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Family members await the start of the sentencing for Patrick Crusius, the Walmart mass shooter, at the Enrique Moreno County Courthosue in El Paso, Texas, on April 21, 2025. (Omar Ornelas/Pool Photo via AP)2025-04-22T21:02:47Z Speaking to the gunman who killed her brother and 22 other people, Yolanda Tinajero didnt raise her voice or condemn him for his racist attack at a Walmart in 2019. Instead, she told him she forgave him, and wished she could give him a hug.The judge, in a surprising turn in an El Paso courtroom, allowed her to do just that.Their brief embrace while Patrick Crusius was still shackled was among many emotionally charged moments during two days of impact statements given by victims family members and survivors.Some described their pain and devastation while others assured him the community had met his hatred with love and unity. Later, another person also hugged the man who pleaded guilty in one of the deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.Crusius, a white community college dropout, had posted online a screed about a Hispanic invasion of Texas before opening fire with an AK-style rifle at the store near the U.S.-Mexico border on Aug. 3, 2019. Crusius didnt address the families and survivors at his plea hearing Monday. He will serve multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to capital murder and 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.We would have opened our doors to you to share a meal, breakfast lunch or dinner, Mexican-style, so then your ugly thoughts of us that have been instilled in you would have turned around, Tinajero told him. Hug you very tightTinajero said her brother, 60-year-old Arturo Benavides, was a kind, sweet-hearted person, whose wife of over 30 years is broken hearted over her loss. Now she lives alone in their home full of memories that she cant forget, she said.I feel in my heart, to hug you very tight so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss, but I know its not allowed, Tinajero said. I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions.Later, the judge asked her: Maam, would it truly bring you peace and comfort if you could hug him? Yes, she replied.Her daughter, Melissa Tinajero, told reporters: I dont know how she was able to do it. I could not do that. But she showed him something he could not show his victims.A survivor, not a victimStephanie Melendez told Crusius on Tuesday that she didnt want to address him, but wanted to read a letter to her father, 63-year-old David Johnson, who was killed when he shielded his wife and 9-year-old granddaughter from the gunfire.Melendez thanked her father for making her study, giving her a curfew and telling her when she was 16 that she needed to get a job. You made me into the strong woman I am today, she said.Her daughter, Kaitlyn Melendez, now 14, told Crusius: I am a survivor, not a victim.Im going to walk out these doors and move forward with my life and not let you haunt me anymore. A disgrace to humanityDean Reckard, whose 63-year-old mother Margie Reckard was among those killed, expressed anger and forgiveness as he addressed Crusius on Tuesday. Youre a disgrace to humanity and to your family, Reckard said, adding that he hopes Crusius wakes up each morning wishing he were dead. But Reckard also said he forgave the gunman who will spend the rest of his life behind bars.In order to be forgiving, you have to forgive others, he said. Thats the only reason I forgive you. May God have mercy on your soul.Thousands of people attended Margie Reckards funeral after her partner of 22 years, Antonio Basco, invited the public to the service, saying he felt alone after her death.Left me sad, bitterLiliana Munoz of Ciudad Jurez, Mexico, said in court Monday that she was shopping for snacks when Crusius opened fire, forever changing her life physically, economically and emotionally. In her statement, she said she used to be a happy, dancing person, but now is afraid every morning when she awakes. Since she was shot, she has had to use a cane to walk and wears a leg brace to keep her left foot from dragging.It left me sad, bitter, said the 41-year-old mother.She also granted Crusius forgiveness.You brought us together Javier Rodriguez was 15 and starting his sophomore year in high school when he was shot and killed at a bank in Walmart.On Tuesday, his father Francisco Rodriguez shouted at Crusius: Look at me, Im talking to you.He told Crusius that he and his family have to go to the cemetery to celebrate his sons death.I wish I could just get five minutes with you me and you and get all of this, get it over with, he said.But Rodriguez also referred to comments made about Crusius impact on El Paso during his sentencing.Like the judge said yesterday, you came down to El Paso with the intention of tearing us apart, but all you did, you brought us together, he said.

Lori Vallow Daybell stands and listens as the jury's verdict is read at the Ada County Courthouse in Boise, Idaho on Friday, May 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Kyle Green, File)2025-04-22T22:55:14Z PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona jury has found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, meaning the mother with doomsday religious beliefs faces another life sentence after she was already convicted in Idaho in the killings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival. Prosecutors said she conspired with her brother, Alex Cox, in the July 2019 shooting death of Charles Vallow at her home in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler. She was trying to collect money from his life insurance policy and planned to marry her then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, an Idaho author who wrote several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world, prosecutors said.Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Vallow, died five months later from what medical examiners said was a blood clot in his lungs. Coxs account was later called into question. Jurors deliberated for a total of three hours over two days.Vallow Daybell, who isnt an attorney but chose to defend herself at trial, told jurors that during the encounter inside the house, Vallow chased her with a bat, and Alex shot Vallow in self-defense after she left the house. The trial marked the first of two criminal trials in Arizona for Vallow Daybell. Shes scheduled to go on trial again in early June on a charge of conspiring to murder Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of Vallow Daybells niece, Melani Pawlowski. Boudreaux survived the attempt. She will be sentenced in Vallows death after her second trial. She faces a life sentence.Vallow Daybell is already serving three life sentences in the Idaho case.Last week at the Arizona trial, Adam Cox, another brother of Vallow Daybell, testified on behalf of the prosecution, telling jurors that he had no doubt that Vallow Daybell and his brother Alex were behind Vallows death.Adam Cox said Vallows killing occurred just before he and Vallow were planning an intervention to bring Vallow Daybell back into the mainstream of their shared faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He testified that before Vallows death, his sister had told people her husband was no longer living and that a zombie was living inside his body. Four months before he died, Vallow filed for divorce from Vallow Daybell, saying she had become infatuated with near-death experiences and had claimed to have lived numerous lives on other planets. He alleged she threatened to ruin him financially and kill him. He sought a voluntary mental health evaluation of his wife. JACQUES BILLEAUD Billeaud is an Associated Press reporter who covers courts and law enforcement in Arizona. He previously covered immigration and the Arizona Legislature.

The Republican challenger has embarked on an extraordinary effort to reverse his election loss that critics say is testing the boundaries of post-election litigation.

The sharp rebuke by a federal judge in Maryland suggested that she had lost her patience with the Trump administrations recalcitrance in the case.

Among the most successful music producers in the 1970s and 80s, he helped churn out hits for acts like Queen, the Cars, Journey and Foreigner.

People like the idea of cutting government waste. But they dislike Mr. Musk, and theyre down on the Department of Government Efficiency.

The fire in the Pine Barrens led to the evacuation of 3,000 residents and the shutdown of a stretch of the Garden State Parkway.

Growing case numbers suggest that the national total will surpass that seen during the last large outbreak in 2019.

This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)2025-04-23T02:11:47Z DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Yemens Houthi rebels launched a missile early Wednesday toward northern Israel, a rare target for the group as a monthlong intense U.S. airstrike campaign continues to target them. The Houthis separately claimed shooting down another MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen.Sirens sounded in Haifa, Krayot and other areas west of the Sea of Galilee, the Israeli military said. An interceptor was launched toward the missile, and the missile was most likely successfully intercepted, the Israeli military said. Those in the area could here booms in the predawn darkness. The Houthis did not immediately claim the attack, though it can take them hours or even days to acknowledge their assaults. American airstrikes, meanwhile, continued targeting the Houthis on Wednesday morning, part of a campaign that began on March 15. The Houthis reported strikes on Hodeida, Marib and Saada governorates. In Marib, the Houthis described a strike hitting telecommunication equipment, which has previously been a target of the Americans. Houthis claim downing another US droneThe Houthis in response have stepped up their targeting of American drones flying over the country. Late Tuesday, Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said the rebels shot down an MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemens Hajjah governorate. The U.S. military acknowledged the report of the drone being downed, but said it could not comment further. Saree said the rebels targeted the drone with a locally manufactured missile. The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 capable of downing aircraft. The Houthis claim they downed 26 MQ-9s over the last decade of the Yemen war. Iran denies arming the rebels, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi rebels despite a United Nations arms embargo.General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. They have been flown by both the U.S. military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen. New US airstrike campaign began March 15The U.S. is targeting the Houthis because of the groups attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, and on Israel. The Houthis are the last militant group in Irans self-described Axis of Resistance that is capable of regularly attacking Israel.The new U.S. operation against the Houthis under President Donald Trump is more extensive than attacks on the group were under President Joe Biden, an AP review found. The new campaign started after the rebels threatened to begin targeting Israeli ships again over Israel blocking aid from entering the Gaza Strip.From November 2023 until this January, the Houthis targeted more than 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two of them and killing four sailors. That has greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually. The Houthis also launched attacks targeting American warships without success. Assessing the toll of the month-old U.S. airstrike campaign has been difficult because the military hasnt released information about the attacks, including what was targeted and how many people were killed. The Houthis, meanwhile, strictly control access to attacked areas and dont publish complete information on the strikes, many of which likely have targeted military and security sites.Last week, a strike on the Ras Isa fuel port killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others in the deadliest-known attack of the American campaign. ___Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report. JON GAMBRELL Gambrell is the news director for the Gulf and Iran for The Associated Press. He has reported from each of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, Iran and other locations across the world since joining the AP in 2006. twitter instagram mailto

This undated photo provided by Murray Osorio PLLC shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Murray Osorio PLLC via AP)2025-04-23T01:25:12Z A federal judge said Tuesday that the Trump administration is ignoring court orders, obstructing the legal process and acting in bad faith by refusing to provide information about the steps they have taken, if any, to free a mistakenly deported man from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S. For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Courts orders, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote an the order Tuesday. Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this Court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now. She gave the administration until 6 p.m. Wednesday to provide those details. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration nearly two weeks ago to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcias return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White Houses claim that it couldnt retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. Trump administration officials have pushed back, arguing that it is up to El Salvador though the president of El Salvador has also said he lacks the power to return Abrego Garcia. The administration has also argued that information about any steps it has taken or could take to return Abrego Garcia is protected by attorney-client privilege laws, state secret laws, general government privilege or other secrecy rules. But Xinis said those claims, without any facts to back them up, reflected a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations. Its not the first time the Trump administration has faced a scathing order from a federal judge over its approach to deportation cases. A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scolded the administration last week, saying its claim that it cant do anything to free Abrego Garcia should be shocking. That ruling came one day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador in a different legal case. Democrats and legal scholars say President Donald Trump is provoking a constitutional crisis in part by ignoring court rulings, while the White House has said its the judges who are the problem. REBECCA BOONE Boone is a correspondent who covers breaking news, the courts, accountability issues and more for The Associated Press. She is based in Boise, Idaho. twitter mailto

The secretary of state aims to eliminate an office that advances American values abroad in a plan aligning the agency with President Trumps foreign policy approach.

Federal prosecutors charged six members of the Venezuelan gang and 21 members of a violent splinter group.

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)2025-04-23T03:09:15Z TOKYO (AP) Asian shares mostly rose Wednesday, with markets showing relief after President Donald Trump indicated he wont dismiss the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve.Japans benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 1.7% in morning trading to 34,797.22. Australias S&P/ASX 200 surged 1.6% to 7,943.00. South Koreas Kospi gained 1.2% to 2,515.19. Hong Kongs Hang Seng added 1.7% to 21,927.92, while the Shanghai Composite was little changed, down less than 0.1% at 3,298.33. Trump had previously said he could fire Fed chair Jerome Powell after the Fed paused cuts to short-term interest rates. But Trump told reporters Tuesday, I have no intention of firing him.Investors were also cheered by comments from U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in a Tuesday speech. He said the ongoing tariffs showdown with China is unsustainable and he expects a de-escalation in the trade war. U.S. stocks jumped in a widespread rally Tuesday, and other U.S. investments steadied a day after falling sharply. The S&P 500 climbed 2.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,016 points, or 2.7%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 2.7%. All three indexes more than made up their big losses from the start of the week. The only prediction many Wall Street strategists are willing to make is that financial markets will likely continue to veer up and down as hopes rise and fall that Trump may negotiate deals with other countries to lower his tariffs. If no such deals come quickly enough, many investors expect the economy to fall into a recession. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday slashed its forecast for global economic growth this year to 2.8%, down from 3.3%. A suite of better-than-expected profit reports from big U.S. companies, meanwhile, helped drive U.S. stocks higher. Also helping market sentiment was the announcement from Elon Musk that he will spend less time in Washington and more time running Tesla after his electric vehicle company reported a big drop in profits. Its results have been hurt by vandalism, widespread protests and calls for a consumer boycott amid a backlash to Musks oversight of cost-cutting efforts for the U.S. government. Tesla reported earnings after U.S. trading closed. Teslas quarterly profits fell from $1.39 billion to $409 million, far below analyst estimates.Losers on Wall Street were the exceptions, however, as 99% of the stocks in the S&P 500 index rose. All told, the S&P 500 climbed 129.56 points to 5,287.76. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1,106.57 to 39,186.98, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 429.52 to 16,300.42.In the bond market, longer-term yields eased following an unsettling run higher the day before. The yield on the 10-year Treasury pulled back to 4.39% from 4.42% late Monday.In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude added $1.23 to $64.31 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard added 44 cents to $67.88 a barrel. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar declined to 141.85 Japanese yen from 142.37 yen. The euro cost $1.1397, up from $1.1379. ___AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed. YURI KAGEYAMA Kageyama covers Japan news for The Associated Press. Her topics include social issues, the environment, businesses, entertainment and technology. twitter instagram facebook mailto

The singer summoned fans to an impromptu performance in Washington Square Park Tuesday night. She neglected to get a permit. But there was one more surprise to come.

Liberals hoped hed ordain women or allow gay marriage. Conservatives thought hed tear up Church doctrine. But his papacy favored debate over radical action.

Smoke rises from a wildfire early Wednesday, April 23, 2025, near Barnegat Township, N.J. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)2025-04-23T01:25:49Z BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) A fast-moving wildfire burning in New Jersey on Tuesday forced thousands of people to evacuate and closed a stretch of a major highway.The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jerseys busiest highways, was closed between Barnegat and Lacey townships, according to the New Jersey Fire Service.More than 1,300 structures were threatened and about 3,000 residents were evacuated, the fire service said. Shelters were open at two high schools, according to the Barnegat Police Department. The Jersey Central Power and Light Company cut power to about 25,000 customers at the request of the Forest Fire Service and the wildfires command post Tuesday evening, including thousands in Barnegat Township. The company said on X that it doesnt expect to restore the power before Wednesday. This is for the safety of crews battling the fire, the company said. The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 13.2 square miles (34.2 square kilometers) of land, fire officials said. The blaze, burning in Ocean and Lacey Townships in Ocean County, was only about 10% contained Tuesday night, the New Jersey Fire Service said. The cause of the fire was under investigation. There were no immediate reports of injuries. Debi Schaffer was caught in gridlocked traffic after evacuating with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, The Press of Atlantic City reported. I wanted to take them in the car with me; can you imagine 22 chickens in a car? she told the newspaper. Around her Waretown house it was like a war zone, she said, describing smoke, sirens and the buzz of helicopters. The site of the fire is near an alpaca farm. The farm said in a Facebook post that the property wasnt threatened and all of the animals were safe.The blaze is the second major forest fire in the region in less than a week.

In this image taken from video, immigration lawyer Charles Kuck speaks to reporters outside a federal courthouse in Atlanta, on April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback)2025-04-23T04:04:42Z ATLANTA (AP) Anjan Roy was studying with friends at Missouri State University when he got an email that turned his world upside down. His legal status as an international student had been terminated, and he was suddenly at risk for deportation.I was in literal shock, like, what the hell is this? said Roy, a graduate student in computer science from Bangladesh.At first, he avoided going out in public, skipping classes and mostly keeping his phone turned off. A court ruling in his favor led to his status being restored this week, and he has returned to his apartment, but he is still asking his roommates to screen visitors.More than a thousand international students have faced similar disruptions in recent weeks, with their academic careers and their lives in the U.S. thrown into doubt in a widespread crackdown by the Trump administration. Some have found a measure of success in court, with federal judges around the country issuing orders to restore students legal status at least temporarily. In addition to the case filed in Atlanta, where Roy is among 133 plaintiffs, judges have issued temporary restraining orders in states including New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Judges have denied similar requests in some other cases, saying it was not clear the loss of status would cause irreparable harm. International students challenge grounds for their status revocationSecretary of State Marco Rubio said last month the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israels war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges. But many affected students said they have been involved only in minor infractions, or its unclear altogether why they were targeted. The attorney for Roy and his fellow plaintiffs, Charles Kuck, argued the government did not have legal grounds to terminate the students status.He speculated in court last week the government is trying to encourage these students to self-deport, saying the pressure on these students is overwhelming. He said some asked him if it was safe to leave their homes to get food, and others worried they wouldnt receive a degree after years of work or feared their chances of a career in the U.S. were shot.I think the hope is theyll just leave, Kuck said. The reality is these kids are invested.An attorney for the government, R. David Powell, argued the students did not suffer significant harm because they could transfer their academic credits or find jobs in another country.At least 1,100 students at 174 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP is working to confirm reports of hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.In a lawsuit filed Monday by four people on student visas at the University of Iowa, attorneys detail the mental and financial suffering theyve experienced. One graduate student, from India, cannot sleep and is having difficulty breathing and eating, the lawsuit reads. He has stopped going to school, doing research or working as a teaching assistant. Another student, a Chinese undergraduate who expected to graduate this December, said his revoked status has caused his depression to worsen to the point that his doctor increased his medication dosage. The student, the lawsuit says, has not left his apartment out of fear of detention. Tiny infractions made students targets for the crackdownRoy, 23, began his academic career at Missouri State in August 2024 as an undergraduate computer science student. He was active in the chess club and a fraternity and has a broad circle of friends. After graduating in December, he began work on a masters degree in January and expects to finish in May 2026.When Roy received the universitys April 10 email on his status termination, one of his friends offered to skip class to go with him to the schools international services office, even though they had a quiz in 45 minutes. The staff there said a database check showed his student status had been terminated, but they didnt know why. Roy said his only brush with the law came in 2021, when he was questioned by campus security after someone called in a dispute at a university housing building. But he said an officer determined there was no evidence of any crime and no charges were filed.Roy also got an email from the U.S. embassy in Bangladesh telling him his visa had been revoked and that he could be detained at any time. It warned that if he was deported, he could be sent to a country other than his own. Roy thought about leaving the U.S. but decided to stay after talking to a lawyer.Anxious about being in his own apartment, Roy went to stay with his second cousin and her husband nearby. They were scared someone was going to pick me up from the street and take me somewhere that they wouldnt even know, Roy said.He mostly stayed inside, turned off his phone unless he needed to use it, and avoided internet browsers that track user data through cookies. His professors were understanding when he told them he wouldnt be able to come to classes for a while, he said.New doubts about students future in the USAfter the judges order Friday, he moved back to his apartment. He learned Tuesday his status had been restored, and he plans to return to class. But hes still nervous. He asked his two roommates, both international students, to let him know before they open the door if someone they dont know knocks.The judges restoration of his legal status is temporary. Another hearing scheduled for Thursday will determine whether he keeps that status while the litigation continues.Roy chose the U.S. over other options in Canada and Australia because of the research opportunities and potential for professional connections, and he ultimately wanted to teach at an American university. But now those plans are up in the air.His parents, back in Dhaka, have been watching the news and are freaked out, he said. His father mentioned to him that they have family in Melbourne, Australia, including a cousin whos an assistant professor at a university there. ___AP reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.___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.

Pope Francis proved to be far more cautious and conservative than many progressive Catholics had hoped for.

Palisades Charter High School in California has held classes online since the fire in January. On Tuesday, students gathered at a new, temporary home, a retrofitted Sears.

Pope Francis arrives to celebrate an Epiphany Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Jan. 6, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)2025-04-23T04:46:35Z VATICAN CITY (AP) Few could have predicted that a comment Pope Francis made during a 2018 visit to Chile would blow up into the biggest crisis of his papacy, and one that eventually set the Catholic Church on a new path of accountability for clergy sexual abuse.Francis was asked by a TV reporter about a Chilean bishop who had been accused by victims of having covered up the crimes of Chiles most notorious pedophile. Francis had been defending the bishop for years and shot back that there was not one shred of proof against him. Its all slander. Is that clear?His irate response struck a nerve in Chile, which was just beginning to come to terms with a horrific legacy of clergy abuse, and it prompted Francis top child protection adviser to sternly rebuke the pope for his harmful words.But then something remarkable happened: Rather than dig in, Francis commissioned an investigation, realized he was wrong, apologized to the victims he discredited, and got the entire Chilean hierarchy to offer to resign. It was one of the greatest midcourse corrections of the modern papacy.He recognized his mistakes, said papal biographer Austen Ivereigh. He learned from them. He said sorry. And he put it right. Initial questions on abuse. Then came ChileWhen Francis was elected historys first Latin American pontiff in 2013, abuse survivors and their advocates initially questioned whether he got it about abuse, because he freely admitted he had never handled cases of accused priests as archbishop of Buenos Aires.Francis did create a sex abuse commission early on to advise the church on best practices and placed a trusted official, Bostons Cardinal Sean OMalley, in charge. But the commission lost its influence after a few years and its crowning recommendation the creation of a tribunal to judge bishops who covered up for predator priests went nowhere.And then came Chile. During the now-infamous visit to Iquique, Chile, Francis was asked about Bishop Juan Barros, whom he had transferred to a southern diocese over the objections of the local faithful. Their complaint? Barros had been a priest under the sanctioned Rev. Fernando Karadima, and was accused by Karadimas victims of having witnessed and covered up the crimes.Francis had defended Barros because one of his friends and advisers, Chilean Cardinal Javier Errazuriz, also had defended the bishop.After being pressed on the plane home by journalists about his Barros defense, Francis commissioned an investigation into the Chilean church and realized he had been misled by Errazuriz and others.Juan Carlos Cruz, one of Karadimas victims who received the popes personal apology that year, later developed a personal friendship with the pontiff.He sincerely wanted to do something and he transmitted that, Cruz said.A turning point for Francis in 2018Years later, Francis acknowledged 2018 was the turning point, or conversion, in his understanding about abuse, and he credited journalists, including The Associated Press, with enlightening him.I couldnt believe it. You were the one on the plane who told me, No, thats not the way it is, Father, Francis told AP in a 2023 interview. Making a gesture that indicated his head had exploded, the pope continued: Thats when the bomb went off, when I saw the corruption of many bishops in this.By mid-2018, Francis had largely atoned for the Chile scandal. But then the next crisis hit. A U.S. cardinal is enveloped in scandalIn July of that year, Francis removed once-influential American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick after church investigators said an allegation that he groped a teenage altar boy in the 1970s was credible. Subsequently, several former seminarians and priests reported that they had been abused or harassed by McCarrick as adults.It was apparently common knowledge in the U.S. and Vatican leadership that Uncle Ted, as McCarrick was known, slept with seminarians, but he still rose steadily in the churchs ranks.Having removed McCarrick and approved a canonical trial against him, Francis should have emerged as the hero in the saga since he righted the wrong of St. John Paul II, who had promoted McCarrick despite his reputation. But Francis get-tough victory lap was cut short when a former Vatican ambassador to the U.S. accused the pope himself of participating in the McCarrick cover-up.In an 11-page denunciation in August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano claimed he had told Francis in 2013, at the start of his pontificate, that McCarrick had corrupted a generation of seminarians and priests and that Pope Benedict XVI had eventually sanctioned McCarrick for his sexual misconduct. Vigano claimed Francis disregarded his 2013 warning and rehabilitated McCarrick. He called on Francis to resign.Francis didnt initially respond. But he authorized a two-year investigation into McCarrick, finding that bishops, cardinals and popes over three decades played down or dismissed multiple reports of sexual misconduct against him. The report largely spared Francis and instead found that Vigano had failed in monitoring McCarrick while he was U.S. ambassador. McCarrick died earlier this month; Francis excommunicated Vigano last year for schism. Francis holds the hierarchy accountableThe crisis prompted Francis to take even bolder action to hold the hierarchy accountable for covering up abuse. In 2019, he summoned the heads of bishops conferences from around the world to the Vatican to impress on them the need to act to prevent abuse and punish offending priests.He changed church law to remove the pontifical secret covering abuse cases and passed a law requiring church personnel to report allegations in-house, although not to police. He approved procedures to investigate bishops who abused or covered up for their pedophile priests, seeking to end the tradition of impunity for the hierarchy.Ivereigh, the papal biographer, said those reforms were the result of Francis learning curve on abuse.I think he understood that at the root of the sex abuse crisis was a culture and a mindset which he constantly called clericalism, a sense of entitlement, and which led not only to ultimately to abuse of power and sexual abuse, but its cover up, Ivereigh said.More questions on abuse remainBut questions continued to dog Francis even after the scandal passed.One case that haunted him for years was that of Argentine Bishop Gustavo Zanchetta, who was accused, and eventually convicted, in an Argentine court of abusing his seminarians. Francis had created a job for Zanchetta at the Vatican after he had been accused of misconduct, spiriting him out of Argentina for purported health reasons.Francis never responded to questions about the Rev. Julio Grassi, who was Argentinas most notorious clerical sexual abuser. While Francis was archbishop of Buenos Aires, he commissioned a study into Grassis conviction that concluded he was innocent, that his victims were lying, and that the case never should have gone to trial. Argentinas supreme court upheld the conviction.Before Pope Francis can enact accountability for bishops and other church leaders, he has to own up to the harm he himself caused victims in Argentina, said Anne Barrett Doyle of the online resource Bishop Accountability, which pressed Francis to get even tougher about abuse and cover-ups throughout his pontificate. NICOLE WINFIELD Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)2025-04-23T04:47:36Z LONDON (AP) Diplomats and defense chiefs from Britain, the U.S., European nations and Ukraine will meet in London on Wednesday to push for a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv.British Defense Secretary John Healey said the meeting of foreign ministers and national security advisers follows talks last week in Paris and will include what a ceasefire might look like and how to secure peace in the long term.Those attending include retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Donald Trumps envoy for Ukraine and Russia. The U.S. State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who attended the Paris talks, was unable to come because of a scheduling issue.Britain has downplayed expectations of a breakthrough, but says this is an important week for diplomatic efforts to stop more than three years of fighting since Russias full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Trump said last week that negotiations were coming to a head and the U.S. might take a pass if either of the two sides didnt move toward peace.Rubio has also indicated the U.S. might soon back away from negotiations if they dont progress, and suggested that Wednesdays meeting could be decisive in determining whether the Trump administration continues its involvement. Putins foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff was expected to visit Moscow again this week. Ushakov provided no further details. Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks, because it has battlefield momentum and wants to capture more Ukrainian land.Prime Minister Keir Starmers spokesman, Dave Pares said the balls in Russias court.Now is the time for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to show hes serious about peace, he said.President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that Ukraines delegation heading to the U.K. has a mandate to discuss only an unconditional or partial ceasefire with Russia. He said that after a ceasefire, were prepared to sit down for talks in any format. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that the settlement issue is so complex that it would be wrong to put some tight limits to it and try to set some short time frame for a settlement, a viable settlement it would be a thankless task.Delegations from Russia and Ukraine have held separate talks with U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia as Trump tries to make good on his campaign promise to end the wa r.Western analysts say Moscow is in no rush to conclude peace talks because it has battlefield momentum and wants to capture more Ukrainian land.Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day halt in the fighting by imposing far-reaching conditions.Putin declared a 30-hour unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, but Ukraine and British officials said Russian attacks continued during the alleged pause. The Associated Press was unable to verify whether a ceasefire was in place along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line.Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are preparing for the spring-summer military campaign, Ukrainian and Western officials say.___Follow APs coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Despite a 1 percent increase in 2024, U.S. birthrates remained in a historic slump, a trend that worries demographers and cultural critics.

Protesters interrupted an all-Balanchine program on the companys spring season opening night, which coincided this year with Earth Day.

Wasem Attiya pushes his father, Mohamed, 54, in a wheelchair as they head to Shifa hospital in Gaza City for a dialysis session, Monday, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2025-04-23T05:27:12Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) Twice a week, Mohamed Attiyas wheelchair rattles over Gazas scarred roads so he can visit the machine that is keeping him alive.The 54-year-old makes the journey from a temporary shelter west of Gaza City to Shifa Hospital in the citys north. There, he receives dialysis for the kidney failure he was diagnosed with nearly 15 years ago. But the treatment, limited by the wars destruction and lack of supplies, is not enough to remove all the waste products from his blood.It just brings you back from death, the father of six said.Many others like him have not made it. They are some of Gazas quieter deaths from the war, with no explosion, no debris. But the toll is striking: Over 400 patients, representing around 40% of all dialysis cases in the territory, have died during the 18-month conflict because of lack of proper treatment, according to Gazas Health Ministry. That includes 11 patients who have died since the beginning of March, when Israel sealed the territorys 2 million Palestinians off from all imports, including food, medical supplies and fuel. Israeli officials say the aim is to pressure Hamas to release more hostages after Israel ended their ceasefire.COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid, declined to comment on the current blockade. It has said in the past that all medical aid is approved for entry when the crossings are open, and that around 45,400 tons of medical equipment have entered Gaza since the start of the war. Hardships mount for Gaza patients Attiya said he needs at least three dialysis sessions every week, at least four hours each time. Now, his two sessions last two or three hours at most.Israels blockade, and its numerous evacuation orders across much of the territory, have challenged his ability to reach regular care.He has been displaced at least six times since fleeing his home near the northern town of Beit Hanoun in the first weeks of the war. He first stayed in Rafah in the south, then the central city of Deir al-Balah. When the latest ceasefire took effect in January, he moved again to another school in western Gaza City. Until recently, Attiya walked to the hospital for dialysis. But he says the limited treatment, and soaring prices for the mineral water he should be drinking, have left him in a wheelchair.His family wheels him through a Gaza that many find difficult to recognize. Much of the territory has been destroyed.There is no transportation. Streets are damaged, Attiya said. Life is difficult and expensive.He said he now has hallucinations because of the high levels of toxins in his blood.The occupation does not care about the suffering or the sick, he said, referring to Israel and its soldiers. A health system gutted by warSix of the seven dialysis centers in Gaza have been destroyed during the war, the World Health Organization said earlier this year, citing the territorys Health Ministry. The territory had 182 dialysis machines before the war and now has 102. Twenty-seven of them are in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people rushed home during the two-month ceasefire.These equipment shortages are exacerbated by zero stock levels of kidney medications, the WHO said.Israel has raided hospitals on several occasions during the war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes. Hospital staff deny the allegations and say the raids have gutted the territorys health care system as it struggles to cope with mass casualties from the war.The Health Ministry says over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israels offensive, without saying how many were civilians or combatants. Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war. Officials say hundreds of patients have diedAt Shifa Hospital, the head of the nephrology and dialysis department, Dr. Ghazi al-Yazigi, said at least 417 patients with kidney failure have died in Gaza during the war because of lack of proper treatment.Thats from among the 1,100 patients when the war began.Like Attiya, hundreds of dialysis patients across Gaza are now forced to settle for fewer and shorter sessions each week.This leads to complications such as increased levels of toxins and fluid accumulation which could lead to death, al-Yazigi said.Mohamed Kamel of Gaza City is a new dialysis patient at the hospital after being diagnosed with kidney failure during the war and beginning treatment this year.These days, I feel no improvement after each session, he said during one of his weekly visits.The father of six children said he no longer has access to filtered water to drink, and even basic running water is scarce. Israel last month cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, affecting a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the arid territory. Kamel said he has missed many dialysis sessions. Last year, while sheltering in central Gaza, he missed one because of an Israeli bombing in the area. His condition deteriorated, and the next day he was taken by ambulance to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital.The displacement has had consequences, Kamel said. I am tired.___Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed.___Follow coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

Pope Francis's body is laid out in state inside his private chapel at the Vatican, Monday, April 21, 2025. From left, Dean Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, unidentified bishop, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Master of Ceremonies Archbishop Diego Giovanni Ravelli, Cardinal Camerlengo Kevin Joseph Farrell, and Master of Ceremonies Lubomir Welnitz. (Vatican Media via AP, HO)2025-04-23T04:45:44Z VATICAN CITY (AP) The body of Pope Francis will be moved to St. Peters Basilica early Wednesday to lie in state for the Catholic faithful to pay their respects to the Argentine pontiff remembered for his humble style, concern for the poor and insistent prayers for peace.Heads of state are expected for the funeral Saturday in St. Peters Square, but the three days of public viewing are largely for ordinary Catholics to grieve the 88-year-old pope, who died Monday after suffering a stroke.Francis first lay in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household. Images released by the Vatican on Tuesday showed Francis lying in an open casket, wearing the traditional pointed headdress of bishops and red robes, his hands folded over a rosary. The Vaticans No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was pictured praying by Francis. His body will be transferred Wednesday morning to St. Peters Basilica, which will be kept open until midnight on Wednesday and Thursday to allow the faithful to mourn. The public mourning period will end on Friday at 7 p.m.Once inside the basilica, his casket wont be put on an elevated bier as was the case with past popes but will just be placed on the main altar of the 16th-century basilica, simply facing the pews. Italian police have tightened security for the viewing and the funeral, carrying out foot and horse patrols around the Vatican, where pilgrims continued to arrive for the Holy Year celebrations that Francis opened in December. The faithful who walk through St. Peters Holy Door are granted indulgences, a way to help atone for sins. For me, Pope Francis represents a great pastor, as well as a great friend to all of us, said Micale Sales, visiting St. Peters Basilica from Brazil.I think he spread a positive message around the world, saying there shouldnt be any violence, there should be peace around the world, said Amit Kukreja, from Australia. The funeral has been set for Saturday at 10 a.m. in St. Peters Square, and will be attended by leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy.Cardinals are continuing their meetings this week to plan the conclave to elect Francis successor, make other decisions about running the Catholic Church as world leaders and the ordinary faithful grieve the pontiffs death.Historys first Latin American pontiff charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated many conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change. He last appeared in public on Sunday with an Easter blessing and popemobile tour through a cheering crowd in St. Peters Square.He had some reservations about looping through the square packed with 50,000 faithful, Vatican News reported on Tuesday, but overcame them and was thankful that he had greeted the crowd. He died the next morning.The death of a pope is not a small thing, because weve lost our leader, said Julio Henrique from Brazil. But still, in a few days, we will have a new leader. So the thing of hope remains. Who will assume Peters throne?___Silvia Stellacci and Trisha Thomas contributed to this report. NICOLE WINFIELD Winfield has been on the Vatican beat since 2001, covering the papacies of St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and the Francis pontificate and traveling the world with them.

Remarks by President Trump and his Treasury secretary fueled a rebound in global stocks, extending a surge that started on Wall Street.

So far, the goals of many of President Trumps negotiations have been unrealized, even those he said would be accomplished in a matter of days or weeks.

Police guard as ambulances carry bodies of tourists, in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)2025-04-23T07:17:03Z SRINAGAR, India (AP) Security has been beefed up across Indian-controlled Kashmir a day after an attack killed at least 26 people, most of them tourists, as Indian forces launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of one of the deadliest attacks in the restive Himalayan region.As investigators began probing the attack, many shops and businesses in Kashmir closed to protest the killings following a call from the regions religious and political parties. Tens of thousands of armed police and soldiers fanned out across the region and erected additional checkpoints. They searched cars and in some areas summoned former militants to police stations for questioning, reports said.Police called it a terror attack and blamed militants fighting against Indian rule. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.Global condemnation for Tuesdays rare attack on the tourists came swiftly, while Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia and returned to New Delhi early Wednesday.Officials said 24 of the people killed were Indian tourists, one was from Nepal and one was a local tourist guide. At least 17 others were injured. Kashmir has seen tourism boom depite spate of attacksKashmir has seen a spate of deadly attacks on Hindus, including immigrant workers from Indian states, since New Delhi ended the regions semi-autonomy in 2019 and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.New Delhi has vigorously pushed tourism and claimed it as a sign of normalcy returning, and the region has drawn millions of visitors who enjoy its Himalyan foothills and exquisitely decorate houseboats amid a strange peace kept by ubiquitous security checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. Until Tuesday, tourists were not targeted.Following the attack, panicked tourists started to leave Kashmir.Monojit Debnath, a tourist from Indian city of Kolkata, said Kashmir was undoubtedly beautiful but his family did not feel secure anymore.We are tourists, and we should think about what safety we have here for us, Debnath told the Press Trust of India news agency as he was leaving Srinagar, the regions main city, with his family. Powerful home minister visitsOn Wednesday, Indias powerful home minister Amit Shah attended a ceremony at a police control room in Srinagar, where the slain tourists were paid floral tributes. He also met families of several victims. Shah vowed to come down heavily on the perpetrators with the harshest consequences.Later, Shah visited the site of the killing at Baisaran meadow, some 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the resort town of Pahalgam. The meadow in Pahalgam is a popular destination, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and dotted with pine forests. It is visited by hundreds of tourists every day. Kashmir has been divided for decadesNuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir but both claim the territory in its entirety.Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhis rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.India describes militancy in Kashmir as Pakistan-backed terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.India has used heavy-handed tactics to maintain its control over the region that include giving the armed forces widespread powers to arrest, torture and summarily execute suspects, human rights groups say. In March 2000, at least 35 civilians were shot and killed in a southern village in Kashmir while then-U.S. President Bill Clinton was visiting India. In 2019, months before New Delhi revoked the regions autonomy, a militant attack killed at least 40 paramilitary soldiers that brought India and Pakistan close to a war.Violence has ebbed in recent times in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion. Fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to remote areas of Jammu region, including Rajouri, Poonch and Kathua, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks. AIJAZ HUSSAIN Hussain is a senior reporter for The Associated Press covering the Kashmir conflict, Indian politics and strategic affairs, and climate. He has worked for the AP for nearly two decades. twitter mailto

An Indian security officer patrols a shopping area in Pahalgam a day after militants indiscriminately opened fire on tourists near the town, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)2025-04-23T06:38:43Z NEW DELHI (AP) At least 26 people were killed and 17 others wounded after gunmen opened fire on a group of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the worst assault in years targeting civilians in the restive region that has seen an anti-India rebellion for more than three decades.Tuesdays attack took place in the picturesque town of Pahalgam in the Himalayan mountains, popular with Indian visitors. Police accused rebels of masterminding the attack, which sparked outrage and drew international condemnation, including from U.S. President Donald Trump.Fear of escalating tensions Pahalgam is in the Baisaran meadow, locally known as mini Switzerland and is accessible only on foot or horseback. The town is a major tourist destination because of its alpine meadows, pine forests, snow-clad slopes and trekking routes.It also lies on a major annual Hindu pilgrimage route, the Amarnath Yatra, and serves as one of its largest base camps, drawing hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. This years pilgrimage starts on July 3 and ends on August 9.The attack on Tuesday hasnt been claimed by any group so far, and on Wednesday, Indian soldiers were still searching for the attackers. Many fear the tourism industry, which employs thousands of people, will be negatively affected. This also comes as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is soon expected to inaugurate a multibillion-dollar railway line to Kashmir Valley, which his government says will help tourism and economic development in the region. Modi has decried the heinous act and pledged the militantswill be brought to justice. Indias powerful home minister, Amit Shah, visited the attack site on Wednesday.The India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir India and Pakistan have each laid claim to Kashmir since war broke out following the British partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Border skirmishes have long created instability in the region. The two arch rivals have also fought three wars over Kashmir, where armed insurgents have resisted Indian rule for decades, with many Muslim Kashmiris supporting the rebels goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.India has accused Pakistan of fomenting violence in the Muslim-majority region. Islamabad denies the charge and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.In 2019, Modis government revoked Kashmirs semiautonomous status and imposed sweeping security measures. Since then, his government has kept order in the region with a huge security presence and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms.Attacks on tourists in Kashmir are rareMilitants had attacked civilians before, but the last major attack was in 2000. And though the region has seen a spate of targeted killings in remote mountains in recent years, violence has largely declined in the Kashmir Valley, the heart of anti-India rebellion.Indian tourism has flourished in Kashmir after the Modi government promoted visits to the region with the hope of showing rising tourism numbers as a sign of renewed stability there, albeit under heavy security presence, checkpoints, armored vehicles and patrolling soldiers. Millions of visitors now arrive in Kashmir every year to see its Himalayan foothills and exquisitely decorated houseboats, as the fighting between government forces and rebels has largely shifted to the region of Jammus remote areas, where Indian troops have faced deadly attacks. The attack coincides with Vances India visitTuesdays attack came as U.S. vice-president JD Vance was on a sightseeing trip to the Indian city of Jaipur on Tuesday, a day after meeting with Modi in New Delhi.Vance condemned the killings, saying: Over the past few days, we have been overcome with the beauty of this country and its people. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as they mourn this horrific attack.He will be in the Indian city of Agra on Wednesday to visit the iconic Taj Mahal monument, which is some 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) away from the attack site.Trump also denounced the attack and expressed solidarity with India against terrorism and called Modi to convey his sympathies, according to Indian authorities. Other leaders from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, France, Italy and the United Arab Emirates also expressed condemnation.Militants had previously planned attacks to coincide with high-profile visits. One of the most notorious attacks was the killing of at least 35 civilians in a village in Kashmir in 2000 on the eve of a state visit to India by then-U.S. president Bill Clinton. SHEIKH SAALIQ Saaliq covers news across India and the South Asia region for The Associated Press, often focusing on politics, democracy, conflict and religion. He is based in New Delhi. twitter mailto

Crowds flocked to pay their respects and bid farewell to the pontiff, who died on Monday at the age of 88.

Harvards lawyers suggest the administration was sloppy when it froze billions in federal funding. A mundane but crucial law is essential to the universitys case against the government.

Bleached coral is visible at the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, off the coast of Galveston, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico, Sept. 16, 2023. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)2025-04-23T04:02:57Z Harmful bleaching of the worlds coral has grown to include 84% of the oceans reefs in the most intense event of its kind in recorded history, the International Coral Reef Initiative announced Wednesday.Its the fourth global bleaching event since 1998, and has now surpassed bleaching from 2014-17 that hit some two-thirds of reefs, said the ICRI, a mix of more than 100 governments, non-governmental organizations and others. And its not clear when the current crisis, which began in 2023 and is blamed on warming oceans, will end.We may never see the heat stress that causes bleaching dropping below the threshold that triggers a global event, said Mark Eakin, executive secretary for the International Coral Reef Society and retired coral monitoring chief for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Were looking at something thats completely changing the face of our planet and the ability of our oceans to sustain lives and livelihoods, Eakin said. Last year was Earths hottest year on record, and much of that is going into oceans. The average annual sea surface temperature of oceans away from the poles was a record 20.87 degrees Celsius (69.57 degrees Fahrenheit). Thats deadly to corals, which are key to seafood production, tourism and protecting coastlines from erosion and storms. Coral reefs are sometimes dubbed rainforests of the sea because they support high levels of biodiversity approximately 25% of all marine species can be found in, on and around coral reefs. Coral get their bright colors from the colorful algae that live inside them and are a food source for the corals. Prolonged warmth causes the algae to release toxic compounds, and the coral eject them. A stark white skeleton is left behind, and the weakened coral is at heightened risk of dying.The bleaching event has been so severe that NOAAs Coral Reef Watch program has had to add levels to its bleaching alert scale to account for the growing risk of coral death. Efforts are underway to conserve and restore coral. One Dutch lab has worked with coral fragments, including some taken from off the coast of the Seychelles, to propagate them in a zoo so that they might be used someday to repopulate wild coral reefs if needed. Other projects, including one off Florida, have worked to rescue corals endangered by high heat and nurse them back to health before returning them to the ocean.But scientists say its essential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that warm the planet, such as carbon dioxide and methane. The best way to protect coral reefs is to address the root cause of climate change. And that means reducing the human emissions that are mostly from burning of fossil fuels everything else is looking more like a Band-Aid rather than a solution, Eakin said.I think people really need to recognize what theyre doing inaction is the kiss of death for coral reefs, said Melanie McField, co-chair of the Caribbean Steering Committee for the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, a network of scientists that monitors reefs throughout the world. The groups update comes as President Donald Trump has moved aggressively in his second term to boost fossil fuels and roll back clean energy programs, which he says is necessary for economic growth.Weve got a government right now that is working very hard to destroy all of these ecosystems ... removing these protections is going to have devastating consequences, Eakin said.___The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. RSShttps://feedx.net https://feedx.site

by Eli Hager ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. The clear-cutting across the federal government under President Donald Trump has been dramatic, with mass terminations, the suspension of decades-old programs and the neutering of entire agencies. But this spectacle has obscured a series of moves by the administration that could profoundly harm some of the most vulnerable people in the U.S.: children. Consider: The staff of a program that helps millions of poor families keep the electricity on, in part so that babies dont die from extreme heat or cold, have all been fired. The federal office that oversees the enforcement of child support payments has been hollowed out. Head Start preschools, which teach toddlers their ABCs and feed them healthy meals, will likely be forced to shut down en masse, some as soon as May 1. And funding for investigating child sexual abuse and internet crimes against children; responding to reports of missing children; and preventing youth violence has been withdrawn indefinitely. The administration has laid off thousands of workers from coast to coast who had supervised education, child care, child support and child protective services systems, and it has blocked or delayed billions of dollars in funding for things like school meals and school safety. These stark reductions have been centered in little-known childrens services offices housed within behemoth agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, offices with names like the Childrens Bureau, the Office of Family Assistance and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. In part because of their obscurity, the slashing has gone relatively overlooked.Everyones been talking about what the Trump administration and DOGE have been doing, but no one seems to be talking about how, in a lot of ways, its been an assault on kids, said Bruce Lesley, president of advocacy group First Focus on Children. He added that the one cabinet agency that theyre fully decimating is the kid one, referring to Trumps goal of shuttering the Department of Education. Already, some 2,000 staffers there have lost or left their jobs. The impact of these cuts will be felt far beyond Washington, rippling out to thousands of state and local agencies serving children nationwide.The Department of Education, for instance, has rescinded as much as $3 billion in pandemic-recovery funding for schools, which would have been used for everything from tutoring services for Maryland students whove fallen behind to making the air safer to breathe and the water safer to drink for students in Flint, Michigan. The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, has canceled $660 million in promised grants to farm-to-school programs, which had been providing fresh meat and produce to school cafeterias while supporting small farmers. At the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the agencys secretary, has dismissed all of the staff that had distributed $1.7 billion annually in Social Services Block Grant money, which many states have long depended on to be able to run their child welfare, foster care and adoption systems, including birth family visitation, caseworker training and more. The grants also fund day care, counseling and disability services for kids. (It is unclear whether anyone remains at HHS who would know how to get all of that funding out the door or whether it will now be administered by White House appointees.)Head Start will be especially affected in the wake of Kennedys mass firings of Office of Head Start regional staff and news that the presidents draft budget proposes eliminating funding for the program altogether. That would leave one million working-class parents who rely on Head Start not only for pre-K education but also for child care, particularly in rural areas, with nowhere to send their kids during the day. Some local Head Start programs are already having to close their doors, and many program directors are encountering impediments to spending their current budgets. When they seek reimbursement after paying their teachers or purchasing school supplies, theyre being directed to a new Defend the Spend DOGE website asking them to justify each item, even though the spending has already been appropriated by Congress and audited by nonpartisan civil servants.Next on the chopping block, it appears, is Medicaid, which serves children in greater numbers than any other age group. If Republicans in Congress go through with the cuts theyve been discussing, and Trump signs those cuts into law, kids from lower- and middle-class families across the U.S. will lose access to health care at their schools, in foster care, for their disabilities or for cancer treatment.The Trump administration has touted the presidents record of protecting Americas children, asserting in a recent post that Trump will never stop fighting for their right to a healthy, productive upbringing. The statement listed five examples of that commitment. Four were related to transgender issues (including making it U.S. government policy that there are only two sexes and keeping trans athletes out of womens sports); the other was a ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates at schools that receive federal funding.The White House, and multiple agencies, declined to respond to most of ProPublicas questions. Madi Biedermann, a Department of Education spokesperson, addressed the elimination of pandemic recovery funding, saying that COVID is over; that the Biden administration established an irresponsible precedent by extending the deadline to spend these funds (and exceeding their original purpose); and that the department will consider extensions if individual projects show a clear connection between COVID and student learning. An HHS spokesperson, in response to ProPublicas questions about cuts to childrens programs across that agency, sent a short statement saying that the department, guided by Trump, is restructuring with a focus on cutting wasteful bureaucracy. The offices serving children, the statement said, will be merged into a newly established Administration for Healthy America. Programs that serve kids have historically fared the worst when those in power are looking for ways to cut the budget. Thats in part because kids cant vote, and they typically dont belong to political organizations. International aid groups, another constituency devastated by Trumps policy agenda, also cant say that they represent many U.S. voters.This dynamic may be part of why cuts on the health side of the Department of Health and Human Services layoffs of doctors, medical researchers and the like have received more political and press attention than those on the human services side, where the Administration for Children and Families is located. Thats where you can find the Office of Child Support Services, the Office of Head Start, the Office of Child Care (which promotes minimum health and safety standards for child care programs nationally and helps states reduce the cost of child care for families), the Office of Family Assistance (which helps states administer direct aid to lower-income parents and kids), the Childrens Bureau (which oversees child protective services, foster care and adoption) and the Family and Youth Services Bureau (which aids runaway and homeless teens, among others).All told, these programs have seen their staffs cut from roughly 2,400 employees as of January to 1,500 now, according to a shared Google document that is being regularly updated by former HHS officials. (Neither the White House nor agency leadership have released the exact numbers of cuts.)Those losses have been most acutely felt in the agencys regional offices, five out of 10 of which covering over 20 states have been closed by the Trump administration. They were dissolved this month without notice to their own employees or to the local providers they worked with. It was these outposts that had monitored Head Start programs to make sure that they had fences around their playgrounds, gates at the top of their stairs and enough staffing to keep an eye on even the most energetic little ones. It was also the regional staff who had helped state child support programs modernize their computer systems and navigate federal law. That allowed them, among other things, to be able to pass through more money to families instead of depositing it in state coffers to reimburse themselves for costs.And it was the regional staff whod had the relationships with tribal officials that allowed them to routinely work together to address child support, child care and child welfare challenges faced by Native families. Together, they had worked to overcome sometimes deep distrust of the federal government among tribal leaders, who may now have no one to ask for help with their childrens programs other than political appointees in D.C.In the wake of the regional office cuts, local child services program directors have no idea who in the federal government to call when they have urgent concerns, many told ProPublica. No one knows anything, said one state child support director, asking not to be named in order to speak candidly about the administrations actions. We have no idea who will be auditing us.Were trying to be reassuring to our families, the official said, but if the national system goes down, so does ours.That national system includes the complex web of databases and technical support maintained and provided by the Office of Child Support Services at HHS, which helps states locate parents who owe child support in order to withhold part of their paychecks or otherwise obtain the money they owe, which is then sent to the parent who has custody of the child. Without this federal data and assistance, child support orders would have little way of being enforced across state lines.For that reason, the Trump administration is making a risky gamble by slashing staffing at the federal child support office, said Vicki Turetsky, who headed that office under the Obama administration. She worries that the layoffs create a danger of system outages that would cause child support payments to be missed or delayed. (Thats a familys rent, she said.) The instability is compounded, she said, by DOGEs recent unexplained move to access a highly confidential national child support database.But even if the worst doesnt come to pass, there will still be concrete consequences for the delivery of child support to families, Turetsky said. The staff members whove been pushed out include those whod helped manage complicated, outdated IT systems; without updates, these programs might over- or undershoot the amount of child support that a parent owes, misdirect the money or fail to give notice to the dad or mom about a change in the case. When Liz Ryan departed as administrator of the Department of Justices juvenile division in January, its website was flush with opportunities for state and local law enforcement as well as nonprofits to apply for federal funding for a myriad of initiatives that help children. There were funds for local police task forces that investigate child exploitation on the internet; for programs where abused children are interviewed by police and mental health professionals; and for court-appointed advocates for victimized kids. Grants were also available for mentoring programs like Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. But the Trump administration removed those grant applications, which total over $400 million in a typical year. And Ryan said there still hasnt been any communication, including in what used to be regular emails with grant recipients, many of whom she remains in touch with, about whether this congressionally approved money even still exists or whether some of it might eventually be made available again.A spokesperson for the Office of Justice Programs within the DOJ said the agency is reviewing programs, policies and materials and taking action as appropriate in accordance with Trumps executive orders and guidance. When that review has been completed, local agencies and programs seeking grants will be notified.Multiple nonprofits serving exploited children declined to speak on the record to ProPublica, fearing that doing so might undermine what chance they still had of getting potential grants.Look at what happened to the law firms, one official said, adding that time is running out to fund his programs services for victims of child abuse for the upcoming fiscal year.I never anticipated that programs and services and opportunities for young people wouldnt be funded at all by the federal government, Ryan said, adding that local childrens organizations likely cant go to states, whose budgets are already underwater, to make up the funding gap. When you look at this alongside what theyre doing at HHS and the Department of Education and to Medicaid, its undercutting every single effort that we have to serve kids.

This level of violence has to stop.

The federal judiciary is being forced to confront a fundamental question: what to do when its orders are defied.

Nature, Published online: 23 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01233-6With the world set to blow past its temperature targets, efforts are growing to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

by Sebastian Rotella ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as theyre published. Chinas vast security apparatus shrouds itself in shadows, but the outside world has caught periodic glimpses of it behind the faded gray walls of Shijiazhuang prison in the northern province of Hebei.Chinese media reports have shown inmates hunched over sewing machines in a garment workshop in the sprawling facility. Business leaders and Chinese Communist Party dignitaries have praised the penitentiary for exemplifying President Xi Jinpings views on the rule of law.But the prison has an alarming secret, U.S. congressional investigators disclosed last year. They revealed evidence showing that it is a Chinese government outpost in the trafficking pipeline that inundates the United States with fentanyl.For at least eight years, the prison owned a chemical company called Yafeng, the hub of a group of Chinese firms and websites that sold fentanyl products to Americans, according to the U.S. congressional investigation, as well as Chinese government and corporate records obtained by ProPublica. The companys English-language websites brazenly offered U.S. customers dangerous drugs that are illegal in both nations. Promising to smuggle illicit chemicals past U.S. and Mexican border defenses, Yafeng boasted to American clients that 100% of our shipments will clear customs.Although China tightly restricts the domestic manufacturing, sale and use of fentanyl products, the nation has been the worlds leading producer of fentanyl that enters the United States and remains the leading producer of chemical precursors with which Mexican cartels make the drug. Overdoses on synthetic opioid drugs, most of them fentanyl related, have killed over 450,000 Americans during the past decade more than the U.S. deaths in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.The involvement of a state-run prison is just one sign of the Chinese governments role in fomenting the U.S. fentanyl crisis, U.S. investigators say. Chinese leaders have insistently denied such allegations. But U.S. national security officials said the Yafeng case shows how China allows its chemical industry to engage openly in sales to overseas customers while blocking online domestic access and enforcing stern laws against drug dealing inside the country. Beijing also encourages the manufacture and export of fentanyl products, including drugs outlawed in China, with generous financial incentives, according to a bipartisan inquiry last year by the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.So the Chinese government pays you to send drugs to America but executes you for selling them in China, Matt Cronin, a former federal prosecutor who led the House inquiry, said in an interview. Its impossible that the Chinese Communist Party doesnt know whats going on and cant do anything about it. Chinas antidrug cooperation has been persistently poor, U.S. officials said. In 2019, Xi imposed controls that cut the export of fentanyl, but Chinese sellers shifted to shipping precursors to Mexico, where the cartels expanded their production.We couldnt get the Chinese on the phone to talk about fighting child pornography, let alone fentanyl, said Jacob Braun, who served as a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security during the Biden administration. There was zero cooperation.China also remains the base of global organized crime groups that launder billions for fentanyl traffickers in the U.S, Mexico and Canada. ProPublica has previously reported that this underground banking system depends on the Chinese elite, who move fortunes abroad by acquiring drug cash from Chinese criminal brokers for Mexican cartels. Chinese banks and businesses also help hide the origin of illicit proceeds. The regime in Beijing therefore has considerable control over key nodes in the fentanyl chain: raw materials, production, sales and money laundering.U.S. leaders, Democrats and Republicans alike, have accused China of using fentanyl to weaken the United States. Some veteran agents agree.Ray Donovan, who retired in 2023 as the Drug Enforcement Administrations chief of operations, said he believes that a deliberate strategy by the Chinese state has caused the trafficking onslaught to grow in size and scope.They have said for years that they are cracking down, Donovan said in an interview. But we havent seen meaningful action.Still, current and former U.S. officials told ProPublica that the national security community has not found conclusive evidence of a planned, high-level campaign against Americans by the Chinese government. That is partly because for years the U.S. treated fentanyl as a law enforcement matter rather than a national security threat, making it hard to gather intelligence about the extent and nature of the regimes role.If this was Chinese intelligence doing something, we have a focus on that as counterintelligence, said Alan Kohler, who retired from the FBI in 2023 after serving as director of the counterintelligence division. If it was drug cartels, we have a criminal focus on that. But this area of crime and state converging falls between the seams in and among agencies.Nonetheless, the current and former officials said rampant fentanyl trafficking could not continue without at least the passive complicity of the worlds most powerful police state.I havent seen smoking-gun evidence that its a policy or strategy of the government at a high level, Kohler said. You could argue that their decision not to do anything about it, even after the results are clear, is tacit support. In a written statement, the spokesperson for Chinas embassy in Washington described as totally groundless any allegation that the regime has fomented the crisis.The fentanyl issue is the U.S.s own problem, said the spokesperson, Liu Pengyu. China has given support to the U.S.s response to the fentanyl issue in the spirit of humanity. At the United States request, he said, China in 2019 restricted fentanyl-related substances as a class, becoming the first country to do so, and has cooperated with the U.S. on counternarcotics.The remarkable progress is there for all to see.The Trump administration has made the fight against fentanyl a priority and in February imposed a 25% tariff on Chinese imports to pressure Beijing for results. The approach could put a dent in the drug trade, but its too early to tell, officials said.The Chinese system responds to a negative incentive, said former FBI agent Holden Triplett, who served as legal attache in Beijing and director of counterintelligence on the National Security Council. China may be willing to endure more pain than we can give. But it is our only chance.To respond effectively, the U.S. needs a clearer picture of the Chinese fentanyl underworld, Triplett and others say. The activities of the Shijiazhuang prison are a compelling case study, but not the only one.To examine the role of the Chinese state in the drug trade, ProPublica interviewed more than three dozen current and former national security officials for the U.S. and other countries, some of whom provided exclusive inside accounts. The reporting also drew on last years House investigation, digging into significant findings that have received little public attention, plus court files, government documents, academic studies, private inquiries and public records in the U.S., China and Mexico. (Collage by Mike McQuade for ProPublica. Source images: Google Maps and screenshots from ads found by a U.S. congressional inquiry.) Prison BusinessIn 2010, the Hebei Prison Administration Bureau combined three detention facilities to create a high-security prison in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province. The region is a base of Chinas chemical industry, which is the largest in the world. It is also weakly regulated and freewheeling, according to U.S. national security officials, private studies and other sources. A shifting array of companies peddle everything from innocuous fertilizers to deadly opioids.Liu Jianhua, a veteran Chinese Communist Party official with a masters degree in business administration from the University of Illinois Chicago, became director of the prison in 2014. By then, fentanyl was cutting a swath across America. Overdose deaths soared due to the ease with which U.S. users and dealers could acquire fentanyl products by mail from China.Chinas high-tech surveillance apparatus aggressively polices the online activities of its citizens. Yet sales of fentanyl to foreigners have thrived on popular, easily accessible websites, said Frank Montoya Jr., a former FBI agent with years of China-related experience who served as a top U.S. counterintelligence official.You dont have to go on the dark web, Montoya said. It is out in the open.Yafeng Biological Technology Co. Ltd., also known as Hebei Shijiazhuang Yafeng Chemical Plant, became a typical player on this frontier, the congressional inquiry found. (As part of its reporting, ProPublica mapped links between the prison, the company and the U.S. drug market with the help of two entities that specialize in China open-source research: Sayari, a company that provides risk management and supply-chain analysis and that supported the House inquiry, and C4ADS, a nonprofit that investigates illicit global networks.)Yafengs websites and Chinese corporate records describe the firm as a chemical manufacturer. It has ties through other websites, phone numbers and email addresses to at least nine companies that advertised illicit drugs, causing investigators to conclude that Yafeng was a network hub, according to the report and interviews. Its common for interconnected Chinese fentanyl producers and brokers to obscure details about their enterprises and change names and platforms to elude detection, U.S. officials said.In some ways, Yafeng presented itself to foreign buyers as a respectable company. The English-language websites featured peppy phrases like team spirit and promoting the well-being of community. The China-based sales representatives gave themselves Western names: Diana, Monica, Jessica. A map of markets showed shipping routes from China to the United States, Mexico, Canada and other countries. A map on Yafengs website showed its distribution and a list of available drugs to purchase. (U.S. government) Yet the sales pitches left little doubt that the firm knew its activities were illegal. Yafeng websites utilized familiar terms assuring U.S. and Mexican drug users and traffickers of the companys skill at smuggling illegal narcotics overseas, according to the House report and U.S. investigators. The company touted its use of hidden food bags, a method in which drugs are concealed in shipments labeled as food products. Ads promised strong safety delivery to Mexico, USA with packaging made to measure to guarantee that illicit chemicals would elude border inspections, documents show. Advertisements on a Chinese website (U.S. government) Chinese traffickers often discuss lawbreaking in such brazen terms with foreign customers, seemingly unconcerned about Chinas omnipresent surveillance system, court files and interviews show. Another firm, Hubei Amarvel Biotech, explicitly explained to U.S. and Mexican clients online complete with photos its methods for 100% stealth shipping of drugs disguised as nuts, dog food and motor oil, court documents say. After undercover DEA agents lured two Amarvel executives to Fiji and arrested them, a New York jury convicted them in February on charges of importation of fentanyl precursors and money laundering. (One defendant, Yiyi Chen, has filed a motion requesting an acquittal or retrial.)At the time of the arrests, the Chinese government issued a statement condemning the U.S. prosecution as a typical example of arbitrary detention and unilateral sanctions.Similarly, Yafeng websites displayed photos of narcotics in plastic baggies to peddle a long list of chemicals, including fentanyl precursors and U-47700, a powerful fentanyl analogue outlawed in both the U.S. and China that has no medical use, the House report says.One victim of U-47700 was Garrett Holman of Lynchburg, Virginia. Holman had fallen in with youths who discovered how easy it was to buy synthetic drugs online. In late 2016, Holman overdosed on U-47700, street name pinky, that arrived by mail from southern China. His father, Don, performed CPR before paramedics rushed Holman to the hospital. Although he survived, another overdose killed him just days before his 21st birthday in February 2017. Garrett Holman (U.S. government) My sons opioid exposure was less than two months, Don Holman told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee the next year. At 20 years old, I do not believe my son deserved to die for his initial bad choices.The father handed over evidence, including the envelope in which the drugs arrived, to federal agents, who traced about 20 shipments back to the same sender in China, he said in an interview. Don Holman blames the fentanyl crisis on the American appetite for opioids as well as the Chinese government. He has spent eight years telling anyone he can, from drug czars to fellow parents, about the experience that shattered his family.Ive had to hit parents right between the eyes, like: Hey, your child is not going to be here if you dont do something, he said. You need to wake up.No link to Yafeng surfaced in that case. The firms sales of U-47700 and other illicit drugs occurred during a period when its sole owner and controlling shareholder was the Shijiazhuang prison, according to the House inquiry, Sayari and C4ADS.One of Yafengs street addresses was that of the prison, ProPublica determined through satellite photos and public records. Another Yafeng address next door also houses the offices of a clothing firm owned by the provincial prison administration. A third Yafeng address a few blocks away is a former municipal police station, records and photos show.The director of the prison, Liu Jianhua, left his post after becoming the target of a corruption inquiry in 2021, according to Chinese media reports. Its unknown how that investigation was resolved or if his fall had anything to do with the drug activity. Liu could not be reached for comment. The prison administration did not respond to requests for comment.Yafeng stopped doing business under that name at some point between 2018 and 2022, records show. Yet the Yafeng group continued to function through at least one of its affiliated websites, protonitazene.com, the congressional report said. As of last year, the site was still advertising hot sale to Mexico of drugs including nitazenes, which are 25 times more powerful than fentanyl.Government IncentivesYafeng is not the only company with connections to the Chinese state and fentanyl.Gaosheng Biotechnology in Shanghai is wholly state-owned, congressional investigators found. The company sold fentanyl precursors and other narcotics some illegal in China on 98 websites to U.S., Mexican and European customers, the report says. Senior provincial development officials visited Gaosheng and praised its benefits for the regional economy. Gaosheng did not respond to requests for comment.The Chinese government owned a stake in Zhejiang Netsun, a private firm that had a Chinese Communist Party member serving on its board of directors as a deputy general manager, the congressional report says. Netsun carried out over 400 sales of illegal narcotics, the report says, and served as a billing or technical contact for over 100 similar companies including Yafeng. Netsun did not respond to requests for comment.And the Shanghai government gave monetary awards and export credits to Shanghai Ruizheng Chemical Technology Co., a notorious seller of fentanyl products, which it advertises widely and openly on Chinese websites like Alibaba, the report says. Chinese officials invited company reps to roundtable discussions about technology and business. Shanghai Ruizheng did not respond to requests for comment. Chinese government officials who interact with the trafficking underworld are often prominent in provincial governments, where corruption is widespread, said a former senior DEA official, Donald Im, who led investigations focused on China. Not only can they make money through kickbacks or investments, but they benefit politically, rising in the Communist Party hierarchy if their local chemical industries prosper.Key government officials know about the fentanyl trade and they let it happen, Im said.Chinas central government also plays a vital role by providing systemic financial incentives that fuel fentanyl trafficking to the Americas, U.S. officials say. The House inquiry discovered a national Value-Added Tax rebate program that has spurred exports of at least 17 illegal narcotics with no legitimate purpose. They include a fentanyl product that is up to 6,000 times stronger than morphine, the House report says.This state subsidy program has pumped billions of dollars into the export of fentanyl products, including ones outlawed in China, according to the report and U.S. officials. The tax rebate is 13%, the highest available rate. To qualify, companies have to document the names and quantities of chemicals and other details of transactions, the report says.The existence of this paper trail refutes a frequent claim by Chinese leaders: that weak regulation of the chemical sector makes it impossible to identify and punish suspects.Chinese officials did not respond to specific questions about the government financial incentives or the state-connected companies involved in drug trafficking. But the embassy spokesperson said China has targeted online sellers with a national internet cleanup campaign.During that crackdown, Liu Pengyu said, Chinese authorities have cleaned 14 online platforms, canceled over 330 company accounts, shut down over 1,000 online shops, removed over 152,000 online advertisements, and closed 10 botnet websites. He said Chinese law enforcement has determined that many illegal ads appear on foreign online platforms. Collage by Mike McQuade for ProPublica. Source images: U.S. government. Wall of ResistanceIn May 2018, Cronin then a federal prosecutor based in Cleveland went to Beijing in pursuit of one of the biggest targets in the grim history of the fentanyl crisis: the Zheng drug trafficking organization, an international empire accused of trafficking in 37 U.S. states.Cronin and his team of agents hoped to persuade Chinese authorities to prosecute Guanghua and Fujing Zheng, a father and son who were the top suspects. They ran into a wall of resistance.In an interview, Cronin recalled walking into a cavernous room in Chinas Ministry of Public Security where a row of senior officials and uniformed police waited at a long table. A curtain-sized Chinese flag covered a wall.Cronin took a breath, opened a stack of binders he had lugged from Cleveland and presented his case. The prosecutor laid out evidence connecting the Zhengs, who were chemical company executives based in Shanghai, to two overdoses in Ohio. The U.S. distribution hub was a warehouse near Boston run by a Chinese chemist, Bin Wang. Later, Wang said he simultaneously worked for the Chinese government tracking chemicals produced in China and traveled home monthly from Boston to consult with Chinese officials, a memo by his lawyer said.The response of the Chinese counterdrug chiefs was a brush-off, Cronin recalled in the interview. Essentially, he said, they told him: You are right that the Zhengs are exporting these drugs that are killing Americans. But unfortunately, technically what they are doing is not a violation of Chinese law.Cronin pulled out another binder. He went over evidence and an expert analysis showing that the Zhengs had committed Chinese felonies, including money laundering, manufacturing of counterfeit drugs and mislabeling of packages.Tensions rose when the Chinese officials responded that, unfortunately, the police unit that handled such offenses was not available; they rebuffed Cronins offer to delay his return flight in order to meet with that unit, he said.After the U.S. Justice Department charged the Zhengs that August with a drug trafficking conspiracy resulting in death, a Chinese newspaper reported that a Chinese senior counterdrug official criticized the case. The U.S. failed to provide China any evidence to prove Zheng violated Chinese law, the official said. Thomas Rauh (Courtesy of James Rauh) Later, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned the Zhengs and designated the son as a drug kingpin. U.S. investigators told ProPublica they concluded that the Zhengs operated with the blessing of the Chinese government, citing the defendants sheer volume of business, high-profile online activity and open communications on WeChat, the Chinese messaging platform that authorities heavily monitor.Ohio courts granted millions of dollars in civil damages to the family of Thomas Rauh, a 37-year-old who died of an overdose in Akron in 2015. The family never received any money, however.Rauhs father, James, who traveled and did business in China in his youth, has become an antidrug activist. He said the U.S. government must do more to crack down on Chinas role and counter public stigma that still blames addicts.I dont think the U.S. government wants to take the responsibility for confronting this, he said.A decade of frustration has compelled James Rauh to call for a drastic solution. He wants the U.S. to designate fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction in response to what he sees as an intentional Chinese campaign.Its asymmetric warfare, he said.The Zhengs remain free in China and have never responded to the allegations in court. During a brief encounter with a 60 Minutes journalist in Shanghai in 2019, Guanghua Zheng denied he was still selling fentanyl in the United States and said the Chinese government has nothing to do with it. Wang pleaded guilty and served prison time.The Zheng case is typical, said Im, the former senior DEA official. Thousands of DEA leads relayed to Chinese counterparts over the years have been met with silence, he said. In other cases, Chinese officials have asked for more details about the targets of U.S. investigations and then warned suspects linked to the Communist Party, Im said.Most U.S. national security officials interviewed for this story described similar experiences, citing a few exceptions, such as a joint U.S.-Chinese operation in Hebei province in 2019.A former DEA agent, William Kinghorn, recalled the dispiriting aftermath of an investigation he oversaw centered on Chuen Fat Yip, whose firms allegedly distributed more than $280 million worth of drugs. Yip has denied wrongdoing and denounced U.S. criminal charges and sanctions. He is on the DEAs 10 most wanted fugitives list and remains free in China, U.S. officials said.We obtained information that the Chinese authorities did ban or shut down the companies the DEA targeted in the case, Kinghorn said in an interview. We learned that afterward these same people [linked to Yip] were now owning or managing similar companies. Even though they had been banned, they basically just changed the name of the company.A sense of impunity persists in the chemical industry, according to a 2023 inquiry by Elliptic, a U.K. analytics firm. It reported that many of the 90 Chinese companies contacted by its undercover researchers were willing to supply fentanyl itself, despite this being banned in China since 2019.The final year of the Biden administration brought signs of modest progress in China, including new regulations, shutdowns of firms, and arrests of a suspected money launderer and four senior chemical company employees charged by U.S. prosecutors.Citing those cases from 2024, spokesperson Liu Pengyu said China has collaborated closely with the U.S., adding, Multiple major cases are making great progress. Meanwhile, U.S. overdose deaths fell by 33% compared with the previous year, according to the annual threat assessment by the U.S. intelligence community released March 25. The drop may be tied to the increased availability of naloxone, a drug for treating overdoses, the report said.The threat assessment report warned that China likely will struggle to sufficiently constrain companies and criminal groups involved in the U.S. fentanyl trade, absent greater law enforcement actions.Cronin, the former federal prosecutor, went on to become chief investigative counsel for the House Select Committee. He led last years inquiry into Chinas role in the fentanyl crisis. The committees review of seven Chinese company websites found over 31,000 instances of firms offering illegal chemicals during a period of about three months in early 2024.Undercover communications with the firms revealed an eagerness to engage in clearly illicit drug sales, the report says, with no fear of reprisal. Kirsten Berg contributed research.

Chinas halt this month on exports of magnets containing heavy rare earth metals has affected Teslas plans to manufacture Optimus robots.

The European Commission said the Silicon Valley companies violated the Digital Markets Act, a law meant to crimp the power of the largest tech firms.

A fire burns on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, near Waretown, N.J. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)2025-04-23T10:42:24Z BARNEGAT TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) A fast-moving wildfire still burning in New Jersey on Wednesday forced thousands of people to evacuate and temporarily closed a stretch of a major highway.The Garden State Parkway, one of New Jerseys busiest highways, was closed between Barnegat and Lacey townships on Tuesday night. It has since reopened, the Ocean County Sheriffs Office posted online Wednesday morning. More than 1,300 structures were threatened and about 3,000 residents were evacuated, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said. Shelters were open at two high schools, according to the Barnegat Police Department. The fire service planned to give an update at a news conference late Wednesday morning. The Jersey Central Power and Light Company cut power to about 25,000 customers at the request of the Forest Fire Service and the wildfires command post Tuesday evening, including thousands in Barnegat Township. The company said on X that it doesnt expect to restore the power before Wednesday. This is for the safety of crews battling the fire, the company said.The fire in the Greenwood Forest Wildlife Management Area burned more than 13 square miles (34 square kilometers) of land, fire officials said. The blaze, burning in Ocean and Lacey Townships in Ocean County, was only about 10% contained Tuesday night, the fire service said. The cause of the fire was under investigation. There were no immediate reports of injuries.Debi Schaffer was caught in gridlocked traffic after evacuating with her two dogs while her husband agreed to stay with their 22 chickens, The Press of Atlantic City reported. I wanted to take them in the car with me; can you imagine 22 chickens in a car? she told the newspaper. Around her Waretown house it was like a war zone, she said, describing smoke, sirens and the buzz of helicopters. The site of the fire is near an alpaca farm. The farm said in a Facebook post that the property wasnt threatened and all of the animals were safe.The blaze is the second major forest fire in the region in less than a week.

Nature, Published online: 23 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01238-1A three-part Nature Podcast series explores the importance of scientific naming conventions and talks to researchers looking at how to make them more inclusive.

Nature, Published online: 23 April 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-08975-3Author Correction: Global influence of soil texture on ecosystem water limitation

Japan had long maintained deep economic ties with both China and the United States. Recent trade tensions may challenge that approach.

More than 20 vehicles in a town on Cape Ann, Mass., have been damaged by a woodpecker in mating season. You still see him out here, one resident said. Peck, peck, peck, peck.

This March 22, 2013, file photo shows the exterior of the Internal Revenue Service building in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)2025-04-23T10:18:52Z WASHINGTON (AP) The height of tax season was the height of turmoil at the IRS.The agency shuffled through three acting directors over the course of a week. Its preparing to lose tens of thousands of workers to layoffs and voluntary retirements. And President Donald Trump is weighing in on which nonprofits should lose their tax-exempt status, an incursion into the agencys typically apolitical stance that threatens to further erode trust in federal institutions and weaponize enforcement efforts.Just three months into Trumps second term, the governments fly-under-the-radar tax collector has become the latest platform for the Republican administrations vision to cut and control the federal bureaucracy. Tax policy experts fear that taxpayer services and collection efforts will face prolonged delays as a result of the rapid changes. The quick turnover in leadership and other changes are likely to dampen employee morale at the IRS and hurt the agencys ability to serve taxpayers in a timely manner, says Janet Holtzblatt, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.Leadership sets the tone, particularly in this environment, she said.Already, she notes, the agency has lost decades of institutional knowledge from nonpartisan career civil servants who have left over policy disagreements and layoffs. Chaos embroils agency amid leadership turnoverThe upheaval unfolded as Americans dutifully filed their taxes ahead of the April 15 deadline and as a legion of IRS employees undertook work to process returns and dole out refunds. The latest filing season data shows the agency accepted more than 117 million returns this tax season and issued $228.7 billion in refunds. Were committed to improving the efficiency of the Internal Revenue Service, said the agencys newest acting commissioner, Michael Faulkender. For the last 35 years, weve been five years away from the IRS being modernized. Under the direct leadership of Treasury, the modernization will be done in two years at a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, the IRS, like other federal agencies, is hemorrhaging employees over cuts spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, all while the agency churns through acting leaders as it awaits the installation of a permanent leader.Douglas ODonnell, the Trump administrations first acting IRS commissioner, announced his retirement in February as furor spread over DOGE gaining access to IRS taxpayer data. Melanie Krause, the second acting commissioner, resigned early this month over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.Gary Shapley, an IRS whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Bidens taxes, was acting commissioner for a matter of days before being replaced by Faulkender, who was elevated just last week. The New York Times reported that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had complained to Trump that Shapley had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of Trump adviser Elon Musk. Trumps nominee for IRS commissioner, former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, is still waiting for a confirmation hearing but faces controversies of his own. Most recently, Senate Democrats have called for a criminal investigation into Longs connections to alleged tax credit loopholes. The lawmakers allege that firms connected to Long duped investors into spending millions of dollars to purchase fake tax credits. Long did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment. Punishing enemies and rewarding friendsAmong other concerns at the agency are fears that Trump will weaponize the IRS against his enemies and reward his friends.Some of the Democratic Partys core political institutions, including fundraising platform ActBlue and the protest group Indivisible, are preparing for the possibility that the federal government may soon launch criminal investigations against them.Trump said last week at the White House that the administration is looking at the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, which has defied the governments attempts to limit activism on campus, and environmental groups. He also mentioned the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Its supposed to be a charitable organization, Trump said of CREW. The only charity they had is going after Donald Trump. So were looking at that. Were looking at a lot of things.Jonathan S. Masur, an administrative law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, said its unlawful for the president to unilaterally take away organizations tax-exempt status.Its illegal for starters. The Supreme Court has established that that step is not allowed, he said, adding that he anticipates that the court system will very quickly block any such move from the president. The Trump administration is also watching out for allies of the president.Treasury official David Eisner sent an email in March to a top IRS official regarding Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and one of the chief proponents of the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.The My Pillow guy and a high-profile friend of the President recently received an audit letter, from what I understand, his second in two years, Eisner wrote in the email, which was viewed by the AP. The president is concerned that he may have been inappropriately targeted, Eisner wrote.Bringing immigration enforcement to the IRSAmong other changes in recent weeks are concerns about the IRS engagement with the Department of Homeland Security over enforcing a new data-sharing agreement signed earlier this month by Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The agreement will allow ICE to submit names and addresses of immigrants inside the U.S. illegally to the IRS for cross-verification against tax records.That agreement is being litigated in federal court. U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich will soon decide whether to refuse or grant a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups. The groups argue that immigrants in the country illegally who pay taxes are entitled to the same privacy protections as U.S. citizens and immigrants who are legally in the country.The Treasury Department says the agreement will help carry out Trumps agenda to secure U.S. borders and is part of his larger nationwide immigration crackdown, which has resulted in deportations, workplace raids and the use of an 18th-century wartime law to deport Venezuelan migrants.Holtzblatt said the agreement is indicative of the turmoil at the IRS. Theres an emphasis on improving technology and sharing information, but its unclear for what reason, she said. 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

Palestinians bid farewell to their relatives who were killed in Israeli airstrikes early this morning on Yaffa School, in Gaza City, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)2025-04-23T08:56:35Z DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) An overnight Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in Gaza City killed 23 people, as Arab mediators worked on a proposal to end the war with Hamas that would include a five to seven year truce and the release of all remaining hostages, officials said Wednesday.There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strike, which set several tents ablaze, burning people alive. The military says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because its fighters are embedded in densely populated areas.France, Germany and Britain meanwhile said Israels seven-week-old blockade on all imports to Gaza, including food, was intolerable, in unusually strong criticism from three of the countrys closest allies.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on Hamas to release the hostages in order to block Israels pretexts for continuing the war. He reiterated his demands that Hamas give up their arms, referring to them as sons of dogs in unusually strong language during a speech in the West Bank. Abbas, who heads the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, has no influence over Hamas but is seeking a role in postwar Gaza. A yearlong truce and a gradual withdrawal Egypt and Qatar are still developing the proposal, which would include the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the entire strip and the release of Palestinian prisoners, according to an Egyptian official and a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.Israel ended a ceasefire with Hamas last month and has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas is either destroyed or disarmed and sent into exile. It says it will hold parts of Gaza indefinitely and implement President Donald Trumps proposal for the resettlement of the population in other countries, which has been widely rejected internationally. Hamas has said it will only release the dozens of hostages it still holds in return for Palestinian prisoners, a complete Israeli withdrawal and a lasting ceasefire, as called for in the now-defunct agreement reached in January. A Hamas delegation arrived in Cairo late Tuesday to discuss the evolving proposal.The Egyptian official said the proposed truce, with international guarantees, would last between five and seven years, and that a committee of politically independent technocrats would govern Gaza a measure Hamas has accepted.The Hamas official said the militant group is open to a long-term truce that includes the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces and international guarantees, naming Russia, China, Turkey or the United Nations Security Council as possible guarantors. Israel and the U.S. say Hamas must be destroyed or removedThere was no immediate comment from Israeli officials. But Israel has ruled out any arrangement that would allow Hamas to preserve its influence in Gaza and rearm. The Trump administration, which has also been involved in the ceasefire talks, has said it fully supports Israels position.Israel and the U.S. have pressed Hamas to accept a temporary truce in which it would immediately release several hostages in return for vague promises of talks on a more permanent ceasefire. Hamas has rejected those proposals and says it wont disarm as long as Israel occupies Palestinian territory.The Hamas official said the group does not trust either Netanyahu or the U.S. after they shattered the existing ceasefire agreement, which had facilitated the release of over 30 hostages.The Egyptian official said mediators had the impression that President Donald Trump wants a deal before he visits the region next month. Trump will travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to May 16. France, Germany and Britain condemn Israeli food blockadeIsrael ended the ceasefire last month by launching a surprise bombardment across the territory that killed hundreds of Palestinians. Ground forces have expanded a buffer zone along the border, encircled the southern city of Rafah and now controls around 50% of the territory.Israel says the military operations and the tightened blockade are tactics to pressure Hamas to release hostages. Aid groups say thousands of children are malnourished and most people are surviving on one meal a day or less.The Israeli decision to block aid from entering Gaza is intolerable, France, Germany and Britain said in their joint statement. They also condemned recent remarks by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said the blockade was a pressure tactic and that troops would hold parts of Gaza indefinitely.Humanitarian aid must never be used as a political tool and Palestinian territory must not be reduced nor subjected to any demographic change. Israel is bound under international law to allow the unhindered passage of humanitarian aid, the European statement said.In addition to the strike on the school, the Civil Defense, first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government, said it recovered another four bodies from strikes on two homes in the same area. Israels offensive has killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were fighters or civilians. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. The militants still have 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.___Magdy reported from Cairo.___Follow APs war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war SAMY MAGDY Magdy is a Middle East reporter for The Associated Press, based in Cairo. He focuses on conflict, migration and human rights abuses. twitter facebook mailto

Nature, Published online: 23 April 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01190-0Neuroscientist Jessica Cantlon is urging scientists to use the power of local newspapers in the fight against US research-funding cuts.

The president said he has no intention of ousting Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, but the administrations willingness to challenge norms regarding the central banks political independence is causing concern.

In an interview with The New York Times, President Ahmed al-Shara urged the United States to lift sanctions and alluded to the possibility of future military support from Russia and Turkey.