than countries just using high tariffs or protectionist trade practices to boost their own exports. Basing the White Houses tariff math solely on trade deficits, for instance, fails to take into account U.S. consumer demand. Americans relish buying BMWs assembled in Germany, as well as French wine and coffee beans from Guatemala, and their spending can fuel trade imbalances regardless of the tax and tariff policies of the countries producing those goods. That means any attempt to close U.S. trade gaps by tariffs will likely mean increasing the cost of imported goods that Americans are buying, which in turn could hurt the economy because of increased inflationary pressures.___Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Zeke Miller contributed to this report. WILL WEISSERT Weissert covers national politics and the White House for The Associated Press. He is based in Washington. twitter mailto

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth attends a joint news conference with Japan's Defense Minister Gen Nakatani at the Ministry of Defense in Tokyo Sunday, March 30, 2025. (Kiyoshi Ota/Pool Photo via AP)2025-04-03T18:37:12Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Pentagons acting inspector general announced Thursday that he would review Defense Secretary Pete Hegseths use of the Signal messaging app to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.The review will also look at other defense officials use of the publicly available encrypted app, which is not able to handle classified material and is not part of the Defense Departments secure communications network.Hegseths use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was added to a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz. The chain included Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis. The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements, the acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins, said in a notification letter to Hegseth. TARA COPP Copp covers the Pentagon and national security for the Associated Press. She has reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia. twitter mailto RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01021-2In a world of constant stimulation, the thalamus filters which thoughts we become aware of and which we dont.

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08951-xStrategic atom replacement enables regiocontrol in pyrazole alkylation

Jared Smith speaks about torpedo baseball bats during an interview at Victus Sports in King of Prussia, Pa., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)2025-04-03T18:38:32Z KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) A 70-year-old man who plays in an area senior hardball league popped into Victus Sports this week because he needed bats for the new season. Plus he just had to take some cuts with baseballs latest fad and see for himself if there really was some wizardry in the wallop off a torpedo bat.Ed Costantini, of Newtown Square, picked up the custom-designed VOLPE11-TPD Pro Reserve Maple, and took his hacks just like MLB stars and Victus customers Anthony Volpe or Bryson Stott would inside the companys batting cage and tracked the balls path on the virtual Citizens Bank Park on the computer screens.Most big leaguers use that often indistinguishable feel as a qualifier as to how they select a bat.Costantini had a similar process and thought the hype surrounding the torpedo since it exploded into the baseball consciousness over the weekend was a hoax. But after dozens of swings in the cage, where he said the balance was better, the ball sounded more crisp off the bat, the left-handed hitter ordered on the spot four custom-crafted torpedo bats at $150 a pop. The litmus test that I used was, I could see where the marks of the ball were, Costantini said. The swings were hitting the thickness of the torpedo as opposed to the end of the bat. More than just All-Stars want a crack at the torpedo a striking design in which wood is moved lower down the barrel after the label and shapes the end a little like a bowling pin and Costantinis purchase highlighted the surge of interest in baseballs shiny new toy outside the majors. Think of home runs in baseball, and the fans mind races to the mammoth distances a ball can fly when slugged right on the nose, or a history-making chase that captivates a nation.Of lesser interest, the ol reliable wood bat itself.That was, of course, until Paul Goldschmidt and Cody Bellinger hit back-to-back homers for the New York Yankees last Saturday to open a nine-homer barrage. Victus Sports, known as much for their vibrant bats painted as pencils or the Phillie Phanatic dressed as a Kings Guard, had three employees at the game and they started a text thread where they hinted to those back home that, perhaps more than home runs were taking off. Business was about to boom, too.Yankees crowed about the torpedo-shape concept that had baseball buzzing -- and pitchers grumbling. The scuttlebutt and headlines stoked their super curious peers, most with an eye out for any legal, offensive edge, into asking Victus and other bat manufacturers about the possibility of taking a swing with the most famous style of bat since Roy Hobbs grabbed a Wonderboy.Torpedo bats are driving an unprecedented surge in lumber curiosityVictus spent most of the last 14 years trying to help shape the future of baseball. The companys founders just never imagined that shape would resemble a bowling pin.It was the most talked about thing about bats that we ever experienced, Victus co-founder Jared Smith said.Victus isnt the only company producing the bulgy bats, but they were among the first to list them for sale online after the Yankees made them the talk of the sports world. The torpedo bat took the league by storm in only 24 hours, and days later, the calls and orders, and test drives -- from big leaguers to rec leaguers -- are humming inside the companys base, in a northwest suburb of Philadelphia. The amount of steam that its caught, this quickly, thats certainly surprising, Smith said. If the Yankees hitting nine home runs in a game doesnt happen, this doesnt happen.Victus was stamped this season as the official bat of Major League Baseball and business was already good: Phillies slugger Bryce Harper is among the stars who stick their bats on highlight reels.But that torpedo-looking hunk of lumber? It generated about as much interest last season in baseball as a .200 hitter. Victus made its first torpedoes around 2024 spring training when the Yankees reached out about crafting samples for their players. Victus, as dialed-in as anyone in the bat game, only made about a dozen last season, and about a dozen more birch or maple bats this spring. This week alone, try hundreds of torpedoes.Every two minutes, another one comes out of the machine, Smith said.Who knew there would be a baseball bat craze?On a good day, Victus makes 600-700 bats, but the influx of pro orders -- the company estimates at least half of every starting lineup uses Victus or Marucci bats -- has sent production into overdrive. The creation of a typical bat is usually a two-day process, but one can be turned around without a finish in about 20 minutes. Victus crafted rush-order bats Monday morning for a few interested Phillies and dashed to Citizens Bank Park for delivery moments before first pitch. All-Star third baseman Alec Bohm singled with one. Stott tested bats at the Marucci hit lab down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, churning through styles until the company found the right fit.They connect all these wires to you, and you swing 1,000 bats, Stott said. And they kind of tell you where youre hitting the ball mostly. Rookie of the year?Heres the surprising part of the torpedo bat: For all its early hype, the bat is no rookie in the game.The lethal lumber has been used by some sluggers in baseball for at least a year or two only, well, no one really noticed. Giancarlo Stanton and Francisco Lindor used torpedoes last season. Other players experimented with it and no one not the bulk of other players or journalists or fans ever really picked up on the newfangled advance in hitting innovation.Smith said only a few baseball junkies inquired about the bats.I think its just one of those things that until youre looking for it, you might not see it, Smith said. Now when you look at pictures, youre like, oh yeah, its a torpedo.Aaron Leanhardt, a former Yankees front-office staffer who now works for the Miami Marlins, was credited as the one who developed the torpedo barrel to bring more mass to a bats sweet spot.A member of Victus parent company, Marucci Sports, worked with Leanhardt in a Louisiana branch of their hit lab last year to get the bat off the ground and into the hands of big leaguers.I think getting past the shape being different was the hardest barrier, Smith said. Then the team goes out and hits those home runs like they did and everyone is willing to try it.Before last weekend, Victus had no plans to mass produce the bat, making it only available to professionals.Now, Smith said, I think its our job to kind of educate the public in whats out there.The odd shape off the bat like making a sausage, the meat is simply pushed down the casing has little to no effect at Victus on the dynamics of making a baseball bat. The cost is the same as a standard bat, too, with a sticker price starting at around $200. Only the slogan is punched up: Get your hands on the most-talked about bat in the game.The bat kings deliver their biggest hit yetVictus was created by Smith and Ryan Engroff in a Blackwood, New Jersey, garage in 2012 and exploded in popularity over the last decade thanks in the large part to its bat art. Bruce Tatum, an in-house artist known as The Bat King, calls his memorable designs such as the No. 2 pencil and crayon bats notably used in the Little League Classic swingable art. The Victus walls look straight out of an art gallery, only instead of classic paintings, rows and rows of colorful bats emblazoned with everything from Harpers face to Grittys eyes are on display.Normally people are here to talk about the Bat King, Smith said, laughing.He was busy, sketching ideas for next years bats for the baseball All-Star game in Philadelphia.Bruces cheesesteak bat, Im just telling you, is going to be the talk of the town, Smith said. I guarantee it.Victus has over 300 employees and 60 alone inside their King of Prussia headquarters. The company has outgrown its base and is busting at the seams, and when a bat suddenly goes viral, all our seams are exposed.The folks at Victus who previously have experimented with axe handle and puck knobs have no fear the bat will become the baseball equal to the NFLs tush push, a fresh wrinkle that some might try to legislate out of the game.MLB has relatively uncomplicated bat rules, stating under 3.02: The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood. It goes on to state there may be a cupped indentation up to 1 1/4 inches in depth, 2 inches wide and with at least a 1-inch diameter, and experimental models must be approved by MLB.The torpedo is 100% legal.Year after year, Victus bat business has picked up. Jonny Gomes used a Victus bat when he went deep in the 2013 World Series and Harper stamped the company as a major player when he played for Washington and swung a We The People bat and tossed it in the air to win the 2018 Home Run Derby.Our product kept getting better and it got to the point where he probably felt like we had the best bat, and we felt like we had the best bat, Smith said.Does it work?Theres not enough data yet to truly know how much oomph or hits and homers a torpedo bat may help some hitters. Cincinnatis Elly De La Cruz picked one up for the first time Monday and had a single, double and two home runs for a career-high seven RBIs.Not all hitters are believers - or at least feel like they need to tinker with their lumber.Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who hit an AL-record 62 homers in 2022 and 58 last year en route to his second AL MVP award, declined to try the new bat, asking, Why try to change something? Phillies All-Star shortstop Trea Turner said the hoopla was blown out of proportion.Youve still got to hit the ball, Turner said.Turner, though, said he was open to trying the torpedo.Arizona pitcher Zac Gallen grew up a Mark McGwire fan and compared the fad to the bloated barrel used by the retired St. Louis Cardinals sluggers old Nerf bat.The concept seems so simple. For it to take this long is wild, Gallen said.No matter. The bat is here today and not going anywhere except perhaps flying off the shelves. For bats to be the hot topic out in the zeitgeist is cool, Smith said. Its kind of like our time to shine, in a way.___AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb DAN GELSTON Gelston is an an Associated Press sports writer covering major college and pro sports in Philadelphia, including the 76ers, Flyers, Eagles, Phillies and Villanova. twitter mailto

Lynn Sokler, who retired from the CDC three weeks ago after working there almost two decades, protests with others in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in front of the headquarters in Atlanta, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Gray)2025-04-03T21:11:31Z A federal judge will temporarily block President Donald Trumps administration from cutting billions in federal dollars that support COVID-19 initiatives and public health projects throughout the country.U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island said Thursday that she plans to grant the court order sought by 23 states and the District of Columbia. They make a case, a strong case, for the fact that they will succeed on the merits, so Im going to grant the temporary restraining order, said McElroy, who plans to issue a written ruling later.New York Attorney General Letitia James tweeted about the judges decision immediately after the hearing, saying: Were going to continue our lawsuit and fight to ensure states can provide the medical services Americans need.Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie Kane objected to the temporary restraining order in court, but she said she was limited in the argument she could make against it, adding that her office was unable to thoroughly review the thousands of documents under the time limitation. The states lawsuit, filed Tuesday, sought to immediately stop the $11 billion in cuts. It said the loss of money which was allocated by Congress during the pandemic and mostly used for COVID-related initiatives, as well as for mental health and substance use efforts will devastate U.S. public health infrastructure, putting states at greater risk for future pandemics and the spread of otherwise preventable disease and cutting off vital public health services. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has defended the decision, saying that the money was being wasted since the pandemic is over. State and local public health departments already have laid off people, including nearly 200 employees at the Minnesota Department of Health. North Carolina says it stands to lose about $230 million, and California officials put their potential losses at $1 billion. The temporary block on chopping health funding is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the Trump administration, which is facing some 150 lawsuits on issues ranging from immigration to deep financial and job cuts at federal agencies to transgender rights. Federal judges have issued dozens of orders slowing at least for now the presidents ambitious conservative agenda.___AP reporter Lindsay Whitehurst in Washington contributed to this report.___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. DEVNA BOSE Bose is a public health reporter for The Associated Press, based in Jackson, Mississippi. She covers hospitals, rural health access and disparities, public health funding and other topics that broadly intersect with the health of communities. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 03 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01029-8After cancelling nearly all NIH projects studying transgender health, Trumps team instructs the US biomedical agency to study negative consequences of transitioning.

Dancers rehearse at Abbey Road's Studio One in London on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)2025-04-03T14:36:01Z LONDON (AP) In Abbey Roads Studio One, even a lick of paint could ruin everything.Famous for hosting Adele, Harry Styles and U2, its where the scores of Star Wars, Harry Potter and Wicked were recorded, as well as the soundtracks of blockbuster games like Call of Duty, Halo and Final Fantasy. Its also where Ryan Gosling delivered his memorable Im Just Ken for Barbie.Nearly a century after its opening, Studio One underwent a six-month, multimillion-pound refurbishment, with the main priority being the preservation of one very important thing: the sound.What we dont want to do is change the acoustics, so every minute detail in the room has been conserved and preserved, so the sound doesnt shift, said Sally Davies, managing director of Abbey Road Studios.The reverb of the 4,844-square-foot (450-square-meter) room has been maintained at 2.3 seconds, the same as it was in the 1970s. Theres been no redecorating or style makeover, leaving the original Art Deco wall panels untouched.We have simply washed down the walls to preserve that sound, said Davies, adding that the floor was re-sanded and oiled, but not varnished. Most of the upgrades, she explained, are technological upgrades in the control room. This room is just about preserving that magic. A pilgrimage for music fansOpened in 1931, this hallowed hall once a nine-bedroom house on a grand suburban street in Londons St. Johns Wood neighborhood became the worlds first recording studio. Its where stereo was invented and its visited every day by music fans from around the world, who are happy just to stand on the street outside.Davies says that more than a million people a year make a pilgrimage to the crossing outside, many to recreate the cover of The Beatles Abbey Road album and that number could increase after Sam Mendes upcoming biopics starring Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan, Harris Dickinson and Joseph Quinn as the Fab Four. And while John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are famously known for using Studio Two, they also made history in the larger Studio One, which they used for the worlds first global live performance, a rendition of All You Need Is Love beamed to television sets around the world in 1967.Before The Beatles, Studio One had already cemented its place in music history, when it was opened by British composer Sir Edward Elgar, who recorded his Land of Hope and Glory with the London Symphony Orchestra. Its also hosted other music greats like Maria Callas, Igor Stravinsky, Daniel Barenboim, Fats Waller and Glenn Miller.Due to its huge size, more than double Studio Two, it can fit a 100-piece orchestra and 100-member choir at the same time which is perfect for recording film soundtracks, and explains why six to seven out of every 10 Hollywood films are scored at Abbey Road, according to the studio. History being madeStanding on the balcony, overlooking the 40-foot-high (12-meter-high) room, Davies points out the original screen that was used to show Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) while musicians played along to record the soundtrack.Since then, everything from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Marvels Black Panther and Guardians of the Galaxy to Barbie were scored in Studio One. For the last, all the musicians came in with something pink, whether a pink instrument or piece of clothing.Oscar-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton has been recording in Studio One since 2009 and calls his creative home a spectacular space.Outside, it just looks like a normal house. And then you come in and you find this space in it thats like almost the size of a football pitch. In fact, I have played football in there once, he laughs.Pemberton is known for scoring Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse, Ferrari, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and creating the Slow Horses theme song and Strange Game, with Mick Jagger.Whats so exciting about a room like Studio One is what happens on the day is what happens for the rest of time, he says. Its like history is being made, whether its good history or bad history or whatever, youre making a moment then. Pemberton notes the stories, whether personal or musical, that have unfolded within the walls of Studio One. The ghosts are insane in there, he said.Davies agrees that the history adds to the enchantment.You walk into this room and you can feel it. There is a magic in the sound. It sounds phenomenal. There is a spirituality in who has been here, who has performed here, she says. So when we see artists come through, you know that immediate reaction of, Oh my gosh. Im in Studio One.To celebrate the reopening this week, Abbey Road Studios showcased an unusual art form for the space: dance, which incorporated Pembertons scores, remixed by resident artist Jordan Rakei and choreographed by Joseph Toonga. It kind of like threw me back a bit like, wow, it really is big, said Toonga of the first time he saw the studio. He then incorporated that feeling into a dance which spanned hip-hop, krumping and ballet.Up next, the first client to record in Studio One since the refurbishment is a hush-hush Hollywood franchise. But there are lots of secrets at Abbey Road. One of them is Pembertons plan to record the unique rattling sound of the new railings for a movie soundtrack.There was concern that the hollow, Art Deco-style bars would upset the acoustics of the room, and a backup plan was made to fill them with sand if they messed with the reverb.Luckily, the empty bars were allowed to stay because Pemberton is delighted by the noise they make when you run past them with keys its another dramatic sound that can only be created in Studio One and will make its way into theaters around the world, via a film score.___This story has been corrected to show that Studio One can fit a 100-piece orchestra and 100-member choir at the same time, not 110 each, and that the managing director is named Sally Davies, not Sally Davis.

El presidente Donald Trump en el evento en que anunci nuevos aranceles en la Casa Blanca el 2 de abril del 2025. (AP foto/Mark Schiefelbein)2025-04-03T22:21:41Z WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic officials in 19 states filed a lawsuit Thursday against President Donald Trumps attempt to reshape elections across the U.S., calling it an unconstitutional invasion of states clear authority to run their own elections.The lawsuit is the fourth against the executive order issued just a week ago. It seeks to block key aspects of it, including new requirements that people provide documentary proof of citizenship when registering to vote and a demand that all mail ballots be received by Election Day.The President has no power to do any of this, the state attorneys general wrote in court documents. The Elections EO is unconstitutional, antidemocratic, and un-American.Trumps order said the U.S. has failed to enforce basic and necessary election protection. Election officials have said recent elections have been among the most secure in U.S. history. There has been no indication of any widespread fraud, including when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. The order is the culmination of Trumps longstanding complaints about how U.S. elections are run. After his first win in 2016, Trump falsely claimed his popular vote total would have been much higher if not for millions of people who voted illegally. In 2020, Trump blamed a rigged election for his loss and falsely claimed widespread voter fraud and manipulation of voting machines. Trump has argued his order secures the vote against illegal voting by noncitizens, though multiple studies and investigations in the states have shown that its rare. It has received praise from the top election officials in some Republican states who say it could inhibit instances of voter fraud and will give them access to federal data to better maintain their voter rolls.The order also requires states to exclude any mail-in or absentee ballots received after Election Day, and puts states federal funding at risk if election officials dont comply. Some states count ballots as long as they are postmarked by Election Day or allow voters to correct minor errors on their ballots. Forcing states to change, the suit says, would violate the broad authority the Constitution gives states to set their own election rules. It says they decide the times, places and manner of how elections are run.Congress has the power to make or alter election regulations, at least for federal office, but the Constitution doesnt mention any presidential authority over election administration.We are a democracy not a monarchy and this executive order is an authoritarian power grab, said New York Attorney General Letitia James.A request sent to the White House was not immediately returned.The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts by the Democratic attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.Other lawsuits filed over the order argue it could disenfranchise voters because millions of eligible voting-age Americans do not have the proper documents readily available. People are already required to attest to being citizens, under penalty of perjury, in order to vote. Under the order, documents acceptable to prove citizenship would be a U.S. passport, a REAL ID-compliant drivers license that indicates the applicant is a citizen, and a valid photo ID as long as it is presented with proof of citizenship.Democrats argue that millions of Americans do not have easy access to their birth certificates, about half dont have a U.S. passport, and married women would need multiple documents if they had changed their name. That was a complication for some women during recent town elections in New Hampshire, the first ones held under a new state law requiring proof of citizenship to register.Not all REAL ID-compliant drivers licenses designate U.S. citizenship.___Cassidy reported from Atlanta. 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

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, talks to reporters at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)2025-04-03T23:28:40Z WASHINGTON (AP) After a long wait, the Senate is launching action on President Donald Trumps big, beautiful bill of tax breaks and spending cuts at a risky moment for the U.S. and global economy. More than a month after House Republicans surprised Washington by advancing their framework for Trumps tax breaks and spending cuts package, Senate Republicans voted Thursday to start working on their version. The 52-48 vote sets the stage for back-to-back Senate all-nighters spilling into Friday and the weekend. But work on the multitrillion-dollar package is coming as markets at home and abroad are on edge in the aftermath Trumps vast tariffs scheme, complicating an already difficult political and procedural undertaking.Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., opened the chamber Thursday saying they were expected to begin as soon as today embarking on what they hope will become the GOPs signature domestic policy package. Trump says hes on board and Republicans, in control of Congress, are eager to show the party is making progress toward delivering on their campaign promises. After that, its still long weeks, if not months, to go toward a final product. Democrats, as the minority party, dont have the votes to stop the GOP plan. But they intend to use the procedural tools available to prolong the process. Democrats argue that Republicans are focusing on tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of the programs and services millions of Americans rely on for help with health care, child care, school lunches and other everyday needs. Theyre mean, theyre nasty, theyre uncaring, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said about the Republicans.Senate Democrats are ready to spend the night and day ahead with floor debates over potential GOP cuts to Medicaid, veterans programs, DOGE cuts and the impact of Trumps tariffs. We, tonight and tomorrow, are going to show just who they are, Schumer said. Fundamental to the Senate package is making sure Trumps first-term tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of the year, are continued and made a permanent fixture of the tax code. The senators also will consider adding Trumps proposed tax cuts on tipped wages, Social Security income and others.The Senate package also would bolster border security funds by some $175 billion to carry out Trumps mass deportation campaign, which is running short of cash, and it would add national security funds for the Pentagon all priorities the Senate GOP tucked into an earlier version that was panned by House Republicans. Whats unclear is how it will all be paid for, since Republican deficit hawks typically require spending offsets to help defray the lost tax revenue and avoid piling onto the nations $36 trillion debt load.While House Republicans approved their package with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate Republicans are taking a different tack.Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is making the case that since the existing Trump tax breaks are the current policy, they are not considered new, and do not need to be offset with reductions in spending an approach Democrats compare to going nuclear with the normal rules. Democrats are vowing to put the strategy to the test before the Senate parliamentarian. Instead, Senate Republicans are considering offsets mostly for any new Trump tax breaks. Raising alarms from the most conservative budget hawks, the senators have set a floor of about $4 billion in budget reductions to health and other programs a fraction of the packages expected $4 trillion-plus price tag for tax breaks. GOP leaders are assuring the deficit hawks within their own ranks that the legislation says the cuts can rise to as much as $2 trillion.After an expected Friday night vote-a-rama, with dozens of amendments being offered to the package, the senators are planning to stay into Saturday if needed to take a final vote to approve it, sending it to the House for action. The House and Senate will ultimately need to merge their frameworks into a final product, expected in May, but House Speaker Mike Johnsons intention to have it all wrapped up by Memorial Day could prove optimistic.The political environment is uncertain, and the publics appetite for steep budget cuts is being tested in real time, with Trumps Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire Elon Musk blazing through federal offices, firing thousands of workers and shuttering long-running government mainstays from scientific research projects on diseases to educational services for schoolchildren to offices that help with Social Security, tax filing and the weather.At the same time, the staunchest fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate, many aligned with the Freedom Caucus, are pushing for even more cuts. Trump told senators publicly and privately this week he would have their backs, particularly when it comes to standing up for the spending reductions. At a White House announcing the tariffs Wednesday, Trump said the Senate plan had his complete and total support.The presidents steep tariffs threw the global economy into a tailspin Thursday, with stocks down around the world, the U.S. markets leading the way.__Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, March 16, 2023. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via AP, File)2025-04-03T20:34:17Z WASHINGTON (AP) A federal judge said Thursday that the Trump administration may have acted in bad faith by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country before a court could block their deportations to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge James Jeb Boasberg in Washington pressed a Justice Department lawyer to explain the governments actions in a high-stakes court hearing to determine whether the administration ignored his orders to turn around planes that were carrying deportees to El Salvador. The judge said he could issue a ruling as soon as next week on whether there are grounds to find anyone in contempt of court for defying the court order. The case has become a flashpoint in a battle between the judiciary and the Trump administration amid mounting White House frustrations over court orders blocking key parts of the presidents sweeping agenda. Trump has called for the judges impeachment, while the Justice Department has argued the judge is overstepping his authority. Boasberg ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime law Trump invoked over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The judge also ordered that any planes with Venezuelan immigrants that were already in the air be returned to the United States. That did not happen. Boasberg, who was appointed to the federal bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, said it appeared the administration had tried to get the deportees out of the country as quickly as possible before a court could step in. He told a Justice Department lawyer he suspects the government may have acted in bad faith throughout that day. If you really believed anything you did that day could survive a court challenge, I cannot believe you would have operated the way you did, Boasberg said. The Justice Department has said the administration didnt violate the judges order, arguing it didnt apply to planes that had already left U.S. airspace by the time his command came down. The Justice Department has noted that the judges written order said nothing about flights that had already left the U.S. and that the judge had no power to compel the president to return the planes anyway. The Trump administration has refused to answer the judges questions about when the planes landed and who was on board, contending they are considered state secrets. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign told the judge that details about the flights could be diplomatically sensitive, since the migrants were being sent to a third country that had agreed with the U.S. to hold them in their prison. Ensign also repeatedly said he didnt know any operational details of those March 15 deportation flights. I had no knowledge from my client that was the case, Ensign replied when asked if he knew during the court hearing that day that planes were already in the air or were about to take off.The Trump administration is urging the Supreme Court for permission to resume deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the rarely used Alien Enemies Act. The Justice Department says federal courts shouldnt interfere with sensitive diplomatic negotiations. It also claimed that migrants should make their case in a federal court in Texas, where they are being detained. 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

Jo Eun-jin, who stayed overnight on the street, waits for the start of a rally calling for impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to step down, near the Constitutional Court in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)2025-04-03T20:11:33Z SEOUL, South Korea (AP) South Koreas Constitutional Court is set to rule Friday on the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, either removing him from office or restoring his powers four months after the conservative leader threw the country into turmoil with an ill-fated declaration of martial law.The court was scheduled to issue its verdict in a nationally televised session to begin at 11 a.m. A ruling to uphold parliaments impeachment and remove Yoon from office requires the support of at least six of the courts eight justices.If the court orders Yoon removed, South Korea must hold a new presidential election within two months. If the court overturns his impeachment, Yoon will immediately return to presidential duties.Facing worries of potential violence after the ruling, police deployed crowd-control measures to their fullest extent. By Friday morning, they created an airtight maze of portable walls, folding fences, fiberglass barricades, and hundreds of buses and vans some of their wheels were tied together with ropes to prevent protesters from moving them to seal off nearly every road and alley leading to the court. Officers guarded the narrow gaps between vehicles and barricades, directing pedestrians through designated channels, checking IDs, and instructing them to walk only in a straight direction. Thousands of Yoon opponents rallied in nearby streets overnight, waving banners and sitting on the road with plastic cushions as they awaited the court ruling. The military said it plans to heighten its own surveillance posture. Yoons declaration of martial law on Dec. 3 lasted only six hours before he was forced to lift it after the liberal opposition-controlled legislature quickly managed to vote it down. Later in December, the assembly impeached Yoon, suspending his powers and sending his case to the Constitutional Court. Yoon is facing a separate criminal trial for alleged rebellion. Whatever Fridays verdict is, experts predict it will further deepen domestic divides. In the past four months, millions have taken to the streets to denounce or support Yoon, deepening South Koreas already severe conservative-liberal division. The most contentious issue at Yoons impeachment trial was why he sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, election offices and other places after declaring martial law.Yoon has said he dispatched soldiers to the assembly to maintain order and that his declaration of martial law was a desperate attempt to bring attention to the wickedness of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party. But senior military and police officials who were sent to the assembly have testified Yoon ordered them to detain rival politicians and prevent the assembly from voting to lift his order.Although the period of martial law ended without violence, the impeachment motion accuses Yoon of violating the constitution and other laws by suppressing assembly activities, attempting to detain politicians and undermining peace.Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the countrys acting leader, has repeatedly urged the rival sides to accept whatever ruling the court makes. HYUNG-JIN KIM Hyung-jin is an Associated Press reporter in Seoul, South Korea. He reports on security, political and other general news on the Korean Peninsula. twitter mailto KIM TONG-HYUNG Kim has been covering the Koreas for the AP since 2014. He has published widely read stories on North Koreas nuclear ambitions, the dark side of South Koreas economic rise and international adoptions of Korean children. twitter mailto

Passersby walk past Sayles Hall on Brown University's campus in Providence, R.I., May 7, 2012. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)2025-04-04T00:26:27Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Trump administration is planning to halt more than half a billion dollars in contracts and grants awarded to Brown University, adding to a list of Ivy League colleges that have had their federal money threatened as a result of their responses to antisemitism, a White House official said Thursday. Nearly $510 million in federal contracts and grants are on the line, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plan and spoke on condition of anonymity. In an email Thursday to campus leaders, Brown Provost Frank Doyle said the university was aware of troubling rumors about government action on its research money. At this moment, we have no information to substantiate any of these rumors, Doyle said. Brown would be the fifth Ivy League college targeted by President Donald Trumps administration, which is using federal money to enforce its agenda at colleges. Dozens of universities including every Ivy League school except Penn and Dartmouth are facing federal investigations into antisemitism following a wave of pro-Palestinian protests last year. Columbia University was the first one targeted, losing $400 million in federal money with threats to terminate more if it didnt make the campus safer for Jewish students. The school agreed to several demands from the government last month, including an overhaul of student discipline rules and a review of the schools Middle East studies department. The government later suspended about $175 million in federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania over a transgender swimmer who previously competed for the school. On Monday, a federal antisemitism task force said it was reviewing almost $9 billion in federal grants and contracts at Harvard University amid an investigation into campus antisemitism. And on Tuesday, Princeton University said the administration had halted dozens of its research grants. The pressure has created a dilemma for U.S. colleges, which rely on federal research funding as a major source of revenue.Trumps administration has promised a more aggressive approach against campus antisemitism, accusing former President Joe Biden of letting schools off the hook. It has opened new investigations at colleges and detained and deported several foreign students with ties to pro-Palestinian protests. An incoming assistant professor of medicine at Brown was deported to Lebanon last month for having openly admitted to supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral, the Department of Homeland Security said. During last school years campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war, Brown stood out for a deal it struck with student activists. In exchange for the students dismantling an encampment, the university committed to having its governing board vote on whether to divest from companies that protesters said were facilitating Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.The Corporation of Brown rejected the divestment proposal.___AP Education Writer Collin Binkley contributed. Mumphrey reported from Phoenix.___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. CHEYANNE MUMPHREY Mumphrey is a national writer who covers higher education. twitter mailto SEUNG MIN KIM Seung Min is a White House reporter. twitter mailto

A screen displays financial news as traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)2025-04-04T03:29:20Z HONG KONG (AP) Asian markets retreated Friday after Wall Street shuddered with a level of shock unseen since the COVID-19 impact tore on Trumps latest set of tariffs damage on the worlds economy.Futures for U.S. stocks and the oil prices declined.Tokyos Nikkei 225 lost 2.6% to 33,818.18, and Koreas Kospi fell 0.8% to 2,467.14 after the two countries pivoted to negotiating lower tariffs with Trumps administration.Australias S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.9% to 7,713.60. Chinese markets were closed for a holiday.Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10% on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union. Its plausible the tariffs altogether, which would rival levels unseen in roughly a century, could knock down U.S. economic growth by 2 percentage points this year and raise inflation close to 5%, according to UBS. Such a hit would be so big that it makes ones rational mind regard the possibility of them sticking as low, according to Bhanu Baweja and other strategists at UBS.Trump has previously said tariffs could cause a little disturbance in the economy and markets, and on Thursday he again downplayed the impact as he left the White House to fly to Florida. The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom and the country is going to boom, Trump said.The S&P 500 sank 4.8% to 5,396.52 Thursday, more than in major markets across Asia and Europe, for its worst day since the pandemic crashed the economy in 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 4% to 40,545.93, and the Nasdaq composite tumbled 6% to 16,550.61. Little was spared in financial markets as fear flared about the potentially toxic mix of weakening economic growth and higher inflation that tariffs can create. Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller U.S. companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped 6.6% to pull more than 20% below its record. Investors knew Trump was going to announce sweeping new tariffs, and fears surrounding it had already pulled Wall Streets main measure of health, the S&P 500 index, 10% below its all-time high. But Trump still managed to surprise them with the worst case scenario for tariffs, according to Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment officer at Sanctuary Wealth. Wall Street had long assumed Trump would use tariffs merely as a tool for negotiations, rather than as a long-term policy. But Wednesdays announcement may suggest Trump sees tariffs more as helping to solve an ideological goal than as an opening bet in a poker game. Trump talked about wresting manufacturing jobs back to the United States, which could take years. If Trump follows through on his tariffs, stock prices may need to fall much more than 10% from their all-time high in order to reflect the recession that could follow, along with the hit to profits that U.S. companies could take. The S&P 500 is now down 11.8% from its record set in February. Markets may actually be underreacting, especially if these rates turn out to be final, given the potential knock-on effects to global consumption and trade, said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management, though he sees Trumps announcement as more of an opening move than an endpoint for policy.Trump offered an upbeat reaction after he was asked about the markets drop as he left the White House to fly to his Florida golf club on Thursday.I think its going very well, he said. We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and its a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is.One wild card is that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in order to support the economy. Thats what it had been doing late last year before pausing in 2025. Lower interest rates help by making it easier for U.S. companies and households to borrow and spend. Yields on Treasurys tumbled in part on rising expectations for coming cuts to rates, along with general fear about the health of the U.S. economy. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.04% from 4.20% late Wednesday and from roughly 4.80% in January. Thats a huge move for the bond market.The Fed may have less freedom to move than it would like, though. While lower rates can goose the economy, they can also push up inflation. And worries are worsening about that because of tariffs, with U.S. households in particular bracing for sharp increases to their bills.The U.S. economy at the moment is still growing, of course. A report Thursday said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. Economist had been expecting to see an uptick in joblessness, and a relatively solid job market has been the linchpin keeping the economy out of recession. A separate report said activity for U.S. transportation, finance and other businesses in the services industry grew last month. But the growth was weaker than expected, and businesses gave a mixed picture of how they see conditions.Worries about a potentially stagnating economy and high inflation knocked down all kinds of stocks, leading to drops for four out of every five that make up the S&P 500. Best Buy fell 17.8% because the electronics that it sells are made all over the world. United Airlines lost 15.6% because customers worried about the global economy may not fly as much for business or feel comfortable enough to take vacations. Target tumbled 10.9% amid worries that its customers, already squeezed by still-high inflation, may be under even more stress. In other trading early Friday, the U.S. dollar rose to 146.05 from 145.93 Japanese yen. The euro gained to $1.1068 from $1.1052.

Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson celebrates his team's victory over Tennessee in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA college basketball tournament Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)2025-04-03T21:19:35Z Follow APs full coverage of March Madness.Get the AP Top 25 mens college basketball poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here. SAN ANTONIO (AP) A decade ago, Bruce Pearl of Auburn and Kelvin Sampson of Houston were emerging from exile two coaches who had been handed the harshest sanction imaginable by the NCAA and were looking to resurrect their once-successful careers. This week, theyre both coaching at the Final Four, the show-cause penalties that once stood as a scarlet letter in college sports now barely visible in their rearview mirrors. Their ascension from pariahs to the cusp of a championship Auburn plays Florida in one semifinal Saturday, while Houston faces Duke in the other look different, but no less impressive when viewed through the lens of the shifting priorities that have overtaken college sports over the last four years. The recruiting misdeeds that nearly submarined their careers seem almost quaint now in a cash-saturated world of name, image, likeness endorsement deals for players who can move around as freely as the coaches while the coaches worry as much about what the schools can pay them as the players they recruit. I can make a case that its easier if you have the funds to compete at the NIL level, Tennessee coach Rick Barnes told The Associated Press recently. If you dont, it makes it really difficult. I think thats where administrators have to realize: Are we giving coaches what they need to be at the level we want to? Coaching carousel brings questions about players, tooTheres nothing new about the college coaching carousel kicking into full swing this time of year. Whats unusual about 2025 is the nature of some of the moves. Five high-profile changes were made by coaches who won at least a game in March Madness. That was two more than last year, four more than in 2023 and two more than 2019, two years before NIL started.But while virtually all those moves were seen as steps up for the coaches taking new jobs nobody blinked when, say, Dusty May went from Florida Atlantic to Michigan or Nate Oats left Buffalo for Alabama this year seems different. In a move dripping with recriminations, bad feelings and a departing athletic director, Kevin Willard left a Power Four school at Maryland to coach a non-P4 school, albeit one with a better hoops resume, at Villanova. The next domino had Buzz Williams departing the SEC and the Texas A&M program he built to fill the opening at Maryland. One of the more traditional moves involved Will Wade, also a show-cause casualty from a now seemingly bygone era, parlaying success at McNeese to return to the big time, at North Carolina State of the ACC.Wades involvement in paying for recruits cost him his job at LSU and wrapped him in an FBI investigation that sent coaches to jail and, he said, ruined a lot of peoples lives for very little reason. That none of what he did would be considered wrong in todays world of above-the-table NIL payments to players is no excuse for him, he said. It wasnt right to do then and, you know, I paid for it, Wade told the AP after his hiring at NC State. Pearl, Sampson had recruiting tussles that would barely register todayThe stumbling blocks for both Sampson and Pearl also had to do with recruiting. Sampson made too many phone calls to a player who had already given verbal commitments to another school. Pearl invited a recruit to a barbecue at his house, then lied about it. Decades before that, Pearl was an assistant at Iowa when he recorded a call in which he asked a player, Deon Thomas, if an Illinois assistant had offered him a car as a recruiting enticement. Pearl didnt get in trouble for that one, though his reputation suffered and it took him nearly 15 years before hed get another chance in the big time.All that feels antiquated these days, when headlines about Dukes Cooper Flagg making $4.8 million or BYU star recruit AJ Dybantsa making $7 million in NIL raise eyebrows not because its against the rules, but simply because it lays out the vastly different stakes involved in college sports. A resource grab at schools that need footballPearl and Sampson are creatures of basketball at schools and conferences that need football to succeed. Neither of their athletic departments could be blamed for pushing their NIL resources heavily in the direction of the sport that produces the most revenue.Pearl remains confident that the Southeastern Conference, which placed a record 14 teams in March Madness this year, is on solid footing.Im sure in the SEC were going to be committed to being excellent in everything across the board men, women, all sports, Pearl said, while acknowledging the reality that the rulebook for this new era is still being written. Even with the Big 12s perennial success in basketball the conference has had a Final Four team in seven of the past 10 seasons Houston still has strides to make with a football program that went 4-8 last year. The question there, and many other places, is whether the Cougars have the resources to rebuild football while staying great at hoops. If one school decides to give 70% of its money to football, another school decides to give 75% to football, that 5% is a big number, UMass coach Frank Martin said of the calculations driving athletic department, coaches and players these days. We all want to be in a fair game. Itd be like asking one team to play in the NCAA Tournament with four players, instead of five.___AP Sports Writers Teresa Walker and Aaron Beard contributed. ___AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.

President Donald Trump, center, arrives on Air Force One at Miami International Airport, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)2025-04-04T03:42:02Z WASHINGTON (AP) Top congressional Democrats on Thursday protested the reported firing of Gen. Tim Haugh as director of the National Security Agency, with one lawmaker saying the decision makes all of us less safe.The Washington Post reported late Thursday that Haugh and his civilian deputy at the NSA, Wendy Noble, had been dismissed from those roles. Haugh also headed U.S. Cyber Command, which coordinates the Pentagons cybersecurity operations. The Post report cited two current U.S. officials and one former U.S. official who requested anonymity.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement: General Haugh has served our country in uniform, with honor and distinction, for more than 30 years. At a time when the United States is facing unprecedented cyber threats ... how does firing him make Americans any safer? Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was deeply disturbed by the decision.I have known General Haugh to be an honest and forthright leader who followed the law and put national security first I fear those are precisely the qualities that could lead to his firing in this Administration, Himes added. The Intelligence Committee and the American people need an immediate explanation for this decision, which makes all of us less safe. Earlier Thursday, President Donald Trump said he had fired some White House National Security Council officials, a move that came a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty. Loomer during her Oval Office conversation with Trump urged the president to purge staffers she deemed insufficiently loyal to his Make America Great Again agenda, according to several people familiar with the matter. They all spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel manner. Always were letting go of people, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he made his way to Miami on Thursday afternoon. People that we dont like or people that we dont think can do the job or people that may have loyalties to somebody else.The firings come as Trumps national security adviser Mike Waltz continues to fight calls for his ouster after using the publicly available encrypted Signal app to discuss planning for the sensitive March 15 military operation targeting Houthi militants in Yemen. Warner said Thursday night, It is astonishing, too, that President Trump would fire the nonpartisan, experienced leader of the National Security Agency while still failing to hold any member of his team accountable for leaking classified information on a commercial messaging app even as he apparently takes staffing direction on national security from a discredited conspiracy theorist in the Oval Office.Haugh met last month with Elon Musk, whose Department of Government Efficiency has roiled the federal government by slashing personnel and budgets at dozens of agencies. In a statement, the NSA said the meeting was intended to ensure both organizations are aligned with the new administrations priorities. Haugh had led both the NSA and Cyber Command since 2023. Both departments play leading roles in the nations cybersecurity. The NSA also supports the military and other national security agencies by collecting and analyzing a vast amount of data and information globally.Cyber Command is known as Americas first line of defense in cyberspace and also plans offensive cyberoperations for potential use against adversaries. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently ordered the office to pause some offensive cyberoperations against Russia, in another sign of how Trumps administration is transforming the work of the nations intelligence community.__Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller and David Klepper contributed to this report.

The interior of the destroyed Gordon-Hardy building after a severe weather passed through an industrial industrial park on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Jeffersontown, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)2025-04-04T05:35:30Z LAKE CITY, Ark. (AP) Parts of the Midwest and South faced the possibility of torrential rains and life-threatening flash floods Friday, while many communities were still reeling from tornadoes that destroyed whole neighborhoods and killed at least seven people.Forecasters warned of catastrophic weather on the way, with round after round of heavy rains expected in the central U.S. through Saturday. Satellite imagery showed thunderstorms lined up like freight trains to take the same tracks over communities in Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky, according to the national Weather Prediction Center in Maryland.The bulls-eye centered on a swath along the Mississippi River and included the more than 1.3 million people around Memphis, Tennessee.More than 90 million people were at risk of severe weather from Texas to Minnesota to Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center. Those killed in the initial wave of storms that spawned powerful tornadoes on Wednesday and early Thursday were in Tennessee, Missouri and Indiana. They included a Tennessee man and his teen daughter whose home was destroyed, and a man whose pickup struck downed power lines in Indiana. In Missouri, Garry Moore, who was chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District, died while likely trying to help a stranded motorist, according to Highway Patrol spokesperson Sgt. Clark Parrott. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said entire neighborhoods in the hard-hit town of Selmer were completely wiped out and said it was too early to know whether there were more deaths as searches continued. He warned people across the state to stay vigilant with more severe weather predicted. Dont let your guard down, he said during a Thursday evening news conference. Dont stop watching the weather. Dont stop preparing yourself. Have a plan.With flattened homes behind him, Dakota Woods described seeing the twister come through Selmer.I was walking down the street, Woods said Thursday. Next thing you know, I look up, the sky is getting black and blacker, and its lighting up green lights, and its making a formation of a twister or tornado. Flash flood threat looms over many states By late Thursday, extremely heavy rain was falling in parts of southeastern Missouri and western Kentucky and causing very dangerous/life threatening flash flooding in some spots, according to the National Weather Service.Heavy rains were expected to continue there and in other parts of the region in the coming days and could produce dangerous flash floods capable of sweeping away cars. The potent storm system will bring significant, life-threatening flash flooding each day, the National Weather Service said.Water rescue teams and sandbagging operations were being staged across the region, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency was ready to distribute food, water, cots and generators.Water rescues were already underway in flooded parts of Nashville, Tennessee, where the rain could persist for days after an unnerving period of tornado warnings that drained the batteries of some city sirens, the fire department said. Western Kentucky prepared for record rain and flooding in places that normally do not get inundated, Gov. Andy Beshear said. At least 25 state highways were swamped, mostly in the west, according to a statement from his office Thursday.Flash flooding is particularly worrisome in rural areas of the state where water can quickly rush off the mountains into the hollows. Less than four years ago, dozens died in flooding across eastern Kentucky.Extreme flooding across the corridor that includes Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, which have major cargo hubs, could also lead to shipping and supply chain delays, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist at AccuWeather.Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf. Tornadoes leave path of damage, and more could be comingUnder darkened skies Thursday morning, the remains of a used car dealership in Selmer stood roofless and gutted, with debris scattered across the car lot and wrapped around mangled trees. Some homes were ripped to their foundations in the Tennessee town, where three tornadoes were suspected of touching down.The Tennessee Highway Patrol released video of lightning illuminating the sky as first responders scoured the ruins of a home, looking for anyone trapped.In neighboring Arkansas, a tornado near Blytheville lofted debris at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers) high, according to weather service meteorologist Chelly Amin. The states emergency management office reported damage in 22 counties from tornadoes, wind, hail and flash flooding.The home where Danny Qualls spent his childhood but no longer lives was flattened by a tornado in northeast Arkansas.My husband has been extremely tearful and emotional, but he also knows that we have to do the work, Rhonda Qualls said. He was in shock last night, cried himself to sleep. Workers on bulldozers cleared rubble along the highway that crosses through Lake City, where a tornado with winds of 150 mph (241 kph) sheared roofs off homes, collapsed brick walls and tossed cars into trees.Mississippis governor said at least 60 homes were damaged. And in far western Kentucky, four people were injured while taking shelter in a vehicle under a church carport, according to the emergency management office in Ballard County.___Walker IV reported from Selmer, Tennessee, and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio. Associated Press writers Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee, Seth Borenstein in Washington; Isabella OMalley in Philadelphia; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Bruce Schreiner in Louisville, Kentucky; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Hallie Golden in Seattle; and Ed White in Detroit contributed. JOHN SEEWER Seewer covers state and national news for The Associated Press and is based in Toledo, Ohio. twitter mailto

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot address the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)2025-04-04T06:59:11Z BRUSSELS (AP) Britain and France on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks to bring a halt to fighting in Ukraine and ramped up pressure on Moscow by insisting that he owes the United States an immediate answer.Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting after a Kremlin official said on Monday that Moscow views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as a drawn-out process.Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.Britain and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the coalition of the willing to set up a force to police any future peace in Ukraine. Lammy said that while Putin should be accepting a ceasefire, he continues to bombard Ukraine. Its civilian population. Its energy supplies. We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing.Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks ago, and that Russia now owes an answer to the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after he promised last year to bring the war to a swift conclusion. Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes, Barrot said. It has to be yes. It has to be no. It has to be a quick answer. He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military service.The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up Ukraines armed forces the countrys best security guarantee since the U.S. took any prospect of NATO membership off the table. Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Delia Acarapi, who says her daughter died in an explosive attack, cries near the Hijos de Ingenio gold mine in Yani, Bolivia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)2025-04-03T17:29:50Z SORATA, Bolivia (AP) A powerful explosion killed at least five people, including a pregnant woman and 1-year-old baby, during a standoff between rival groups of gold miners early Thursday in northwestern Bolivia, police said, a rare instance of territorial disputes between the nations mining cooperatives turning fatal.The blast thundered through the Yani mining camp as two rival mining groups dispute access to the gold mine near the mountain town of Sorata, some 150 kilometers (about 90 miles) northwest of the countrys administrative capital of La Paz, said Col. Gunther Agudo, a local police officer. Several gold deposits straddle the remote area. Agudo had initially reported six people killed but revised the toll to five after firefighters finished recovering the bodies from under the rubble. The dead included three men, a pregnant woman and an infant, he said. Bolivias deputy interior minister, Jhonny Aguilera, said the suspected perpetrator of the attack was killed by the explosion, which was detonated by remote control.The predawn explosion at the mine struck a three-story house and set cars and tractors alight. The fires wrecked several other structures and cut electricity. Bolivias mining industry stands out for its huge sector of cooperatives legal groups of artisanal miners which drive 58% of mining production, according to the latest government figures. The thousands of groups also wield political clout in the resource-rich country where they have representation in Parliament. Cooperatives historically emerged in Bolivia as more established mining operations dismissed legions of workers in the risky, boom-and-bust business, compelling miners to organize themselves when commodity prices slumped and lay-offs loomed. Over the decades, cooperatives have increasingly fought over the chance to extract minerals hurling rocks and dynamite sticks at each other and against unionized, salaried workers from Bolivias state-run mining company, Comibol. Comibol came to dominate the crucial industry under former President Evo Morales, a socialist leader who governed the landlocked Andean nation from 2006 to 2019 and barred foreign companies from having a controlling stake in mineral extraction.In Thursdays clash, the struggle for control of certain veins of the gold reserve between two rival cooperatives had simmered for years, said Jhony Silva, a legal adviser to one of them. Gold remains one of Bolivias main mineral exports, with almost $2.87 billion worth of the mineral shipped out of the country in 2023. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

A person watches at site of an under construction high-rise building that collapsed after an earthquake in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, April, 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)2025-04-04T08:18:26Z BANGKOK (AP) Search teams pulled more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake rocked Myanmar killing more than 3,100 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country that was already devastated by civil war.United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, was to arrive Friday in an effort to spur action following the quake. Ahead of his visit, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims to match the scale of this crisis, and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner, he said Thursday. Myanmar authorities said Thursday that 3,145 people had been killed, with another 4,589 people injured and 221 missing, and did not immediately update the figures on Friday. Britain, which had already given $13 million to purchase emergency items like food, water and shelter, pledged an additional $6.5 million in funds to match an appeal from Myanmars Disasters Emergency Committee, according to the U.K. Embassy in Yangon. Many international search and rescue teams were also on the scene, and eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia were operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmars military-run government. Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore were helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region. The Trump administration has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to U.S. foreign assistance.On Friday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake March 28, authorities said. The last reported rescue came Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay. The quake also shook neighboring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued Friday. Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.Myanmars military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations. As concerns grew that ongoing fighting could hamper humanitarian aid efforts, the military declared a temporary ceasefire Wednesday, through April 22. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule. On Thursday, however, there were renewed airstrikes in Kayah state, also known as Karenni, in eastern Myanmar, according to witnesses. The military has said that it would still take necessary measures against resistance groups, if they use the ceasefire to regroup, train or launch attacks, and the groups have said they reserved the right to defend themselves._____Associated Press Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report. DAVID RISING Rising covers regional Asia-Pacific stories for The Associated Press. He has worked around the world, including covering the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine, and was based for nearly 20 years in Berlin before moving to Bangkok. twitter mailto

Billy O'Keefe celebrates victory in a six-man-scramble at a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)2025-04-04T04:13:18Z SHIPLEY, England (AP) Sitting around a wrestling ring, churchgoers roared as local hero Billy OKeeffe body-slammed a fighter named Disciple. Beneath stained-glass windows, they whooped and cheered as burly, tattooed wresters tumbled into the aisle during a six-man tag-team battle.This is Wrestling Church, which brings blood, sweat and tears mostly sweat to St. Peters Anglican church in the northern England town of Shipley. Its the creation of Gareth Thompson, a charismatic 37-year-old who says he was saved by pro wrestling and Jesus and wants others to have the same experience. Thompson says the outsized characters and scripted morality battles of pro wrestling fit naturally with a Christian message.Boil it down to the basics, its good versus evil, he said. When I became Christian, I started seeing the wrestling world through a Christian lens. I started seeing David and Goliath. I started seeing Cain and Abel. I started seeing Esau having his heritage stolen from him. And Im like, We could tell these stories. Gareth Angel Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity stands ringside at St Peters Church in Shipley before one of the charitys monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Gareth Angel Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity stands ringside at St Peters Church in Shipley before one of the charitys monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A match made in heavenChurch attendance in the U.K. has been declining for decades, and the 2021 census found that less than half of people in England and Wales now consider themselves Christian. Those who say they have no religion rose from 25% to 37% in a decade.That has led churches to get creative in order to survive.Youve got to take a few risks, said the Rev. Natasha Thomas, the priest in charge at St. Peters. She acknowledged that she wasnt entirely sure what it was I was letting myself in for when she agreed to host wrestling events. Rev. Natasha Thomas is preaching to spectators before the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Rev. Natasha Thomas is preaching to spectators before the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Its not church as you would know it. Its certainly not for everyone, she said. But its bringing in a different group of people, a different community, than we would normally get.At a recent Wrestling Church evening, almost 200 people older couples, teenagers, pierced and tattooed wrestling fans, parents with excited young children packed into chairs around a ring erected under the vaulted ceiling of the century-old church. After a short homily and prayer from Thomas, it was time for two hours of smackdowns, body slams and flying headbutts. The atmosphere grew cheerfully raucous, as fans waved giant foam fingers and hollered knock him out! at participants.Some longtime churchgoers have welcomed the infusion of energy. Spectators cheer proceedings during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Spectators cheer proceedings during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Spectators cheer proceedings during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Spectators cheer proceedings during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More I think its absolutely wonderful, said Chris Moss, who married her husband Mike in St. Peters almost 50 years ago.You can look at some of the wrestlers and think she scrunched her face in distaste. But talking to them made her realize you shouldnt judge a book by its cover.Wrestling was a lifelineThompson, whose wrestling moniker is Gareth Angel, both wrestles and presides over the organized mayhem. Hes a mix of preacher and ringmaster, wearing a T-shirt that says Pray, eat, wrestle, repeat.Hes loved wrestling since it provided solace and release during a troubled upbringing that saw him survive childhood sexual abuse and a period of homelessness as a teenager.I could watch Shawn Michaels and the Rock and Stone Cold (Steve Austin) and I could be like, I want to be like them, he said. So its always been an escape for me, and a release and a way to get away from stuff. But then God has obviously turned that around now and its become this passion. Gareth Angel Thompson body slams Young Johnty during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Gareth Angel Thompson body slams Young Johnty during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More He found Christianity in 2011, ran his first Wrestling Church event in a former nightclub-turned-church in 2022, and moved to St. Peters last year.As well as the monthly Saturday night shows, his charity Kingdom Wrestling runs training sessions for adults and children in a back room of the church, along with womens self-defense classes, a mens mental health group and coaching for children who have been expelled from school.For many in the close-knit community of U.K. wrestlers and fans, religion is a new ingredient, but not an unwelcome one.Im mainly here for the wrestling, said 33-year-old Liam Ledger, who wrestles as Flamin Daemon Crowe. Sitting in a pungent changing room as wrestlers discussed fight plans, donned knee pads and laced up their many-holed boots, he said its a bit surreal when baptisms are held between bouts.It works both ways, he said. Theres people that come here that are big on religion, and theyre here for all of that sort of stuff. And then they go, Oh, actually this wrestling is sort of fun. Kiara, Kingdom Wrestlings reigning womens champion, said the organization has helped her bring her Catholic faith into her wrestling life.Its thanks to Kingdom Wrestling that Ive had the confidence to pray in the locker room now before matches, said Kiara, 26, known outside the ring as Stephanie Sid. I invite my opponent to pray with me, pray that we have a safe match, pray that theres no injuries and pray that we entertain everybody here. A cross is seen on the hand of Gareth 'Angel' Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity during a wrestling bout at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) A cross is seen on the hand of Gareth 'Angel' Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity during a wrestling bout at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Stephanie Sid who goes by the stage name Tiara poses for a picture before a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Stephanie Sid who goes by the stage name Tiara poses for a picture before a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Going for growthOnly a handful of people have gone from watching the wrestling to attending Sunday-morning services at St. Peters, but Wrestling Church baptized 30 people in its first year. Thompson, whose brand of born-again Christianity is more muscular than many traditional Anglicans, plans to expand to other British cities. One day, he says, he may start his own church.There has long been overlap between Christianity and wrestling in the U.S., where figures like Thompsons hero Shawn Michaels proudly proclaim their faith. But Britain is a less religious place, and Shipley, a former mill town 175 miles (280 kilometers) north of London, is a long way from the Bible Belt.Thompson, though, is unfazed by doubters.People say, Oh, wrestling and Christianity, theyre two fake things in a fake world of their own existence, he said. If you dont believe in it, of course you will think that of it. But my own personal experience of my Christian faith is that it is alive and living, and it is true. The wrestling world, if you really believe in it, you believe that its true and you can suspend your disbelief.You suspend it because you want to get lost in it. You want to believe in it. You want to hope for it. A six-man-scramble plays out in the ring at a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) A six-man-scramble plays out in the ring at a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Tucker, a former WWE NXT UK wrestler, stands on the ropes at the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Tucker, a former WWE NXT UK wrestler, stands on the ropes at the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestlers Will Valour, left speaks with fellow competitor Lawson, both stage names, backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of the Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestlers Will Valour, left speaks with fellow competitor Lawson, both stage names, backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of the Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestlers prepare backstage for a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestlers prepare backstage for a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peter's Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025.(AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestler Liam Ledger aka Daemon Crowe sits backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of the Kingdom Wrestling's monthly shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestler Liam Ledger aka Daemon Crowe sits backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of the Kingdom Wrestling's monthly shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestling themed memorabilia is seen backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestling themed memorabilia is seen backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wesley Nsereko, right, is proclaimed victor over Daemon Crowe aka Liam Ledger by referee Kate Crosby during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wesley Nsereko, right, is proclaimed victor over Daemon Crowe aka Liam Ledger by referee Kate Crosby during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A six-man-scramble spills out of the ring at a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) A six-man-scramble spills out of the ring at a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestling figurines are seen backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestling figurines are seen backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Mini wrestling belts are seen with self-help and religious themed books backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Mini wrestling belts are seen with self-help and religious themed books backstage at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one of Kingdom Wrestling's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Sarlett high fives fans as she makes her ringwalk before fighting Tiara during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Sarlett high fives fans as she makes her ringwalk before fighting Tiara during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Referee Katie Crosby holds up the contested belt before Tiaras bout against Sarlett, left, during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Referee Katie Crosby holds up the contested belt before Tiaras bout against Sarlett, left, during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A detail is seen on the shirt of Gareth 'Angel' Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity at St Peter's Church in Shipley after one of the charity's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) A detail is seen on the shirt of Gareth 'Angel' Thompson, founder of the Kingdom Wrestling charity at St Peter's Church in Shipley after one of the charity's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Kingdom Wrestling merchandise is seen for sale at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one the charity's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Kingdom Wrestling merchandise is seen for sale at St Peter's Church in Shipley before one the charity's monthly wrestling shows, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Wrestler Brandon Prince makes his ringwalk at the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Wrestler Brandon Prince makes his ringwalk at the Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Stephanie Sid aka Tiara is proclaimed winner over Sarlett during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Stephanie Sid aka Tiara is proclaimed winner over Sarlett during a Kingdom Wrestling show at St Peters Church in Shipley, Saturday, March 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More ___Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the APs collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. JILL LAWLESS Lawless is an Associated Press reporter covering U.K. politics and more. She is based in London. twitter mailto

Nature, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08788-4Author Correction: Traversable wormhole dynamics on a quantum processor

President Donald Trump, driven by his son Eric Trump, arrives at Trump National Doral during the LIV Golf Miami tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-04-03T22:08:00Z WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump offered a rosy assessment after the stock market dropped sharply Thursday over his tariffs, saying, I think its going very well.The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, he said when asked about the market as he left the White House to fly to one of his Florida golf clubs. President Donald Trump, driven by his son Eric Trump, arrives at Trump National Doral during the LIV Golf Miami tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President Donald Trump, driven by his son Eric Trump, arrives at Trump National Doral during the LIV Golf Miami tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 1,600 points on Thursday as U.S. stocks led a worldwide selloff after the Republican presidents announcement of tariffs against much of the world ignited a shock like none seen since the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump on Wednesday announced a minimum tariff of 10% on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union.The announcement jolted markets worldwide, but Trump said that was to be expected. He compared the United States to a sick patient in need of surgery when asked by a reporter for his reaction to the worst stock market drop in years.I think its going very well. We have an operation, like when a patient gets operated on and its a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is, he said, an apparent reference to the selloff. He talked about trillions of dollars in investment that is coming into our country from companies that want to make their products in the U.S. to avoid tariffs. The rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal, he said.Later, speaking with the reporters on aboard Air Force One, Trump said that hed be open to using tariffs to negotiate with other countries and that it would depend on whether they had something phenomenal to offer in return. He maintains that other countries have been taking advantage of the U.S. for a long time and he wants it to stop. US President Donald Trump appears on a television screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) US President Donald Trump appears on a television screen at the stock market in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More For many years, weve been at the wrong side of the ball and Ill tell you what, I think its going to be unbelievable, Trump said as he left the White House to attend a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his club in Doral, Florida.____ DARLENE SUPERVILLE Superville covers the White House for The Associated Press, with a special emphasis on first ladies and first families.

President Donald Trump, driven by his son Eric Trump, arrives at Trump National Doral during the LIV Golf Miami tournament, Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-04-04T04:01:36Z WASHINGTON (AP) The U.S. job market is slowing at a time when Americans are increasingly anxious about what President Donald Trumps trade wars are going to do to the economy.When the Labor Department releases employment numbers for March on Friday, they are expected to show that U.S. businesses, government agencies and nonprofits added 130,000 jobs last month, down from 151,000 in February, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. The unemployment rate is forecast to tick up to 4.2% in March from 4.1% in February.Those would unspectacular but not terrible hiring numbers. But the fear is that things might get worse from here.President Donald Trumps trade wars including the sweeping Liberation Day import taxes he announced Wednesday threaten to drive up prices, disrupt commerce and invite retaliatory tariffs from Americas trading partners. Another threat comes from the presidents promise to deport millions of immigrants who are working in the United States illegally. In the past several years, those workers have eased labor shortages and helped the economy keep growing. If theyre deported or frightened out of the job market, companies could have to cut back on what they do or increase wages and raise prices, potentially feeding inflation. Likewise, purges of the federal workforce by Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to threaten weigh the labor market and push up unemployment. Still, the impact of Musks firings is only starting to show up.We do not expect DOGE-driven job cuts to be a sizable drag in the overall March hiring numbers, Shruti Mishra, economist at Bank of America, wrote in a commentary. The numbers are too small to move the needle on the broader labor market.Mishra forecasts 185,000 new jobs last month, considerably higher than economists consensus, partly because she expects hiring at leisure and hospitality companies like hotels and restaurants to rebound after being pushed down by unusually cold weather in January and February. The job market has cooled from the red-hot hiring days of 2021-2023. Employers added 151,000 jobs in February and 125,000 in January. Not bad but down from monthly averages of 168,000 last year, 216,000 in 2023, 380,000 in 2022 and a record 603,000 in 2021 as the economy surged back from COVID-19 lockdowns.The economy has been remarkably durable in the face high interest rates.In 2022 and 2023, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times to combat inflation. Economists expected the higher borrowing costs to tip the United States into recession. But they didnt. Consumers kept spending, employers kept hiring and the economy kept growing.Inflation came down allowing the Fed to cut rates three times last year. But then progress against inflation stalled, forcing the Fed to put off more rate cuts this year.Now there are increasing worries about the health of the economy. The University of Michigans consumer sentiment survey last month showed that two-thirds of American consumers expected unemployment to rise over the next year the highest reading in 16 years. The U.S. economy is in good shape at the start of the second quarter, but the ongoing trade war has increased the risk of near-term recession dramatically, Ershang Liang of PNC Economics wrote in a commentary Thursday.Still, the slowdown, if one is coming, may not show up in Fridays job numbers.Thomas Simons, chief economist at Jefferies, says the March numbers may be inflated by seasonal adjustments and end up getting revised lower in coming months. After we see more data, and eventually a number of revisions, this period of time in the labor market will probably look quite a bit worse than it does now, he wrote in a commentary Thursday.

A man walks past Apple and Nike stores in Beijing, China, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)2025-04-04T10:53:12Z BANGKOK (AP) Countries and industries were scrambling Friday to respond as President Donald Trumps latest tariffs hikes upend global trade and world markets.China responded to the 34% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on imports from China by announcing it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all U.S. products beginning April 10.Taiwans president promised to provide support to industries most vulnerable to the 32% tariffs Trump ordered in his Liberation Day reciprocal tariffs announcement. Vietnam said its deputy prime minister would visit the U.S. for talks on trade. Some, like the head of the EUs European Commission, have vowed to fight back while promising to improve the rules book for free trade. Others said they were hoping to negotiate with the Trump administration for relief. Fighting backAs with earlier countermoves to U.S. trade penalties, Beijing hit back with targeted action, as well as its universal 34% tariff on all products from the U.S. The Commerce Ministry in Beijing said it will impose more export controls on rare earths, which are materials used in high-tech products such as computer chips and electric vehicle batteries. Included in the list was samarium and its compounds, which are used in aerospace manufacturing and the defense sector. Another element called gadolinium is used in MRI scans. Chinas customs administration said it had suspended imports of chicken from two U.S. suppliers, Mountaire Farms of Delaware and Coastal Processing. It said Chinese customs had repeatedly detected furazolidone, a drug banned in China, in shipments from those companies. Additionally, the Chinese government said it has added 27 firms to lists of companies subject to trade sanctions or export controls.For good measure, China also filed a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization, saying the U.S. tariffs were a typical unilateral bullying practice that endangers the stability of the global economic and trade order. Seize the day India was hit by a 26% tariff rate, lower than the 34% for Chinese exports and 46% for Vietnam. Its Commerce Ministry that it was studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development in U.S. trade policy. It said talks were underway on a trade agreement, including deepening supply chain integration. The U.S was New Delhis biggest trading partner in 2024 with two-way trade estimated at $129 billion, according to U.S. data. They have set an ambitious target of more than doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. Most pharmaceuticals and other medicines, important Indian exports to the U.S., are exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. However, diamonds and other gems, another major export industry, are subject to the higher duties.Business groups said they viewed the challenge as a chance to improve Indias competitiveness. At a time when global trade dynamics are shifting rapidly, Indian exporters must be equipped with the right policies, strategies, and support to compete effectively, S.C. Ralkan, head of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, said in a statement. We need to talkMost U.S. trading partners have emphasized they hope negotiations can help resolve trade friction with Washington. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he was prepared to fly to Washington, in a last-ditch effort to forestall the 24% tariffs Trump ordered for exports from the biggest Asian U.S. ally. The global trading system has serious deficiencies, the president of the EUs European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Thursday while on a visit to Uzbekistan. But she chided Trump, saying that reaching for tariffs as your first and last tool will not fix it. This is why from the onset we have always been ready to negotiate with the United States. In Italy, Premier Giorgia Meloni told state TV she believes the 20% U.S. tariffs on exports from Europe were wrong, but it is not the catastrophe that some are making it out to be. Her government planned to meet next week with representatives of affected sectors to formulate plans. We need to open an honest discussion on the matter with the Americans, with the goal, at least from my point of view, of removing tariffs, not multiplying them, Meloni said. Vietnams Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Pham Thu Hang, said Hanoi would keep talking with the U.S. to find practical solutions as 46% U.S. tariffs threatened to decimate exports of footwear, electronics, textiles and seafood.If enforced, would negatively impact bilateral economic and trade relations as well as the interests of businesses and people in both countries, Hang said in comments cited by state-run media, which reported that the deputy prime ninister and former finance minister Ho Duc Phoc was scheduled to visit the U.S. for trade talks next week. A helping handTaiwan President Lai Ching-te said he will offer the greatest support to industries most impacted by the new tariffs. Taiwans trade surplus with the U.S. is relatively high partly because the island is a major source of computer chips and other advanced technology. Lai said in a statement on his Facebook page that We feel that this is unreasonable and are also worried about the subsequent impact these measures may have on the global economy.Lai said he instructed Premier Cho Jung-tai to work closely with industries that are impacted and to communicate with the public about their plans to stabilize the economy.Japans leader Ishiba and other governments also said they were preparing countermeasures to help industries cope. Likewise, von der Leyen said the EU was consulting with steel and auto makers, pharmaceutical companies and other industries about how to give them more breathing space.Looking elsewhereTrumps decision to sharply raise tariffs on countries spanning the globe is self-defeating, Wang Huiyao, president of the Chinese think tank Center for China and Globalization, said in an interview. The latest tariffs impose heavy burdens on some countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Its a trade war with the world, Wang said, while Chinas strategy is to trade more with Southeast Asia and Latin America, with Europe, the Middle East and other developing nations. The likely outcome is that China will become the largest trading nation and its economy will be trading more with other nations and the U.S. may ... become more isolated, Wang said. Europe will work to build more bridges and as a regional economic bloc of 450 million people, larger than the United States, it also has its own huge market, said von der Leyen, the EC president. The EU is its own safe harbor in tumultuous times, she said. ___AP journalists from around the world contributed. ELAINE KURTENBACH Based in Bangkok, Kurtenbach is the APs business editor for Asia, helping to improve and expand our coverage of regional economies, climate change and the transition toward carbon-free energy. She has been covering economic, social, environmental and political trends in China, Japan and Southeast Asia throughout her career. twitter mailto

Kumarakulasingham Dinojan, 15, right, who lost his left hand below his wrist and has damaged fingers in his right hand from a mine blast six years ago, spends time with his brother Vilvaraj Jethurshan, 16, left, outside their house in Mankindy, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)2025-04-04T05:28:14Z MANKULAM, Sri Lanka (AP) Thavarathnam Pushparani fought on the front lines for the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels against the Sri Lankan forces in its decadeslong separatist war and later took to clearing the land mines on the same battle lines.But the Trump administrations suspension of aid threatens Sri Lankas demining operations, pushing the livelihoods of thousands like Pushparani into uncertainty.What is more uncertain for Sri Lanka now is its obligation to rid the island nation of mines by 2028 under the Ottawa Treaty, which it ratified in 2017.Pushparani has experienced the civil war in its full fury. In her family, her husband, father and two brothers died fighting for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebel group was formally known. Two other siblings are missing. Thavarathnam Pushparani, 56, puts on her protective gear to work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani, 56, puts on her protective gear to work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thavarathnam Pushparani, right, directs her team members as they prepare to work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani, right, directs her team members as they prepare to work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thavarathnam Pushparani, left, monitors a fellow worker as they work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani, left, monitors a fellow worker as they work in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thavarathnam Pushparani holds up her mobile phone to show a portrait of herself from the time she fought for the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels against Sri Lankan forces, at her home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani holds up her mobile phone to show a portrait of herself from the time she fought for the now-defeated Tamil Tiger rebels against Sri Lankan forces, at her home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More She was born in eastern Sri Lanka and while still in school, her family had to move to the northern parts of the nation after a countrywide ethnic pogrom against minority Tamils by majority Sinhala mobs in 1983.The incident stirred up emotions among many Tamil youth who joined militant organizations to fight for an independent state for the Tamils. Pushparani too joined the Tamil Tigers while still a teenager in school. Because the whole of my family was with the organization they arranged my marriage. My eldest daughter was born in 1990 and the younger one was born in 1992. My husband died in battle in 1996 and my children were raised in the Sencholai home, run by the organization, said Pushparani. She was reunited with her children when the fighting ended in 2009 and started working with demining groups for a living. Thavarathnam Pushparani hangs a portrait of herself with her late husband and their two daughters at her house in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani hangs a portrait of herself with her late husband and their two daughters at her house in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thavaraththinam Tharsini, left, joins her mother Thavarathnam Pushparani who is on a video call with her granddaughter at their home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavaraththinam Tharsini, left, joins her mother Thavarathnam Pushparani who is on a video call with her granddaughter at their home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Thavarathnam Pushparani, left, spends time with her daughter Thavaraththinam Tharsini at their home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani, left, spends time with her daughter Thavaraththinam Tharsini at their home in Paranthan, Sri Lanka, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Funds pending reviewDemining operations in Sri Lanka started in 2002 during a ceasefire period and the U.S. has been the major donor among 11 countries supporting the effort, contributing about 34% of the $250 million grants received for the projects so far.The U.S. contribution was 45% of the grants received last year, according to M.M Nayeemudeen, director of the state-run National Mine Action Center.Thanks to the international generosity, the demining operations continue to date despite being interrupted for a few years because of the break down of the ceasefire. They have so far managed to clear more than 2.5 million anti-personnel, anti-tank, small arms ammunition and unexploded ordnance. Vilvaraj Vinothan, 30, who works for the demining agency Mine Advisory Group, excavates the ground in search for unexploded explosive devices in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Vilvaraj Vinothan, 30, who works for the demining agency Mine Advisory Group, excavates the ground in search for unexploded explosive devices in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Out of 254 square kilometers of land that originally needed to be cleared, only about 23 square kilometers are left to deal with. Whether that can be achieved by the 2028 deadline will depend on continued funding.Nayeemudeen said once the aid suspension was announced, Sri Lankas foreign ministry appealed and the U.S allowed the usage of its allocated funds pending a review, a decision on which is expected on May 1.We hope that on completion of the 90-day review period that commenced from Jan. 24, 2025, the U.S government funding assistance will continue, said Ananda Chandrasiri head of Delvon Assistance for Social Harmony, one of the four demining groups operating in the country.Otherwise it will create a grave problem for Sri Lanka to achieve mine-free status by the end of 2027 as targeted ... A huge reduction of staffing levels of the four operators would be inevitable. It looked like perfumed powderThere are around 3,000 workers, most of them recruited from among the civil war-affected communities. With the uncertainty, some groups have already started terminating their staff, Nayeemudeen said.Sri Lankas civil war ended in 2009 when government troops crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels, ending their quarter-century separatist campaign. According to conservative U.N. estimates, about 100,000 people were killed in the conflict. Thavarathnam Pushparani, second left in front row, listens to the safety instructions with her fellow workers before stepping into a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Thavarathnam Pushparani, second left in front row, listens to the safety instructions with her fellow workers before stepping into a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More A worker in protective gear works in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) A worker in protective gear works in a contaminated mining area in Mankulam, Sri Lanka, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Civilian properties were demined, but large areas were still contaminated when hundreds of thousands of civilians who were displaced by the conflict came back to resettle. Mine awareness campaigns were held, but there were many accidents.Kumarakulasingham Dinojan has lost his left hand below his wrist and has damaged fingers in his right hand from a mine blast. As a 9-year-old boy, he tried to open a metal container that he found in the woods. His brother, who was playing with him, also suffered wounds.My grandmother went into the woods to get firewood and we also followed her. We did not know that she had reached home through another way. We found a container which looked like a perfumed powder, and when we tried to open it, it exploded, said Dinojan. Brothers Vilvaraj Vinothan and Kulasingham Dinojan walk in a field near their home where a landmine exploded six years ago leaving them both injured, in Mankindy, Sri Lanka. Scars from wounds caused by a landmine explosion six years ago are seen on the legs of Vilvaraj Jethurshan, 16, in Mankindy, Sri Lanka, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Scars from wounds caused by a landmine explosion six years ago are seen on the legs of Vilvaraj Jethurshan, 16, in Mankindy, Sri Lanka, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Kumarakulasingham Dinojan, 15, who lost his left hand below his wrist and has damaged fingers in his right hand from a mine blast six years ago, in Mankindy, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Kumarakulasingham Dinojan, 15, who lost his left hand below his wrist and has damaged fingers in his right hand from a mine blast six years ago, in Mankindy, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More There were people who were injured or killed trying to open mines and use the explosives for fishing.Vidya Abhayagunawardena, coordinator of the Sri Lanka Campaign to Ban Land Mines, said its critical for Sri Lanka to ratify Protocol V on Explosive Remnants of War. He also called for the enactment of domestic legislation to enforce the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified in 2016, to bolster the legal rights of the countrys disabled population.Dinojans older brother, Vilvaraj Vinothan, said his brothers becoming land mine victims made him take action and become involved in mine clearance. He has worked with the Mine Advisory Group for six years.Only when the land was being cleared that I understood how we should deal with the mines, he said. Thats when I decided to help, knowing it would benefit the entire community. Vilvaraj Vinothan, center, who works for a demining agency, poses with his younger brothers Kumarakulasingham Dinojan, right, and Vilvaraj Jethurshan, both injured in a land mine explosion, in Mankindi, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Vilvaraj Vinothan, center, who works for a demining agency, poses with his younger brothers Kumarakulasingham Dinojan, right, and Vilvaraj Jethurshan, both injured in a land mine explosion, in Mankindi, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena) Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Read More Pushparani is grateful that her demining income has allowed her to fulfill her familys needs. She financed one daughters university education and her marriage. However, she also cares for a daughter injured in crossfire and an elderly mother.The reason for my choosing demining for livelihood is not only because of poverty. I also have a desire to see this land to be free of mines, she said.I dont want to see our future generations being injured or affected by war. I can say that I am carrying the burden of both my family and of the country on my shoulders.___Francis reported from Colombo.

Yamama Jundia, 13, injured in an Israeli airstrike, grieves alongside others over the bodies of their relatives, who were killed in the same strike, at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2025-04-04T12:44:04Z DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza (AP) Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in the Gaza Strip early Friday, as Israel sent more ground troops into the Palestinian territory to ramp up its offensive against Hamas.At least 17 people, some from the same family, were killed after an airstrike hit the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital staff. Hours later, people were still searching through the rubble, looking for survivors. The attack follows days of Israeli strikes, which have killed at least 100 people, as it intensifies operations, intended to pressure Hamas to release its hostages. On Friday, Israel said it had begun ground activity in northern Gaza, in order to expand its security zone. Israels military had issued sweeping evacuation orders for parts of northern Gaza before expected ground operations. The U.N. humanitarian office said around 280,000 Palestinians have been displaced since Israel ended the ceasefire with Hamas last month. In recent days, Israels vowed to seize large parts of the Palestinian territory and establish a new security corridor across it. To pressure Hamas, Israel has imposed a monthlong blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left civilians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime. Israel said earlier this week that enough food had entered Gaza during a six-week truce to sustain the territorys roughly 2 million Palestinians for a long time. Hamas says it will only release the remaining 59 hostages 24 of whom are believed to be alive in exchange for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout from Gaza. The group has rejected demands that it lay down its arms or leave the territory. The predawn strike on Friday hit a three-story building. In addition to the dead, the attack wounded at least 16 people from the same family. Associated Press reporters saw bodies being carried out in blankets, while others searched for people trapped under the rubble and collected charred remains. We dont know how to collect them and how to bury them. We dont know whose remains these are. They were burned and dismembered, said Ismail Al-Aqqad, whose brother died in the strike, as well as his brothers family.On Thursday, more than 30 bodies, including women and children, were taken to hospitals in and around Khan Younis, according to hospital staff.Israel said Friday that it had killed a top Hamas commander in a strike in Lebanons coastal city of Sidon. Israel said that Hassan Farhat was a commander of Hamas western area in Lebanon and that he was responsible for numerous attacks against Israel, including one in February 2024, which killed an Israeli soldier and injured others. The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages, most of whom have since been released in ceasefire agreements and other deals. Israel rescued eight living hostages and has recovered dozens of bodies. More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as part of Israels offensive, according to Gazas Health Ministry, which doesnt say whether those killed are civilians or combatants. The ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.The war has left most of Gaza in ruins, and at its height displaced around 90% of the population.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Nature, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01060-9Import taxes on staples such as microscopes, glassware and computer chips will affect institutions already feeling financial strain.

Nature, Published online: 02 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01037-8A drug called nitisinone that is already approved to treat rare disorders can make human blood toxic to mosquitoes. Plus, what smartphones do to teens mental health and Trumps cuts to HIV research.

A hand-embroidery dress fabric made in India, costing a couple hundred dollars per yard, is sold at the Francia Textiles fabric store in the Fashion District in Los Angeles on Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)2025-04-04T14:17:28Z NEW YORK (AP) President Donald Trump has unveiled his latest tariffs, and they could have significant implications for your wallet.Trumps sweeping new tariffs, on top of previous levies and retaliation worldwide, are expected to increases prices for everyday items. The trade wars have already roiled financial markets and plunged businesses into uncertainty all while economists warn of potentially weakened economic growth and heightened inequality.Which impacts will be felt by consumers and workers first? And what can households do in the face of so much uncertainty? Heres what you need to know:What are tariffs and how will they affect me?Tariffs are taxes on goods imported from other countries. Companies buying foreign products pay the tariffs imposed on them and, as a result, face higher costs that are typically passed on to customers.Trump has argued tariffs will protect U.S. industries from unfair foreign competition and raise money for the federal government. But since so much of what we buy today relies on a global supply chain, steeper tariffs mean youll likely see more expensive prices from the grocery aisle to your next car repair. It is going to affect everything in the economy, said Josh Stillwagon, an associate professor of economics and chair of the Economics Division at Babson College. Theres this immediate price increase thats going to be passed on to consumers here, basically as soon as the retailers have to buy new product. Will the tariffs affect everyone equally?No. Experts warn that these tariffs could escalate inequities. Low-income families in particular will feel the costs of key necessities, like food and energy, rise with fewer savings to draw on significantly straining budgets.Low-income households often spend a larger share of their income on essential goods whether its food or other basic products ... (like) soap or toothpaste, said Gustavo Flores-Macas, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University whose research focuses on economic development. Because of this, he said, even relatively small price increases will have disproportionate impacts. Evidence of that disparity will only mount for big-ticket items. Dipanjan Chatterjee, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester, points to now-imposed auto tariffs, explaining that projected price hikes of thousands of dollars for a new imported car will be easier for those with larger salaries to absorb.That tax is more severe for people who earn less money, said Chatterjee. So its a regressive tax. What about jobs?Beyond more immediate price pressures, experts also warn that tariffs could contribute to unemployment or lower incomes down the road. Trump has argued that tariffs will bring manufacturing back to the U.S., but if businesses take profit hits or change their supply sources, there could be layoffs worldwide.Its not just the price aspect and purchasing power decreasing, said Flores-Macas. As tariffs start to work their way through the economy .... low-income families jobs often will be the first to go. And those sectors of the population are most vulnerable.Economist Susan Helper, former senior advisor for industrial strategy at the White House Office of Management and Budget, said that there are some cases where tariffs could raise wages, but this doesnt look likely to be one of them. There isnt enough certainty for businesses to invest and create new and better jobs, she said. It takes a few years at minimum to profit off a new facility or factory, and I dont think people have the confidence that the tariffs will be stable enough that they will have a return on that investment. Which consumer goods will be affected?The tariffs announced by Trump Wednesday, on top of other levies that are already in effect, tax imports from nearly all of Americas trading partners. And U.S. shoppers currently rely on a lot of goods made abroad.Fruits and vegetables, your next phone purchase, a pharmacy order, new clothes, or a trip to a mechanic who uses auto parts made outside of the U.S. could all be impacted. The timing of when prices will go up comes down to inventory, Stillwagon said. Much of that will also depend on how businesses prepare and respond to the new levies. While companies may have stocked up on goods in anticipation of these tariffs, he expects some stores to see more immediate price increases. Prices on perishable groceries will likely increase first, because supermarket inventories need to be replenished more frequently. But a range of other items like electronics, household appliances, clothing and footwear could also be affected in the coming weeks and months.Annual losses for households at the bottom of the income distribution are estimated to be $980 under the April 2 policy alone, according to John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecom and fraud at the National Consumers League, who cited an analysis from the Budget Lab at Yale. He said that tariffs will disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with apparel prices predicted to rise 17%. Consumers are also likely to feel the pinch of tariffs in home buying, Breyault said. The new taxes on building materials are estimated to increase the average costs of a new home by $9,200, according to an analysis by the National Association of Home Builders.Rerouting supply chains to re-emphasize domestic production is also very complex and could take years. Stillwagon said there are some products, like bananas and coffee, that the U.S. simply cant substitute to the same scale of production other countries provide. And even for goods that can be made in the U.S., there will still likely be inflation.A real worry here is that this wont just be a one-time price jump, he said.For products like coffee, Helper predicts people will likely absorb costs, while changing their shopping choices when it comes to other products. I guess you could switch to Coca-Cola if all you want is the caffeine, she said, lightly. It will probably be good for California wines.Can I do anything to prepare?Stocking up on what you know you need is a start but with limits.If there are things that youre buying on a consistent basis week to week, month to month I think its not a bad idea to try to stock up in advance, Stillwagon said. But its important to avoid panic buying like that seen at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he and others added. That could cause shortages to emerge sooner and prices to go up faster.You also dont want to buy a bunch of items that will eventually go to waste. If you do plan stock up on consumables, make sure you have a plan on how to store them properly so you dont end up having to throw out that 20-pound bag of shrimp, for example, in a few weeks, said Breyault.It may also be time to look for substitutes. From electronics to clothing, Flores-Macas says that there could be more affordable second-hand or refurbished options to turn to. And Chatterjee noted consumers may want to start comparing prices of name-brands versus private, or generic, labels in major retailers. Others may turn to at-home solutions, he said, such as growing their own vegetables.Overall, experts say youll need to evaluate your budget and consumption habits for the road ahead.This is not a hurricane thats going to be around for seven days and everything goes back to normal afterwards. And you stock up on toilet paper (temporarily), said Chatterjee. For all you know, this thing could be around until a different administration comes in and changes trade policy.Is there anything to watch out for in the coming months?Consumers should be on the lookout for even greater use of so-called shrinkflation on the grocery aisle, according to Breyault. Shrinkflation is a tactic consumer goods manufacturers use to hide cost increases by changing the design of packaging. Consumers can prepare for the inflation that the tariffs are likely to exacerbate by getting into the habit of checking the unit price of items on the grocery shelf, said Breyault. While not all states require it, where it is required, consumers can more easily compare the per unit price of one item cereal, for example to another item.___ The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism. 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 CORA LEWIS Lewis is an Associated Press business reporter based in New York. twitter mailto

Actor Russell Brand is seen during the Republican National Convention Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, file)2025-04-04T13:14:12Z LONDON (AP) British police on Friday charged Russell Brand with rape and sexual assault following an 18-month investigation sparked when four women alleged they had been assaulted by the controversial comedian.Londons Metropolitan Police force said Brand, 50, faces one count of rape, one of indecent assault, one of oral rape and two of sexual assault.The alleged offenses involve four women and took place between 1999 and 2005.In September 2023, British media outlets Channel 4 and the Sunday Times published claims by four women of being sexually assaulted or raped by Brand. The accusers have not been identified.The comedian, author and Get Him To The Greek actor has denied the allegations, saying his relationships were always consensual.Known for his unbridled and risqu standup routines, Brand hosted shows on radio and television, wrote memoirs charting his battles with drugs and alcohol, appeared in several Hollywood movies and was briefly married to pop star Katy Perry between 2010 and 2012. In recent years, Brand has largely disappeared from mainstream media but has built up a large following online with videos mixing wellness and conspiracy theories. He recently said he had moved to the United States. Brand is due to appear in a London court on May 2.Jaswant Narwal, of Britains Crown Prosecution Service, said prosecutors carefully reviewed the evidence after a police investigation into allegations made following the broadcast of a Channel 4 documentary in September 2023.We have concluded that Russell Brand should be charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and indecent assault, Narwal said.The Crown Prosecution Service reminds everyone that criminal proceedings are active, and the defendant has the right to a fair trial. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

Nature, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00970-yThe sunflower star, which can be bigger than a hubcap, escapes a wasting disease by hunkering down in fjords.

Nature, Published online: 04 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08923-1Author Correction: Record sea surface temperature jump in 20232024 unlikely but not unexpected

In October of 2023, Marc Andreessen, founder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), published the The Techno-Optimist Manifesto, arguing that human ingenuity has been stagnated and demoralized by regulation, and that the only viable path forward for society is the accelerated development and adoption of new technologies, and specifically artificial intelligence.Andreessen was only formalizing and articulating a position that had already gained traction among tech company executives and Twitter shitposters like @BasedBeffJezos (Andreessen crowned him a patron saint of techno-optimism), who adopted the label of effective accelerationists, or e/acc.As the 2024 presidential election got closer, Andreessen, Elon Musk, other tech CEOs, and less consequential shitposters saw a natural alliance between their cause and Donald Trumps campaign. Trump wanted to slash and burn government regulation in all forms, but also specifically in a way that would unleash tech and AIs true potential. Joe Biden and the Democratic party, the party of big government, Lina Khans antimonopolist FTC, welfare, and fear of climate change, were luddites. They demanded that tech platforms limit speech they perceived to be harmful. They wanted AI regulated so it could limit real and theoretical harm in the future, including science fiction nightmares about artificial general intelligence. They were worried about the environmental and energy costs of mining cryptocurrency and massive datacenters for training frontier AI models. They were referred to as decelerationists (decels) and degrowthers, a derogatory umbrella term that covers everything from the ambition to actually reduce the number of humans of the planet in order to make it more sustainable (a future most vividly imagined in Kim Stanley Robinsons novel The Ministry for the Future) to any form of regulation on AI. Andreesen is so passionate about this position in his manifesto that he says that this type of regulation is a form or murder because it could stop the development of life saving technologies, and makes a list enemies of AI, which includes supporters of sustainability, social responsibility, and trust and safety, the latter of which refers to the people at tech companies who try to keep platforms safe for users.The good news for Andreessen and the accelerationists is that they backed Trump and he won. Andreessen is advising the administration. Venture Capitalist David Sacks is the White House AI and crypto czar. Musk and his posse of young engineers from his companies are doing the slashing and burning themselves. The regulation on AI and everything else they didnt like is in the process of being removed, and the administration is working on tax cuts that will benefit them all.The bad news for these people is that Trump is also the Decel-in-Chief. The most painfully obvious evidence for this is Trumps cataclysmic tariffs this week, which sent the stock market tumbling, and will be particularly damaging to giant tech companies. The problem here is not just "uncertainty in the markets. As Jason wrote yesterday, the tariffs are aggressive, wide ranging, and very painful for tech companies that rely on complex global supply chains. It seems that the Trump administration tried to at least temporarily throw the tech industry a bone here by exempting semiconductors from these tariffs, but as the Wall Street Journal explains, this is a fantasy:[M]ost chip imports are indirect. Chips typically are made overseas, packaged up there and inserted into electronics shipped across the globeincluding to the U.S., where they will be subject to tariffs as high as 49%. Even many U.S.-made chips are sent to Taiwan, China or Southeast Asia for final assembly before being re-exported to end customers.Unless Trump folds, the tariffs will make the price of everything go up. Unemployment will go up. People will buy less stuff, and companies will spend less money on advertising that powers tech platforms. The tech industry, which has thrived on the cheap labor, cheap parts, cheap manufacturing, and supply chains enabled by free and cheap international trade, will now have artificial costs and bureaucracy tacked onto all of this. The market knows this, which is why tech stocks are eating shit.Meanwhile, there is deafening silence from Musk, Andresseen, and the usual e/acc shitposters, who spent the last three months doing victory laps for Trumps win, owning the libs, and posting AI-generated images of the glass tower cities and Mars space colonies that will be built under Trumps admin and unrestrained technological progress.We'd be quiet too if we were them because its such a humiliating self own. Maybe, like many other pundits, they thought that Trump was just bluffing about tariffs. Maybe they thought they could push him in a direction that was purely beneficial to their industry. He might still back down. But at least for now, what the accelerationists did here by backing Trump is not just accidentally shoot themselves in the foot, but methodically blow off each of their toes with a .50 caliber sniper rifle.Even on a long enough timeline, there is no world in which the techno-optimist utopia comes to be in the United States under protectionist, isolationist policies. The Trump administration has also set to work dismantling the academic, scientific, research, and immigration infrastructures that have allowed business and innovation to thrive in the US, and the soft-power structures that have made it easy for tech companies to enter and dominate markets all over the world. Even if Americans believed and wanted to go back in time to a post WWII or turn of the century US economy, which has always been the backwards looking, regressive mantra of the MAGA movement, it is inherently incompatible with progress and the future because the future is not about cranking out Sherman tanks and gas powered Buicks. The techno-optimist utopia relies on the complex supply chains Trump threw into chaos this week, where different manufacturing and fabrication hubs with highly specialized expertise feed into a mutually beneficial system of free markets in order to make iPhones, semiconductors, lithium batteries, and so on. Trump has also thrown chaos into Americas software and service businesses, which require a neverending supply of new markets and new people to sell to in the name of chasing growth, scale, and new users; growing something like Facebook or OpenAI with the scale the stock market wants to see requires signing up users by the countryload; thats far easier to do in a regulatory environment where youre a willing partner with those countries, not creating trade wars and isolationist bureaucracies.As Peter Thiel loves to say, venture capitalists can invest in either bits or atoms, meaning digital products, or actual physical things. Trump is currently fucking Silicon Valley on both ends.Making things will be much harder even if we adopt the fantasy that a lot of manufacturing jobs can be reclaimed from countries like China, India, and Vietnam, because we simply dont have the atoms we need in the United States. America has used countries around the world both for their raw materials but also for their cheap labor; the trade deficits that Trump speaks of are largely due to American companies setting up factories in places with cheap labor and extracting value from those countries to sell products to Americans. Its Nike, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, and other American conglomerates that benefit most from global trade, not the factory workers making a few dollars a day. Moving this infrastructure to the United States is not advisable or feasible because lots of the jobs American companies have outsourced to China have already been outsourced from there to poorer countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and India because many Chinese people have realized they dont want to do this type of work. And many of those jobs are being automated by robots. Those jobs arent coming back to the United States, and we shouldnt want them to, anyway. Meanwhile, the United States has exactly one rare Earth mineral mine in the entire country, which itself only became active after years of mishaps, regulatory mess, a bankruptcy, and a period of Chinese ownership.And were not going to make the bits as well either because Trump is aggressively instigating a brain drain weve never seen in the US before. Its harder for the best talent in the world to immigrate here, and how long will they even want to when ICE can disappear them off the street without reason. Researchers and scientists born in the US are getting their funding pulled because its woke, so theyre looking to move to other countries. Musk and Doge are deleting the very agencies and programs that breathed life into the semiconductor industry, electric cars, the internet, etc. We just dont see how accelerationist dreams about biotech and human longevity can come to pass without the research the administration is actively trying to kill.This is not an endorsement of Andressens techno-optimist vision for the future. Its certainly not an endorsement of what Trump is doing now, though We share the glee in seeing Teslas stock tank. Again, it is possible that Trump will fold as he has in the past, but as things stand today, Americas vision for the future has never been more dim and decelerated, and that includes the fantasies of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley.

Almost two dozen repositories of research and public health data supported by the National Institutes of Health are marked for review under the Trump administrations direction, and researchers and archivists say the data is at risk of being lost forever if the repositories go down.The problem with archiving this data is that we cant, Lisa Chinn, Head of Research Data Services at the University of Chicago, told 404 Media. Unlike other government datasets or web pages, downloading or otherwise archiving NIH data often requires a Data Use Agreement between a researcher institution and the agency, and those agreements are carefully administered through a disclosure risk review process.A message appeared at the top of multiple NIH websites last week that says: This repository is under review for potential modification in compliance with Administration directives.Repositories with the message include archives of cancer imagery, Alzheimers disease research, sleep studies, HIV databases, and COVID-19 vaccination and mortality data. A list identified by an archivist includes:DASH Data and Specimen HubNational COVID Cohort CollaborativeThe DANDI ArchiveThe Brain Image LibraryThe Cancer Imaging ArchiveBioData CatalystNational Sleep Research ResourceNational Alzheimers Coordinating CenterAgingResearchBiobankSeattle Alzheimers Disease Brain Cell AtlasApoE Pathobiology in Aging & Alzheimers DiseaseChild Language Data Exchange SystemLDbaseCellular Senescence Network (SenNet)The National Center for Advancing Translation Sciences OpenData PortalCatalog of the NINDS Human Cell and Data RepositoryThe Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies InitiativeHIV databasesThe Neuroscience Multi-Omic ArchiveThe Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource Data CenterMouse Models of Human Cancer DatabaseBased on archived versions of the websites, the message was added to most of the sites last week, around March 26 or 27. On March 28, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that HHS and agencies it oversees, including NIH, would lay off 10,000 full-time employees as part of a reduction in force plan. On Tuesday, at least five directors of NIHs 27 institutes and centers were told they were put on leave. Kennedys plan outlines 1,200 layoffs at NIH alone. Yesterday, Kennedy said some of the cuts to programs will be reinstated. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut. Were reinstating them, he said. Part of the DOGEwe talked about this from the beginningis were going to do 80 percent cuts, but 20 percent of those are going to have to be reinstalled, because well make mistakes. Earlier this week, researchers filed a lawsuit challenging the cancellation of research grants totaling more than $2.4 billion over the past month by NIH.Under the Trump administrations purge of public government websites and health resources, archivists have been diligently saving what they can. But there are limits to what can be archived by volunteers, and many of these databases marked for potential modification cant be saved."People don't usually appreciate, much less our current administration, how much labor goes into maintaining a large research dataset."Even if someone does have access through a DUA, they might not have long term access or the data might only be accessible through secure devices that arent connected to external networks, so data cant be downloaded or backed up. And much of the data contains personally identifying information or health information thats protected under HIPAA, which complicates volunteers efforts to store it.Henrik Schnemann, a historian who started the Safeguarding Research & Culture archivist project, told 404 Media that as part of the project, they rely on institutions to help contribute storage; if they cant guarantee all of the data is legal to download and store, they cant save it in partnership with an institution if the opportunity arises.In general its very important for us to be able to say to institutions, yes we got public data, we did not break paywalls, we did not break any agreements, its fine for you to contribute with hosting, Schnemann said. The group is using Bittorrent to store and seed archived pages for now. But the NIH datasets under threat contain potentially multiple petabytes of data to be saved, and archivists need hosts to help with storage. All of this is only possible for the publicly funded institutions if they can be sure they dont host any infringing material, he said.Researcher Captures Contents of DEI.gov Before It Was Hidden Behind a PasswordThe list includes budget claims like $3.4 million for Malaysian drug-fueled gay sex app and Disbursed $15,000 to queer Muslim writers in India.404 MediaSamantha ColeSo far, it seems like what is happening is less that these data sets are actively being deleted or clawed back and more that they are laying off the workers whose job is to maintain them, update them and maintain the infrastructure that supports them, a librarian affiliated with the Data Rescue Project told 404 Media. In time, this will have the same effect, but it's really hard to predict. People don't usually appreciate, much less our current administration, how much labor goes into maintaining a large research dataset.The impacts that Ive personally seen are that researchers lose five years of research because they once had access and now their DUA is up, and theres no one in office, because theyve been fired, to renew their DUA, Chinn said. This means researchers cant publish (de-identified versions) papers based on data analysis theyve already completed. She gave an example of research from the Department of Education, which has decades of studies that some researchers use to compare student performance and learning outcomes that teach us about how wealth and location impact education. In a scenario where that data is lost, we will not have access to that data to compare year over year shifts in performance, she said. We will also not be able to compare, on a national scale, where we stand in comparison to other nations.Right now, the best I can do is advise the researchers that they need to get copies of the data that they are researching with that's restricted, the librarian-archivist said.

Nature, Published online: 01 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01024-zThousands of leaders and staff are being purged at US agencies such as the NIH. Plus, the months best science images and how to clean up forever chemicals.

President Donald Trump arrives at the Trump International Golf Club, Friday, April 4, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-04-04T15:44:23Z WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) Two days after sending the global economy reeling by announcing tariffs on foreign imports, President Donald Trump insisted his trade policies will never change as he remained ensconced in a bubble of wealth and power in Florida.He woke up on Friday morning at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Palm Beach, and headed to his nearby golf course a few miles away after writing on social media that THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH. Several supporters stood across the street as Trump, wearing his signature red campaign hat and white polo shirt, glided down a street lined with palm trees. They waved to him and he waved back, part of a ritual that plays out every weekend that hes in town. The Republican president was not expected to appear publicly, although hes scheduled to attend a candlelit dinner for MAGA Inc., an allied political organization, on Friday evening. He also spent Thursday in Miami at a different one of his golf courses, where he attended a Saudi-funded tournament. He landed in Marine One and was picked up in a golf cart driven by his son, Eric. Trump has often proved impervious to the kind of scandals or gaffes that would damage another politician, but his decision to spend the weekend at his gilded properties could test Americans patience at a time when their retirement savings are evaporating along with the stock market. The tariffs are expected to increase prices by thousands of dollars per year and slow economic growth, and there are fears about a potential recession. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Friday that the tariffs were significantly larger than expected and are highly likely to cause more inflation at least in the short term but possibly in the long term as well. However, Trump has described his policies as a painful yet necessary step to encourage companies to relocate their operations to the United States, and he spent the morning defending himself on Truth Social, his social media platform, vowing he is sticking with his policies. Although experts have harshly criticized Trumps tariffs, hes found support on TikTok. He shared a video that said Trump is crashing the stock market and hes doing it on purpose as part of secret game hes playing, and it could make you rich. The goal, the video said, is to push the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, something that Trump explicitly called for later in the morning. This would be a PERFECT time for Powell to cut interest rates, he wrote. CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!With foreign leaders scrambling in response to Trumps announcement this week, the president lashed out and looked to cut deals. He said he spoke with Vietnamese leader To Lam and claimed Vietnam wants to eliminate its tariffs on U.S. goods if it can make a deal with the U.S.He also criticized China for announcing its own tariffs on U.S. imports.CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED - THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO! he wrote.Trump also celebrated a new report showing the U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, beating expectations. Although the numbers were a snapshot of the economy before the tariff announcement, Trump claimed vindication, saying they already show his moves are working. HANG TOUGH, he wrote. WE CANT LOSE!!!___ Megerian reported from Washington. FATIMA HUSSEIN Hussein reports on the U.S. Treasury Department for The Associated Press. She covers tax policy, sanctions and any issue that relates to money. twitter mailto CHRIS MEGERIAN Megerian covers the White House for The Associated Press. He previously wrote about the Russia investigation, climate change, law enforcement and politics in California and New Jersey. twitter mailto

President Donald Trump waves as he arrives at the Trump International Golf Club, Friday, April 4, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)2025-04-04T16:02:32Z WASHINGTON (AP) The Senate dived into contentious debate Friday on a budget plan critical to Republican efforts to pass trillions of dollars in tax cuts and boost border security and defense spending through what President Donald Trump calls one big beautiful bill.Passage of the plan would give Republicans the chance in coming months to muscle a tax cut bill through both chambers of Congress even if Democrats are unanimously opposed, just as they did in Trumps first term.Democrats are intent on making the effort as politically painful as possible, beginning with all-night votes on dozens of proposals that GOP senators will have to defend before next years mid-term elections, including on Trumps tariff policies and the administrations efforts to shrink the federal government.Republicans are framing their work as preventing a tax increase for most American families. Unless Congress acts, the individual and estate tax cuts that Republicans passed in 2017 will expire at the end of this year. Republicans believe fundamentally that Americans know best what to do with their money, said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. Democrats accused Republicans of laying the groundwork for increasing deficits and cutting key safety net programs such as Medicaid and nutritional assistance to help pay for tax cuts they say disproportionately benefit the wealthy. The investments that affect Americas future are hanging by a thread, and Republicans are about to cut it, said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York. The debate early Friday was generally one-sided. Senate Democrats are taking full advantage of 25 hours of their available debate time, while Republicans yielded much of theirs in order to get to an all-night voting frenzy referred to as a vote-a-rama. Once lawmakers have exhausted their list of amendments and themselves, theyll move to a final vote on the plan itself, most likely sometime Saturday morning. The Senate is expected to approve the measure. The House will also have to pass it to unlock the process that Republicans can use to pass legislation with a simple majority and avoid a Democratic filibuster.And thats just the beginning.Developing a final bill will take weeks, if not months, with the GOP leadership and Trump needing virtually every Republican vote to get a package over the finish line. The GOP leaders will confront concerns from fiscal hawks in deep red states and congressional districts who want trillions of dollars in spending cuts to help pay for the tax breaks. And they will confront dozens of lawmakers in swing districts and states worried about what those cuts will mean for their constituents, and their reelection chances.It will be a delicate task with no guarantee of success, particularly as economic gyrations from Trumps tariff policies test his ability to keep Republicans united.The Senates budget plan allows for extending the individual and estate tax cuts under a scoring method that treats them as not adding to future deficits, even though the Congressional Budget Office has projected the extension would cost more than $3.8 trillion over 10 years, not including higher interest payments. On top of that, the budget plan instructs the Senate Finance Committee to expand deficits by up to $1.5 trillion more over that same timeframe. That would give senators room to include some of Trumps campaign promises, such as no tax on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime. Republicans are also looking to increase the $10,000 deduction for state and local taxes, something that lawmakers from states such as New York, California and New Jersey say is necessary to get their support.The budget plan also allows the Senate to increase the debt ceiling by up to $5 trillion. Final approval of such an increase would allow the federal government to continue to finance its debts and push any further votes on the matter until after next years mid-term elections. Trump is wary of giving Democrats the chance to extract concessions on a debt ceiling vote. The plan also instructs four Senate committees to find at least $1 billion each in budget reductions. Thats just a small fraction of the more than $5 trillion in potential tax relief. But the leadership is emphasizing that the instructions purposefully set a low floor for spending cuts to provide maximum flexibility and that committees will be on the hunt for far more.Committees are also given authority to pursue as much as $521 billion to boost border security, defense and the Coast Guard, though Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has said the final spending total will be closer to $345 billion.The House budget plan provided for $4.5 trillion in tax breaks over 10 years, though the amount for tax breaks would shrink if the spending cut totals dont get to $2 trillion in savings. The GOP leadership has encouraged members to just get a budget plan over the finish line, saying they have time to work out the tough questions of which tax breaks and spending cuts to include.Throughout the debate, Democratic have focused on framing the tax cuts as helping out the wealthiest at the expense of average Americans. Sen. Jeff Merkley, the lead Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, spoke with a sign behind him that read Republican Plan: Families Lose, Billionaires Win.Thats a terrible plan, Merkley said.Extending the the 2017 breaks would cut taxes for about three-quarters of households but raise them for about 10 percent. In 2027, about 45% of the benefit of all the tax cuts would go to those making roughly $450,000 or more, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, which analyzes tax issues.Sen. John Barrasso, the No.-2 ranking GOP senator, said voters gave Republicans a mission and a mandate in November, and the Senate budget plan delivers. It fulfills our promises to secure the border, to rebuild our economy and to restore peace through strength, Barrasso said.

The TikTok app logo is shown on an iPhone on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)2025-04-04T17:48:20Z WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) President Donald Trump on Friday said is signing an executive order to keep TikTok running in the U.S. for another 75 days to give his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.Congress had mandated that the platform be divested from China by Jan. 19 or barred in the U.S. on national security grounds, but Trump moved unilaterally to extend the deadline to this weekend, as he sought to negotiate an agreement to keep it running. Trump has recently entertained an array of offers from U.S. businesses seeking to buy a share of the popular social media site, but Chinas ByteDance, which owns TikTok and its closely-held algorithm, has insisted the platform is not for sale.My Administration has been working very hard on a Deal to SAVE TIKTOK, and we have made tremendous progress, Trump posted on his social media platform. The Deal requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed, which is why I am signing an Executive Order to keep TikTok up and running for an additional 75 days. Trump added: We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal.TikTok, which has headquarters in Singapore and Los Angeles, has said it prioritizes user safety, and Chinas Foreign Ministry has said Chinas government has never and will not ask companies to collect or provide data, information or intelligence held in foreign countries.

A screen displays financial news as traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)2025-04-04T16:59:39Z NEW YORK (AP) The huge swings rocking Wall Street and the global economy may feel far from normal. But, for investing at least, drops of this size have happened throughout history.Stomaching them is the price investors have had to pay in order to get the bigger returns that stocks can offer over other investments in the long term. Heres a glimpse at whats behind the markets wild moves and what experts advise investors young and old to consider: HOW BAD IS THE MARKET?Wall Streets main benchmark, the S&P 500, has lost more than 16% since setting an all-time high on Feb. 19, mostly because of worries about President Donald Trumps tariffs. Any kind of uncertainty around the economy will give Wall Street pause, but the trade war is making it more difficult for companies, households and others to feel confident enough to invest, spend and make long-term plans. The tariffs announced on Liberation Day sent stocks reeling to their worst day since since the COVID crash of 2020 because they were much harsher than investors had been expecting. They also raised the fear that Trump may push through with them to win long-term gains, such as more manufacturing jobs in the United States. The hope among investors had been that Trump was using tariffs merely as a bargaining chip to win concessions from other countries. Some big names on Wall Street still think thats the case, and a moderation of tariffs would help stocks recover, but its less of a certainty now. STOCKS DO THIS OFTEN?Regularly enough. The S&P 500 has seen declines of at least 10% every year or so. Often, experts view them as a culling of optimism that can otherwise run overboard, driving stock prices too high. Before this recent downswing, many critics were saying the U.S. stock market was too expensive after prices rose faster than corporate profits. They also pointed to how only a handful of companies drove so much of the markets returns. A group of just seven Big Tech companies accounted for more than half of the S&P 500s total return last year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. SHOULD I SELL AND GET OUT? Anytime an investor sees theyre losing money, it feels bad. This recent run feels particularly unnerving because of how incredibly calm the market had previously been. The S&P 500 is coming off a second straight year where it shot up by more than 20%, the first time thats happened since baggy pants were last in style before the millennium. Selling may offer some feeling of relief. But it also locks in losses and prevents the chance of making the money back over time. Historically, the S&P 500 has come back from every one of its downturns to eventually make investors whole again. That includes after the Great Depression, the dot-com bust and the 2020 COVID crash. Some recoveries take longer than others, but experts often recommend not putting money into stocks that you cant afford to lose for several years, up to 10. Emergency funds, for things like home repairs or medical bills, should not be invested in stocks. Data has shown, historically, that no one can time the market, said Odysseas Papadimitriou, CEO of WalletHub. No one can consistently figure out the best time to buy and sell. SHOULD I CHANGE ANYTHING WITH MY INVESTMENTS?For years, the U.S. stock market was the best by far to invest in worldwide. Now, more investors are questioning wither U.S. exceptionalism is dead. But it could all be a reminder that investors often do best when they have a mixed set of investments rather than going all-in on just a few. And investors may no longer be as diversified as they thought after years of sheer dominance by the Magnificent Seven over the U.S. stock market and by Wall Street over global markets. It is hard to roll with the punches when some days you feel like your portfolio is being pummeled, said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. But those moments should pass. A diversified strategy that is thoughtfully adapting to changing circumstances cant prevent the punches, but it can help soften the blows.Phil Battin, CEO of Ambassador Wealth Management, advises investors to make sure they diversify their investments across regions and sectors to reduce risk. He says to lean towards resilient sectors such as consumer staples, utilities and health care, which are less reliant on international trade. I JUST STARTED INVESTING IN STOCKS. WHAT SHOULD I DO?The proliferation of online trading platforms and the ease of smartphones has helped create a new generation of investors who may not be used to such volatility. But the good news is younger investors often have the gift of time. With decades to go until retirement, they can afford to ride the waves and let their stock portfolios hopefully recover before compounding and eventually growing even bigger. Stephen Kates, financial analyst at Bankrate, says now is not the time to make emotional decisions. Young investors should re-anchor to your (long-term) goals, and consider using a financial advisor to help navigate uncertain times. Investors with ample time to stay invested should remember how lucrative patience has been over the last 15 years, Kates said. WHAT IF IM NEAR RETIREMENT?Older investors have less time than younger ones to allow their investments to bounce back. But even in retirement, some people will need their investments to last 30 years or more, said Niladri Neel Mukherjee, chief investment officer of TIAA Wealth Management.People who have already retired may want to cut back on spending and withdrawals after sharp market downturns, because bigger withdrawals will remove more potential compounding ability in the future. But even retirees, at least in the early part of retirement, should still be invested in stocks to prepare for the possibility of decades of spending ahead. You may want to slow that down and pick that back up once the market recovers, Mukherjee said, but it all comes down to having that conversation with your adviser and your portfolio manager.HOW LONG WILL THIS LAST?No one knows, and dont let anyone tell you otherwise. CORA LEWIS Lewis is an Associated Press business reporter based in New York. twitter mailto