diff --git "a/PJMixers-Dev_Fundus-AP-News-2-Formatted-cleaner.jsonl" "b/PJMixers-Dev_Fundus-AP-News-2-Formatted-cleaner.jsonl"
--- "a/PJMixers-Dev_Fundus-AP-News-2-Formatted-cleaner.jsonl"
+++ "b/PJMixers-Dev_Fundus-AP-News-2-Formatted-cleaner.jsonl"
@@ -919,3 +919,172 @@
 {"prompt_hash": "bfdc39b111be90f504cba728d52b15fa5eba9e9457856d75f94590b92f31a073", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Man charged with murder in the death of LA-area technical college dean\n\nBy Jaimie Ding  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:32 AM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A security guard was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of the dean of a small technical college near Los Angeles, officials said.\n\nThe dean of student affairs, Cameisha Denise Clark, died at the hospital Monday after being shot Friday afternoon at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology campus in Inglewood, according to family. Another female employee was wounded in the shooting.\n\nJesse Figueroa, 40, was charged with murder, attempted murder and several counts for possessing a firearm as a felon. He also faces gun sentencing enhancements, which can lead to additional penalties when a gun is used during a crime.\n\nFigueroa will appear in court May 29 and faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison if convicted as charged. His public defender did not respond to request for comment.\n\nThe technical college's campus president, Chris Becker, said Figueroa worked for a company that provides security to the school.\n\nInglewood Mayor James Butts said last week it appeared to be an incident of workplace violence, but charging documents did not lay out a possible motive.\n\nClark's family said she had been recently promoted to dean at the school.\n\n\"Cameisha uplifted everyone fortunate enough to cross her path,\" her family said in a statement to KNBC. \"Her leadership, integrity, and deep sense of purpose helped shape futures of countless students from the campus of Clark Atlanta University to Spartan College. She believed in the potential of others even when they could not yet see it in themselves.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Man charged with murder in the death of LA-area technical college dean\n\nBy Jaimie Ding  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:32 AM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 A security guard was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of the dean of a small technical college near Los Angeles, officials said.\n\nThe dean of student affairs, Cameisha Denise Clark, died at the hospital Monday after being shot Friday afternoon at the Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology campus in Inglewood, according to family. Another female employee was wounded in the shooting.\n\nJesse Figueroa, 40, was charged with murder, attempted murder and several counts for possessing a firearm as a felon. He also faces gun sentencing enhancements, which can lead to additional penalties when a gun is used during a crime.\n\nFigueroa will appear in court May 29 and faces a maximum sentence of life in state prison if convicted as charged. His public defender did not respond to request for comment.\n\nThe technical college's campus president, Chris Becker, said Figueroa worked for a company that provides security to the school.\n\nInglewood Mayor James Butts said last week it appeared to be an incident of workplace violence, but charging documents did not lay out a possible motive.\n\nClark's family said she had been recently promoted to dean at the school.\n\n\"Cameisha uplifted everyone fortunate enough to cross her path,\" her family said in a statement to KNBC. \"Her leadership, integrity, and deep sense of purpose helped shape futures of countless students from the campus of Clark Atlanta University to Spartan College. She believed in the potential of others even when they could not yet see it in themselves.\""}]}
 {"prompt_hash": "cec4bb81957ad9c720c04f6a816375717278686f61e4c84f181eb9e1f1981fa7", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# German spy agency suspends 'extremist' designation of far-right AfD party\n\nBy Associated Press  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:30 PM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 Germany's domestic intelligence agency said Thursday it will await a court ruling before moving forward with plans to classify the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party as a \" right-wing extremist \" movement, a step that could subject the party to broader surveillance and scrutiny of its activities.\n\nThe announced pause comes after the party, known as AfD, filed a lawsuit in the western city of Cologne against the move by the intelligence service and the party's supporters alleged a politically motivated crackdown.\n\nGerman officials have denied that allegation and have faulted what they called the party's \"ongoing agitation\" against refugees and migrants.\n\nThe AfD's co-leaders, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, responded in a joint statement saying the intelligence service's decision Thursday was \"a first important step\" that would help \"counter the accusation of right-wing extremism.\"\n\nThe pause by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution means that it cannot move forward with previous plans to use enhanced tools like video and audio surveillance, and use of informants, to scrutinize the activities of the AfD, which came second in parliamentary elections in February. It does not mean that the intelligence agency has dropped those plans for good.\n\nThe decision, months in the making, came days before the new German government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office on Tuesday \u2014 replacing the outgoing coalition led by the Social Democrats' Olaf Scholz.\n\nThe intelligence agency cited a number of pronouncements by AfD officials, including statements like, \"Every additional foreigner in this country is one too many,\" the German news agency DPA reported.\n\nThe U.S. administration has criticized the decision by the intelligence service, prompting a retort from the German Foreign Ministry.\n\nIn a social media post last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Germany to undo the classification, saying the move to give new powers to the spy agency to watch the opposition amounted to \"tyranny in disguise.\"\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry responded by saying the decision resulted from an independent investigation to protect Germany's Constitution and the rule of law."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# German spy agency suspends 'extremist' designation of far-right AfD party\n\nBy Associated Press  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:30 PM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 Germany's domestic intelligence agency said Thursday it will await a court ruling before moving forward with plans to classify the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party as a \" right-wing extremist \" movement, a step that could subject the party to broader surveillance and scrutiny of its activities.\n\nThe announced pause comes after the party, known as AfD, filed a lawsuit in the western city of Cologne against the move by the intelligence service and the party's supporters alleged a politically motivated crackdown.\n\nGerman officials have denied that allegation and have faulted what they called the party's \"ongoing agitation\" against refugees and migrants.\n\nThe AfD's co-leaders, Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, responded in a joint statement saying the intelligence service's decision Thursday was \"a first important step\" that would help \"counter the accusation of right-wing extremism.\"\n\nThe pause by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution means that it cannot move forward with previous plans to use enhanced tools like video and audio surveillance, and use of informants, to scrutinize the activities of the AfD, which came second in parliamentary elections in February. It does not mean that the intelligence agency has dropped those plans for good.\n\nThe decision, months in the making, came days before the new German government led by conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz took office on Tuesday \u2014 replacing the outgoing coalition led by the Social Democrats' Olaf Scholz.\n\nThe intelligence agency cited a number of pronouncements by AfD officials, including statements like, \"Every additional foreigner in this country is one too many,\" the German news agency DPA reported.\n\nThe U.S. administration has criticized the decision by the intelligence service, prompting a retort from the German Foreign Ministry.\n\nIn a social media post last week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Germany to undo the classification, saying the move to give new powers to the spy agency to watch the opposition amounted to \"tyranny in disguise.\"\n\nThe German Foreign Ministry responded by saying the decision resulted from an independent investigation to protect Germany's Constitution and the rule of law."}]}
 {"prompt_hash": "0c6b108cc066f1eec42a1fd509c543e3c8e64914dafc4593caac1580a7aef6a8", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# A jazz club in Johannesburg plays its last songs and laments downtown's decline\n\nBy Louise Dewast  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:50 PM\n\n---\n\nJOHANNESBURG (AP) \u2014 On a Friday evening in downtown Johannesburg, a world away from the genteel suburbs that include some of Africa's wealthiest neighborhoods, groups of men huddle on a dark street as a security patrol whizzes past.\n\nAround the corner, popular jazz venue the Marabi Club is hosting its last Friday night show before closing down \u2013 another victim of the city center's decay and the jarring inequality in post-apartheid South Africa.\n\n\"It's devastating. This is such an iconic space in the inner city and now we have one more reason not to come downtown. It's a true sign of the city's decline,\" said Renata Lawton-Misra, 34, a climate change consultant, attending the concert with her husband, Kyle Schutte.\n\nFor Schutte, the reasons behind the closure are clear. \"Safety concerns,\" said the 38-year-old financial consultant who said he wouldn't normally set foot in the area. Downtown is now known for rampant crime and dilapidated infrastructure after an exodus of white people to the suburbs after the apartheid system of racial segregation ended in 1994. \"True or not, perception is the issue.\"\n\nThe Marabi Club had been part of a wave of investments designed to reinvigorate downtown, in particular the Maboneng district, about a decade ago. It was founded in 2017 by TJ Steyn, son of the late South African insurance magnate Douw Steyn, and Dale De Ruig.\n\nThe club attracted visitors including Jay Z and Beyonce.\n\n\"Look at what we created here with amazing food and music,\" said waiter Emanuel Mcotheli, pointing to the packed room of mainly Black urban professionals.\n\nThe club was named after marabi, a jazz movement that emerged in the 1920s, to honor South Africa's rich musical heritage. Back then, miners and day laborers would congregate downtown and were drawn into illegal shebeens (taverns) by the sound of marabi, repetitive and improvisational keyboard tunes.\n\nThe genre gained popularity through bands like the Jazz Maniacs and influential artists such as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba.\n\n\"I grew up singing marabi,\" said the club's resident vocalist Mbalizethu Siluma, 40, who sings soul and R&B, inviting the snappily dressed guests to dance after dinner.\n\nDespite the attention the club has received, South Africa's strict COVID-19 lockdown severely hit it and other businesses that hoped to reshape parts of downtown Johannesburg. A succession of short-lived mayors, eight in five years, made things worse as essential public works went undone.\n\nThe neglect of downtown Johannesburg was exposed to international attention in 2023 when a fire in an overcrowded apartment building left unregulated by authorities killed 76 people.\n\n\"We knew it wasn't the perfect place to open a jazz club but we were hopeful that it was on an upward move,\" De Ruig told The Associated Press. \"Ultimately, it was a bit of a false start.\"\n\nHe said the city has provided almost \"almost no support\" and basic requests for better lighting, security and cleaning in the area were ignored.\n\nThe city's government said it could not comment on the reasons behind a private venue shutting its doors, but spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said it was \"unfortunate for the creative economy.\"\n\nFor Lusanda Netshitenzhe, a member of the steering committee for the Joburg Crisis Alliance, a coalition working to end corruption and improve city government services, the Marabi Club's closing represents a broader issue.\n\n\"People unfortunately don't feel safe getting to Maboneng,\" Netshitenzhe said. The area \"once celebrated ... is unfortunately no longer doing well due to continued deep systemic issues, poor urban governance and lack of leadership in the city of Johannesburg.\"\n\nMayor Dada Morero said in his State of the City address this month that \"drastic times call for drastic measures\" and vowed to intensify efforts to revitalize the inner city, including rehabilitating abandoned buildings and installing public lighting.\n\nAny plans for reviving the area come too late for the club and its musicians.\n\n\"Maybe there's something better coming \u2026 look at how this place is, Marabi isn't dying,\" Siluma said before hitting the stage.\n\nDe Ruig and his partner are considering moving the club to Steyn City, a gated commercial and residential estate owned by the Steyn family, 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Johannesburg's city center.\n\nDowntown is left to those who can't afford to leave.\n\n___\n\nMore AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# A jazz club in Johannesburg plays its last songs and laments downtown's decline\n\nBy Louise Dewast  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:50 PM\n\n---\n\nJOHANNESBURG (AP) \u2014 On a Friday evening in downtown Johannesburg, a world away from the genteel suburbs that include some of Africa's wealthiest neighborhoods, groups of men huddle on a dark street as a security patrol whizzes past.\n\nAround the corner, popular jazz venue the Marabi Club is hosting its last Friday night show before closing down \u2013 another victim of the city center's decay and the jarring inequality in post-apartheid South Africa.\n\n\"It's devastating. This is such an iconic space in the inner city and now we have one more reason not to come downtown. It's a true sign of the city's decline,\" said Renata Lawton-Misra, 34, a climate change consultant, attending the concert with her husband, Kyle Schutte.\n\nFor Schutte, the reasons behind the closure are clear. \"Safety concerns,\" said the 38-year-old financial consultant who said he wouldn't normally set foot in the area. Downtown is now known for rampant crime and dilapidated infrastructure after an exodus of white people to the suburbs after the apartheid system of racial segregation ended in 1994. \"True or not, perception is the issue.\"\n\nThe Marabi Club had been part of a wave of investments designed to reinvigorate downtown, in particular the Maboneng district, about a decade ago. It was founded in 2017 by TJ Steyn, son of the late South African insurance magnate Douw Steyn, and Dale De Ruig.\n\nThe club attracted visitors including Jay Z and Beyonce.\n\n\"Look at what we created here with amazing food and music,\" said waiter Emanuel Mcotheli, pointing to the packed room of mainly Black urban professionals.\n\nThe club was named after marabi, a jazz movement that emerged in the 1920s, to honor South Africa's rich musical heritage. Back then, miners and day laborers would congregate downtown and were drawn into illegal shebeens (taverns) by the sound of marabi, repetitive and improvisational keyboard tunes.\n\nThe genre gained popularity through bands like the Jazz Maniacs and influential artists such as Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba.\n\n\"I grew up singing marabi,\" said the club's resident vocalist Mbalizethu Siluma, 40, who sings soul and R&B, inviting the snappily dressed guests to dance after dinner.\n\nDespite the attention the club has received, South Africa's strict COVID-19 lockdown severely hit it and other businesses that hoped to reshape parts of downtown Johannesburg. A succession of short-lived mayors, eight in five years, made things worse as essential public works went undone.\n\nThe neglect of downtown Johannesburg was exposed to international attention in 2023 when a fire in an overcrowded apartment building left unregulated by authorities killed 76 people.\n\n\"We knew it wasn't the perfect place to open a jazz club but we were hopeful that it was on an upward move,\" De Ruig told The Associated Press. \"Ultimately, it was a bit of a false start.\"\n\nHe said the city has provided almost \"almost no support\" and basic requests for better lighting, security and cleaning in the area were ignored.\n\nThe city's government said it could not comment on the reasons behind a private venue shutting its doors, but spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said it was \"unfortunate for the creative economy.\"\n\nFor Lusanda Netshitenzhe, a member of the steering committee for the Joburg Crisis Alliance, a coalition working to end corruption and improve city government services, the Marabi Club's closing represents a broader issue.\n\n\"People unfortunately don't feel safe getting to Maboneng,\" Netshitenzhe said. The area \"once celebrated ... is unfortunately no longer doing well due to continued deep systemic issues, poor urban governance and lack of leadership in the city of Johannesburg.\"\n\nMayor Dada Morero said in his State of the City address this month that \"drastic times call for drastic measures\" and vowed to intensify efforts to revitalize the inner city, including rehabilitating abandoned buildings and installing public lighting.\n\nAny plans for reviving the area come too late for the club and its musicians.\n\n\"Maybe there's something better coming \u2026 look at how this place is, Marabi isn't dying,\" Siluma said before hitting the stage.\n\nDe Ruig and his partner are considering moving the club to Steyn City, a gated commercial and residential estate owned by the Steyn family, 32 kilometers (20 miles) north of Johannesburg's city center.\n\nDowntown is left to those who can't afford to leave."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "053d1799aa98016ee7f950bfc5b55e1b55892a59d3bede1aa2dea21e561c6cf3", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 'Sesame Street' finds a new home on Netflix\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 03:04 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Netflix has thrown \"Sesame Street\" a safety net with a new streaming deal that offers the popular children's staple a broad reach while keeping it on its long-standing home, PBS, at the same time, the companies announced Monday.\n\nStarting later this year, new episodes will run on Netflix, PBS and the PBS Kids app on the same day. No specific premiere date was immediately announced. Select past episodes will be available on Netflix worldwide.\n\nThe change for the more than 50-year-old show comes after Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 which had aired the show since 2016 \u2014 last year decided not to renew its deal for new episodes that air on HBO and Max, though episodes will remain there until 2027.\n\n\"This unique public-private partnership will enable us to bring our research-based curriculum to young children around the world with Netflix's global reach, while ensuring children in communities across the U.S. continue to have free access on public television to the 'Sesame Street' they love,\" Sesame Workshop said in its press release.\n\nSal Perez, the show's executive producer and a Sesame Workshop vice president, told The Associated Press recently that segments on the new season will be longer and \"really focused on character,\" while also focusing on its audience's emotional well-being and development.\n\nFor Season 56, episodes will revolve around one 11-minute story, the Netflix release said.\n\n\"The more kids want to hang out with our characters on 'Sesame Street,' the more they're going to take in those lessons,\" said Perez, adding that there would also be updates to the show's look and feel. The new season will also feature more exploration of the \"Sesame Street\" neighborhood and a look inside the legendary two-story brownstone at 123 Sesame Street that houses Elmo, Bert and Ernie and more.\n\n\"I strongly believe that our educational programming for children is one of the most important aspects of our service to the American people, and 'Sesame Street' has been an integral part of that critical work for more than half a century,\" said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS. \"We're proud to continue our partnership in the pursuit of having a profound impact on the lives of children for years to come.\"\n\n\"Sesame Street\" has been shown in more than 150 countries, amassing more than 200 Emmys in addition to Grammy and Peabody awards and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement. Its fan-favorite characters like Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird and the Cookie Monster will now reside along the likes of Ms. Rachel, Blippi and the residents of \"CoComelon Lane.\" Netflix says \"Kids and Family\" programming makes up 15% of the streamer's total viewing."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 'Sesame Street' finds a new home on Netflix\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 03:04 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Netflix has thrown \"Sesame Street\" a safety net with a new streaming deal that offers the popular children's staple a broad reach while keeping it on its long-standing home, PBS, at the same time, the companies announced Monday.\n\nStarting later this year, new episodes will run on Netflix, PBS and the PBS Kids app on the same day. No specific premiere date was immediately announced. Select past episodes will be available on Netflix worldwide.\n\nThe change for the more than 50-year-old show comes after Warner Bros. Discovery \u2014 which had aired the show since 2016 \u2014 last year decided not to renew its deal for new episodes that air on HBO and Max, though episodes will remain there until 2027.\n\n\"This unique public-private partnership will enable us to bring our research-based curriculum to young children around the world with Netflix's global reach, while ensuring children in communities across the U.S. continue to have free access on public television to the 'Sesame Street' they love,\" Sesame Workshop said in its press release.\n\nSal Perez, the show's executive producer and a Sesame Workshop vice president, told The Associated Press recently that segments on the new season will be longer and \"really focused on character,\" while also focusing on its audience's emotional well-being and development.\n\nFor Season 56, episodes will revolve around one 11-minute story, the Netflix release said.\n\n\"The more kids want to hang out with our characters on 'Sesame Street,' the more they're going to take in those lessons,\" said Perez, adding that there would also be updates to the show's look and feel. The new season will also feature more exploration of the \"Sesame Street\" neighborhood and a look inside the legendary two-story brownstone at 123 Sesame Street that houses Elmo, Bert and Ernie and more.\n\n\"I strongly believe that our educational programming for children is one of the most important aspects of our service to the American people, and 'Sesame Street' has been an integral part of that critical work for more than half a century,\" said Paula Kerger, president and CEO of PBS. \"We're proud to continue our partnership in the pursuit of having a profound impact on the lives of children for years to come.\"\n\n\"Sesame Street\" has been shown in more than 150 countries, amassing more than 200 Emmys in addition to Grammy and Peabody awards and a Kennedy Center Honor for lifetime artistic achievement. Its fan-favorite characters like Oscar the Grouch, Big Bird and the Cookie Monster will now reside along the likes of Ms. Rachel, Blippi and the residents of \"CoComelon Lane.\" Netflix says \"Kids and Family\" programming makes up 15% of the streamer's total viewing."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6eee0fbf5a35a356caf27ef4e39f842d770575fcf03216f5624561e3abc130a1", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Artists in this former pasta factory are preserving Italian opera traditions\n\nBy Francesca Primavilla and Trisha Thomas  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 04:16 AM\n\n---\n\nROME (AP) \u2014 Behind a rusty gate near Rome's Circus Maximus is a building passed daily by hordes of tourists. They're oblivious to the fact that behind its faded, flaking paint is a hive of activity sustaining one of Italy's grandest cultural institutions.\n\nIt was a pasta factory until almost a century ago, when the Rome Opera House transformed the four-story building into a sprawling warehouse and workshop. It is home to a trove of scenic backdrops and 70,000 costumes from over a century of performances. Even more are being created \u2014 the traditional way.\n\nFor this year, the opera house's costume designers, tailors and seamstresses have been scouring archives and working to reconstruct the original outfits of Giacomo Puccini's Opera \"Tosca.\" It is a tale of passion, cruelty and deception set in Rome in the 1800s, featuring a dark-haired beauty forced to commit murder to protect her dignity and the man she loves. This year marks the 125th anniversary of its first-ever performance.\n\n\"Fortunately, all the sketches for each costume exist and are very detailed and we have reconstructed them, respecting as much as possible the taste of the time from the point of view of the fabrics, the shapes and all the materials used,\" Anna Biagiotti, the opera house's costume director, said in an interview inside the warehouse.\n\nBehind each sketch Biagotti found detailed notes. She compiled a binder her team refers to as \"the bible,\" filled with copies of the originals. To help her roughly 30 tailors, Biagotti painstakingly transcribed the tightly scrawled cursive notes of then-lead costume designer Adolph Hohenstein into legible, capital letters.\n\nThey work in a cramped space above the opera house \u2014 sewing, pinning, stitching, cutting, ironing. Each year, they churn out some 700 costumes for opera and ballet performances, which are later stored in the warehouse, hanging inside plastic dry cleaning covers. There is no digitalized system to track them once there; they can only be located by the designers and tailors who have spent their lives in the trade.\n\nAnd on the warehouse's top floor, set designers in a giant loft space walk atop a canvas, dragging grey wagons loaded with buckets of paint. On April 10, they used brushes with handles so long they looked like brooms to paint ancient doors, archways, statues and frescoes to conjure a three-dimensional Roman palazzo upon the flat surface. An overhead walkway provided a view to ensure the optical illusion was coming out just right.\n\nIt's a dying craft, said Danilo Mancini, director of set production. In other places, painted sets have been replaced by LED walls, projections and back-lit screens \u2014 but not at the Rome Opera House. For Tosca, set designers also worked off Hohenstein's sketches for the original show.\n\nBoth Mancini and music director Michele Mariotti credit Puccini for keeping their passions alive.\n\n\"Puccini was a genius, not only in terms of the beauty of the music, but precisely because of the theatrical and cinematographic flair he gives to his works,\" said Mariotti. \"If we are all here, we must be grateful to him, not so much for the rebirth of the work, but for its survival. Because he understood that if it was not regenerated in some way, opera would have disappeared.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Artists in this former pasta factory are preserving Italian opera traditions\n\nBy Francesca Primavilla and Trisha Thomas  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 04:16 AM\n\n---\n\nROME (AP) \u2014 Behind a rusty gate near Rome's Circus Maximus is a building passed daily by hordes of tourists. They're oblivious to the fact that behind its faded, flaking paint is a hive of activity sustaining one of Italy's grandest cultural institutions.\n\nIt was a pasta factory until almost a century ago, when the Rome Opera House transformed the four-story building into a sprawling warehouse and workshop. It is home to a trove of scenic backdrops and 70,000 costumes from over a century of performances. Even more are being created \u2014 the traditional way.\n\nFor this year, the opera house's costume designers, tailors and seamstresses have been scouring archives and working to reconstruct the original outfits of Giacomo Puccini's Opera \"Tosca.\" It is a tale of passion, cruelty and deception set in Rome in the 1800s, featuring a dark-haired beauty forced to commit murder to protect her dignity and the man she loves. This year marks the 125th anniversary of its first-ever performance.\n\n\"Fortunately, all the sketches for each costume exist and are very detailed and we have reconstructed them, respecting as much as possible the taste of the time from the point of view of the fabrics, the shapes and all the materials used,\" Anna Biagiotti, the opera house's costume director, said in an interview inside the warehouse.\n\nBehind each sketch Biagotti found detailed notes. She compiled a binder her team refers to as \"the bible,\" filled with copies of the originals. To help her roughly 30 tailors, Biagotti painstakingly transcribed the tightly scrawled cursive notes of then-lead costume designer Adolph Hohenstein into legible, capital letters.\n\nThey work in a cramped space above the opera house \u2014 sewing, pinning, stitching, cutting, ironing. Each year, they churn out some 700 costumes for opera and ballet performances, which are later stored in the warehouse, hanging inside plastic dry cleaning covers. There is no digitalized system to track them once there; they can only be located by the designers and tailors who have spent their lives in the trade.\n\nAnd on the warehouse's top floor, set designers in a giant loft space walk atop a canvas, dragging grey wagons loaded with buckets of paint. On April 10, they used brushes with handles so long they looked like brooms to paint ancient doors, archways, statues and frescoes to conjure a three-dimensional Roman palazzo upon the flat surface. An overhead walkway provided a view to ensure the optical illusion was coming out just right.\n\nIt's a dying craft, said Danilo Mancini, director of set production. In other places, painted sets have been replaced by LED walls, projections and back-lit screens \u2014 but not at the Rome Opera House. For Tosca, set designers also worked off Hohenstein's sketches for the original show.\n\nBoth Mancini and music director Michele Mariotti credit Puccini for keeping their passions alive.\n\n\"Puccini was a genius, not only in terms of the beauty of the music, but precisely because of the theatrical and cinematographic flair he gives to his works,\" said Mariotti. \"If we are all here, we must be grateful to him, not so much for the rebirth of the work, but for its survival. Because he understood that if it was not regenerated in some way, opera would have disappeared.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "3a4855ac5645a06fdd6cdf9c2e3159158d258924dec35b8b1afd31132530a117", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Florida executes suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case\n\nBy Curt Anderson  \nMay 15th, 2025, 10:55 AM\n\n---\n\nSTARKE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.\n\nGlen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.\n\nHe also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs' car soon after her death.\n\nIn a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that \"in the near future, your questions will be answered\" without going into detail. He also said, \"President Trump, keep making America great. I'm ready to go.\" Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.\n\nThe entire execution took just 16 minutes. Once it began, Rogers hardly moved, only lying still with his mouth slightly open. At one point, a staff member grasped him by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, \"Rogers, Rogers\" to see if he was conscious. No family members of the Florida victim spoke to the press afterwards.\n\nRogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called \"My Brother the Serial Killer\" that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.\n\nThe documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.\n\nDuring a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all charges. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentary's release that they didn't think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.\n\n\"We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved,\" the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement at the time.\n\nSimpson had always professed innocence but was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and subsequently served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in April 2024 after battling cancer.\n\nRogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, had also been labeled the \"Casanova Killer\" or \"Cross Country Killer\" in various media reports. Some of his alleged and proven female victims had similar characteristics: ages in their 30s, a petite frame and red hair.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court had denied Rogers' final appeals on Wednesday without comment.\n\nRogers' lawyers have filed several unsuccessful appeals with state and federal courts. One argument was that newly enacted state legislation authorizing the death penalty for trafficking in young children makes clear that the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken seriously and should result in a life prison sentence for Rogers. That argument was rejected.\n\nFlorida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Corrections Department.\n\nRogers became the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year.\n\nAnthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for execution \u2014 on June 10 \u2014 under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Wainwright, 54, was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in 1994 and raping and killing her."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Florida executes suspected serial killer once eyed for possible link to the OJ Simpson case\n\nBy Curt Anderson  \nMay 15th, 2025, 10:55 AM\n\n---\n\nSTARKE, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A suspected serial killer once scrutinized for a possible link to the O.J. Simpson case that riveted the nation in the 1990s was executed Thursday in Florida for the murder of a woman found dead in a Tampa motel room.\n\nGlen Rogers, 62, received a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke and was pronounced dead at 6:16 p.m., authorities said. He was convicted in Florida of the 1995 murder of Tina Marie Cribbs, a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.\n\nHe also had drawn a separate death sentence in California for the 1995 strangulation killing of Sandra Gallagher, a mother of three whom he had met at a bar in Van Nuys in that state. That killing came weeks before the Cribbs murder. Rogers was stopped after a highway chase in Kentucky while driving Cribbs' car soon after her death.\n\nIn a final statement, Rogers thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that \"in the near future, your questions will be answered\" without going into detail. He also said, \"President Trump, keep making America great. I'm ready to go.\" Then the lethal injection began, and he lay quietly through the procedure.\n\nThe entire execution took just 16 minutes. Once it began, Rogers hardly moved, only lying still with his mouth slightly open. At one point, a staff member grasped him by the shoulders, shook him and yelled, \"Rogers, Rogers\" to see if he was conscious. No family members of the Florida victim spoke to the press afterwards.\n\nRogers was named as a suspect but never convicted in several other slayings around the country, once telling police he had killed about 70 people. He later recanted that statement, but had been the subject of documentaries, including one from 2012 called \"My Brother the Serial Killer\" that featured his brother Clay and a criminal profiler who had corresponded extensively with Rogers.\n\nThe documentary raised questions about whether Rogers could have been responsible for the 1994 stabbing deaths of Simpson's ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.\n\nDuring a 1995 murder trial that drew intense media attention, the former football star and celebrity Simpson was acquitted of all charges. Los Angeles police and prosecutors subsequently said after the documentary's release that they didn't think Rogers had any involvement in the Simpson and Goldman killings.\n\n\"We know who killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. We have no reason to believe that Mr. Rogers was involved,\" the Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement at the time.\n\nSimpson had always professed innocence but was later found liable for the deaths in a separate civil case, and subsequently served nine years in prison on unrelated charges. The 76-year-old Simpson died in April 2024 after battling cancer.\n\nRogers, originally from Hamilton, Ohio, had also been labeled the \"Casanova Killer\" or \"Cross Country Killer\" in various media reports. Some of his alleged and proven female victims had similar characteristics: ages in their 30s, a petite frame and red hair.\n\nThe U.S. Supreme Court had denied Rogers' final appeals on Wednesday without comment.\n\nRogers' lawyers have filed several unsuccessful appeals with state and federal courts. One argument was that newly enacted state legislation authorizing the death penalty for trafficking in young children makes clear that the abuse he suffered as a child is now taken seriously and should result in a life prison sentence for Rogers. That argument was rejected.\n\nFlorida uses a three-drug cocktail for its lethal injection: a sedative, a paralytic and a drug that stops the heart, according to the Corrections Department.\n\nRogers became the fifth inmate put to death in Florida this year.\n\nAnthony Wainwright is the next Florida inmate scheduled for execution \u2014 on June 10 \u2014 under a death warrant signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Wainwright, 54, was convicted of kidnapping a woman from a supermarket parking lot in Lake City in 1994 and raping and killing her."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b0f9fc76a68343085fbb7600ed6121068b6d666a371a3332a885f5748c899a79", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Tyre Nichols remembered as beautiful soul with creative eye\n\nBy Adam Beam, Travis Loller, and Claire Galofaro  \nMay 7th, 2025, 10:25 PM\n\n---\n\nOn most weekends, Tyre Nichols would head to the city park, train his camera on the sky and wait for the sun to set.\n\n\"Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,\" he wrote on his website. He preferred landscapes and loved the glow of sunsets most, his family has said.\n\n\"My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens,\" Nichols wrote. \"People have a story to tell, why not capture it.\"\n\nNichols, a 29-year-old father, was on his way home from taking pictures of the sky on Jan. 7, 2023, when police pulled him over. He was just a few minutes from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather, when he was brutally attacked by five Memphis police officers.\n\nHe died three days later at a hospital, and the officers were charged with second-degree murder and other offenses and fired. Two of the officers previously pleaded guilty in both state and federal court. The three others were acquitted Wednesday of all state charges, including second-degree murder. The trio still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges, though they were acquitted of the most serious charges there, too.\n\n\"Nobody's perfect, nobody. But he was damn near,\" his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said at a news conference in 2023, moments after she watched the video of her son being beaten. \"He was damn near perfect.\"\n\nHe was the baby of their family. He had a 4-year-old son and worked hard to better himself as a father, his family said. He was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, and came to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was with his mother, and they were incredibly close, Wells said. He had her name tattooed on his arm.\n\nFriends at a memorial service in 2023 described him as joyful and lovable.\n\n\"This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him,\" said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the service.\n\nGrowing up in Sacramento, Nichols spent much of his time at a skate park on the outskirts of the city. It could be a rough place sometimes for younger kids. But when Niko Chapman was 10 years old, his parents would let him walk to the park alone as long as they knew Nichols was there.\n\n\"You remember people that are really kind to you, and Tyre was just a really kind person,\" Chapman said. \"He just always made me feel really welcome.\"\n\nChapman's dad, Curtis Chapman, ran a youth group at a local church that would often meet at the skate park for pizza. Nichols quickly became a regular, bringing his energetic spirit and quick wit. But away from the group, Nichols would often show up at the Chapman house to talk about life \u2014 including coming to grips with being a young parent.\n\n\"What drew me to Tyre was just \u2014 he's real,\" Curtis Chapman said. \"He would talk about being a dad and wanting to be a good dad and seeking advice.\"\n\nThere was a Bible study on Thursdays that Nichols would attend with his friend Brian Jang. One day, the group watched a sermon about how the world is filled with distractions. Jang said Nichols was so moved by it that he pulled out his flip phone and dropped it in a cup of water.\n\n\"I thought it was awesome, just seeing his growth and his commitment,\" Jang said.\n\nThe last time Jang saw Nichols was in 2018 at the food court in a local mall. The two hadn't seen each other in awhile, but Jang said Nichols came up behind him and gave him a big hug as the two caught up.\n\n\"It's honestly pretty devastating to see such a good human go through such unnecessary brutality, such unnecessary death,\" Jang said.\n\nHis mother said she raised him to love everyone openly \u2014 until they give you a reason not to. So Nichols was quick to make friends.\n\nIn Memphis, Nichols went to Starbucks every morning, and Nate Spates Jr. would hang out with him there. They chatted about sports or life. Spates was with his wife once when they ran into Nichols there, and they all talked for a couple of hours. Afterwards, Spates said his wife commented, \"He's got such a good spirit and soul and calm presence.\"\n\nNichols worked second shift at FedEx with his stepfather. Every day, they'd come home together on their break at 7 p.m., and his mother would have a meal waiting for them.\n\nWells said she'd offered to buy her son Jordans, the popular athletic shoes, but he didn't want them.\n\n\"He was just his own person,\" she said. \"He didn't follow what anyone else was doing.\"\n\nWhen he wasn't working, he went to the park to skateboard and take pictures. His website, called This California Kid, starts with an invitation: \"Welcome to the world through my eyes.\"\n\nHe included a gallery of what he considered his masterpieces: bridges and railroad tracks rendered in black and white, the neon lights of Beale Street at night. He took pictures of pink flowers, sunsets over the Mississippi River, fields of grass, statues of Elvis. He highlights a quote from another photographer: \"A good photographer must love life,\" it begins.\n\nAfter she watched the video of her son's death, she stood with her family and their lawyers at a lectern, shaking, to convey what the world lost.\n\nA lawyer described the beating shown in the video \u2014 \"he was a human pi\u00f1ata\" \u2014 and Wells turned her head away, burying her face into her hands.\n\nIn the video footage, which was released to the public, Nichols is heard saying he just wants to go home, family lawyers said. He was less than 100 yards from his mother's house.\n\nLawyers described the last words Nichols is heard saying \u2014 calling for his mom, three times.\n\n\"Oh my God,\" she wailed as they spoke. \"Oh my God.\"\n\nShe still finds herself waiting for him to walk in the door every day at 7 p.m.\n\n\"It's not even real to me right now. I don't have any feelings right now,\" she said. \"I know my son Tyre is not here with me anymore. He will never walk through that door again.\"\n\n___\n\nAP reporter Adrian Sainz contributed from Memphis, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner from New York. Loller reported from Nashville, Beam from Sacramento, California, and Galofaro from Louisville, Kentucky."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Tyre Nichols remembered as beautiful soul with creative eye\n\nBy Adam Beam, Travis Loller, and Claire Galofaro  \nMay 7th, 2025, 10:25 PM\n\n---\n\nOn most weekends, Tyre Nichols would head to the city park, train his camera on the sky and wait for the sun to set.\n\n\"Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,\" he wrote on his website. He preferred landscapes and loved the glow of sunsets most, his family has said.\n\n\"My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens,\" Nichols wrote. \"People have a story to tell, why not capture it.\"\n\nNichols, a 29-year-old father, was on his way home from taking pictures of the sky on Jan. 7, 2023, when police pulled him over. He was just a few minutes from the home he shared with his mother and stepfather, when he was brutally attacked by five Memphis police officers.\n\nHe died three days later at a hospital, and the officers were charged with second-degree murder and other offenses and fired. Two of the officers previously pleaded guilty in both state and federal court. The three others were acquitted Wednesday of all state charges, including second-degree murder. The trio still face the prospect of years in prison after they were convicted of federal charges, though they were acquitted of the most serious charges there, too.\n\n\"Nobody's perfect, nobody. But he was damn near,\" his mother, RowVaughn Wells, said at a news conference in 2023, moments after she watched the video of her son being beaten. \"He was damn near perfect.\"\n\nHe was the baby of their family. He had a 4-year-old son and worked hard to better himself as a father, his family said. He was an avid skateboarder from Sacramento, California, and came to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was with his mother, and they were incredibly close, Wells said. He had her name tattooed on his arm.\n\nFriends at a memorial service in 2023 described him as joyful and lovable.\n\n\"This man walked into a room, and everyone loved him,\" said Angelina Paxton, a friend who traveled to Memphis from California for the service.\n\nGrowing up in Sacramento, Nichols spent much of his time at a skate park on the outskirts of the city. It could be a rough place sometimes for younger kids. But when Niko Chapman was 10 years old, his parents would let him walk to the park alone as long as they knew Nichols was there.\n\n\"You remember people that are really kind to you, and Tyre was just a really kind person,\" Chapman said. \"He just always made me feel really welcome.\"\n\nChapman's dad, Curtis Chapman, ran a youth group at a local church that would often meet at the skate park for pizza. Nichols quickly became a regular, bringing his energetic spirit and quick wit. But away from the group, Nichols would often show up at the Chapman house to talk about life \u2014 including coming to grips with being a young parent.\n\n\"What drew me to Tyre was just \u2014 he's real,\" Curtis Chapman said. \"He would talk about being a dad and wanting to be a good dad and seeking advice.\"\n\nThere was a Bible study on Thursdays that Nichols would attend with his friend Brian Jang. One day, the group watched a sermon about how the world is filled with distractions. Jang said Nichols was so moved by it that he pulled out his flip phone and dropped it in a cup of water.\n\n\"I thought it was awesome, just seeing his growth and his commitment,\" Jang said.\n\nThe last time Jang saw Nichols was in 2018 at the food court in a local mall. The two hadn't seen each other in awhile, but Jang said Nichols came up behind him and gave him a big hug as the two caught up.\n\n\"It's honestly pretty devastating to see such a good human go through such unnecessary brutality, such unnecessary death,\" Jang said.\n\nHis mother said she raised him to love everyone openly \u2014 until they give you a reason not to. So Nichols was quick to make friends.\n\nIn Memphis, Nichols went to Starbucks every morning, and Nate Spates Jr. would hang out with him there. They chatted about sports or life. Spates was with his wife once when they ran into Nichols there, and they all talked for a couple of hours. Afterwards, Spates said his wife commented, \"He's got such a good spirit and soul and calm presence.\"\n\nNichols worked second shift at FedEx with his stepfather. Every day, they'd come home together on their break at 7 p.m., and his mother would have a meal waiting for them.\n\nWells said she'd offered to buy her son Jordans, the popular athletic shoes, but he didn't want them.\n\n\"He was just his own person,\" she said. \"He didn't follow what anyone else was doing.\"\n\nWhen he wasn't working, he went to the park to skateboard and take pictures. His website, called This California Kid, starts with an invitation: \"Welcome to the world through my eyes.\"\n\nHe included a gallery of what he considered his masterpieces: bridges and railroad tracks rendered in black and white, the neon lights of Beale Street at night. He took pictures of pink flowers, sunsets over the Mississippi River, fields of grass, statues of Elvis. He highlights a quote from another photographer: \"A good photographer must love life,\" it begins.\n\nAfter she watched the video of her son's death, she stood with her family and their lawyers at a lectern, shaking, to convey what the world lost.\n\nA lawyer described the beating shown in the video \u2014 \"he was a human pi\u00f1ata\" \u2014 and Wells turned her head away, burying her face into her hands.\n\nIn the video footage, which was released to the public, Nichols is heard saying he just wants to go home, family lawyers said. He was less than 100 yards from his mother's house.\n\nLawyers described the last words Nichols is heard saying \u2014 calling for his mom, three times.\n\n\"Oh my God,\" she wailed as they spoke. \"Oh my God.\"\n\nShe still finds herself waiting for him to walk in the door every day at 7 p.m.\n\n\"It's not even real to me right now. I don't have any feelings right now,\" she said. \"I know my son Tyre is not here with me anymore. He will never walk through that door again.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "33d226a4e0f5d484d0e950a69ff7ab121f3d9450853b05c30b0dd5eeeb2f9ff9", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms launches bid for Georgia governor\n\nBy Jeff Amy  \nMay 20th, 2025, 10:00 AM\n\n---\n\nATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms says her single term as Atlanta mayor gave her \"battle-tested executive leadership\" that she can offer to Georgia voters as she runs for governor.\n\nBottoms, 55, officially launched her campaign Tuesday, becoming the second well-known Democrat to jump into the 2026 race. State Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta announced his campaign in April.\n\n\"As we are facing the uncertainty and the anxiety that's being created in Washington right now, I'm running to be a fighter for Georgia,\" Bottoms told The Associated Press on Monday.\n\n\"I want to be able to fight and deliver for our communities, whether it's from expanding Medicaid, to delivering for our small businesses, to making sure that people have a pathway to vocational and career training or college,\" she said.\n\nBottoms and Esteves hope to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who can't run again at the end of his second term. On the Republican side, Attorney General Chris Carr kicked off his campaign in December, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is expected to announce that he's running sometime this summer.\n\nAmong other Democrats, former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has expressed interest, and two-time candidate Stacey Abrams could choose to run again. Also running as a Democrat is the Rev. Olujimi \"Olu\" Brown, a Methodist minister.\n\nA lawyer and former magistrate judge, Bottoms won election to the Atlanta City Council in 2009 and was reelected in 2013 before outgoing Mayor Kasim Reed endorsed her as his successor.\n\nBottoms narrowly was elected and served one term that was defined by the pandemic. Every Atlanta mayor since World War II had sought a second term before the day in 2021 when Bottoms shocked Georgia's political establishment by saying she would not. But she says that didn't reflect a lack of desire for public service.\n\n\"Not having the energy to do the job, that was not the case. In fact, I ran through the tape,\" Bottoms said, arguing she continued to accomplish things until the end of her term.\n\nAs an early supporter of former President Joe Biden, Bottoms was among those considered to be his vice president. After stepping down as mayor, she joined the Biden administration as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.\n\nBottoms said she's not worried about being associated with an unpopular Biden. She also said she thinks her record on crime and public safety is a positive one, even though her administration struggled with the same COVID-19 era rise in murders as did other cities nationwide.\n\n\"As mayor I gave our police and firefighters a historic pay raise. I actually supported the building of the public safety (training) center in Atlanta that's servicing people across the region,\" Bottoms said. \"So I have a very strong record when it comes to public safety.\"\n\nProponents say the $118 million project, now complete, was sorely needed to replace outdated facilities.\n\nOne early night of Atlanta protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020 ended with the burning of a police car and broken windows downtown that were broadcast worldwide. Bottoms won national praise that night for ordering protesters to \"go home\" as she stood alongside Atlanta hip-hop stars Killer Mike and T.I.\n\nBut weeks after Floyd's death, Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, was killed by an Atlanta police officer after a struggle following a field sobriety test. Atlanta's police chief resigned hours later. After two officers were charged, Atlanta police officers called in sick in waves. Later, protesters burned down the Wendy's where Brooks died and an 8-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, was killed when the car she was riding in was shot at near the restaurant.\n\nThe turmoil led then-President Donald Trump and Kemp to repeatedly attack Bottoms' leadership. But Bottoms is betting that it's Trump that Democratic voters will view as the chaos agent.\n\n\"My record has been one of providing steady leadership during chaotic times,\" Bottoms said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms launches bid for Georgia governor\n\nBy Jeff Amy  \nMay 20th, 2025, 10:00 AM\n\n---\n\nATLANTA (AP) \u2014 Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms says her single term as Atlanta mayor gave her \"battle-tested executive leadership\" that she can offer to Georgia voters as she runs for governor.\n\nBottoms, 55, officially launched her campaign Tuesday, becoming the second well-known Democrat to jump into the 2026 race. State Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta announced his campaign in April.\n\n\"As we are facing the uncertainty and the anxiety that's being created in Washington right now, I'm running to be a fighter for Georgia,\" Bottoms told The Associated Press on Monday.\n\n\"I want to be able to fight and deliver for our communities, whether it's from expanding Medicaid, to delivering for our small businesses, to making sure that people have a pathway to vocational and career training or college,\" she said.\n\nBottoms and Esteves hope to succeed Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who can't run again at the end of his second term. On the Republican side, Attorney General Chris Carr kicked off his campaign in December, while Lt. Gov. Burt Jones is expected to announce that he's running sometime this summer.\n\nAmong other Democrats, former DeKalb County CEO Michael Thurmond has expressed interest, and two-time candidate Stacey Abrams could choose to run again. Also running as a Democrat is the Rev. Olujimi \"Olu\" Brown, a Methodist minister.\n\nA lawyer and former magistrate judge, Bottoms won election to the Atlanta City Council in 2009 and was reelected in 2013 before outgoing Mayor Kasim Reed endorsed her as his successor.\n\nBottoms narrowly was elected and served one term that was defined by the pandemic. Every Atlanta mayor since World War II had sought a second term before the day in 2021 when Bottoms shocked Georgia's political establishment by saying she would not. But she says that didn't reflect a lack of desire for public service.\n\n\"Not having the energy to do the job, that was not the case. In fact, I ran through the tape,\" Bottoms said, arguing she continued to accomplish things until the end of her term.\n\nAs an early supporter of former President Joe Biden, Bottoms was among those considered to be his vice president. After stepping down as mayor, she joined the Biden administration as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.\n\nBottoms said she's not worried about being associated with an unpopular Biden. She also said she thinks her record on crime and public safety is a positive one, even though her administration struggled with the same COVID-19 era rise in murders as did other cities nationwide.\n\n\"As mayor I gave our police and firefighters a historic pay raise. I actually supported the building of the public safety (training) center in Atlanta that's servicing people across the region,\" Bottoms said. \"So I have a very strong record when it comes to public safety.\"\n\nProponents say the $118 million project, now complete, was sorely needed to replace outdated facilities.\n\nOne early night of Atlanta protests following the death of George Floyd in 2020 ended with the burning of a police car and broken windows downtown that were broadcast worldwide. Bottoms won national praise that night for ordering protesters to \"go home\" as she stood alongside Atlanta hip-hop stars Killer Mike and T.I.\n\nBut weeks after Floyd's death, Rayshard Brooks, a Black man, was killed by an Atlanta police officer after a struggle following a field sobriety test. Atlanta's police chief resigned hours later. After two officers were charged, Atlanta police officers called in sick in waves. Later, protesters burned down the Wendy's where Brooks died and an 8-year-old girl, Secoriea Turner, was killed when the car she was riding in was shot at near the restaurant.\n\nThe turmoil led then-President Donald Trump and Kemp to repeatedly attack Bottoms' leadership. But Bottoms is betting that it's Trump that Democratic voters will view as the chaos agent.\n\n\"My record has been one of providing steady leadership during chaotic times,\" Bottoms said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "a15ee7e0545664088d4323309a949fe454f4364d2303b8681ab55899ee59ccd2", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Southern California couple charged with torture of 6 foster children\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 09:10 PM\n\n---\n\nVICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Three members of a Southern California family were charged Wednesday with torturing six foster children between the ages of 4 and 16 over a span of years, prosecutors said.\n\nKenneth Michael Key and Tina Marie Key, both 60, and their 23-year-old daughter Katlynn Marresa Key were arrested this week in Victorville, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.\n\nIt wasn't immediately known if they have lawyers. Messages were sent to the county public defender's office asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.\n\nThe investigation began Feb. 13 when authorities received a tip from a child abuse hotline, said sheriff's spokesperson Mara Rodriguez. The children were immediately removed from the home, Rodriguez said.\n\nProsecutors say the Keys subjected all six children to years of physical, emotional and mental abuse.\n\n\"The abuse included daily beatings, strangulation to the point of unconsciousness, and punishments of withholding food and water from the children for a period of days,\" the District Attorney's office said in a statement.\n\nAll three defendants are charged with torture and child abuse. They are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each.\n\nAuthorities haven't said how the alleged abuse went on for years without being detected. Messages were left for San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, which oversees the foster family programs.\n\nThe investigation was reminiscent of the case of David and Louise Turpin, the California couple who pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point they stopped growing."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Southern California couple charged with torture of 6 foster children\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 09:10 PM\n\n---\n\nVICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Three members of a Southern California family were charged Wednesday with torturing six foster children between the ages of 4 and 16 over a span of years, prosecutors said.\n\nKenneth Michael Key and Tina Marie Key, both 60, and their 23-year-old daughter Katlynn Marresa Key were arrested this week in Victorville, according to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.\n\nIt wasn't immediately known if they have lawyers. Messages were sent to the county public defender's office asking if its attorneys are representing the defendants.\n\nThe investigation began Feb. 13 when authorities received a tip from a child abuse hotline, said sheriff's spokesperson Mara Rodriguez. The children were immediately removed from the home, Rodriguez said.\n\nProsecutors say the Keys subjected all six children to years of physical, emotional and mental abuse.\n\n\"The abuse included daily beatings, strangulation to the point of unconsciousness, and punishments of withholding food and water from the children for a period of days,\" the District Attorney's office said in a statement.\n\nAll three defendants are charged with torture and child abuse. They are being held in lieu of $1 million bail each.\n\nAuthorities haven't said how the alleged abuse went on for years without being detected. Messages were left for San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, which oversees the foster family programs.\n\nThe investigation was reminiscent of the case of David and Louise Turpin, the California couple who pleaded guilty in 2019 to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point they stopped growing."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "981330f77d3782e465edbb3418be9ef4c375d652a361c2ede7b36c2b7548fd95", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Greek man accused of spying at NATO transit hub has been charged and jailed pending trial\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 11:10 AM\n\n---\n\nTHESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) \u2014 A man was charged in Greece Friday with espionage-related offences and jailed pending trial after allegedly photographing and videotaping military operations at the strategic port of Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece.\n\nThe port serves as a key logistics hub for U.S. and NATO operations, facilitating the movement of military equipment and personnel in support of Ukraine and NATO member states in eastern Europe.\n\nThe suspect, who has not been named, was arrested earlier this week in a joint operation by the police and Greece's National Intelligence Service. Authorities said he was \"acting on behalf of another individual\" and had sent the recordings to that person using an encrypted messaging app, but provided no further details.\n\nAccording to state television, citing Greek law enforcement officials, the suspect is a 59-year-old Greek citizen born in Georgia and is under investigation for potential ties to Russian security services through a contact in Lithuania.\n\nEscorted by police officers on Friday, the suspect appeared before a magistrate in Alexandroupolis for a preliminary hearing as part of the ongoing judicial investigation. Judicial authorities said he denied all charges, adding that no trial date has been set."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Greek man accused of spying at NATO transit hub has been charged and jailed pending trial\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 11:10 AM\n\n---\n\nTHESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) \u2014 A man was charged in Greece Friday with espionage-related offences and jailed pending trial after allegedly photographing and videotaping military operations at the strategic port of Alexandroupolis in northeastern Greece.\n\nThe port serves as a key logistics hub for U.S. and NATO operations, facilitating the movement of military equipment and personnel in support of Ukraine and NATO member states in eastern Europe.\n\nThe suspect, who has not been named, was arrested earlier this week in a joint operation by the police and Greece's National Intelligence Service. Authorities said he was \"acting on behalf of another individual\" and had sent the recordings to that person using an encrypted messaging app, but provided no further details.\n\nAccording to state television, citing Greek law enforcement officials, the suspect is a 59-year-old Greek citizen born in Georgia and is under investigation for potential ties to Russian security services through a contact in Lithuania.\n\nEscorted by police officers on Friday, the suspect appeared before a magistrate in Alexandroupolis for a preliminary hearing as part of the ongoing judicial investigation. Judicial authorities said he denied all charges, adding that no trial date has been set."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ee3e9fb240c11b5397450f89f9a461c7279575b7e0798a3c65ce70534b5f8a61", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Morgan Wallen Music Review: 'I'm The Problem'\n\nBy Maria Sherman  \nMay 16th, 2025, 07:27 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Morgan Wallen says he's the problem. And soon, he'll be yours.\n\nThe country megastar's fourth studio album, \"I'm the Problem,\" will be everywhere imminently if it isn't already \u2014 just like his earlier records, the last of which outsold Taylor Swift. It is a collection of earworm hooks and twangy big belts about whiskey and women, the kind that has made Wallen unignorable.\n\nThe 32-year-old's incredible popularity is at least partially due to the hybridity of his style. Bro country and dirt-rock evolved into his final form, which embraces hallmarks of hip-hop: trap high hats and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony-inspired vocal phrasing. That appears throughout the gargantuan \"I'm The Problem,\" everywhere from the \"Interlude,\" \"Kiss Her in Front of You\" and \"Miami\" to tracks like \"What I Want,\" featuring the Gen-Z Britney Spears Tate McRae. The latter marks his first time featuring a woman vocalist on one of his songs, no doubt a bucking of country duet tradition but also a doubling down of his vocal style \u2014 warm, muscular, masculine.\n\nThe album is never revelatory, but there are surprises: like the Bon Iver-channeling \"Smile.\"\n\nWallen's also a traditionalist \u2014 in the weeping guitars of \"Falling Apart,\" the backroads balladry of \"Skoal, Chevy, and Browning,\" where chewing tobacco and hunting gear has never sounded so ... romantic? Most of his songs deal with heartbreak and self-deprecation with lyrical specificity and a total lack of pretension, appealing to both a fluid listenership and country radio loyalists looking for something familiar enough.\n\nIn full, \"I'm The Problem\" is 37-tracks, running nearing two hours long. It's exhaustive but only exhausting for the active listener \u2014 just like his last two, which also topped 30 tracks. His style hasn't detoured too much from his previous work, giving new credence to not fixing what isn't broke. The album plays out like a soundtrack to a road trip, effortless and pleasant background music.\n\nThen, of course, is the financial incentive: Longer albums equate to more streams, and streams often account for far more of an album's chart position than downloads and purchases. It's good business.\n\nAll that aside, everything Wallen does, including the release of this new album, is inextricable from his controversies. Despite them \u2014 or perhaps, partially because of, for a certain subset of listeners interested in bad boys with real talent \u2014 Wallen has become one of the biggest performers in the United States, underestimated by a mainstream music media that often regionalizes country music culture.\n\nAnd there have been a number of controversies. In 2020, he was arrested on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock's bar in downtown Nashville. In 2021, after video surfaced of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his bestselling \"Dangerous: The Double Album.\" He's currently under supervised probation after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment for throwing a chair from the rooftop of a six-story bar in Nashville and nearly hitting two police officers with it.\n\nRegardless, his last album, \"One Thing at a Time,\" was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 100 for 16 weeks in 2023. That's just over 30% of the year. \"One Thing at a Time\" then reemerged in 2024 to hold the spot for three additional weeks in 2024. Presented another way, the album broke Garth Brooks' record for longest running No. 1 country album. In that respect, Wallen is not just a superstar in his chosen genre, but any genre.\n\nRedemption is a theme across \"I'm The Problem,\" which is given additional weight by Wallen's extramusical behaviors. Earned or otherwise, when Wallen sings he does so with the wisdom of a wizened man. Like in \"Superman,\" written for Wallen's son Indigo, which directly references the father's past indiscretions.\n\n\"One day you're gonna see my mugshot from a night when I got a little too drunk,\" he opens the song. \"Hear a song about a girl that I lost from the times when I just wouldn't grow up.\"\n\nIt's unclear if that growth has happened. (And considering the rest of the album's hungover revelations and soured relationships, subjects Wallen knows intimately and has made a career off writing to, it seems unlikely.) But if Wallen is singing to his son in the future, he's singing to himself and the millions who will be listening in the present. And clearly, they're willing to take the journey with him."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Morgan Wallen Music Review: 'I'm The Problem'\n\nBy Maria Sherman  \nMay 16th, 2025, 07:27 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Morgan Wallen says he's the problem. And soon, he'll be yours.\n\nThe country megastar's fourth studio album, \"I'm the Problem,\" will be everywhere imminently if it isn't already \u2014 just like his earlier records, the last of which outsold Taylor Swift. It is a collection of earworm hooks and twangy big belts about whiskey and women, the kind that has made Wallen unignorable.\n\nThe 32-year-old's incredible popularity is at least partially due to the hybridity of his style. Bro country and dirt-rock evolved into his final form, which embraces hallmarks of hip-hop: trap high hats and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony-inspired vocal phrasing. That appears throughout the gargantuan \"I'm The Problem,\" everywhere from the \"Interlude,\" \"Kiss Her in Front of You\" and \"Miami\" to tracks like \"What I Want,\" featuring the Gen-Z Britney Spears Tate McRae. The latter marks his first time featuring a woman vocalist on one of his songs, no doubt a bucking of country duet tradition but also a doubling down of his vocal style \u2014 warm, muscular, masculine.\n\nThe album is never revelatory, but there are surprises: like the Bon Iver-channeling \"Smile.\"\n\nWallen's also a traditionalist \u2014 in the weeping guitars of \"Falling Apart,\" the backroads balladry of \"Skoal, Chevy, and Browning,\" where chewing tobacco and hunting gear has never sounded so ... romantic? Most of his songs deal with heartbreak and self-deprecation with lyrical specificity and a total lack of pretension, appealing to both a fluid listenership and country radio loyalists looking for something familiar enough.\n\nIn full, \"I'm The Problem\" is 37-tracks, running nearing two hours long. It's exhaustive but only exhausting for the active listener \u2014 just like his last two, which also topped 30 tracks. His style hasn't detoured too much from his previous work, giving new credence to not fixing what isn't broke. The album plays out like a soundtrack to a road trip, effortless and pleasant background music.\n\nThen, of course, is the financial incentive: Longer albums equate to more streams, and streams often account for far more of an album's chart position than downloads and purchases. It's good business.\n\nAll that aside, everything Wallen does, including the release of this new album, is inextricable from his controversies. Despite them \u2014 or perhaps, partially because of, for a certain subset of listeners interested in bad boys with real talent \u2014 Wallen has become one of the biggest performers in the United States, underestimated by a mainstream music media that often regionalizes country music culture.\n\nAnd there have been a number of controversies. In 2020, he was arrested on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock's bar in downtown Nashville. In 2021, after video surfaced of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his bestselling \"Dangerous: The Double Album.\" He's currently under supervised probation after pleading guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment for throwing a chair from the rooftop of a six-story bar in Nashville and nearly hitting two police officers with it.\n\nRegardless, his last album, \"One Thing at a Time,\" was certified seven-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 100 for 16 weeks in 2023. That's just over 30% of the year. \"One Thing at a Time\" then reemerged in 2024 to hold the spot for three additional weeks in 2024. Presented another way, the album broke Garth Brooks' record for longest running No. 1 country album. In that respect, Wallen is not just a superstar in his chosen genre, but any genre.\n\nRedemption is a theme across \"I'm The Problem,\" which is given additional weight by Wallen's extramusical behaviors. Earned or otherwise, when Wallen sings he does so with the wisdom of a wizened man. Like in \"Superman,\" written for Wallen's son Indigo, which directly references the father's past indiscretions.\n\n\"One day you're gonna see my mugshot from a night when I got a little too drunk,\" he opens the song. \"Hear a song about a girl that I lost from the times when I just wouldn't grow up.\"\n\nIt's unclear if that growth has happened. (And considering the rest of the album's hungover revelations and soured relationships, subjects Wallen knows intimately and has made a career off writing to, it seems unlikely.) But if Wallen is singing to his son in the future, he's singing to himself and the millions who will be listening in the present. And clearly, they're willing to take the journey with him."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "22e76d202b11f233703c5264524386cccfee2d88cf4f696b75a4c88fff4b3ea8", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Nashville school shooter who killed 1 student and himself had brandished a box cutter at school\n\nBy Travis Loller and Jonathan Mattise  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:39 PM\n\n---\n\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 A Nashville high school student who fatally shot a classmate before killing himself in January was on probation after threatening a student with a box cutter months earlier, according to juvenile court files obtained through an open records request.\n\nSolomon Henderson, who was 17 at the time, was charged with carrying a weapon on school property with intent and reckless endangerment with a weapon after a confrontation on Oct. 24, 2024.\n\nThe victim said she was walking to lunch with a group when she said \"hey\" to Solomon. When he did not respond, she said \"hey\" again. Solomon, who is Black, then turned around and told her to get away, using an expletive, and called her the N-word, the victim told police. He pulled a box cutter out of his pocket and exposed the blade before walking to a table in the cafeteria and sitting down.\n\nWhen an administrator confronted Solomon, \"he became upset saying stuff like I'll cut anyone that walks up on him,\" according to the court filings. He also said he believed that the victim and her friends were going to jump him. As part of his probation, he was not allowed to possess guns.\n\nSolomon's juvenile record also includes charges from November 2023, when he was 16 years old, for downloading and distributing sexual images of minors. The record does not give any indication of the ages of the minors in the images. In that case, he was released to his parents with strict conditions including no use of social media, a cellphone, the internet, or a computer, with the exception of school work.\n\nJuvenile court records have been unavailable to the public in Tennessee until recently. Citing the Antioch High School shooting and a desire to know more about the shooter's history, Tennessee lawmakers this year passed a bill that allows someone's juvenile court records to be made public if the person committed a homicide on school grounds and has died.\n\nThe records released to The Associated Press on Friday show that Solomon was given judicial diversion after his arrest for brandishing the box cutter. Court documents from the day after the incident indicated he was to have no contact with the victim and that his mother was planning to homeschool him.\n\nIt is unclear exactly when he returned to Antioch High School, but on Jan. 22, Solomon shot and killed Josselin Corea Escalante, who was 16 and Hispanic, in the school's cafeteria before turning the gun on himself. Another student who was grazed by a bullet was treated and released from the hospital the same day.\n\nPolice said Henderson fired 10 shots from a 9 mm pistol within 17 seconds of entering the cafeteria. The pistol was loaded with nine rounds when recovered by police. The gun was bought by someone in Arizona in 2022, and it was not reported stolen, police said. The gun's origins are still under investigation.\n\nAlthough the name of the victim in the box-cutter incident is redacted from the juvenile records, police have previously said they could not establish a connection between Solomon and the victims in the shooting. They have said the gunfire may have been random.\n\nNot long after the shooting, anti-hate analysts quickly identified dozens of pages believed to have come from Henderson, filled with calls for violence and racist comments, including neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies, expressions of shame that he was Black and praise for specific people who carried out well-known shootings. The writings also include plans for the school shooting, but they do not name Escalante as a target.\n\nPolice and the FBI have been investigating two documents totaling more than 300 pages combined that they believe Henderson created.\n\n\"It is clear that Henderson was significantly influenced by web-based material,\" especially on \"non-traditional sites that most would find harmful and objectionable,\" police said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Nashville school shooter who killed 1 student and himself had brandished a box cutter at school\n\nBy Travis Loller and Jonathan Mattise  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:39 PM\n\n---\n\nNASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) \u2014 A Nashville high school student who fatally shot a classmate before killing himself in January was on probation after threatening a student with a box cutter months earlier, according to juvenile court files obtained through an open records request.\n\nSolomon Henderson, who was 17 at the time, was charged with carrying a weapon on school property with intent and reckless endangerment with a weapon after a confrontation on Oct. 24, 2024.\n\nThe victim said she was walking to lunch with a group when she said \"hey\" to Solomon. When he did not respond, she said \"hey\" again. Solomon, who is Black, then turned around and told her to get away, using an expletive, and called her the N-word, the victim told police. He pulled a box cutter out of his pocket and exposed the blade before walking to a table in the cafeteria and sitting down.\n\nWhen an administrator confronted Solomon, \"he became upset saying stuff like I'll cut anyone that walks up on him,\" according to the court filings. He also said he believed that the victim and her friends were going to jump him. As part of his probation, he was not allowed to possess guns.\n\nSolomon's juvenile record also includes charges from November 2023, when he was 16 years old, for downloading and distributing sexual images of minors. The record does not give any indication of the ages of the minors in the images. In that case, he was released to his parents with strict conditions including no use of social media, a cellphone, the internet, or a computer, with the exception of school work.\n\nJuvenile court records have been unavailable to the public in Tennessee until recently. Citing the Antioch High School shooting and a desire to know more about the shooter's history, Tennessee lawmakers this year passed a bill that allows someone's juvenile court records to be made public if the person committed a homicide on school grounds and has died.\n\nThe records released to The Associated Press on Friday show that Solomon was given judicial diversion after his arrest for brandishing the box cutter. Court documents from the day after the incident indicated he was to have no contact with the victim and that his mother was planning to homeschool him.\n\nIt is unclear exactly when he returned to Antioch High School, but on Jan. 22, Solomon shot and killed Josselin Corea Escalante, who was 16 and Hispanic, in the school's cafeteria before turning the gun on himself. Another student who was grazed by a bullet was treated and released from the hospital the same day.\n\nPolice said Henderson fired 10 shots from a 9 mm pistol within 17 seconds of entering the cafeteria. The pistol was loaded with nine rounds when recovered by police. The gun was bought by someone in Arizona in 2022, and it was not reported stolen, police said. The gun's origins are still under investigation.\n\nAlthough the name of the victim in the box-cutter incident is redacted from the juvenile records, police have previously said they could not establish a connection between Solomon and the victims in the shooting. They have said the gunfire may have been random.\n\nNot long after the shooting, anti-hate analysts quickly identified dozens of pages believed to have come from Henderson, filled with calls for violence and racist comments, including neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideologies, expressions of shame that he was Black and praise for specific people who carried out well-known shootings. The writings also include plans for the school shooting, but they do not name Escalante as a target.\n\nPolice and the FBI have been investigating two documents totaling more than 300 pages combined that they believe Henderson created.\n\n\"It is clear that Henderson was significantly influenced by web-based material,\" especially on \"non-traditional sites that most would find harmful and objectionable,\" police said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "263fce5248eead6c589dd9043d63c0de7926aee147c4a25c049c31f9a8d5f779", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports\n\nMay 4th, 2025, 08:57 PM\n\n---\n\nTEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 Iran's defense ministry Sunday unveiled the country's latest solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reported, against a backdrop of threats from the United States over its nuclear program.\n\nTV showed the \"Qassem Basir\" ballistic missile during an interview with Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh. He said it includes improvements in both guidance and maneuverability to overcome layers of defense and easily bypass anti-ballistic defense systems.\n\nThe missile was most recently tested on April 17.\n\nTV described the missile as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range. It also said the missile can identify and strike a designated target among multiple ones without GPS guidance and with pinpoint accuracy.\n\nIn reaction to a May 1 comment by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the platform X, in which he warns Iran about its support for the Houthis in Yemen, Nasirzade said if war is initiated by the U.S. or Israel, Iran will strike their interests, bases and forces \"wherever they are and whenever necessary.\"\n\nNasirzadeh added: \"We have no hostility toward neighboring countries and seek brotherly relations, but in the event of an attack, U.S. bases in the region will be considered legitimate targets.\"\n\nRegarding a recent missile attack by Yemen's Houthis on Israel, Nasirzadeh said Yemen is an independent nation making its own decisions, and rejected U.S. attempts to link Iran to the conflict there.\n\nTehran created its ballistic missile program after suffering through Iraqi Scud missile attacks in the Iran-Iraq war \u2014 and as a hedge against its Western-armed neighbors as embargos have kept it from accessing modern attack aircraft.\n\nThe missile announcement comes amid escalating tensions following the strike on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport by the Houthis. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed significant retaliation against both the Houthis and their Iranian supporters. The incident marks a significant escalation in regional hostilities.\n\nMeanwhile, indirect talks between Iran and the United States, which were scheduled for May 3 in Rome, were suspended last week. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the postponement came at the request of Oman's foreign minister, who has been mediating the negotiations. A new date has yet to be announced.\n\nPresident Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's program if a deal isn't reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Iran unveils new solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reports\n\nMay 4th, 2025, 08:57 PM\n\n---\n\nTEHRAN, Iran (AP) \u2014 Iran's defense ministry Sunday unveiled the country's latest solid-fueled ballistic missile, state TV reported, against a backdrop of threats from the United States over its nuclear program.\n\nTV showed the \"Qassem Basir\" ballistic missile during an interview with Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh. He said it includes improvements in both guidance and maneuverability to overcome layers of defense and easily bypass anti-ballistic defense systems.\n\nThe missile was most recently tested on April 17.\n\nTV described the missile as having at least a 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) range. It also said the missile can identify and strike a designated target among multiple ones without GPS guidance and with pinpoint accuracy.\n\nIn reaction to a May 1 comment by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on the platform X, in which he warns Iran about its support for the Houthis in Yemen, Nasirzade said if war is initiated by the U.S. or Israel, Iran will strike their interests, bases and forces \"wherever they are and whenever necessary.\"\n\nNasirzadeh added: \"We have no hostility toward neighboring countries and seek brotherly relations, but in the event of an attack, U.S. bases in the region will be considered legitimate targets.\"\n\nRegarding a recent missile attack by Yemen's Houthis on Israel, Nasirzadeh said Yemen is an independent nation making its own decisions, and rejected U.S. attempts to link Iran to the conflict there.\n\nTehran created its ballistic missile program after suffering through Iraqi Scud missile attacks in the Iran-Iraq war \u2014 and as a hedge against its Western-armed neighbors as embargos have kept it from accessing modern attack aircraft.\n\nThe missile announcement comes amid escalating tensions following the strike on Israel's Ben Gurion Airport by the Houthis. In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed significant retaliation against both the Houthis and their Iranian supporters. The incident marks a significant escalation in regional hostilities.\n\nMeanwhile, indirect talks between Iran and the United States, which were scheduled for May 3 in Rome, were suspended last week. Iran's Foreign Ministry said the postponement came at the request of Oman's foreign minister, who has been mediating the negotiations. A new date has yet to be announced.\n\nPresident Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash airstrikes targeting Iran's program if a deal isn't reached. Iranian officials increasingly warn that they could pursue a nuclear weapon with their stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1b609780ba4dc5712fbe04b18b0528f22a946ad63e9954090293b5b5394aca68", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# UN aid chief defends using 'genocide' in Gaza remarks that Israel rejects\n\nBy Farnoush Amiri  \nMay 15th, 2025, 03:33 PM\n\n---\n\nUNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The United Nations' humanitarian chief has defended using the term \"genocide\" to describe what aid workers are trying to prevent in Gaza, saying the world should not make the same mistakes seen in past violations of international law, when it wasn't \"called out soon enough.\"\n\nTom Fletcher, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his forceful speech this week to the U.N. Security Council was meant to highlight what he views as the \"eroding\" of a rules-based order in Israel's bombardment of Gaza and monthslong blockade of lifesaving aid. He also blasted a new U.S.-backed proposal to deliver aid to Palestinians amid the 19-month-long war as \"dehumanizing.\"\n\n\"I'm not a lawyer. I'm a humanitarian. My job is to get the aid in, to get the attention of the world, to help create the conditions to get that aid in and save as many lives as possible before it's too late,\" Fletcher said Wednesday.\n\n\"But I also want to make sure that we aren't making the mistake that was made with previous massive breaches of international law, where it hasn't been called out soon enough,\" he added.\n\nFletcher is the first U.N. official to use the term \"genocide\" concerning Israel's war in Gaza, a charge that Israel vehemently denies and that many in the international community have been hesitant to make, even as criticism of Israel has come to a head in recent weeks.\n\n\"Instead of admitting that the existing distribution system has failed, the U.N. insists on preserving Hamas' supply pipeline,\" Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said Tuesday to the Security Council. \"This is not neutrality \u2014 this is support for terrorism. Israel will not cooperate with a mechanism that strengthens those who kidnapped, murdered, raped and tortured our citizens.\"\n\nUnited Nations spokespeople have stressed repeatedly that only a court can make a determination that genocide has been committed.\n\nFletcher, a longtime British diplomat, has spent the last several weeks in meetings with Israeli officials, lobbying for them to allow back into Gaza food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies that have been blocked since March. It's worsened a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with experts saying this week that nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation and 1 million others can barely get enough food.\n\nIsrael says that the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds and that it won't allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.\n\n\"We have these very, very robust procedures, distribution points, oversights and so on to keep (aid) away from Hamas,\" Fletcher said. \"We have the best plan to save millions of lives that is out there. There's no better plan for that. And we want to get in and do that.\"\n\nU.S. and Israeli officials, however, have been pushing the U.N. to assist with a new organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that is set to implement an aid distribution system based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.\n\nBut on Thursday, Israel sought to distance itself from the efforts, saying that it will not be funding those efforts or be in charge of dispensing the aid.\n\n\"We will facilitate them. We will enable them. You know, some of them will have to cross through territory that we operate, but we will definitely not fund them,\" Danon said.\n\nMany in the aid community, including Fletcher, believe the new system is meant to supplant the distribution system now run by the U.N. and other international aid agencies.\n\n\"What I have heard is a system that to me feels very dehumanizing,\" Fletcher said, noting that people would be \"moved out of their own locations, deliberately displaced into holding pens, expected to show ID and so on in a very dehumanizing way that isn't based on humanitarian need.\"\n\nHe said U.N. lawyers and nonprofit partners have warned that if the U.N. were to agree to this proposal, \"we would be undermining our humanitarian principles\" and opening the door for other occupying powers to determine who gets aid and how it is distributed.\n\nThe U.S.-backed foundation said it expects to begin operations before the end of the month.\n\nFoundation executive director Jake Wood, a U.S. military veteran and co-founder of an existing disaster relief group called Team Rubicon, indicated that Israeli officials had agreed to allow the foundation to deliver aid through existing systems in Gaza temporarily while the group builds new distribution sites that Israel has demanded for aid.\n\nThe Israelis also have agreed to allow more sites to be constructed to allow aid distribution in all of Gaza and to look for ways to get aid to those too malnourished, injured by fighting, too old or too young to travel long distances to one of the aid sites, a foundation's statement said Wednesday.\n\nSecretary of State Marco Rubio endorsed the plan Thursday, saying that while it has been criticized, the U.S. will \"continue to work towards that in ways that we think are constructive and productive.\"\n\nFletcher said he's not convinced from his meetings \"that there is the will to find a way to ensure this complies with basic humanitarian law.\" ___ Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Antalya, Turkey, and Edith Lederer contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# UN aid chief defends using 'genocide' in Gaza remarks that Israel rejects\n\nBy Farnoush Amiri  \nMay 15th, 2025, 03:33 PM\n\n---\n\nUNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The United Nations' humanitarian chief has defended using the term \"genocide\" to describe what aid workers are trying to prevent in Gaza, saying the world should not make the same mistakes seen in past violations of international law, when it wasn't \"called out soon enough.\"\n\nTom Fletcher, in an interview with The Associated Press, said his forceful speech this week to the U.N. Security Council was meant to highlight what he views as the \"eroding\" of a rules-based order in Israel's bombardment of Gaza and monthslong blockade of lifesaving aid. He also blasted a new U.S.-backed proposal to deliver aid to Palestinians amid the 19-month-long war as \"dehumanizing.\"\n\n\"I'm not a lawyer. I'm a humanitarian. My job is to get the aid in, to get the attention of the world, to help create the conditions to get that aid in and save as many lives as possible before it's too late,\" Fletcher said Wednesday.\n\n\"But I also want to make sure that we aren't making the mistake that was made with previous massive breaches of international law, where it hasn't been called out soon enough,\" he added.\n\nFletcher is the first U.N. official to use the term \"genocide\" concerning Israel's war in Gaza, a charge that Israel vehemently denies and that many in the international community have been hesitant to make, even as criticism of Israel has come to a head in recent weeks.\n\n\"Instead of admitting that the existing distribution system has failed, the U.N. insists on preserving Hamas' supply pipeline,\" Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said Tuesday to the Security Council. \"This is not neutrality \u2014 this is support for terrorism. Israel will not cooperate with a mechanism that strengthens those who kidnapped, murdered, raped and tortured our citizens.\"\n\nUnited Nations spokespeople have stressed repeatedly that only a court can make a determination that genocide has been committed.\n\nFletcher, a longtime British diplomat, has spent the last several weeks in meetings with Israeli officials, lobbying for them to allow back into Gaza food, fuel, medicine and all other supplies that have been blocked since March. It's worsened a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, with experts saying this week that nearly half a million Palestinians are facing possible starvation and 1 million others can barely get enough food.\n\nIsrael says that the blockade aims to pressure Hamas to release the hostages it still holds and that it won't allow aid back in until a system is in place that gives it control over distribution.\n\n\"We have these very, very robust procedures, distribution points, oversights and so on to keep (aid) away from Hamas,\" Fletcher said. \"We have the best plan to save millions of lives that is out there. There's no better plan for that. And we want to get in and do that.\"\n\nU.S. and Israeli officials, however, have been pushing the U.N. to assist with a new organization, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that is set to implement an aid distribution system based on plans similar to those designed by Israel.\n\nBut on Thursday, Israel sought to distance itself from the efforts, saying that it will not be funding those efforts or be in charge of dispensing the aid.\n\n\"We will facilitate them. We will enable them. You know, some of them will have to cross through territory that we operate, but we will definitely not fund them,\" Danon said.\n\nMany in the aid community, including Fletcher, believe the new system is meant to supplant the distribution system now run by the U.N. and other international aid agencies.\n\n\"What I have heard is a system that to me feels very dehumanizing,\" Fletcher said, noting that people would be \"moved out of their own locations, deliberately displaced into holding pens, expected to show ID and so on in a very dehumanizing way that isn't based on humanitarian need.\"\n\nHe said U.N. lawyers and nonprofit partners have warned that if the U.N. were to agree to this proposal, \"we would be undermining our humanitarian principles\" and opening the door for other occupying powers to determine who gets aid and how it is distributed.\n\nThe U.S.-backed foundation said it expects to begin operations before the end of the month.\n\nFoundation executive director Jake Wood, a U.S. military veteran and co-founder of an existing disaster relief group called Team Rubicon, indicated that Israeli officials had agreed to allow the foundation to deliver aid through existing systems in Gaza temporarily while the group builds new distribution sites that Israel has demanded for aid.\n\nThe Israelis also have agreed to allow more sites to be constructed to allow aid distribution in all of Gaza and to look for ways to get aid to those too malnourished, injured by fighting, too old or too young to travel long distances to one of the aid sites, a foundation's statement said Wednesday.\n\nSecretary of State Marco Rubio endorsed the plan Thursday, saying that while it has been criticized, the U.S. will \"continue to work towards that in ways that we think are constructive and productive.\"\n\nFletcher said he's not convinced from his meetings \"that there is the will to find a way to ensure this complies with basic humanitarian law.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "a6a2ab7ef4e7579b702de33bb9a198f59b6ccd26a6700bea0a2c05ca01553960", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Turkish Tufts University student released from Louisiana immigration detention center\n\nBy Kathy Mccormack  \nMay 9th, 2025, 10:51 AM\n\n---\n\nA Tufts University student from Turkey was released from a Louisiana immigration detention center Friday, more than six weeks after she was arrested walking on the street of a Boston suburb.\n\nU.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington ordered the release of Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she's been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. A photo provided by her legal team showed her outside, smiling with her attorneys in Louisiana, where the immigration proceedings will continue.\n\n\"Despite an 11th hour attempt to delay her freedom by trying to force her to wear an ankle monitor, Rumeysa is now free and is excited to return home, free of monitoring or restriction,\" attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said.\n\nEven before her release, Ozturk's supporters cheered the decision, punctuating an earlier news conference held by her attorneys with chants of \"She is free!\"\n\n\"What we heard from the court today is what we have been saying for weeks, and what courts have continued to repeat up and down through the litigation of this case thus far,\" Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told reporters. \"There's absolutely no evidence that justifies detaining Ozturk for a single day, let alone the six and a half weeks that she has been detained, because she wrote a single op-ed in her student newspaper exercising her First Amendment right to express an opinion.\"\n\nAppearing by video for her bail hearing, Ozturk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media while appearing remotely at her bail hearing from the Louisiana center. She and her lawyer hugged after hearing the judge's decision.\n\n\"Completing my Ph.D. is very important to me,\" she testified. She had been on track to finish her work in December when she was arrested.\n\nOzturk was to be released on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE in consultation with her lawyers.\n\nSessions said the government had offered no evidence about why Ozturk was arrested other than the op-ed.\n\n\"This is a woman who is just totally committed to her academic career,\" Sessions said. \"This is someone who probably doesn't have a whole lot of other things going on other than reaching out to other members of the community in a caring and compassionate way.\"\n\nA message seeking comment was emailed Friday afternoon to the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.\n\nSessions told Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher he wants to know immediately when she is released.\n\nSessions said Ozturk raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health. She testified Friday that she has had 12 asthma attacks since her detention, starting with a severe one at the Atlanta airport.\n\n\"I was afraid, and I was crying,\" she said.\n\nImmigration officials surrounded Ozturk in Massachusetts on March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.\n\nOzturk's lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.\n\nOzturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university's response to student activists demanding that Tufts \"acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,\" disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.\n\nOzturk said Friday that if she is released, Tufts would offer her housing and her lawyers and friends would drive her to future court hearings. She is expected to return to New England on Saturday at the earliest.\n\n\"I will follow all the rules,\" she said.\n\nA State Department memo said Ozturk's visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions \"'may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization' including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.\"\n\nA Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.\n\n\"When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?\" Khanbabai asked. \"I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners, like Rumeysa.\"\n\n____\n\nAssociated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Michael Casey in Boston, contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Turkish Tufts University student released from Louisiana immigration detention center\n\nBy Kathy Mccormack  \nMay 9th, 2025, 10:51 AM\n\n---\n\nA Tufts University student from Turkey was released from a Louisiana immigration detention center Friday, more than six weeks after she was arrested walking on the street of a Boston suburb.\n\nU.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington ordered the release of Rumeysa Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she's been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. A photo provided by her legal team showed her outside, smiling with her attorneys in Louisiana, where the immigration proceedings will continue.\n\n\"Despite an 11th hour attempt to delay her freedom by trying to force her to wear an ankle monitor, Rumeysa is now free and is excited to return home, free of monitoring or restriction,\" attorney Mahsa Khanbabai said.\n\nEven before her release, Ozturk's supporters cheered the decision, punctuating an earlier news conference held by her attorneys with chants of \"She is free!\"\n\n\"What we heard from the court today is what we have been saying for weeks, and what courts have continued to repeat up and down through the litigation of this case thus far,\" Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told reporters. \"There's absolutely no evidence that justifies detaining Ozturk for a single day, let alone the six and a half weeks that she has been detained, because she wrote a single op-ed in her student newspaper exercising her First Amendment right to express an opinion.\"\n\nAppearing by video for her bail hearing, Ozturk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media while appearing remotely at her bail hearing from the Louisiana center. She and her lawyer hugged after hearing the judge's decision.\n\n\"Completing my Ph.D. is very important to me,\" she testified. She had been on track to finish her work in December when she was arrested.\n\nOzturk was to be released on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE in consultation with her lawyers.\n\nSessions said the government had offered no evidence about why Ozturk was arrested other than the op-ed.\n\n\"This is a woman who is just totally committed to her academic career,\" Sessions said. \"This is someone who probably doesn't have a whole lot of other things going on other than reaching out to other members of the community in a caring and compassionate way.\"\n\nA message seeking comment was emailed Friday afternoon to the U.S. Justice Department's Executive Office for Immigration Review.\n\nSessions told Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher he wants to know immediately when she is released.\n\nSessions said Ozturk raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health. She testified Friday that she has had 12 asthma attacks since her detention, starting with a severe one at the Atlanta airport.\n\n\"I was afraid, and I was crying,\" she said.\n\nImmigration officials surrounded Ozturk in Massachusetts on March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.\n\nOzturk's lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.\n\nOzturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university's response to student activists demanding that Tufts \"acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,\" disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.\n\nOzturk said Friday that if she is released, Tufts would offer her housing and her lawyers and friends would drive her to future court hearings. She is expected to return to New England on Saturday at the earliest.\n\n\"I will follow all the rules,\" she said.\n\nA State Department memo said Ozturk's visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions \"'may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization' including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.\"\n\nA Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.\n\n\"When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?\" Khanbabai asked. \"I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners, like Rumeysa.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b3d586da210c9be47e4c7d97cf814c7d034f7f4a5026d48eb7952c39dc9dbcad", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Arizona governor signs 'Emily's Law' to alert when Native Americans go missing\n\nBy Sejal Govindarao and Susan Montoya Bryan  \nMay 13th, 2025, 10:33 PM\n\n---\n\nPHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Arizona's governor on Tuesday signed legislation to create an alert system for Native Americans who have gone missing in the state, a measure that won unanimous approval from lawmakers in the wake of the disappearance and death of a San Carlos Apache teen.\n\nWith Gov. Katie Hobbs' signature, Arizona becomes the latest state to join a movement that began in 2022 in Washington state to use alert systems to quickly share information about cases involving Native Americans.\n\nColorado, California and other states have adopted their own versions of such systems. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently signed what is known as \"turquoise alert\" legislation, and North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong approved a \"feather alert.\" The alerts take their names from items that hold spiritual and cultural significance to Native Americans.\n\nArizona's \"turquoise alert\" legislation is also referred to as \"Emily's Law\" to honor Emily Pike, whose remains were found Feb. 14 more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) from a group home she left in Mesa, Arizona, in late January. Pike's death spurred a resurgence of activism aimed at bringing more awareness to the disproportionate number of disappearances and violent deaths that have gripped Native American communities for decades, and prompted lawmakers to amend the bill to recognize her.\n\n\"It breaks my heart that we, the state of Arizona, didn't even go looking for this little girl. No one looked for her,\" said bill sponsor Rep. Teresa Martinez while on the House floor last week. \"We cannot let children go missing without somebody being alerted.\"\n\nMartinez's great niece is a member of the Gila River Indian Community.\n\nThe Federal Communications Commission voted last year to establish a new national alert code for delivering messages to the public via television, radio and wireless phones about missing and endangered persons cases.\n\nThe commission reported that in 2023, more than 188,000 people who fall outside of the criteria for Amber Alerts went missing, noting that the new code will be particularly beneficial to Native American, Alaska Native and Black communities. Those groups constitute 40% of missing people in the U.S. despite each making up much smaller percentages of the overall population, according to the commission.\n\nStates have various alert programs that cover cases that can include children, specific minorities, people with disabilities and older adults. California in 2024 rolled out \"ebony alerts\" to inform the public about missing Black youths. Supporters say there have been successful outcomes with that system but that law enforcement could be issuing more alerts for those cases that meet the requirements.\n\nThe Arizona legislation creates a rapid response system for issuing and coordinating alerts for people reported missing under the age of 65, including those who are members of federally recognized tribes, if law enforcement finds the individual could be in danger or missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.\n\n\"Like my sister says, even though she's not here with us, she's still making a difference,\" Pike's uncle, Allred Pike Jr., said in an interview Friday.\n\nPike's mother, Steff Dosela, has told reporters that it took a week for her to hear about her daughter's disappearance from the group home. Lawmakers in the Arizona Senate are looking into Arizona Department of Child Services' group home regulations.\n\nThe FBI announced last week that it was offering a $75,000 reward for information that would identify the person or people responsible for the disappearance and killing of Pike, whose remains were recovered by Gila County sheriff's deputies on state land near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The reward is in addition to the $75,000 already being offered by the San Carlos Apache Tribe.\n\n___\n\nMontoya Bryan reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Arizona governor signs 'Emily's Law' to alert when Native Americans go missing\n\nBy Sejal Govindarao and Susan Montoya Bryan  \nMay 13th, 2025, 10:33 PM\n\n---\n\nPHOENIX (AP) \u2014 Arizona's governor on Tuesday signed legislation to create an alert system for Native Americans who have gone missing in the state, a measure that won unanimous approval from lawmakers in the wake of the disappearance and death of a San Carlos Apache teen.\n\nWith Gov. Katie Hobbs' signature, Arizona becomes the latest state to join a movement that began in 2022 in Washington state to use alert systems to quickly share information about cases involving Native Americans.\n\nColorado, California and other states have adopted their own versions of such systems. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently signed what is known as \"turquoise alert\" legislation, and North Dakota Gov. Kelly Armstrong approved a \"feather alert.\" The alerts take their names from items that hold spiritual and cultural significance to Native Americans.\n\nArizona's \"turquoise alert\" legislation is also referred to as \"Emily's Law\" to honor Emily Pike, whose remains were found Feb. 14 more than 100 miles (161 kilometers) from a group home she left in Mesa, Arizona, in late January. Pike's death spurred a resurgence of activism aimed at bringing more awareness to the disproportionate number of disappearances and violent deaths that have gripped Native American communities for decades, and prompted lawmakers to amend the bill to recognize her.\n\n\"It breaks my heart that we, the state of Arizona, didn't even go looking for this little girl. No one looked for her,\" said bill sponsor Rep. Teresa Martinez while on the House floor last week. \"We cannot let children go missing without somebody being alerted.\"\n\nMartinez's great niece is a member of the Gila River Indian Community.\n\nThe Federal Communications Commission voted last year to establish a new national alert code for delivering messages to the public via television, radio and wireless phones about missing and endangered persons cases.\n\nThe commission reported that in 2023, more than 188,000 people who fall outside of the criteria for Amber Alerts went missing, noting that the new code will be particularly beneficial to Native American, Alaska Native and Black communities. Those groups constitute 40% of missing people in the U.S. despite each making up much smaller percentages of the overall population, according to the commission.\n\nStates have various alert programs that cover cases that can include children, specific minorities, people with disabilities and older adults. California in 2024 rolled out \"ebony alerts\" to inform the public about missing Black youths. Supporters say there have been successful outcomes with that system but that law enforcement could be issuing more alerts for those cases that meet the requirements.\n\nThe Arizona legislation creates a rapid response system for issuing and coordinating alerts for people reported missing under the age of 65, including those who are members of federally recognized tribes, if law enforcement finds the individual could be in danger or missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.\n\n\"Like my sister says, even though she's not here with us, she's still making a difference,\" Pike's uncle, Allred Pike Jr., said in an interview Friday.\n\nPike's mother, Steff Dosela, has told reporters that it took a week for her to hear about her daughter's disappearance from the group home. Lawmakers in the Arizona Senate are looking into Arizona Department of Child Services' group home regulations.\n\nThe FBI announced last week that it was offering a $75,000 reward for information that would identify the person or people responsible for the disappearance and killing of Pike, whose remains were recovered by Gila County sheriff's deputies on state land near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. The reward is in addition to the $75,000 already being offered by the San Carlos Apache Tribe."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0670ce42ce42da724408c285758bac402874e65501f13265039e117cc30c1365", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Journalists in the Dominican Republic decry erosion of press freedom\n\nBy Mart\u00edn Adames  \nMay 13th, 2025, 07:08 PM\n\n---\n\nSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) \u2014 Dozens of people, including prominent journalists, marched Tuesday through the Dominican Republic 's capital to decry a bill that critics warn could lead to government censorship.\n\nThe bill, which is expected to be approved, calls for the creation of an independent regulator that would oversee content published on social media and digital news sites, focusing especially on anything that would violate the privacy of children or someone's dignity. But critics say such a regulator could overreach.\n\nHowever, some journalists have publicly supported the bill, noting that it protects freedom of expression without prior censorship and calls for the respect of public criticism.\n\nOpponents of the bill say it is the latest measure under the administration of President Luis Abinader that appears aimed at stifling the media in the Caribbean country of more than 11 million people.\n\nUnder Abinader, a newsroom located inside the National Palace in Santo Domingo was closed and journalists are now required to request access to press conferences and other events up to a week in advance. Under previous presidents, access was automatically granted to the palace with a verified press identification.\n\nJournalists also complain that government security has become more aggressive during press conferences.\n\n\"We have seen how politicians repeatedly want to curtail the freedoms we have,\" Jaime Rinc\u00f3n, a reporter with El Nuevo Diario newspaper, told The Associated Press. \"We are marching today for that reason, but also for the repeated abuse we have seen against our colleagues.\"\n\nDuring the march, journalists held signs and chanted, \"No to censorship! Freedom of press!\"\n\nRinc\u00f3n said the bill not only affects journalists' freedom of speech: \"It is a freedom that all Dominicans have, because with the internet, you can express yourself through any social network.\"\n\nRosalba Escalante, a reporter with ACD Media, who was recently pushed and stepped on by the security detail of Vice President Raquel Pe\u00f1a, who publicly apologized for the incident, also participated in Tuesday's march.\n\n\"Stealthily, access to the presidential press is becoming increasingly limited,\" she told the AP.\n\nAbinader has not responded to the journalists' allegations, although when asked about the bill during a press conference on Monday he said he was not involved in its creation. \"I didn't even add a comma,\" he said.\n\nThe protest march ended at the National Palace where a manifesto was presented calling for proper access to public records and elected officials, as well as an end to \"harassment, censorship or reprisals\" against journalists, among other things."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Journalists in the Dominican Republic decry erosion of press freedom\n\nBy Mart\u00edn Adames  \nMay 13th, 2025, 07:08 PM\n\n---\n\nSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) \u2014 Dozens of people, including prominent journalists, marched Tuesday through the Dominican Republic 's capital to decry a bill that critics warn could lead to government censorship.\n\nThe bill, which is expected to be approved, calls for the creation of an independent regulator that would oversee content published on social media and digital news sites, focusing especially on anything that would violate the privacy of children or someone's dignity. But critics say such a regulator could overreach.\n\nHowever, some journalists have publicly supported the bill, noting that it protects freedom of expression without prior censorship and calls for the respect of public criticism.\n\nOpponents of the bill say it is the latest measure under the administration of President Luis Abinader that appears aimed at stifling the media in the Caribbean country of more than 11 million people.\n\nUnder Abinader, a newsroom located inside the National Palace in Santo Domingo was closed and journalists are now required to request access to press conferences and other events up to a week in advance. Under previous presidents, access was automatically granted to the palace with a verified press identification.\n\nJournalists also complain that government security has become more aggressive during press conferences.\n\n\"We have seen how politicians repeatedly want to curtail the freedoms we have,\" Jaime Rinc\u00f3n, a reporter with El Nuevo Diario newspaper, told The Associated Press. \"We are marching today for that reason, but also for the repeated abuse we have seen against our colleagues.\"\n\nDuring the march, journalists held signs and chanted, \"No to censorship! Freedom of press!\"\n\nRinc\u00f3n said the bill not only affects journalists' freedom of speech: \"It is a freedom that all Dominicans have, because with the internet, you can express yourself through any social network.\"\n\nRosalba Escalante, a reporter with ACD Media, who was recently pushed and stepped on by the security detail of Vice President Raquel Pe\u00f1a, who publicly apologized for the incident, also participated in Tuesday's march.\n\n\"Stealthily, access to the presidential press is becoming increasingly limited,\" she told the AP.\n\nAbinader has not responded to the journalists' allegations, although when asked about the bill during a press conference on Monday he said he was not involved in its creation. \"I didn't even add a comma,\" he said.\n\nThe protest march ended at the National Palace where a manifesto was presented calling for proper access to public records and elected officials, as well as an end to \"harassment, censorship or reprisals\" against journalists, among other things."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b196769f8a4fb9df89c90969f6fc320bab7408b503c988d62d282294055a0d43", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Officials plan to revamp the US air traffic control system. Here's a breakdown by the numbers\n\nBy Josh Funk  \nMay 8th, 2025, 09:46 PM\n\n---\n\nThe Trump administration on Thursday announced an ambitious three-year plan to replace the United State's aging air traffic control system.\n\nOfficials did not provide an exact cost estimate but said it would require billions of dollars to put in place. They said a $12.5 billion budget proposal that a House committee drafted last week represents a solid \"down payment\" on the plan, which was developed after the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., in January.\n\nHere are some of the key numbers of improvements in the plan:\n\n## Thousands of internet connections\n\nThe plan calls for installing 4,600 high-speed network connections for data and communications across the air traffic control system at airports and radar control centers and other facilities across the country.\n\nTransportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there is a desperate need to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration's communications network because part of it still operates on outdated copper wires.\n\nSome of the shortcomings of the current system have been on display at the Newark, New Jersey, airport over the past two weeks. The air traffic control center in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of Newark lost its radar signal for between 30 and 90 seconds on April 28, meaning air traffic controllers couldn't tell where planes were temporarily.\n\nThe FAA subsequently slowed down traffic at the Newark airport, which forced airlines to cancel or delay hundreds of flights, leaving travelers stranded. It appears that the source of the problem was a breakdown in the lines carrying radar data from a facility in New York to the air traffic controllers in Philadelphia.\n\nThe FAA is already working on replacing those lines with fiber optic ones and training more controllers to improve the situation in Newark.\n\nDuffy said that fiber optic lines will be the priority in the upgrades nationwide, but in some cases the government may look at satellite or cellular technology. Duffy said he is \"agnostic\" about whether Elon Musk's Starlink or any other company should get the contracts and will let the bidding process play out.\n\n## Hundreds of new radar systems\n\nThe plan calls for replacing 618 radar systems countrywide.\n\nDuffy said many of the existing radar systems at airports date back to the 1980s or even 1970s, so they need to be replaced.\n\nWhen repairs are needed, some of the antiquated components can be hard to find, so Duffy said the government sometimes resorts to buying parts on eBay to maintain its systems.\n\n## 6 new control centers\n\nThe plan proposes creating six new air traffic control centers, a significant number since one hasn't been built since the 1960s. Duffy said the goal would be to consolidate hard-to-staff facilities whenever possible.\n\n## 15 new towers\n\nThe FAA would build 15 new towers combined with Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities at airports across the country.\n\n## 25,000 radios\n\nThe FAA relies on aging radio equipment to allow air traffic controllers to talk to pilots. Some of those radios are more than 30 years old.\n\nNewer digital equipment should be more reliable and offer more clarity than the old radios, as well as make the system more secure.\n\n## Broad support\n\nThe plan to modernize the nation's air traffic control system has drawn support from 55 groups across the aviation industry. The new Modern Skies Coalition includes major unions, trade groups, airplane manufacturers and other associations.\n\nRepresentatives of those groups attended the plan's announcement Thursday.\n\n## 200 new ground location systems\n\nOnly about 44 of the most complex airports currently have high-tech systems installed to help controllers keep track of where planes are on the ground.\n\nTwo hundred more airports would get these systems, allowing controllers to accurately track planes' positions instead of just using binoculars from the tower window.\n\nBut even after these upgrades, 200 more airports would remain without these ground systems that help keep taxiing planes from running into each other."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Officials plan to revamp the US air traffic control system. Here's a breakdown by the numbers\n\nBy Josh Funk  \nMay 8th, 2025, 09:46 PM\n\n---\n\nThe Trump administration on Thursday announced an ambitious three-year plan to replace the United State's aging air traffic control system.\n\nOfficials did not provide an exact cost estimate but said it would require billions of dollars to put in place. They said a $12.5 billion budget proposal that a House committee drafted last week represents a solid \"down payment\" on the plan, which was developed after the deadly midair collision over Washington, D.C., in January.\n\nHere are some of the key numbers of improvements in the plan:\n\n## Thousands of internet connections\n\nThe plan calls for installing 4,600 high-speed network connections for data and communications across the air traffic control system at airports and radar control centers and other facilities across the country.\n\nTransportation Secretary Sean Duffy said there is a desperate need to upgrade the Federal Aviation Administration's communications network because part of it still operates on outdated copper wires.\n\nSome of the shortcomings of the current system have been on display at the Newark, New Jersey, airport over the past two weeks. The air traffic control center in Philadelphia that directs planes in and out of Newark lost its radar signal for between 30 and 90 seconds on April 28, meaning air traffic controllers couldn't tell where planes were temporarily.\n\nThe FAA subsequently slowed down traffic at the Newark airport, which forced airlines to cancel or delay hundreds of flights, leaving travelers stranded. It appears that the source of the problem was a breakdown in the lines carrying radar data from a facility in New York to the air traffic controllers in Philadelphia.\n\nThe FAA is already working on replacing those lines with fiber optic ones and training more controllers to improve the situation in Newark.\n\nDuffy said that fiber optic lines will be the priority in the upgrades nationwide, but in some cases the government may look at satellite or cellular technology. Duffy said he is \"agnostic\" about whether Elon Musk's Starlink or any other company should get the contracts and will let the bidding process play out.\n\n## Hundreds of new radar systems\n\nThe plan calls for replacing 618 radar systems countrywide.\n\nDuffy said many of the existing radar systems at airports date back to the 1980s or even 1970s, so they need to be replaced.\n\nWhen repairs are needed, some of the antiquated components can be hard to find, so Duffy said the government sometimes resorts to buying parts on eBay to maintain its systems.\n\n## 6 new control centers\n\nThe plan proposes creating six new air traffic control centers, a significant number since one hasn't been built since the 1960s. Duffy said the goal would be to consolidate hard-to-staff facilities whenever possible.\n\n## 15 new towers\n\nThe FAA would build 15 new towers combined with Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities at airports across the country.\n\n## 25,000 radios\n\nThe FAA relies on aging radio equipment to allow air traffic controllers to talk to pilots. Some of those radios are more than 30 years old.\n\nNewer digital equipment should be more reliable and offer more clarity than the old radios, as well as make the system more secure.\n\n## Broad support\n\nThe plan to modernize the nation's air traffic control system has drawn support from 55 groups across the aviation industry. The new Modern Skies Coalition includes major unions, trade groups, airplane manufacturers and other associations.\n\nRepresentatives of those groups attended the plan's announcement Thursday.\n\n## 200 new ground location systems\n\nOnly about 44 of the most complex airports currently have high-tech systems installed to help controllers keep track of where planes are on the ground.\n\nTwo hundred more airports would get these systems, allowing controllers to accurately track planes' positions instead of just using binoculars from the tower window.\n\nBut even after these upgrades, 200 more airports would remain without these ground systems that help keep taxiing planes from running into each other."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "529b1aa2a550fafc0fb13a49bbc48b73000b60ee7fc09c0397d947b4514fd409", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Lawsuit alleges people imprisoned in Alaska receive inadequate health care\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 07:38 PM\n\n---\n\nJUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of people imprisoned in Alaska alleges the state Department of Corrections provides inadequate medical, mental health and dental care, calling it a systemic issue that goes back years.\n\nThe class action lawsuit filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and ACLU National Prison Project names as defendants Gov. Mike Dunleavy and corrections officials. Corrections spokesperson Betsy Holley declined comment Friday, saying the agency had not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit. The Alaska Department of Law also had not been served, spokesperson Sam Curtis said.\n\nAt any one time, about 4,400 people are in Department of Corrections custody, including people who are being detained before trials, according to the lawsuit. It says the state \"routinely\" denies medical services to incarcerated people based on their pre-trial status and says people often end up for years in corrections facilities while awaiting trial due to court system delays in handling criminal cases. The lawsuit cites as examples individuals who it says were denied needed eye surgery or dental treatment other than tooth extraction because of their pretrial status.\n\nThe lawsuit also claims the state fails to provide \"timely or adequate\" access to health care and specialty care, denies access to assistive devices and doesn't have enough health care staff. It asks a judge to order the state to develop and implement a plan addressing the concerns."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Lawsuit alleges people imprisoned in Alaska receive inadequate health care\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 07:38 PM\n\n---\n\nJUNEAU, Alaska (AP) \u2014 A federal lawsuit filed on behalf of people imprisoned in Alaska alleges the state Department of Corrections provides inadequate medical, mental health and dental care, calling it a systemic issue that goes back years.\n\nThe class action lawsuit filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska and ACLU National Prison Project names as defendants Gov. Mike Dunleavy and corrections officials. Corrections spokesperson Betsy Holley declined comment Friday, saying the agency had not yet seen a copy of the lawsuit. The Alaska Department of Law also had not been served, spokesperson Sam Curtis said.\n\nAt any one time, about 4,400 people are in Department of Corrections custody, including people who are being detained before trials, according to the lawsuit. It says the state \"routinely\" denies medical services to incarcerated people based on their pre-trial status and says people often end up for years in corrections facilities while awaiting trial due to court system delays in handling criminal cases. The lawsuit cites as examples individuals who it says were denied needed eye surgery or dental treatment other than tooth extraction because of their pretrial status.\n\nThe lawsuit also claims the state fails to provide \"timely or adequate\" access to health care and specialty care, denies access to assistive devices and doesn't have enough health care staff. It asks a judge to order the state to develop and implement a plan addressing the concerns."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "f6e1ecc72fa8740694ea4d32f16b2b5c66ab124bdcabf1a79fd02c14efb0053f", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump hosts the Kennedy Center board at the White House\n\nBy Will Weissert  \nMay 19th, 2025, 07:01 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Center 's leadership at the White House on Monday night, reinforcing how much attention he's devoting to remaking a premier cultural center as part of a larger effort to overhaul the social and ideological dynamics of the national arts scene.\n\nThe meeting of the center's board in the State Dining Room followed Trump firing its previous members and announcing in February that he'd serve as the board's chair. The new board, which unanimously approved Trump as its chair, is stocked with loyalists.\n\nThey include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; Attorney General Pam Bondi; Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance; and Lee Greenwood, whose song \"God Bless the USA,\" plays at Trump rallies as well as many official events, including during his trip to the Middle East last week.\n\nTrump called it a \"hot board.\"\n\n\"We're gonna turn it around,\" Trump told dinner attendees of the center. He said of running the board, \"When I said, 'I'll do this,' I hadn't been there\" and joked, \"That's the last time I'll take a job without looking at it.\"\n\nTrump has called the center's past programming \"woke\" and \"terrible,\" while more broadly seeking to slash federal funding for the arts \u2014 complaining that too much programming promotes leftist ideology and political correctness. In his view, molding the Kennedy Center to his own liking can go a long way toward creating a new arts and social culture nationwide.\n\nThe Kennedy Center announced its upcoming lineup on Monday, which includes performances of \"Chicago,\" \"Moulin Rouge\" and \"Back to the Future: The Musical.\" The offerings for kids includes a theatrical version of the cartoon hit \"Bluey.\"\n\nThe center previously abandoned a week's worth of July events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights as part of this summer's World Pride festival in Washington.\n\nThe White House has further moved to cancel millions in previously awarded federal humanities grants to arts and culture groups. And Trump's budget framework has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities altogether.\n\nTrump told the dinner that congressional Republicans have pushed for more than $250 million for repairs and maintenance at the Kennedy Center, and said that, over the past decade, \"tremendous amounts of money\" was spent there.\n\n\"I don't know where they spent it,\" he said. \"They certainly didn't spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.\"\n\nRichard Grenell, a Trump envoy for special missions who is interim head of the Kennedy Center, said a previous budget included \"$26 million in phantom revenue.\" He suggested the behavior could be a criminal matter for prosecutors and that Bondi, in addition to being on the center's board, heard the details at a meeting earlier Monday.\n\n\"She heard the details, and this is unacceptable,\" Grenell said.\n\nTrump said the center would raise funds but added of the building's state that it's \"falling apart\"\n\nHe said previous \"programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda\" and featured \"some very inappropriate shows\" including a \"Marxist anti-police performance\" and \"Lesbian-only Shakespeare.\"\n\n\"Who thinks of these ideas, really?\" Trump cried, drawing loud laughs from those present.\n\nTrump also visited the Kennedy Center in March to preside over a meeting of its board, and complained then of \"tremendous disrepair\" to the building.\n\nThe president has decried a recent expansion of the complex, known as \"The Reach,\" which features studios, rehearsal spaces and meeting facilities, and has suggested he would move to close up the spaces because they lack windows. He said Monday that he'd rather see an open-air performance space on the Potomac.\n\nThe president's changes drew pushback from a variety of artists.\n\nThe musical Hamilton responded to Trump's hands-on approach by canceling performances it had planned in March and April. Other performers \u2014 including actress and producer Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens \u2014 have similarly scrapped planned appearances.\n\nAnd with Trump planning to attend a performance of Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center on June 11, the show announced that many understudies may be performing then due to boycotts by cast members.\n\nThe Kennedy Center opened in 1971 and for decades was seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts. Presidents typically nominate members of the Kennedy Center's board in consultation with members of Congress.\n\nAfter that, they often don't have a lot of contact with the center's leadership, except to attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors.\n\n\"You're one of America's most renowned living playwrights, and you're still writing strong,\" Republican President Ronald Reagan said in 1984, addressing Author Miller, who was among that year's Kennedy Center honorees. It was an example of a Cold War commander in chief praising a writer who had well-known associations with communist-aligned groups.\n\nIn 2019, the center hosted an exhibit of former Republican President George W. Bush's paintings.\n\nTrump became the first president to routinely skip attending the honors ceremony in his first term. Since returning to the White House, he's been far more aggressive and proactive \u2014 as he has on many policy and political fronts. He cited some drag show performances at the center as a reason to transform it entirely.\n\n\"Instead of putting forward programming that tears our country down and tears our country apart,\" Trump said, \"the Kennedy Center should be the nation's premier venue for lifting up the best of our country and lifting up the American arts, music and culture.\"\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington and Hillel Italie in New York contributed."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump hosts the Kennedy Center board at the White House\n\nBy Will Weissert  \nMay 19th, 2025, 07:01 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump hosted the Kennedy Center 's leadership at the White House on Monday night, reinforcing how much attention he's devoting to remaking a premier cultural center as part of a larger effort to overhaul the social and ideological dynamics of the national arts scene.\n\nThe meeting of the center's board in the State Dining Room followed Trump firing its previous members and announcing in February that he'd serve as the board's chair. The new board, which unanimously approved Trump as its chair, is stocked with loyalists.\n\nThey include White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; Attorney General Pam Bondi; Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance; and Lee Greenwood, whose song \"God Bless the USA,\" plays at Trump rallies as well as many official events, including during his trip to the Middle East last week.\n\nTrump called it a \"hot board.\"\n\n\"We're gonna turn it around,\" Trump told dinner attendees of the center. He said of running the board, \"When I said, 'I'll do this,' I hadn't been there\" and joked, \"That's the last time I'll take a job without looking at it.\"\n\nTrump has called the center's past programming \"woke\" and \"terrible,\" while more broadly seeking to slash federal funding for the arts \u2014 complaining that too much programming promotes leftist ideology and political correctness. In his view, molding the Kennedy Center to his own liking can go a long way toward creating a new arts and social culture nationwide.\n\nThe Kennedy Center announced its upcoming lineup on Monday, which includes performances of \"Chicago,\" \"Moulin Rouge\" and \"Back to the Future: The Musical.\" The offerings for kids includes a theatrical version of the cartoon hit \"Bluey.\"\n\nThe center previously abandoned a week's worth of July events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights as part of this summer's World Pride festival in Washington.\n\nThe White House has further moved to cancel millions in previously awarded federal humanities grants to arts and culture groups. And Trump's budget framework has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities altogether.\n\nTrump told the dinner that congressional Republicans have pushed for more than $250 million for repairs and maintenance at the Kennedy Center, and said that, over the past decade, \"tremendous amounts of money\" was spent there.\n\n\"I don't know where they spent it,\" he said. \"They certainly didn't spend it on wallpaper, carpet or painting.\"\n\nRichard Grenell, a Trump envoy for special missions who is interim head of the Kennedy Center, said a previous budget included \"$26 million in phantom revenue.\" He suggested the behavior could be a criminal matter for prosecutors and that Bondi, in addition to being on the center's board, heard the details at a meeting earlier Monday.\n\n\"She heard the details, and this is unacceptable,\" Grenell said.\n\nTrump said the center would raise funds but added of the building's state that it's \"falling apart\"\n\nHe said previous \"programming was out of control with rampant political propaganda\" and featured \"some very inappropriate shows\" including a \"Marxist anti-police performance\" and \"Lesbian-only Shakespeare.\"\n\n\"Who thinks of these ideas, really?\" Trump cried, drawing loud laughs from those present.\n\nTrump also visited the Kennedy Center in March to preside over a meeting of its board, and complained then of \"tremendous disrepair\" to the building.\n\nThe president has decried a recent expansion of the complex, known as \"The Reach,\" which features studios, rehearsal spaces and meeting facilities, and has suggested he would move to close up the spaces because they lack windows. He said Monday that he'd rather see an open-air performance space on the Potomac.\n\nThe president's changes drew pushback from a variety of artists.\n\nThe musical Hamilton responded to Trump's hands-on approach by canceling performances it had planned in March and April. Other performers \u2014 including actress and producer Issa Rae and musician Rhiannon Giddens \u2014 have similarly scrapped planned appearances.\n\nAnd with Trump planning to attend a performance of Les Miserables at the Kennedy Center on June 11, the show announced that many understudies may be performing then due to boycotts by cast members.\n\nThe Kennedy Center opened in 1971 and for decades was seen as an apolitical celebration of the arts. Presidents typically nominate members of the Kennedy Center's board in consultation with members of Congress.\n\nAfter that, they often don't have a lot of contact with the center's leadership, except to attend the annual Kennedy Center Honors.\n\n\"You're one of America's most renowned living playwrights, and you're still writing strong,\" Republican President Ronald Reagan said in 1984, addressing Author Miller, who was among that year's Kennedy Center honorees. It was an example of a Cold War commander in chief praising a writer who had well-known associations with communist-aligned groups.\n\nIn 2019, the center hosted an exhibit of former Republican President George W. Bush's paintings.\n\nTrump became the first president to routinely skip attending the honors ceremony in his first term. Since returning to the White House, he's been far more aggressive and proactive \u2014 as he has on many policy and political fronts. He cited some drag show performances at the center as a reason to transform it entirely.\n\n\"Instead of putting forward programming that tears our country down and tears our country apart,\" Trump said, \"the Kennedy Center should be the nation's premier venue for lifting up the best of our country and lifting up the American arts, music and culture.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "029fafbffef5ca39eb8fae7d078b50da36c44619f9332d63f2a7d815e07f1096", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Portugal's election result falls short of ending political instability. Here's what to know\n\nBy Barry Hatton  \nMay 19th, 2025, 02:26 PM\n\n---\n\nLISBON (AP) \u2014 Portugal's third general election in three years has failed to deliver the result that could break the worst spell of political instability for decades in the European Union country of 10.6 million people.\n\nSunday's vote delivered another minority government for the center-right Democratic Alliance, which will be at the mercy of opposition parties. The significant rise in support for the hard-right populist party Chega (Enough) adds more uncertainty.\n\n## Why was there an early election?\n\nThe Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, lost a vote of confidence in parliament in March as opposition lawmakers teamed up against it. That triggered an election, which had been due in 2028.\n\nThe confidence vote was sparked by a political storm around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro's family law firm. Montenegro, who is poised to become prime minister again, has denied any wrongdoing.\n\n## What was the outcome of Sunday's ballot?\n\nThe Democratic Alliance captured at least 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly. Chega collected the same number of seats as the center-left Socialists \u2014 58 \u2014 and could yet claim second place when four remaining seats decided by voters abroad are attributed in coming days.\n\nChega competed in its first election just six years ago, when it won one seat, and has fed off disaffection with the more moderate traditional parties. Its success shook up the traditional balance of power in a trend already witnessed elsewhere in Europe with parties such as France's National Rally, the Brothers of Italy, and Alternative for Germany, which are now in the political mainstream.\n\nFor the past 50 years, the Social Democrats and the center-left Socialist Party have alternated in power in Portugal. The Socialists, meanwhile, are without a leader after Pedro Nuno Santos said he was standing down following the party's worst result since 1987.\n\nSmaller parties got the other seats.\n\n## What are the issues?\n\nCorruption scandals have dogged Portuguese politics in recent years, helping fuel the rise of Chega.\n\nChega owes much of its success to its demands for a tighter immigration policy that have resonated with voters.\n\nPortugal has witnessed a steep rise in immigration. In 2018, there were fewer than a half-million legal immigrants in the country, according to government statistics. By early this year, there were more than 1.5 million, many of them Brazilians and Asians working in tourism and farming. Thousands more lack the proper documents to be in Portugal.\n\nA housing crisis has also fired up debate. House prices and rents have been soaring for the past 10 years, due in part to an influx of white-collar foreigners who have driven up prices.\n\nThe problem is compounded by Portugal being one of Western Europe's poorest countries. The average monthly salary last year was around 1,200 euros ($1,340) before tax, according to the statistics agency. The government-set minimum wage this year is 870 euros ($974) a month before tax.\n\n## What happens now?\n\nPortugal's head of state convened the country's political parties for consultations.\n\nPresident Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has no executive power, was consulting with parties before inviting the election winner to form a government, in line with the constitution."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Portugal's election result falls short of ending political instability. Here's what to know\n\nBy Barry Hatton  \nMay 19th, 2025, 02:26 PM\n\n---\n\nLISBON (AP) \u2014 Portugal's third general election in three years has failed to deliver the result that could break the worst spell of political instability for decades in the European Union country of 10.6 million people.\n\nSunday's vote delivered another minority government for the center-right Democratic Alliance, which will be at the mercy of opposition parties. The significant rise in support for the hard-right populist party Chega (Enough) adds more uncertainty.\n\n## Why was there an early election?\n\nThe Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, lost a vote of confidence in parliament in March as opposition lawmakers teamed up against it. That triggered an election, which had been due in 2028.\n\nThe confidence vote was sparked by a political storm around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro's family law firm. Montenegro, who is poised to become prime minister again, has denied any wrongdoing.\n\n## What was the outcome of Sunday's ballot?\n\nThe Democratic Alliance captured at least 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly. Chega collected the same number of seats as the center-left Socialists \u2014 58 \u2014 and could yet claim second place when four remaining seats decided by voters abroad are attributed in coming days.\n\nChega competed in its first election just six years ago, when it won one seat, and has fed off disaffection with the more moderate traditional parties. Its success shook up the traditional balance of power in a trend already witnessed elsewhere in Europe with parties such as France's National Rally, the Brothers of Italy, and Alternative for Germany, which are now in the political mainstream.\n\nFor the past 50 years, the Social Democrats and the center-left Socialist Party have alternated in power in Portugal. The Socialists, meanwhile, are without a leader after Pedro Nuno Santos said he was standing down following the party's worst result since 1987.\n\nSmaller parties got the other seats.\n\n## What are the issues?\n\nCorruption scandals have dogged Portuguese politics in recent years, helping fuel the rise of Chega.\n\nChega owes much of its success to its demands for a tighter immigration policy that have resonated with voters.\n\nPortugal has witnessed a steep rise in immigration. In 2018, there were fewer than a half-million legal immigrants in the country, according to government statistics. By early this year, there were more than 1.5 million, many of them Brazilians and Asians working in tourism and farming. Thousands more lack the proper documents to be in Portugal.\n\nA housing crisis has also fired up debate. House prices and rents have been soaring for the past 10 years, due in part to an influx of white-collar foreigners who have driven up prices.\n\nThe problem is compounded by Portugal being one of Western Europe's poorest countries. The average monthly salary last year was around 1,200 euros ($1,340) before tax, according to the statistics agency. The government-set minimum wage this year is 870 euros ($974) a month before tax.\n\n## What happens now?\n\nPortugal's head of state convened the country's political parties for consultations.\n\nPresident Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who has no executive power, was consulting with parties before inviting the election winner to form a government, in line with the constitution."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1f05c20da85e1fad6c8402e6d73787d8b16a8a588dc8a96d116920467c513b8e", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Ecuador to host Indigenous summit seeking enforcement of court's human rights rulings\n\nBy Steven Grattan  \nMay 19th, 2025, 02:13 PM\n\n---\n\nIndigenous leaders from across Latin America will meet this week for talks on how to enforce legal rulings designed to enforce their rights to justice and territorial protection.\n\nThe Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a regional tribunal that holds governments accountable for upholding human rights, has made decisions backing Indigenous peoples' rights \u2014 including to their ancestral lands, which they consider essential to preserve their culture and way of life \u2014 which are not being implemented by Latin America governments.\n\nThere is growing concern that without stronger legal protections, government enforcement and adequate resources, the Costa Rica-based court's rulings will remain largely symbolic.\n\nLeaders from across the region will gather for a summit from May 21-25 in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss the obstacles to enforcing Inter-American Court rulings.\n\nThe main aim will be to issue a collective statement calling on governments and institutions to ensure justice and territorial protection.\n\n\"This is very important for us because there are constitutional guarantees that favor Indigenous peoples. Even so, there has not been full compliance with the rulings,\" Tulio Renato Viteri Gualinga, head of international relations for the Sarayaku Indigenous community, told The Associated Press.\n\nNataly Yepes, a legal advisor for Amazon Watch, an organization that works to protect the rainforest, said the summit, which will be hosted by the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, marks a rare and valuable moment where Indigenous knowledge will inform discussions on strengthening justice systems across Latin America.\n\n\"What we hope is that this won't just be a one-off event, but rather the first step toward building an alternative and critical approach to traditional justice systems,\" Yepes said, adding that that in times of democratic, institutional, and climate crises, Indigenous wisdom offers essential perspectives for more inclusive and resilient legal systems.\n\nIndigenous peoples, who in many cases have successfully managed and protected lands for millennia, have long argued that ensuring territorial rights is a climate solution. That argument has gained traction in international climate circles in recent years, though respective governments are sometimes slow or simply opposed to granting more territorial rights.\n\nThe Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules on human rights violations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Its decisions are legally binding for member states of the Organization of American States, but enforcement often depends on political will at national level.\n\nLast month, the court condemned Ecuador for failing to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples in Yasun\u00ed National Park. In 2017, it ruled against Colombia for allowing oil exploration on U'wa ancestral lands without proper consultation.\n\nOther countries \u2014 including Nicaragua, Paraguay, Suriname, Argentina and Honduras \u2014 have also faced similar rulings, though enforcement across the region has often been slow or incomplete due to lack of political will, bureaucratic delays, and weak institutions.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Ecuador to host Indigenous summit seeking enforcement of court's human rights rulings\n\nBy Steven Grattan  \nMay 19th, 2025, 02:13 PM\n\n---\n\nIndigenous leaders from across Latin America will meet this week for talks on how to enforce legal rulings designed to enforce their rights to justice and territorial protection.\n\nThe Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a regional tribunal that holds governments accountable for upholding human rights, has made decisions backing Indigenous peoples' rights \u2014 including to their ancestral lands, which they consider essential to preserve their culture and way of life \u2014 which are not being implemented by Latin America governments.\n\nThere is growing concern that without stronger legal protections, government enforcement and adequate resources, the Costa Rica-based court's rulings will remain largely symbolic.\n\nLeaders from across the region will gather for a summit from May 21-25 in Quito, Ecuador, to discuss the obstacles to enforcing Inter-American Court rulings.\n\nThe main aim will be to issue a collective statement calling on governments and institutions to ensure justice and territorial protection.\n\n\"This is very important for us because there are constitutional guarantees that favor Indigenous peoples. Even so, there has not been full compliance with the rulings,\" Tulio Renato Viteri Gualinga, head of international relations for the Sarayaku Indigenous community, told The Associated Press.\n\nNataly Yepes, a legal advisor for Amazon Watch, an organization that works to protect the rainforest, said the summit, which will be hosted by the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, marks a rare and valuable moment where Indigenous knowledge will inform discussions on strengthening justice systems across Latin America.\n\n\"What we hope is that this won't just be a one-off event, but rather the first step toward building an alternative and critical approach to traditional justice systems,\" Yepes said, adding that that in times of democratic, institutional, and climate crises, Indigenous wisdom offers essential perspectives for more inclusive and resilient legal systems.\n\nIndigenous peoples, who in many cases have successfully managed and protected lands for millennia, have long argued that ensuring territorial rights is a climate solution. That argument has gained traction in international climate circles in recent years, though respective governments are sometimes slow or simply opposed to granting more territorial rights.\n\nThe Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules on human rights violations across Latin America and the Caribbean. Its decisions are legally binding for member states of the Organization of American States, but enforcement often depends on political will at national level.\n\nLast month, the court condemned Ecuador for failing to protect the Tagaeri and Taromenane peoples in Yasun\u00ed National Park. In 2017, it ruled against Colombia for allowing oil exploration on U'wa ancestral lands without proper consultation.\n\nOther countries \u2014 including Nicaragua, Paraguay, Suriname, Argentina and Honduras \u2014 have also faced similar rulings, though enforcement across the region has often been slow or incomplete due to lack of political will, bureaucratic delays, and weak institutions."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0973848abcd1a6bade0884971dba9293151cd95bd219adba3d7ba3f8b66fd17d", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Conclave elects Robert Prevost to be Pope, the first American pontiff\n\nBy Nicole Winfield and Vanessa Gera  \nMay 8th, 2025, 05:01 AM\n\n---\n\nVATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Catholic cardinals broke with tradition Thursday and elected the first U.S. pope, making Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost the 267th pontiff to lead the Catholic Church in a moment of global turmoil and conflict.\n\nPrevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name Leo XIV.\n\nIn his first words as Pope Francis' successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Leo said, \"Peace be with you,\" and emphasized a message of \"a disarmed and disarming peace\" dialogue and missionary evangelization.\n\nHe wore the traditional red cape and trappings of the papacy \u2014 a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 \u2014 suggesting a return to some degree of tradition after Francis' unorthodox pontificate. But in naming himself Leo, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope's namesake.\n\n\"Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that's always open to receive \u2014 like on this piazza with open arms \u2014 to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,\" Leo said in near-perfect Italian.\n\nPrevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power the country already wields. But Prevost was seemingly eligible because he's also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop, and cardinals may have thought the 21st century world order could handle a U.S.-born pope.\n\nFrancis, history's first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost to take over a complicated diocese in Peru, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.\n\nSince arriving in Rome, Prevost has kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.\n\nPrevost's brother, John Prevost, described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don't have a voice, saying he expects him to be a \"second Pope Francis.\"\n\n\"He's not going to be real far left and he's not going to be real far right,\" he added. \"Kind of right down the middle.\"\n\n## Celebrating the new pope\n\nThe crowd in St. Peter's Square erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave, the most geographically diverse in history. Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted, \"Viva il papa!\"\n\nWaving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited for more than an hour to learn who had won and were surprised an hour later, when the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia, said \"Habemus Papam!\" \u2014 \"We have a pope!\" in Latin \u2014 and announced the winner was Prevost.\n\nHe spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not English, honoring Pope Francis and his final salute to the crowd on Easter Sunday.\n\n\"Greetings ... to all of you, and in particular, to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith,\" he said in Spanish.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump said it was \"such an honor for our country\" for the new pope to be American.\n\n\"What greater honor can there be?\" he said. The president added that \"we're a little bit surprised and we're happy.\"\n\nThe last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church's confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers' rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope's choice of name.\n\n## An Augustinian pope\n\nVatican watchers said Prevost's decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo's legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis' chief concerns.\n\n\"He is continuing a lot of Francis' ministry,'' said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But Imperatori-Lee also said his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.\n\n\"I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,'' Imperatori-Lee said.\n\nArchbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told reporters he never thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how an one would navigate dealing with a U.S. president, especially Trump.\n\n\"How is it that the Holy Father is able to deal with President Trump, for example \u2014 whoever our American president? Would those ties be too close or too distant?\" he said. \"And so I just never imagined that we would have an American pope, and I have great confidence that Pope Leo will do a wonderful job of navigating that.\"\n\nLeo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, planned to deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter's and lined up an audience with the media Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.\n\nBeyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, welcomed Leo's election and said he hoped he would join the anniversary celebration.\n\nThe new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of \"mendicant\" friars \u2014 dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.\n\nPrevost's election thrilled American students studying in Rome who happened to be in St. Peter's Square to witness history.\n\n\"That's the first American pope in history. How exciting!\" said Alessandra Jarrett, a 21-year-old political science student at Rome's John Cabot university. \"Crazy that we're able to be here and see it, and this was even our last day in school.\"\n\nSister Bernadette, a 50-year-old nun from Houston, Texas, was studying spirituality in Rome at the same university where Prevost did graduate studies, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum.\n\n\"He touched the heart of everyone, and he acknowledged the great work of Francis, which he wants to continue embracing the world and embracing all of our brothers and sisters in Christ,\" she said.\n\n## The past of Pope Leo\n\nFrancis moved Prevost from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later bishop of Chiclayo.\n\nHe remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume both the bishops' dossier and the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts the most Catholics. Counting North, Central and South America, the region had 37 cardinal electors going into the conclave.\n\nThe bells of the cathedral in Peru's capital of Lima and at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago tolled after Prevost's election was announced. People outside the Lima cathedral said they wanted Prevost to visit.\n\n\"For us Peruvians, it is a source of pride that this is a pope who represents our country,\" said elementary school teacher Isabel Panez, who happened to be near the cathedral when the news was announced. \"We would like him to visit us here in Peru.\"\n\n___\n\nGiada Zampano, Helena Alves in Rome, Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru and Colleen Barry in Schiavon, Italy contributed to this report.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.\n\n___\n\nThis story has corrected the number of Augustinian popes. Vatican News says Pope Leo XIV is the first Augustinian pope, not the seventh."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Conclave elects Robert Prevost to be Pope, the first American pontiff\n\nBy Nicole Winfield and Vanessa Gera  \nMay 8th, 2025, 05:01 AM\n\n---\n\nVATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Catholic cardinals broke with tradition Thursday and elected the first U.S. pope, making Chicago-born missionary Robert Prevost the 267th pontiff to lead the Catholic Church in a moment of global turmoil and conflict.\n\nPrevost, a 69-year-old member of the Augustinian religious order who spent his career ministering in Peru, took the name Leo XIV.\n\nIn his first words as Pope Francis' successor, uttered from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, Leo said, \"Peace be with you,\" and emphasized a message of \"a disarmed and disarming peace\" dialogue and missionary evangelization.\n\nHe wore the traditional red cape and trappings of the papacy \u2014 a cape that Francis had eschewed on his election in 2013 \u2014 suggesting a return to some degree of tradition after Francis' unorthodox pontificate. But in naming himself Leo, the new pope could also have wanted to signal a strong line of continuity: Brother Leo was the 13th century friar who was a great companion to St. Francis of Assisi, the late pope's namesake.\n\n\"Together, we must try to find out how to be a missionary church, a church that builds bridges, establishes dialogue, that's always open to receive \u2014 like on this piazza with open arms \u2014 to be able to receive everybody that needs our charity, our presence, dialogue and love,\" Leo said in near-perfect Italian.\n\nPrevost had been a leading candidate for the papacy, but there had long been a taboo against a U.S. pope, given the geopolitical power the country already wields. But Prevost was seemingly eligible because he's also a Peruvian citizen and had lived for years in Peru, first as a missionary and then as bishop, and cardinals may have thought the 21st century world order could handle a U.S.-born pope.\n\nFrancis, history's first Latin American pope, clearly had his eye on Prevost and in many ways saw him as his heir apparent. He sent Prevost to take over a complicated diocese in Peru, then brought him to the Vatican in 2023 to serve as the powerful head of the office that vets bishop nominations from around the world, one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church. Earlier this year, Francis elevated Prevost into the senior ranks of cardinals, giving him prominence going into the conclave that few other cardinals had.\n\nSince arriving in Rome, Prevost has kept a low public profile but was well-known to the men who count. Significantly, he presided over one of the most revolutionary reforms Francis made, when he added three women to the voting bloc that decides which bishop nominations to forward to the pope.\n\nPrevost's brother, John Prevost, described his brother as being very concerned for the poor and those who don't have a voice, saying he expects him to be a \"second Pope Francis.\"\n\n\"He's not going to be real far left and he's not going to be real far right,\" he added. \"Kind of right down the middle.\"\n\n## Celebrating the new pope\n\nThe crowd in St. Peter's Square erupted in cheers Thursday when white smoke poured out of the Sistine Chapel shortly after 6 p.m. on the second day of the conclave, the most geographically diverse in history. Priests made the sign of the cross and nuns wept as the crowd shouted, \"Viva il papa!\"\n\nWaving flags from around the world, tens of thousands of people waited for more than an hour to learn who had won and were surprised an hour later, when the senior cardinal deacon appeared on the loggia, said \"Habemus Papam!\" \u2014 \"We have a pope!\" in Latin \u2014 and announced the winner was Prevost.\n\nHe spoke to the crowd in Italian and Spanish, but not English, honoring Pope Francis and his final salute to the crowd on Easter Sunday.\n\n\"Greetings ... to all of you, and in particular, to my beloved diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, where a faithful people have accompanied their bishop, shared their faith,\" he said in Spanish.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump said it was \"such an honor for our country\" for the new pope to be American.\n\n\"What greater honor can there be?\" he said. The president added that \"we're a little bit surprised and we're happy.\"\n\nThe last pope to take the name Leo was Leo XIII, an Italian who led the church from 1878 to 1903. That Leo softened the church's confrontational stance toward modernity, especially science and politics and laid the foundation for modern Catholic social thought. His most famous encyclical, Rerum Novarum of 1891, addressed workers' rights and capitalism at the beginning of the industrial revolution and was highlighted by the Vatican in explaining the new pope's choice of name.\n\n## An Augustinian pope\n\nVatican watchers said Prevost's decision to name himself Leo was particularly significant given the previous Leo's legacy of social justice and reform, suggesting continuity with some of Francis' chief concerns.\n\n\"He is continuing a lot of Francis' ministry,'' said Natalia Imperatori-Lee, the chair of religious studies at Manhattan University in the Bronx. But Imperatori-Lee also said his election could send a message to the U.S. church, which has been badly divided between conservatives and progressives, with much of the right-wing opposition to Francis coming from there.\n\n\"I think it is going to be exciting to see a different kind of American Catholicism in Rome,'' Imperatori-Lee said.\n\nArchbishop Bernard Hebda, of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, told reporters he never thought he would see an American pope, given the questions of how an one would navigate dealing with a U.S. president, especially Trump.\n\n\"How is it that the Holy Father is able to deal with President Trump, for example \u2014 whoever our American president? Would those ties be too close or too distant?\" he said. \"And so I just never imagined that we would have an American pope, and I have great confidence that Pope Leo will do a wonderful job of navigating that.\"\n\nLeo was expected to celebrate Mass with cardinals in the Sistine Chapel on Friday, planned to deliver his first Sunday noon blessing from the loggia of St. Peter's and lined up an audience with the media Monday in the Vatican auditorium, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.\n\nBeyond that, he has a possible first foreign trip at the end of May: Francis had been invited to travel to Turkey to commemorate the 1,700th anniversary of the First Council of Nicaea, a landmark event in Christian history and an important moment in Catholic-Orthodox relations. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, welcomed Leo's election and said he hoped he would join the anniversary celebration.\n\nThe new pope was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of \"mendicant\" friars \u2014 dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. Vatican News said Leo is the first Augustinian pope.\n\nPrevost's election thrilled American students studying in Rome who happened to be in St. Peter's Square to witness history.\n\n\"That's the first American pope in history. How exciting!\" said Alessandra Jarrett, a 21-year-old political science student at Rome's John Cabot university. \"Crazy that we're able to be here and see it, and this was even our last day in school.\"\n\nSister Bernadette, a 50-year-old nun from Houston, Texas, was studying spirituality in Rome at the same university where Prevost did graduate studies, the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum.\n\n\"He touched the heart of everyone, and he acknowledged the great work of Francis, which he wants to continue embracing the world and embracing all of our brothers and sisters in Christ,\" she said.\n\n## The past of Pope Leo\n\nFrancis moved Prevost from the Augustinian leadership back to Peru in 2014 to serve as the administrator and later bishop of Chiclayo.\n\nHe remained in that position, acquiring Peruvian citizenship in 2015, until Francis brought him to Rome in 2023 to assume both the bishops' dossier and the presidency of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. In that job he would have kept in regular contact with the Catholic hierarchy in the part of the world that counts the most Catholics. Counting North, Central and South America, the region had 37 cardinal electors going into the conclave.\n\nThe bells of the cathedral in Peru's capital of Lima and at Holy Name Cathedral in downtown Chicago tolled after Prevost's election was announced. People outside the Lima cathedral said they wanted Prevost to visit.\n\n\"For us Peruvians, it is a source of pride that this is a pope who represents our country,\" said elementary school teacher Isabel Panez, who happened to be near the cathedral when the news was announced. \"We would like him to visit us here in Peru.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e3e285dc3055e5cdebbc1e9f05d900d4bb07f515ab62592ac072be76acab0a52", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Smurfs, dragons and aliens: Family movies lean into magic and wonder this summer\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 01:06 PM\n\n---\n\n\"How to Train Your Dragon\" filmmaker Dean DeBlois has heard the \"remake fatigue\" concerns. In Hollywood's quest to get family audiences to movie theaters, the industry has often opted to re-package something familiar, lately in the form of a live-action, or hybrid remake. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.\n\nThat's part of the reason why DeBlois, who directed the animated movies, wanted to also be the person behind the live action remake, coming to theaters June 25. He knew how to do it, and how to do it well.\n\n\"We were careful,\" DeBlois said. \"We wanted to make sure that if we were going to do it, we wanted to do with a lot of integrity and love and make sure there's nothing cynical about it.\"\n\nSeveral of this summer's family friendly options have come from a personal place including the Rihanna-produced \"Smurfs\" (July 18) and the Hawaii-shot \"Lilo & Stitch\" (May 23). And a lot of them are PG-rated, including \"The Bad Guys 2\" (Aug. 1); \"Freakier Friday\" (Aug. 8); And the new Pixar movie \"Elio\" (June 20), about a space fanatic kid whose dream of being abducted by aliens comes true.\n\nThe PG rating is having a bit of a resurgence in box office cred after years of being the \"uncool\" little sibling to PG-13. Last year PG movies made up 1/3 of the annual box office, led by \"Inside Out 2.\"\n\n## Smurfs nostalgia and Rihanna\n\nRihanna and the Smurfs might seem like an odd match, but the Grammy-winning megastar is \"steeped in Smurfs knowledge,\" according to director Chris Miller. She told Miller that growing up in Barbados, her family's television had one channel, and that channel played the Hanna-Barbera show constantly.\n\nIt's why she wanted to produce and star as Smurfette in \"Smurfs,\" a hybrid reboot that takes the little blue creatures on a rescue mission to save Papa Smurf. There have been other attempts (including two with Neil Patrick Harris), but for this one Miller wanted to do something different that drew on the original comics by Belgian artist Peyo.\n\n\"I thought, let's make a contemporary version and a real immersive visual experience but reference those drawings,\" Miller said.\n\nThey also had a sharp, witty script from Pam Brady, best known for her collaborations with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Plus, Rihanna would contribute music too. This, Miller thought, could be really fun.\n\n\"Rihanna's performance is so great,\" he said. \"She's really funny and gets to the heart and soul of everything.\"\n\nPractically everyone in the starry voice cast (which includes Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer, Amy Sedaris and Dan Levy) had some nostalgia for the Hanna-Barbera show. But no one needs a degree in \"smurfology\" to take a chance on the film. Offerman said it reminds him of \"The Lego Movie.\"\n\n\"It has a freshness and a sass that I think makes it appealing and kind of imperative for everybody to see,\" Offerman said.\n\n## Making the dragons real\n\nThe animated \"How To Train Your Dragon\" films already leaned into a live-action sensibility, but DeBlois took it to the next level for the new version, creating an immersive world where the dragons felt credible, and mythology that went deeper in telling this story of the unlikely friendship between a Viking boy Hiccup (Mason Thames) and a dragon named Toothless.\n\n\"It aspires to be and does deliver on the promise of being a crowd pleaser,\" DeBlois said. \"It has thrills and it has adventure and it has wonder, which I think is kind of rare and important.\"\n\nNico Parker, who plays the aspiring dragon hunter Astrid, was in awe of the level of detail the production put into the sets and atmosphere in making the isle of Berk feel real, from actual fire to \"horrible\" ambient fish smells. The dragons too all have animal kingdom counterparts to add to the authenticity \u2014 with the exception of Toothless, who they kept a little more fantastical.\n\n\"Even though Toothless' eyes are huge and there's no animal on earth, not even a blue whale that has eyes that big, we went with it because the smaller we made the eyes, the less Toothless-like he was,\" DeBlois said. \"We had to make sure that we weren't just creating photoreal dragons, but we were maintaining the personalities.\"\n\nFor as popular as the books and films (which have made over $1.6 billion) are, there are also plenty of people who aren't familiar with the stories. This version might be the thing that draws newcomers in (they've already announced a sequel).\n\n\"For those who do know the stories and have seen the animated films, it is a bit of nostalgia,\" DeBlois said. \"It's a way of returning to that world and seeing it through a new lens and maybe sharing that experience, perhaps with their own kids now.\"\n\n## Finding something for the whole family\n\nThe struggle to find something the whole family wants to watch is real.\n\nJamie Lee Curtis, who reunited with her on-screen daughter Lindsay Lohan for \"Freakier Friday,\" wrote in an email that theirs is a \"big spectacle film\" with \"all the bells and whistles that a big comedy should have\" and \"deep emotional resonance.\"\n\n\"Elio\" filmmaker Domee Shi also promised a blend of a wacky sci-fi adventure and \"also a deep and poignant story about loneliness, looking for connection, and finding it where you least expect.\"\n\nAnd no matter how many options are available for kids to watch on streaming services and YouTube, out of the home options remain a compelling draw. The box office backs it up: Last year PG movies outgrossed PG-13 movies for the first time in many years.\n\n\"PG movies really punch above their weight,\" said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. \"These films could represent a huge part of the summer box office,\"\n\n\"Lilo & Stich\" director Dean Fleischer Camp thinks the big screen experience remains important for young moviegoers.\n\n\"I fell in love with the movies, seeing them in theaters as a kid,\" he said. \"I don't think there's yet any substitute for it.\n\n___\n\nFor more coverage of this summer's upcoming films, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/movies"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Smurfs, dragons and aliens: Family movies lean into magic and wonder this summer\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 01:06 PM\n\n---\n\n\"How to Train Your Dragon\" filmmaker Dean DeBlois has heard the \"remake fatigue\" concerns. In Hollywood's quest to get family audiences to movie theaters, the industry has often opted to re-package something familiar, lately in the form of a live-action, or hybrid remake. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.\n\nThat's part of the reason why DeBlois, who directed the animated movies, wanted to also be the person behind the live action remake, coming to theaters June 25. He knew how to do it, and how to do it well.\n\n\"We were careful,\" DeBlois said. \"We wanted to make sure that if we were going to do it, we wanted to do with a lot of integrity and love and make sure there's nothing cynical about it.\"\n\nSeveral of this summer's family friendly options have come from a personal place including the Rihanna-produced \"Smurfs\" (July 18) and the Hawaii-shot \"Lilo & Stitch\" (May 23). And a lot of them are PG-rated, including \"The Bad Guys 2\" (Aug. 1); \"Freakier Friday\" (Aug. 8); And the new Pixar movie \"Elio\" (June 20), about a space fanatic kid whose dream of being abducted by aliens comes true.\n\nThe PG rating is having a bit of a resurgence in box office cred after years of being the \"uncool\" little sibling to PG-13. Last year PG movies made up 1/3 of the annual box office, led by \"Inside Out 2.\"\n\n## Smurfs nostalgia and Rihanna\n\nRihanna and the Smurfs might seem like an odd match, but the Grammy-winning megastar is \"steeped in Smurfs knowledge,\" according to director Chris Miller. She told Miller that growing up in Barbados, her family's television had one channel, and that channel played the Hanna-Barbera show constantly.\n\nIt's why she wanted to produce and star as Smurfette in \"Smurfs,\" a hybrid reboot that takes the little blue creatures on a rescue mission to save Papa Smurf. There have been other attempts (including two with Neil Patrick Harris), but for this one Miller wanted to do something different that drew on the original comics by Belgian artist Peyo.\n\n\"I thought, let's make a contemporary version and a real immersive visual experience but reference those drawings,\" Miller said.\n\nThey also had a sharp, witty script from Pam Brady, best known for her collaborations with Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Plus, Rihanna would contribute music too. This, Miller thought, could be really fun.\n\n\"Rihanna's performance is so great,\" he said. \"She's really funny and gets to the heart and soul of everything.\"\n\nPractically everyone in the starry voice cast (which includes Kurt Russell, John Goodman, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer, Amy Sedaris and Dan Levy) had some nostalgia for the Hanna-Barbera show. But no one needs a degree in \"smurfology\" to take a chance on the film. Offerman said it reminds him of \"The Lego Movie.\"\n\n\"It has a freshness and a sass that I think makes it appealing and kind of imperative for everybody to see,\" Offerman said.\n\n## Making the dragons real\n\nThe animated \"How To Train Your Dragon\" films already leaned into a live-action sensibility, but DeBlois took it to the next level for the new version, creating an immersive world where the dragons felt credible, and mythology that went deeper in telling this story of the unlikely friendship between a Viking boy Hiccup (Mason Thames) and a dragon named Toothless.\n\n\"It aspires to be and does deliver on the promise of being a crowd pleaser,\" DeBlois said. \"It has thrills and it has adventure and it has wonder, which I think is kind of rare and important.\"\n\nNico Parker, who plays the aspiring dragon hunter Astrid, was in awe of the level of detail the production put into the sets and atmosphere in making the isle of Berk feel real, from actual fire to \"horrible\" ambient fish smells. The dragons too all have animal kingdom counterparts to add to the authenticity \u2014 with the exception of Toothless, who they kept a little more fantastical.\n\n\"Even though Toothless' eyes are huge and there's no animal on earth, not even a blue whale that has eyes that big, we went with it because the smaller we made the eyes, the less Toothless-like he was,\" DeBlois said. \"We had to make sure that we weren't just creating photoreal dragons, but we were maintaining the personalities.\"\n\nFor as popular as the books and films (which have made over $1.6 billion) are, there are also plenty of people who aren't familiar with the stories. This version might be the thing that draws newcomers in (they've already announced a sequel).\n\n\"For those who do know the stories and have seen the animated films, it is a bit of nostalgia,\" DeBlois said. \"It's a way of returning to that world and seeing it through a new lens and maybe sharing that experience, perhaps with their own kids now.\"\n\n## Finding something for the whole family\n\nThe struggle to find something the whole family wants to watch is real.\n\nJamie Lee Curtis, who reunited with her on-screen daughter Lindsay Lohan for \"Freakier Friday,\" wrote in an email that theirs is a \"big spectacle film\" with \"all the bells and whistles that a big comedy should have\" and \"deep emotional resonance.\"\n\n\"Elio\" filmmaker Domee Shi also promised a blend of a wacky sci-fi adventure and \"also a deep and poignant story about loneliness, looking for connection, and finding it where you least expect.\"\n\nAnd no matter how many options are available for kids to watch on streaming services and YouTube, out of the home options remain a compelling draw. The box office backs it up: Last year PG movies outgrossed PG-13 movies for the first time in many years.\n\n\"PG movies really punch above their weight,\" said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. \"These films could represent a huge part of the summer box office,\"\n\n\"Lilo & Stich\" director Dean Fleischer Camp thinks the big screen experience remains important for young moviegoers.\n\n\"I fell in love with the movies, seeing them in theaters as a kid,\" he said. \"I don't think there's yet any substitute for it."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7e18cd8d0b052f37ca31faec3d247217479708a265cd8c55498c35e561aee5ce", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Overdose deaths in Kentucky dropped by nearly a third last year, Gov. Beshear says\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 1st, 2025, 09:30 PM\n\n---\n\nThe number of overdose deaths in Kentucky last year dropped by 30.2% \u2014 down to 1,410 lives lost \u2014 giving state leaders a surge of confidence that prevention and treatment efforts are making progress against an addiction epidemic they say is shattering families across the state.\n\nThis was the third straight yearly decrease in drug overdose deaths for the state, although prior declines were substantially smaller. Kentucky has long been plagued by high rates of addiction to opioid painkillers, and fatal overdoses surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when treatment was hard to get and people were socially isolated.\n\nDemocratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who announced the latest overdose statistics on Thursday, called the results a \"watershed moment\" reflecting years of painstaking work to combat the spread and use of drugs.\n\n\"This is what we have been hoping for and praying for,\" Beshear said. \"What we're seeing here ought to give everyone who's worked so hard to get to this point ... hope that we can do even more.\"\n\nState Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, said Kentuckians should \"rejoice in every life saved from this scourge,\" but warned that powerful illicit drugs like fentanyl continue to pose a threat.\n\n\"As little as one pill can and is killing our sons and daughters,\" Coleman said in a statement.\n\nFentanyl and methamphetamine continued to be the most prevalent drugs contributing to overdose deaths in Kentucky.\n\nRepublican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has steered huge sums of federal funding to his home state to combat its addiction woes, said he was encouraged by the gains in combating the drug crisis, from stemming the flow of illicit drugs to offering treatment services in communities.\n\n\"I've always worked to keep Kentucky at the forefront of our national response to the drug crisis,\" McConnell said in a statement. \"We are finally making progress in restoring the Southern Border, but there's still a lot of work left to do in the commonwealth to help those struggling with addiction.\"\n\nKentucky's drop reflected broader gains achieved in the U.S. There were about 97,000 U.S. overdose deaths in the 12 months that ended last June 30, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was down 14% from the estimated 113,000 for the prior 12-month period.\n\nOverdose death rates nationwide began steadily climbing in the 1990s because of opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and more recently fentanyl.\n\nBeshear, seen as a potential candidate for the White House in 2028, said plenty of groups were deserving of credit for Kentucky's big decline in overdose deaths. He praised law enforcement efforts to remove dangerous drugs from circulation and the work of addiction treatment centers and other recovery services. And he credited those Kentuckians battling addiction who reached out for help.\n\n\"Whether it's your first, fifth or 10th attempt, we want to stand behind you,\" the governor said. \"We want to provide you the best help that we can.\"\n\nOther factors, he said, include the distribution of Narcan, which can reverse overdoses of opioids, as well as the availability of addiction services through Medicaid and the work of syringe exchange programs.\n\n\"Regardless of what the politics say, syringe exchange programs work,\" Beshear said. \"They help us get to know people and they help us to save lives.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Coleman has rolled out a youth-focused initiative aimed at keeping young people away from deadly substances.\n\nWith all those efforts, the challenge now is to continue driving down fatal overdoses, Beshear said.\n\n\"It ought to tell us that an epidemic that arose in our time, we should be able to defeat in our time,\" the governor said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Overdose deaths in Kentucky dropped by nearly a third last year, Gov. Beshear says\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 1st, 2025, 09:30 PM\n\n---\n\nThe number of overdose deaths in Kentucky last year dropped by 30.2% \u2014 down to 1,410 lives lost \u2014 giving state leaders a surge of confidence that prevention and treatment efforts are making progress against an addiction epidemic they say is shattering families across the state.\n\nThis was the third straight yearly decrease in drug overdose deaths for the state, although prior declines were substantially smaller. Kentucky has long been plagued by high rates of addiction to opioid painkillers, and fatal overdoses surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, when treatment was hard to get and people were socially isolated.\n\nDemocratic Gov. Andy Beshear, who announced the latest overdose statistics on Thursday, called the results a \"watershed moment\" reflecting years of painstaking work to combat the spread and use of drugs.\n\n\"This is what we have been hoping for and praying for,\" Beshear said. \"What we're seeing here ought to give everyone who's worked so hard to get to this point ... hope that we can do even more.\"\n\nState Attorney General Russell Coleman, a Republican, said Kentuckians should \"rejoice in every life saved from this scourge,\" but warned that powerful illicit drugs like fentanyl continue to pose a threat.\n\n\"As little as one pill can and is killing our sons and daughters,\" Coleman said in a statement.\n\nFentanyl and methamphetamine continued to be the most prevalent drugs contributing to overdose deaths in Kentucky.\n\nRepublican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who has steered huge sums of federal funding to his home state to combat its addiction woes, said he was encouraged by the gains in combating the drug crisis, from stemming the flow of illicit drugs to offering treatment services in communities.\n\n\"I've always worked to keep Kentucky at the forefront of our national response to the drug crisis,\" McConnell said in a statement. \"We are finally making progress in restoring the Southern Border, but there's still a lot of work left to do in the commonwealth to help those struggling with addiction.\"\n\nKentucky's drop reflected broader gains achieved in the U.S. There were about 97,000 U.S. overdose deaths in the 12 months that ended last June 30, according to provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was down 14% from the estimated 113,000 for the prior 12-month period.\n\nOverdose death rates nationwide began steadily climbing in the 1990s because of opioid painkillers, followed by waves of deaths led by other opioids like heroin and more recently fentanyl.\n\nBeshear, seen as a potential candidate for the White House in 2028, said plenty of groups were deserving of credit for Kentucky's big decline in overdose deaths. He praised law enforcement efforts to remove dangerous drugs from circulation and the work of addiction treatment centers and other recovery services. And he credited those Kentuckians battling addiction who reached out for help.\n\n\"Whether it's your first, fifth or 10th attempt, we want to stand behind you,\" the governor said. \"We want to provide you the best help that we can.\"\n\nOther factors, he said, include the distribution of Narcan, which can reverse overdoses of opioids, as well as the availability of addiction services through Medicaid and the work of syringe exchange programs.\n\n\"Regardless of what the politics say, syringe exchange programs work,\" Beshear said. \"They help us get to know people and they help us to save lives.\"\n\nMeanwhile, Coleman has rolled out a youth-focused initiative aimed at keeping young people away from deadly substances.\n\nWith all those efforts, the challenge now is to continue driving down fatal overdoses, Beshear said.\n\n\"It ought to tell us that an epidemic that arose in our time, we should be able to defeat in our time,\" the governor said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "970666bda50d004ca291cd6ad9a7097834d693e15dd587bf2647649ca07fbe3e", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Deliberations begin in UK trial of men accused of felling Sycamore Gap tree\n\nBy Brian Melley  \nMay 8th, 2025, 12:58 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 Jurors in the case of two men charged with cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree that once stood along the ancient Hadrian's Wall in northern England did not reach a verdict Thursday after several hours of deliberations.\n\nDaniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, have pleaded not guilty to two counts each of criminal damage. The former friends each testified that they were at their separate homes that night and not involved.\n\nJustice Christina Lambert told jurors in Newcastle Crown Court to take as long as they need to reach unanimous verdicts in the trial that began April 28.\n\nJurors began deliberations just before noon and were sent home a little more than four hours later without reaching a verdict. They resume deliberations Friday.\n\nThe tree was not Britain's biggest or oldest, but it was prized for its picturesque setting along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire.\n\nThe tree was long known to locals but achieved international fame in Kevin Costner's 1991 film \"Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.\" It sat symmetrically between two hills along the historic wall and was a draw for tourists, landscape photographers and those taking selfies for social media.\n\nProsecutors said the tree's value exceeded 620,000 pounds ($830,000) and damage to the wall, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was assessed at 1,100 pounds ($1,460).\n\nProsecutor Richard Wright told jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for \"a bit of a laugh\" in the dark of night during a blustery storm on Sept. 28, 2023, but had failed to realize the outrage they would spark in the \"arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.\"\n\n\"They woke up the morning after and soon realized \u2014 as the news media rolled in, as the outrage of the public became clear \u2014 it must have dawned on them that they couldn't see anyone else smiling,\" Wright said. \"Far from being the big men they thought they were, everyone else thought that they were rather pathetic.\"\n\nThe two men had once been best friends. But during the trial Graham blamed Carruthers and another man for cutting down the tree, saying they tried to frame him by taking his car to the scene of the crime and using his phone to shoot video of the tree being cut down.\n\nAndrew Gurney, a lawyer for Carruthers, said Graham's story didn't add up and he was projecting his guilt on his former friend.\n\n\"Is that a plausible chain of events or is that the desperate story of a man caught out?\" Gurney said.\n\nWright mocked the duo's defense, saying common sense and a trail of evidence should lead jurors to convict them for their \"moronic mission.\"\n\nProsecutors showed grainy video from Graham's phone of the tree being cut down \u2014 a video sent shortly afterward to Carruthers' phone. Metadata showed it was taken at the tree's location in Northumberland National Park. Data showed Graham's Range Rover had traveled there.\n\nWright said he couldn't say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two were the only people in the world who had the video on their devices.\n\nText and voice messages exchanged the following day between Carruthers and Graham captured their excitement as the story went viral."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Deliberations begin in UK trial of men accused of felling Sycamore Gap tree\n\nBy Brian Melley  \nMay 8th, 2025, 12:58 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 Jurors in the case of two men charged with cutting down the Sycamore Gap tree that once stood along the ancient Hadrian's Wall in northern England did not reach a verdict Thursday after several hours of deliberations.\n\nDaniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, have pleaded not guilty to two counts each of criminal damage. The former friends each testified that they were at their separate homes that night and not involved.\n\nJustice Christina Lambert told jurors in Newcastle Crown Court to take as long as they need to reach unanimous verdicts in the trial that began April 28.\n\nJurors began deliberations just before noon and were sent home a little more than four hours later without reaching a verdict. They resume deliberations Friday.\n\nThe tree was not Britain's biggest or oldest, but it was prized for its picturesque setting along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire.\n\nThe tree was long known to locals but achieved international fame in Kevin Costner's 1991 film \"Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.\" It sat symmetrically between two hills along the historic wall and was a draw for tourists, landscape photographers and those taking selfies for social media.\n\nProsecutors said the tree's value exceeded 620,000 pounds ($830,000) and damage to the wall, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was assessed at 1,100 pounds ($1,460).\n\nProsecutor Richard Wright told jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for \"a bit of a laugh\" in the dark of night during a blustery storm on Sept. 28, 2023, but had failed to realize the outrage they would spark in the \"arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.\"\n\n\"They woke up the morning after and soon realized \u2014 as the news media rolled in, as the outrage of the public became clear \u2014 it must have dawned on them that they couldn't see anyone else smiling,\" Wright said. \"Far from being the big men they thought they were, everyone else thought that they were rather pathetic.\"\n\nThe two men had once been best friends. But during the trial Graham blamed Carruthers and another man for cutting down the tree, saying they tried to frame him by taking his car to the scene of the crime and using his phone to shoot video of the tree being cut down.\n\nAndrew Gurney, a lawyer for Carruthers, said Graham's story didn't add up and he was projecting his guilt on his former friend.\n\n\"Is that a plausible chain of events or is that the desperate story of a man caught out?\" Gurney said.\n\nWright mocked the duo's defense, saying common sense and a trail of evidence should lead jurors to convict them for their \"moronic mission.\"\n\nProsecutors showed grainy video from Graham's phone of the tree being cut down \u2014 a video sent shortly afterward to Carruthers' phone. Metadata showed it was taken at the tree's location in Northumberland National Park. Data showed Graham's Range Rover had traveled there.\n\nWright said he couldn't say who cut the tree and who held the phone, but the two were the only people in the world who had the video on their devices.\n\nText and voice messages exchanged the following day between Carruthers and Graham captured their excitement as the story went viral."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "4ce4ad085212e6772c910dec16a86d2a2a0645462ed0c5ec04d0f388c9a60d32", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Ancient wooden spears found in Germany may have been wielded by Neanderthals, new study suggests\n\nBy Adithi Ramakrishnan  \nMay 9th, 2025, 06:01 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A set of ancient wooden spears may be younger than scientists thought and wielded by Neanderthals instead of their ancestors.\n\nThe complete spears made of spruce and pine are among the oldest known hunting weapons. They were discovered in a coal mine over two decades ago in the German town of Sch\u00f6ningen along with the remains of nearly 50 horses.\n\nPrevious estimates dated the spears to 300,000 years ago so scientists thought the weapons belonged to a group of early humans called Homo heidelbergensis \u2014 thought to be the last common ancestor between humans and Neanderthals.\n\nBut the new analysis using a different dating technique suggests the spears are younger, placing them about 200,000 years old. The new age means the hunting weapons may have been used by Neanderthals instead, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances.\n\nRecent work has suggested that some Neanderthals mixed and mated with early humans. The balanced, well-crafted spears could help scientists understand what Neanderthals were capable of and how they worked together to hunt.\n\nThe spears are \"pretty sophisticated for something that old,\" said study co-author Jarod Hutson with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.\n\nBut it's not yet clear why the new dating disagrees with previous estimates. Archaeologist Thomas Terberger with the University of G\u00f6ttingen said more research is needed to be sure of the spears' age and who used them to hunt.\n\n\"For the moment, I find the arguments interesting, but not absolutely convincing,\" said Terberger, who had no role in the new study.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Ancient wooden spears found in Germany may have been wielded by Neanderthals, new study suggests\n\nBy Adithi Ramakrishnan  \nMay 9th, 2025, 06:01 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A set of ancient wooden spears may be younger than scientists thought and wielded by Neanderthals instead of their ancestors.\n\nThe complete spears made of spruce and pine are among the oldest known hunting weapons. They were discovered in a coal mine over two decades ago in the German town of Sch\u00f6ningen along with the remains of nearly 50 horses.\n\nPrevious estimates dated the spears to 300,000 years ago so scientists thought the weapons belonged to a group of early humans called Homo heidelbergensis \u2014 thought to be the last common ancestor between humans and Neanderthals.\n\nBut the new analysis using a different dating technique suggests the spears are younger, placing them about 200,000 years old. The new age means the hunting weapons may have been used by Neanderthals instead, according to research published Friday in the journal Science Advances.\n\nRecent work has suggested that some Neanderthals mixed and mated with early humans. The balanced, well-crafted spears could help scientists understand what Neanderthals were capable of and how they worked together to hunt.\n\nThe spears are \"pretty sophisticated for something that old,\" said study co-author Jarod Hutson with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.\n\nBut it's not yet clear why the new dating disagrees with previous estimates. Archaeologist Thomas Terberger with the University of G\u00f6ttingen said more research is needed to be sure of the spears' age and who used them to hunt.\n\n\"For the moment, I find the arguments interesting, but not absolutely convincing,\" said Terberger, who had no role in the new study."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "9fd7bf20afe71f99f2d261cc45bb476e5d29e1405a670fda7596cb38f3b8c265", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Michigan drops charges against pro-Palestinian campus protesters\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 09:12 PM\n\n---\n\nANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) \u2014 State prosecutors dropped felony charges Monday against seven people accused of trespassing and resisting police a year ago during the break-up of a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan.\n\nAttorney General Dana Nessel said she believed the cases were strong but suggested her office was worn down by criticism and other factors. She noted that a judge in Washtenaw County still hadn't decided whether to send the cases to a trial court despite multiple hearings.\n\n\"Baseless and absurd allegations of bias have only furthered this divide,\" said Nessel, a Democrat, who added that \"distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere.\"\n\nThe camp on the Diag, a traditional site for campus protests, was cleared by police in May 2024 after a month. The university said the camp had become a threat to safety, with overloaded power sources and open flames.\n\nDefense attorney Amir Makled said Nessel was trying to turn free speech into a crime.\n\n\"We sent a clear message to both Lansing and to Washington, that the people still rule, and that public pressure compels the rule of law to be upheld,\" Makled said Monday.\n\nProtesters had demanded that the school's endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. The university insisted it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Michigan drops charges against pro-Palestinian campus protesters\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 09:12 PM\n\n---\n\nANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) \u2014 State prosecutors dropped felony charges Monday against seven people accused of trespassing and resisting police a year ago during the break-up of a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan.\n\nAttorney General Dana Nessel said she believed the cases were strong but suggested her office was worn down by criticism and other factors. She noted that a judge in Washtenaw County still hadn't decided whether to send the cases to a trial court despite multiple hearings.\n\n\"Baseless and absurd allegations of bias have only furthered this divide,\" said Nessel, a Democrat, who added that \"distractions and ongoing delays have created a circus-like atmosphere.\"\n\nThe camp on the Diag, a traditional site for campus protests, was cleared by police in May 2024 after a month. The university said the camp had become a threat to safety, with overloaded power sources and open flames.\n\nDefense attorney Amir Makled said Nessel was trying to turn free speech into a crime.\n\n\"We sent a clear message to both Lansing and to Washington, that the people still rule, and that public pressure compels the rule of law to be upheld,\" Makled said Monday.\n\nProtesters had demanded that the school's endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. The university insisted it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b39a13eb6859093718222f03090e37a04c2885f91bfdea378cc7fb0259a7e240", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Actor Michael Pitt charged with sex abuse, assault of ex-girlfriend in New York\n\nBy Dave Collins  \nMay 7th, 2025, 04:54 PM\n\n---\n\nActor Michael Pitt, known for his TV roles on \"Boardwalk Empire\" and \"Dawson's Creek,\" is accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend, choking her, and attacking her with a cinder block and a piece of lumber at his New York City home, according to a grand jury indictment.\n\nPitt, 44, whose lawyers denied the allegations, was arrested Friday on nine counts, including first-degree sexual abuse, criminal sexual acts, assault, attempted assault and strangulation. The indictment cites four incidents between April 2020 and August 2021 at Pitt's home in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.\n\nBrooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office declined to comment Wednesday beyond the allegations listed in the indictment.\n\nPitt's lawyer, Jason Goldman, said he already had exonerating evidence and expected the case to be dismissed.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr. Pitt \u2014 an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes \u2014 can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unreliable individual,\" Goldman said in a text message to The Associated Press.\n\nHe added, \"In reality, this baseless claim is suspiciously raised some four or five years after the alleged incident, from a time when the two parties were in a completely consensual relationship.\"\n\nPitt pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday and posted $100,000 bail, Goldman said. He is due back in court in Brooklyn on June 17.\n\nThe Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, which the woman in Pitt's case has not done.\n\nThe indictment alleges Pitt forcibly touched his ex-girlfriend sexually in April 2020. In August 2020, the grand jury alleges Pitt forced oral sex on the woman and assaulted her with a 4-inch-by-4-inch (10-centimeter-by-10-centimeter) piece of lumber.\n\nThe indictment also says Pitt attacked her with a cinder block twice in June 2021 and choked her in August 2021.\n\nTMZ reported in 2022 that Pitt was arrested in Brooklyn for allegedly punching a man after taking his phone and, two months later, was brought to a hospital under police escort after a public outburst in New York.\n\nPitt, who grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, played the character Jimmy Darmody for two seasons on HBO's \"Boardwalk Empire,\" with the cast led by Steve Buscemi winning Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2011 and 2012 for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series. The show also won a Golden Globe for best drama series in 2011.\n\nHis first major role came in the 2001 film \"Hedwig and the Angry Inch.\" In 2005, he starred in \"Last Days,\" director Gus Van Sant's film about a fictional rock star inspired by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. He also played Henry Parker in one season of The WB's \"Dawson's Creek\" in 1999-2000."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Actor Michael Pitt charged with sex abuse, assault of ex-girlfriend in New York\n\nBy Dave Collins  \nMay 7th, 2025, 04:54 PM\n\n---\n\nActor Michael Pitt, known for his TV roles on \"Boardwalk Empire\" and \"Dawson's Creek,\" is accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend, choking her, and attacking her with a cinder block and a piece of lumber at his New York City home, according to a grand jury indictment.\n\nPitt, 44, whose lawyers denied the allegations, was arrested Friday on nine counts, including first-degree sexual abuse, criminal sexual acts, assault, attempted assault and strangulation. The indictment cites four incidents between April 2020 and August 2021 at Pitt's home in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn.\n\nBrooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez's office declined to comment Wednesday beyond the allegations listed in the indictment.\n\nPitt's lawyer, Jason Goldman, said he already had exonerating evidence and expected the case to be dismissed.\n\n\"Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr. Pitt \u2014 an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes \u2014 can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unreliable individual,\" Goldman said in a text message to The Associated Press.\n\nHe added, \"In reality, this baseless claim is suspiciously raised some four or five years after the alleged incident, from a time when the two parties were in a completely consensual relationship.\"\n\nPitt pleaded not guilty to the charges on Friday and posted $100,000 bail, Goldman said. He is due back in court in Brooklyn on June 17.\n\nThe Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, which the woman in Pitt's case has not done.\n\nThe indictment alleges Pitt forcibly touched his ex-girlfriend sexually in April 2020. In August 2020, the grand jury alleges Pitt forced oral sex on the woman and assaulted her with a 4-inch-by-4-inch (10-centimeter-by-10-centimeter) piece of lumber.\n\nThe indictment also says Pitt attacked her with a cinder block twice in June 2021 and choked her in August 2021.\n\nTMZ reported in 2022 that Pitt was arrested in Brooklyn for allegedly punching a man after taking his phone and, two months later, was brought to a hospital under police escort after a public outburst in New York.\n\nPitt, who grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, played the character Jimmy Darmody for two seasons on HBO's \"Boardwalk Empire,\" with the cast led by Steve Buscemi winning Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2011 and 2012 for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series. The show also won a Golden Globe for best drama series in 2011.\n\nHis first major role came in the 2001 film \"Hedwig and the Angry Inch.\" In 2005, he starred in \"Last Days,\" director Gus Van Sant's film about a fictional rock star inspired by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. He also played Henry Parker in one season of The WB's \"Dawson's Creek\" in 1999-2000."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "67e8af514d100dd215f1729be58002e3d69546bc9cf8a54d57fb65533c650de2", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Residents jump from windows during Milwaukee apartment fire that kills 4\n\nMay 11th, 2025, 11:13 PM\n\n---\n\nMILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Residents jumped from the windows of a four-story apartment building in Milwaukee during a Mother's Day fire that killed four people, critically injured four others and grew so intense that the blaze outmatched the first firefighters to arrive, authorities said.\n\nLadder trucks were used to rescue other residents from windows while some firefighters inside the burning building crawled on hands and knees to get people out, Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said Sunday. In all, about 30 people were rescued.\n\nAuthorities have not said how the fire might have started.\n\nLipski said the building did not have a sprinkler system and was built in 1968, predating a law that would have required one, according to the fire chief.\n\n\"If we had sprinklers in the buidling we would have stopped the fire very, very small. We would not of had to have people jumping out of windows,\" he said.\n\nSeveral other residents were treated for lesser injuries in the fire that began sometime before 8 a.m. The blaze rendered the 85-unit building uninhabitable, displacing an estimated 200 people.\n\nJames Rubinstein, a resident in the building, said he jumped to the ground floor.\n\n\"There was so much smoke. I climbed out the courtyard with my cat in my backpack,\" Rubinstein told television station FOX6 Milwaukee.\n\nEmergency operaters received calls that people were trapped and jumping to escape. The first firefighters to arrive were \"far, far outmatched\" by intense flames, Lipski said.\n\nAuthorities did not immediately release the identities or ages of the victims. Lipski said the fire began in a common area and spread to multiple floors.\n\nEddie Edwards, another resident of the building, said he also jumped to escape.\n\n\"I wasn't thinking about nothing but getting away,\" he told Milwaukee television station WISN. \"Getting out and saving everyone's life. It was a scary moment.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Residents jump from windows during Milwaukee apartment fire that kills 4\n\nMay 11th, 2025, 11:13 PM\n\n---\n\nMILWAUKEE (AP) \u2014 Residents jumped from the windows of a four-story apartment building in Milwaukee during a Mother's Day fire that killed four people, critically injured four others and grew so intense that the blaze outmatched the first firefighters to arrive, authorities said.\n\nLadder trucks were used to rescue other residents from windows while some firefighters inside the burning building crawled on hands and knees to get people out, Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski said Sunday. In all, about 30 people were rescued.\n\nAuthorities have not said how the fire might have started.\n\nLipski said the building did not have a sprinkler system and was built in 1968, predating a law that would have required one, according to the fire chief.\n\n\"If we had sprinklers in the buidling we would have stopped the fire very, very small. We would not of had to have people jumping out of windows,\" he said.\n\nSeveral other residents were treated for lesser injuries in the fire that began sometime before 8 a.m. The blaze rendered the 85-unit building uninhabitable, displacing an estimated 200 people.\n\nJames Rubinstein, a resident in the building, said he jumped to the ground floor.\n\n\"There was so much smoke. I climbed out the courtyard with my cat in my backpack,\" Rubinstein told television station FOX6 Milwaukee.\n\nEmergency operaters received calls that people were trapped and jumping to escape. The first firefighters to arrive were \"far, far outmatched\" by intense flames, Lipski said.\n\nAuthorities did not immediately release the identities or ages of the victims. Lipski said the fire began in a common area and spread to multiple floors.\n\nEddie Edwards, another resident of the building, said he also jumped to escape.\n\n\"I wasn't thinking about nothing but getting away,\" he told Milwaukee television station WISN. \"Getting out and saving everyone's life. It was a scary moment.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c7a866e9cf8ed779d127be27694ad8889e49d90d28a48e64a082e2c84aa5cd0e", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Alabama governor signs speedy trial bill into law, seeking to speed prosecution of violent crimes\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 07:15 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation Tuesday to allow visiting judges to be brought in to handle violent criminal cases to get them to trial more quickly.\n\nThe law known as the Speedy Trial Act allows the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to appoint a sitting or retired judge to preside over a specific case or cases involving a violent offense. Under the act, the attorney general or a district attorney must request the appointments.\n\nOn the same day the bill was signed, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked Chief Justice Sarah Stewart to appoint a visiting judge to handle the case of the man accused of the 2019 kidnapping and killing of college student Aniah Blanchard, 19. Her disappearance from an Auburn gas station drew national attention.\n\nMarshall wrote in the letter to Stewart that \"our entire state has watched the repeated delays in this case with angst and frustration.\"\n\nBlanchard, a Southern Union student and stepdaughter of prominent UFC fighter Walt Harris, was last seen on Oct. 23, 2019. Her remains were discovered about a month later in a wooded area of Macon County. A trial date has not been set for Ibraheem Yazeed, the man accused of killing Blanchard. He has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges.\n\nRecently, Marshall's office had urged lawmakers to pass the legislation.\n\n\"There are significant bottlenecks in certain circuits in our state where violent crime cases are not moving quickly and victims are getting frustrated,\" Katherine Robertson, who serves as chief counsel for Marshall, said last week after lawmakers approved the bill.\n\nIvey also referred to the Blanchard case while signing the legislation into law."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Alabama governor signs speedy trial bill into law, seeking to speed prosecution of violent crimes\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 07:15 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation Tuesday to allow visiting judges to be brought in to handle violent criminal cases to get them to trial more quickly.\n\nThe law known as the Speedy Trial Act allows the chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court to appoint a sitting or retired judge to preside over a specific case or cases involving a violent offense. Under the act, the attorney general or a district attorney must request the appointments.\n\nOn the same day the bill was signed, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall asked Chief Justice Sarah Stewart to appoint a visiting judge to handle the case of the man accused of the 2019 kidnapping and killing of college student Aniah Blanchard, 19. Her disappearance from an Auburn gas station drew national attention.\n\nMarshall wrote in the letter to Stewart that \"our entire state has watched the repeated delays in this case with angst and frustration.\"\n\nBlanchard, a Southern Union student and stepdaughter of prominent UFC fighter Walt Harris, was last seen on Oct. 23, 2019. Her remains were discovered about a month later in a wooded area of Macon County. A trial date has not been set for Ibraheem Yazeed, the man accused of killing Blanchard. He has pleaded not guilty to capital murder charges.\n\nRecently, Marshall's office had urged lawmakers to pass the legislation.\n\n\"There are significant bottlenecks in certain circuits in our state where violent crime cases are not moving quickly and victims are getting frustrated,\" Katherine Robertson, who serves as chief counsel for Marshall, said last week after lawmakers approved the bill.\n\nIvey also referred to the Blanchard case while signing the legislation into law."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c8f5c67fe9d5713a07b467d5813658f2607bf11494cfd532bc49881ad58973fc", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Art expert pleads guilty to selling works to suspected Hezbollah financier\n\nMay 9th, 2025, 04:44 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show pleaded guilty Friday to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.\n\nOghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates' Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.\n\nOjiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the U.K. and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the U.K. or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses.\n\nU.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.\n\nProsecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.\n\n\"There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links,\" Harris said.\n\nAhmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.\n\nTwo years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad's assets because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.\n\nOjiri, who also appeared on the BBC's Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Art expert pleads guilty to selling works to suspected Hezbollah financier\n\nMay 9th, 2025, 04:44 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 An art expert who appeared on the BBC's Bargain Hunt show pleaded guilty Friday to failing to report that he sold pricey works to a suspected financier of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.\n\nOghenochuko Ojiri, 53, was charged with failing to disclose art sales between October 2020 and December 2021. He pleaded guilty in Westminster Magistrates' Court to eight offences under a section of the Terrorism Act 2000.\n\nOjiri sold about 140,000 pounds ($185,000) of artworks to Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer sanctioned by the U.K. and U.S. as a Hezbollah financier. The sanctions were designed to prevent anyone in the U.K. or U.S. from doing business with Ahmad or his businesses.\n\nU.S. prosecutors said Ahmad acquired more than $160 million (120 million pounds) in artwork and diamond services by using a complex web of companies to evade sanctions.\n\nProsecutor Lyndon Harris said Ojiri knew about the sanctions against Ahmad because he had searched for news reports about his status and discussed it with others.\n\n\"There is one discussion where Mr. Ojiri is party to a conversation where it is apparent a lot of people have known for years about his terrorism links,\" Harris said.\n\nAhmad was sanctioned in 2019 by the U.S. Treasury, which said he was a prominent Lebanon-based money launderer involved in smuggling blood diamonds, which are mined in conflict zones and sold to finance violence.\n\nTwo years ago, the U.K. Treasury froze Ahmad's assets because he financed the Iranian-backed Shiite militant organization that has been designated an international terrorist group.\n\nOjiri, who also appeared on the BBC's Antiques Road Trip, faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced June 6 in the Central Criminal Court."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0293a830d95437f7be9f0678b88a4d9194eeb1e550ea7515e4daa2134d45eec5", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Cuts have eliminated more than a dozen US government health-tracking programs\n\nBy Mike Stobbe  \nMay 4th, 2025, 12:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s motto is \" Make America Healthy Again,\" but government cuts could make it harder to know if that's happening.\n\nMore than a dozen data-gathering programs that track deaths and disease appear to have been eliminated in the tornado of layoffs and proposed budget cuts rolled out in the Trump administration's first 100 days.\n\nThe Associated Press examined draft and final budget proposals and spoke to more than a dozen current and former federal employees to determine the scope of the cuts to programs tracking basic facts about Americans' health.\n\nAmong those terminated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were experts tracking abortions, pregnancies, job-related injuries, lead poisonings, sexual violence and youth smoking, the AP found.\n\n\"If you don't have staff, the program is gone,\" said Patrick Breysse, who used to oversee the CDC's environmental health programs.\n\nFederal officials have not given a public accounting of specific surveillance programs that are being eliminated.\n\nInstead, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman pointed the AP to a Trump administration budget proposal released Friday. It lacked specifics, but proposes to cut the CDC's core budget by more than half and vows to focus CDC surveillance only on emerging and infectious diseases.\n\nKennedy has said some of the CDC's other work will be moved to a yet-to-be-created agency, the Administration for a Healthy America. He also has said that the cuts are designed to get rid of waste at a department that has seen its budget grow in recent years.\n\n\"Unfortunately, this extra spending and staff has not improved our nation's health as a country,\" Kennedy wrote last month in The New York Post. \"Instead, it has only created more waste, administrative bloat and duplication.\"\n\nYet some health experts say the eliminated programs are not duplicative, and erasing them will leave Americans in the dark.\n\n\"If the U.S. is interested in making itself healthier again, how is it going to know, if it cancels the programs that helps us understand these diseases?\" said Graham Mooney, a Johns Hopkins University public health historian.\n\nThe core of the nation's health surveillance is done by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Relying on birth and death certificates, it generates information on birth rates, death trends and life expectancy. It also operates longstanding health surveys that provide basic data on obesity, asthma and other health issues.\n\nThe center has been barely touched in layoffs, and seems intact under current budget plans.\n\nBut many other efforts were targeted by the cuts, the AP found. Some examples:\n\n## Pregnancies and abortion\n\nThe Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which surveys women across the country, lost its entire staff \u2014 about 20 people.\n\nIt's the most comprehensive collection of data on the health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth. Researchers have been using its data to investigate the nation's maternal mortality problem.\n\nRecent layoffs also wiped out the staffs collecting data on in vitro fertilizations and abortions.\n\nThose cuts are especially surprising given that President Donald Trump said he wants to expand IVF access and that the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 playbook for his administration called for more abortion surveillance.\n\n## Lead poisoning\n\nThe CDC eliminated its program on lead poisoning in children, which helped local health departments \u2014 through funding and expertise \u2014 investigate lead poisoning clusters and find where risk is greatest.\n\nLead poisoning in kids typically stems from exposure to bits of old paint, contaminated dust or drinking water that passes through lead pipes. But the program's staff also played an important role in the investigation of lead-tainted applesauce that affected 500 kids.\n\nLast year, Milwaukee health officials became aware that peeling paint in aging local elementary schools was endangering kids. The city health department began working with CDC to test tens of thousands of students. That assistance stopped last month when the CDC's lead program staff was terminated.\n\nCity officials are particularly concerned about losing expertise to help them track the long-term effects.\n\n\"We don't know what we don't know,\" said Mike Totoraitis, the city's health commissioner.\n\n## Environmental investigations\n\nAlso gone is the staff for the 23-year-old Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, which had information on concerns including possible cancer clusters and weather-related illnesses.\n\n\"The loss of that program is going to greatly diminish the ability to make linkages between what might be in the environment and what health might be affected by that,\" Breysse said.\n\n## Transgender data\n\nIn some cases, it's not a matter of staffers leaving, but rather the end of specific types of data collection.\n\nTransgender status is no longer being recorded in health-tracking systems, including ones focused on violent deaths and on risky behaviors by kids.\n\nExperts know transgender people are more likely to be victims of violence, but now \"it's going to be much more challenging to quantify the extent to which they are at higher risk,\" said Thomas Simon, the recently retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention.\n\n## Violence\n\nThe staff and funding seems to have remained intact for a CDC data collection that provides insights into homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving weapons.\n\nBut CDC violence-prevention programs that acted on that information were halted. So, too, was work on a system that collects hospital data on nonfatal injuries from causes such as shootings, crashes and drownings.\n\nAlso going away, apparently, is the CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The system is designed to pick up information that's not found in law enforcement statistics. Health officials see that work as important, because not all sexual violence victims go to police.\n\n## Work injuries\n\nThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which tracks job-related illnesses and deaths and makes recommendations on how to prevent them, was gutted by the cuts.\n\nKennedy has said that 20% of the people laid off might be reinstated as the agency tries to correct mistakes.\n\nThat appeared to happen last month, when the American Federation of Government Employees said that NIOSH workers involved in a black lung disease program for coal miners had been temporarily called back.\n\nBut HHS officials did not answer questions about the reinstatement. The AFGE's Micah Niemeier-Walsh later said the workers continued to have June termination dates and \"we are concerned this is to give the appearance that the programs are still functioning, when effectively they are not.\"\n\nThere's been no talk of salvaging some other NIOSH programs, including one focused on workplace deaths in the oil and gas industries or a research project into how common hearing loss is in that industry.\n\n## Smoking and drugs\n\nThe HHS cuts eliminated the 17-member team responsible for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, one of the main ways the government measures drug use.\n\nAlso axed were the CDC staff working on the National Youth Tobacco Survey.\n\nThere are other surveys that look at youth smoking and drug use, including the University of Michigan's federally funded \"Monitoring the Future\" survey of schoolkids.\n\nBut the federal studies looked at both adults and adolescents, and provided insights into drug use by high school dropouts. The CDC also delved into specific vaping and tobacco products in the ways that other surveys don't, and was a driver in the federal push to better regulate electronic cigarettes.\n\n\"There was overlap among the surveys, but each one had its own specific focus that the other ones didn't cover,\" said Richard Miech, who leads the Michigan study.\n\n## Data modernization and predictions\n\nWork to modernize data collection has been derailed. That includes an upgrade to a 22-year-old system that helps local public health departments track diseases and allows CDC to put together a national picture.\n\nAnother casualty was the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which tries to predict disease trends.\n\nThe center, created during the COVID-19 pandemic, was working on forecasting the current multi-state measles outbreak. That forecast hasn't been published partly because of the layoffs, according to two CDC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it and fear retribution for speaking to the press.\n\nTrump hasn't always supported widespread testing of health problems.\n\nIn the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 diagnoses were exploding, the president groused that the nation's ability to do more testing was making the U.S. look like it had a worse problem than other countries. He called testing \"a double-edged sword.\"\n\nMooney, the Johns Hopkins historian, wonders how interested the new administration is in reporting on health problems.\n\n\"You could think it's deliberate,\" he said. \"If you keep people from knowing, they're less likely to be concerned.\"\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Cuts have eliminated more than a dozen US government health-tracking programs\n\nBy Mike Stobbe  \nMay 4th, 2025, 12:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s motto is \" Make America Healthy Again,\" but government cuts could make it harder to know if that's happening.\n\nMore than a dozen data-gathering programs that track deaths and disease appear to have been eliminated in the tornado of layoffs and proposed budget cuts rolled out in the Trump administration's first 100 days.\n\nThe Associated Press examined draft and final budget proposals and spoke to more than a dozen current and former federal employees to determine the scope of the cuts to programs tracking basic facts about Americans' health.\n\nAmong those terminated at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were experts tracking abortions, pregnancies, job-related injuries, lead poisonings, sexual violence and youth smoking, the AP found.\n\n\"If you don't have staff, the program is gone,\" said Patrick Breysse, who used to oversee the CDC's environmental health programs.\n\nFederal officials have not given a public accounting of specific surveillance programs that are being eliminated.\n\nInstead, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman pointed the AP to a Trump administration budget proposal released Friday. It lacked specifics, but proposes to cut the CDC's core budget by more than half and vows to focus CDC surveillance only on emerging and infectious diseases.\n\nKennedy has said some of the CDC's other work will be moved to a yet-to-be-created agency, the Administration for a Healthy America. He also has said that the cuts are designed to get rid of waste at a department that has seen its budget grow in recent years.\n\n\"Unfortunately, this extra spending and staff has not improved our nation's health as a country,\" Kennedy wrote last month in The New York Post. \"Instead, it has only created more waste, administrative bloat and duplication.\"\n\nYet some health experts say the eliminated programs are not duplicative, and erasing them will leave Americans in the dark.\n\n\"If the U.S. is interested in making itself healthier again, how is it going to know, if it cancels the programs that helps us understand these diseases?\" said Graham Mooney, a Johns Hopkins University public health historian.\n\nThe core of the nation's health surveillance is done by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. Relying on birth and death certificates, it generates information on birth rates, death trends and life expectancy. It also operates longstanding health surveys that provide basic data on obesity, asthma and other health issues.\n\nThe center has been barely touched in layoffs, and seems intact under current budget plans.\n\nBut many other efforts were targeted by the cuts, the AP found. Some examples:\n\n## Pregnancies and abortion\n\nThe Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, which surveys women across the country, lost its entire staff \u2014 about 20 people.\n\nIt's the most comprehensive collection of data on the health behaviors and outcomes before, during and after childbirth. Researchers have been using its data to investigate the nation's maternal mortality problem.\n\nRecent layoffs also wiped out the staffs collecting data on in vitro fertilizations and abortions.\n\nThose cuts are especially surprising given that President Donald Trump said he wants to expand IVF access and that the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 playbook for his administration called for more abortion surveillance.\n\n## Lead poisoning\n\nThe CDC eliminated its program on lead poisoning in children, which helped local health departments \u2014 through funding and expertise \u2014 investigate lead poisoning clusters and find where risk is greatest.\n\nLead poisoning in kids typically stems from exposure to bits of old paint, contaminated dust or drinking water that passes through lead pipes. But the program's staff also played an important role in the investigation of lead-tainted applesauce that affected 500 kids.\n\nLast year, Milwaukee health officials became aware that peeling paint in aging local elementary schools was endangering kids. The city health department began working with CDC to test tens of thousands of students. That assistance stopped last month when the CDC's lead program staff was terminated.\n\nCity officials are particularly concerned about losing expertise to help them track the long-term effects.\n\n\"We don't know what we don't know,\" said Mike Totoraitis, the city's health commissioner.\n\n## Environmental investigations\n\nAlso gone is the staff for the 23-year-old Environmental Public Health Tracking Program, which had information on concerns including possible cancer clusters and weather-related illnesses.\n\n\"The loss of that program is going to greatly diminish the ability to make linkages between what might be in the environment and what health might be affected by that,\" Breysse said.\n\n## Transgender data\n\nIn some cases, it's not a matter of staffers leaving, but rather the end of specific types of data collection.\n\nTransgender status is no longer being recorded in health-tracking systems, including ones focused on violent deaths and on risky behaviors by kids.\n\nExperts know transgender people are more likely to be victims of violence, but now \"it's going to be much more challenging to quantify the extent to which they are at higher risk,\" said Thomas Simon, the recently retired senior director for scientific programs at the CDC's Division of Violence Prevention.\n\n## Violence\n\nThe staff and funding seems to have remained intact for a CDC data collection that provides insights into homicides, suicides and accidental deaths involving weapons.\n\nBut CDC violence-prevention programs that acted on that information were halted. So, too, was work on a system that collects hospital data on nonfatal injuries from causes such as shootings, crashes and drownings.\n\nAlso going away, apparently, is the CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey. The system is designed to pick up information that's not found in law enforcement statistics. Health officials see that work as important, because not all sexual violence victims go to police.\n\n## Work injuries\n\nThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which tracks job-related illnesses and deaths and makes recommendations on how to prevent them, was gutted by the cuts.\n\nKennedy has said that 20% of the people laid off might be reinstated as the agency tries to correct mistakes.\n\nThat appeared to happen last month, when the American Federation of Government Employees said that NIOSH workers involved in a black lung disease program for coal miners had been temporarily called back.\n\nBut HHS officials did not answer questions about the reinstatement. The AFGE's Micah Niemeier-Walsh later said the workers continued to have June termination dates and \"we are concerned this is to give the appearance that the programs are still functioning, when effectively they are not.\"\n\nThere's been no talk of salvaging some other NIOSH programs, including one focused on workplace deaths in the oil and gas industries or a research project into how common hearing loss is in that industry.\n\n## Smoking and drugs\n\nThe HHS cuts eliminated the 17-member team responsible for the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, one of the main ways the government measures drug use.\n\nAlso axed were the CDC staff working on the National Youth Tobacco Survey.\n\nThere are other surveys that look at youth smoking and drug use, including the University of Michigan's federally funded \"Monitoring the Future\" survey of schoolkids.\n\nBut the federal studies looked at both adults and adolescents, and provided insights into drug use by high school dropouts. The CDC also delved into specific vaping and tobacco products in the ways that other surveys don't, and was a driver in the federal push to better regulate electronic cigarettes.\n\n\"There was overlap among the surveys, but each one had its own specific focus that the other ones didn't cover,\" said Richard Miech, who leads the Michigan study.\n\n## Data modernization and predictions\n\nWork to modernize data collection has been derailed. That includes an upgrade to a 22-year-old system that helps local public health departments track diseases and allows CDC to put together a national picture.\n\nAnother casualty was the Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics, which tries to predict disease trends.\n\nThe center, created during the COVID-19 pandemic, was working on forecasting the current multi-state measles outbreak. That forecast hasn't been published partly because of the layoffs, according to two CDC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss it and fear retribution for speaking to the press.\n\nTrump hasn't always supported widespread testing of health problems.\n\nIn the spring of 2020, when COVID-19 diagnoses were exploding, the president groused that the nation's ability to do more testing was making the U.S. look like it had a worse problem than other countries. He called testing \"a double-edged sword.\"\n\nMooney, the Johns Hopkins historian, wonders how interested the new administration is in reporting on health problems.\n\n\"You could think it's deliberate,\" he said. \"If you keep people from knowing, they're less likely to be concerned.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "edcbe49bf1acd005b9d2282e3b3b14d29a292494038dfe7a92113cc7d1740191", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Canadian Prime Minister Carney names a new foreign minister in a Cabinet shake-up\n\nBy Rob Gillies  \nMay 13th, 2025, 03:09 PM\n\n---\n\nTORONTO (AP) \u2014 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a major Cabinet shakeup, including a new foreign minister, Tuesday as he shapes a newly reelected Liberal government.\n\nCarney, who replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this year and won election last month, named Anita Anand foreign minister, replacing M\u00e9lanie Joly, who becomes the minister of industry. Anand's previous roles include defense minister.\n\nFran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne retains his job as finance minister, while Dominic LeBlanc remains minister of U.S. trade at a time of a trade war between Canada and the United States.\n\nCarney won the job of prime minister by promising to confront the aggression toward Canada shown by U.S. President Donald Trump, while preserving the calm demeanor of an economist who has led the central banks of both Canada and the United Kingdom.\n\n\"Canadians elected this new government with a strong mandate to define a new economic and security relationship with the United States and to build a stronger economy for all Canadians,\" Carney said.\n\nCarney noted that King Charles III will deliver a speech outlining the Canadian government's priorities on May 27, when Parliament resumes. Charles is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.\n\nCarney has emphasized Canada's founding nations, the United Kingdom and France, and has said the old relationship with the U.S. based on steadily increasing integration is over.\n\nMore than 10 people were dropped from the new Cabinet, including former defense minister Bill Blair. David McGuinty goes from public safety to defense.\n\nCarney named former Goldman Sachs Canada CEO Tim Hodgson as natural resources minister. Carney, who worked for 14 years at Goldman Sachs, has said he wants to build Canada into an energy \"superpower\" and prioritize big, \"nation building\" projects.\n\nFormer journalist Evan Solomon is among the new ministers, serving in the new post of minister of artificial intelligence.\n\nWomen make up half of the Cabinet, as they did in Trudeau's Cabinet.\n\nCarney said the new Cabinet is built to deliver the change Canadians want and need. The Liberal government is in its fourth term."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Canadian Prime Minister Carney names a new foreign minister in a Cabinet shake-up\n\nBy Rob Gillies  \nMay 13th, 2025, 03:09 PM\n\n---\n\nTORONTO (AP) \u2014 Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a major Cabinet shakeup, including a new foreign minister, Tuesday as he shapes a newly reelected Liberal government.\n\nCarney, who replaced Justin Trudeau earlier this year and won election last month, named Anita Anand foreign minister, replacing M\u00e9lanie Joly, who becomes the minister of industry. Anand's previous roles include defense minister.\n\nFran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne retains his job as finance minister, while Dominic LeBlanc remains minister of U.S. trade at a time of a trade war between Canada and the United States.\n\nCarney won the job of prime minister by promising to confront the aggression toward Canada shown by U.S. President Donald Trump, while preserving the calm demeanor of an economist who has led the central banks of both Canada and the United Kingdom.\n\n\"Canadians elected this new government with a strong mandate to define a new economic and security relationship with the United States and to build a stronger economy for all Canadians,\" Carney said.\n\nCarney noted that King Charles III will deliver a speech outlining the Canadian government's priorities on May 27, when Parliament resumes. Charles is the head of state in Canada, which is a member of the British Commonwealth of former colonies.\n\nCarney has emphasized Canada's founding nations, the United Kingdom and France, and has said the old relationship with the U.S. based on steadily increasing integration is over.\n\nMore than 10 people were dropped from the new Cabinet, including former defense minister Bill Blair. David McGuinty goes from public safety to defense.\n\nCarney named former Goldman Sachs Canada CEO Tim Hodgson as natural resources minister. Carney, who worked for 14 years at Goldman Sachs, has said he wants to build Canada into an energy \"superpower\" and prioritize big, \"nation building\" projects.\n\nFormer journalist Evan Solomon is among the new ministers, serving in the new post of minister of artificial intelligence.\n\nWomen make up half of the Cabinet, as they did in Trudeau's Cabinet.\n\nCarney said the new Cabinet is built to deliver the change Canadians want and need. The Liberal government is in its fourth term."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6ff9a0550680aa73ca7d8155fcc12174055c17bb085bfee054b66a40eea397a9", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Israeli strikes kill at least 85 in Gaza\n\nBy Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, and Tia Goldenberg  \nMay 20th, 2025, 06:14 AM\n\n---\n\nDEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with its new military offensive in Gaza despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.\n\nTwo days after aid began entering Gaza, the desperately needed new supplies have not yet reached people in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza's 2 million residents are at high risk of famine.\n\nUnder pressure, Israel agreed this week to allow a \"minimal\" amount of aid into the Palestinian territory after preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel in an attempt to pressure the Hamas militant group. U.N. spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.\n\nCOGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday and 93 trucks entered Tuesday. But Dujarric said the U.N. confirmed only a few dozen trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.\n\nThe aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments.\n\nBut none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the U.N. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as \"long, complex, complicated and dangerous.\" He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks are hindering efforts to distribute the aid. COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.\n\nThe United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, which is far less than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel's Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn't support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.\n\n## U.K. suspends trade negotiations and sanctions settler movement\n\nBut some close allies say the limited aid is not enough.\n\nThe British government on Tuesday said it was suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and was leveling new sanctions targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move came a day after the U.K, France and Canada condemned Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank and threatened to take action.\n\n\"I want to put on record today that we're horrified by the escalation from Israel,\" British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament.\n\nIsrael's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein called the new sanctions \"unjustified and regrettable\" and claimed Israel and the U.K. had not been talking about free trade.\n\nThe U.K. leveled sanctions against three settlers and a number of organizations, including settler leader Daniella Weiss and the movement she heads. In response, Weiss said hundreds of families are ready to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.\n\nIsrael launched its new military operation in Gaza over the weekend, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza during the latest onslaught, according to health officials.\n\n## Israeli politician criticizes killing 'babies as a hobby'\n\nCriticism against Israel's conduct in Gaza also came at home. A leader of center-left politics said Tuesday that Israel was becoming an \"outcast among nations\" because of the government's approach to the war.\n\n\"A sane country doesn't engage in fighting against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a hobby and doesn't set for itself the goals of expelling a population,\" Yair Golan, a retired general and leader of the opposition Democrats party, told Reshet Bet radio.\n\nHis comments were rare criticism from inside Israel of its wartime conduct in Gaza. Many Israelis have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war, but that has been mostly limited to what opponents argue are his political motives to continue the war. Criticism over the war's toll on Palestinian civilians has been almost unheard.\n\nNetanyahu swiftly slammed Golan's remarks, calling them \"wild incitement\" against Israeli soldiers and accusing him of echoing \"disgraceful antisemitic blood libels\" against the country.\n\nGolan, who donned his uniform during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack to join the fight against the militants, previously sparked an uproar when as deputy military chief of staff in 2016, he likened the atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.\n\nAt an evening news conference, Golan said he refused to be silent \"because the meaning of silence is to join in the abandonment of the IDF and the abandonment of the hostages and the abandonment of the State of Israel.\" He called on the opposition to band together to oppose the government's plans for Gaza.\n\n## Strikes pound Gaza as Netanyahu recalls negotiating team\n\nIn the latest assaults, two strikes in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center and warned civilians ahead of time.\n\nA strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.\n\nTwo strikes in Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel said it was targeting militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the group operates in densely populated areas.\n\nOn Tuesday, Netanyahu said he was recalling his high-level negotiating team from the Gulf state of Qatar after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain in the Qatari capital of Doha.\n\nQatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said a \"fundamental gap\" remained between the two parties and that none of the proposals were able to bridge their differences.\n\nHamas said no real ceasefire talks have taken place since Saturday in Doha. The group accused Netanyahu of \"falsely portraying participation\" and attempting to \"mislead global public opinion\" by keeping Israel's delegation there without engaging in serious negotiations.\n\nThe war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.\n\nIsrael's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.\n\n___\n\nMagdy reported from Cairo and Goldenberg from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel, Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem, Sylvie Corbet in Paris, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, and Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations contributed to this report.\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Israeli strikes kill at least 85 in Gaza\n\nBy Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magdy, and Tia Goldenberg  \nMay 20th, 2025, 06:14 AM\n\n---\n\nDEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 Israel pressed ahead Tuesday with its new military offensive in Gaza despite mounting international criticism, launching airstrikes that health officials said killed at least 85 Palestinians. Israeli officials said they also allowed in dozens more trucks carrying aid.\n\nTwo days after aid began entering Gaza, the desperately needed new supplies have not yet reached people in Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade for nearly three months, according to the United Nations. Experts have warned that many of Gaza's 2 million residents are at high risk of famine.\n\nUnder pressure, Israel agreed this week to allow a \"minimal\" amount of aid into the Palestinian territory after preventing the entry of food, medicine and fuel in an attempt to pressure the Hamas militant group. U.N. spokesperson St\u00e9phane Dujarric said that although the aid has entered Gaza, aid workers were not able to bring it to distribution points where it is most needed, after the Israeli military forced them to reload the supplies onto separate trucks and workers ran out of time.\n\nCOGAT, the Israeli defense body that oversees humanitarian aid, said five trucks entered Monday and 93 trucks entered Tuesday. But Dujarric said the U.N. confirmed only a few dozen trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday.\n\nThe aid included flour for bakeries, food for soup kitchens, baby food and medical supplies. The U.N. humanitarian agency said it is prioritizing baby formula in the first shipments.\n\nBut none of that aid actually reached Palestinians, according to the U.N. Dujarric described the new security process for getting aid cleared to warehouses as \"long, complex, complicated and dangerous.\" He said Israeli military requirements for aid workers to unload and reload the trucks are hindering efforts to distribute the aid. COGAT did not immediately comment on the new procedures.\n\nThe United Nations humanitarian agency received approval for about 100 trucks to enter Gaza, spokesman Jens Laerke said, which is far less than the 600 that entered daily during the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March. Israel's Foreign Ministry said dozens are expected to enter each day.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he decided to let in limited aid after pressure from allies, who told him they couldn't support Israel while devastating images of starvation were coming out of Gaza.\n\n## U.K. suspends trade negotiations and sanctions settler movement\n\nBut some close allies say the limited aid is not enough.\n\nThe British government on Tuesday said it was suspending free trade negotiations with Israel and was leveling new sanctions targeting settlements in the occupied West Bank. The move came a day after the U.K, France and Canada condemned Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank and threatened to take action.\n\n\"I want to put on record today that we're horrified by the escalation from Israel,\" British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament.\n\nIsrael's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein called the new sanctions \"unjustified and regrettable\" and claimed Israel and the U.K. had not been talking about free trade.\n\nThe U.K. leveled sanctions against three settlers and a number of organizations, including settler leader Daniella Weiss and the movement she heads. In response, Weiss said hundreds of families are ready to build Jewish settlements in Gaza.\n\nIsrael launched its new military operation in Gaza over the weekend, saying it aims to return dozens of hostages held by Hamas and destroy the militant group. More than 300 people have been killed in Gaza during the latest onslaught, according to health officials.\n\n## Israeli politician criticizes killing 'babies as a hobby'\n\nCriticism against Israel's conduct in Gaza also came at home. A leader of center-left politics said Tuesday that Israel was becoming an \"outcast among nations\" because of the government's approach to the war.\n\n\"A sane country doesn't engage in fighting against civilians, doesn't kill babies as a hobby and doesn't set for itself the goals of expelling a population,\" Yair Golan, a retired general and leader of the opposition Democrats party, told Reshet Bet radio.\n\nHis comments were rare criticism from inside Israel of its wartime conduct in Gaza. Many Israelis have criticized Netanyahu throughout the war, but that has been mostly limited to what opponents argue are his political motives to continue the war. Criticism over the war's toll on Palestinian civilians has been almost unheard.\n\nNetanyahu swiftly slammed Golan's remarks, calling them \"wild incitement\" against Israeli soldiers and accusing him of echoing \"disgraceful antisemitic blood libels\" against the country.\n\nGolan, who donned his uniform during Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack to join the fight against the militants, previously sparked an uproar when as deputy military chief of staff in 2016, he likened the atmosphere in Israel to that of Nazi-era Germany.\n\nAt an evening news conference, Golan said he refused to be silent \"because the meaning of silence is to join in the abandonment of the IDF and the abandonment of the hostages and the abandonment of the State of Israel.\" He called on the opposition to band together to oppose the government's plans for Gaza.\n\n## Strikes pound Gaza as Netanyahu recalls negotiating team\n\nIn the latest assaults, two strikes in northern Gaza hit a family home and a school-turned-shelter, killing at least 22 people, more than half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas command center and warned civilians ahead of time.\n\nA strike in the central city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another in the nearby built-up Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15, according to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.\n\nTwo strikes in Khan Younis killed 10 people, according to Nasser Hospital. Israel said it was targeting militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths because the group operates in densely populated areas.\n\nOn Tuesday, Netanyahu said he was recalling his high-level negotiating team from the Gulf state of Qatar after a week of ceasefire talks failed to bring results. A working team will remain in the Qatari capital of Doha.\n\nQatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said a \"fundamental gap\" remained between the two parties and that none of the proposals were able to bridge their differences.\n\nHamas said no real ceasefire talks have taken place since Saturday in Doha. The group accused Netanyahu of \"falsely portraying participation\" and attempting to \"mislead global public opinion\" by keeping Israel's delegation there without engaging in serious negotiations.\n\nThe war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third of whom are believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.\n\nIsrael's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b074ebce12537c2308d3b8543e04dd00ca0dca63ebb04bbfef4138522d736473", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Bank of England cuts interest rates and welcomes word of US-UK trade deal\n\nBy Pan Pylas  \nMay 8th, 2025, 06:01 AM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 The Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25% amid concerns over the potential shock to global growth emanating from the tariff policies of the Trump administration.\n\nThe decision Thursday was widely expected, though there was an array of opinion on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, with two voting for a bigger half-point cut to 4%, and two voting to hold rates.\n\nBank Gov. Andrew Bailey said inflationary pressures have continued to ease, paving the way for the fourth quarter-point rate cut since August.\n\n\"The past few weeks have shown how unpredictable the global economy can be,\" he said. \"That's why we need to stick to a gradual and careful approach to further rate cuts.\"\n\nThe decision is the first since U.S. President Donald Trump made his tariff announcement in early April. Though most tariffs were paused for 90 days following the ensuing market turmoil, including the 10% baseline tariff applied to U.K. goods entering the U.S., the backdrop for the global economy remains highly uncertain, particularly if the U.S.-China trade war persists.\n\nSome of that uncertainty, with regard to the British economy, lifted Thursday when both Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer separately outlined details of a trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. Though Trump kept the 10% baseline tariffs on U.K., he agreed to reduce the levies on British autos, steel and aluminum.\n\nAhead of the announcement, Bailey welcomed the prospect of a deal while cautioning that as a \"very open economy,\" with global connections, the British economy would still be affected by tariffs applied to other economies.\n\n\"I say that because I hope the UK agreement, if it is the case this afternoon, will be the first of many,\" he said. \"This will be good news all around, including the U.K. economy.\"\n\nThe rate cut comes despite expectations that inflation will rise further above the bank's 2% target over coming months, from the current 2.6% as a result of a raft of price increases in April, such as domestic energy and water bills, and firms passing on tax rises to consumers.\n\n\"While headline inflation is expected to rise in the near-term, we do not expect that to persist,\" said Bailey, adding that it will be back around target in two years time.\n\nUnlike the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, which last month cut interest rates too, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged Wednesday as its policymakers wait to see how Trump's tariffs affect the U.S. economy before making any moves.\n\nMost economists think the Bank of England will continue to lower borrowing rates over the coming months, though admitted that the three-way split in the voting may complicate its messaging.\n\n\"We still think the Bank will cut rates at least twice more later this year, but much like the Fed's message yesterday, U.K. policy makers will want to see more data on how tariffs and domestic tax increases are being digested by the economy before moving decisively\" said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at asset management firm Aberdeen."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Bank of England cuts interest rates and welcomes word of US-UK trade deal\n\nBy Pan Pylas  \nMay 8th, 2025, 06:01 AM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 The Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.25% amid concerns over the potential shock to global growth emanating from the tariff policies of the Trump administration.\n\nThe decision Thursday was widely expected, though there was an array of opinion on the nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, with two voting for a bigger half-point cut to 4%, and two voting to hold rates.\n\nBank Gov. Andrew Bailey said inflationary pressures have continued to ease, paving the way for the fourth quarter-point rate cut since August.\n\n\"The past few weeks have shown how unpredictable the global economy can be,\" he said. \"That's why we need to stick to a gradual and careful approach to further rate cuts.\"\n\nThe decision is the first since U.S. President Donald Trump made his tariff announcement in early April. Though most tariffs were paused for 90 days following the ensuing market turmoil, including the 10% baseline tariff applied to U.K. goods entering the U.S., the backdrop for the global economy remains highly uncertain, particularly if the U.S.-China trade war persists.\n\nSome of that uncertainty, with regard to the British economy, lifted Thursday when both Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer separately outlined details of a trade deal between the U.S. and the U.K. Though Trump kept the 10% baseline tariffs on U.K., he agreed to reduce the levies on British autos, steel and aluminum.\n\nAhead of the announcement, Bailey welcomed the prospect of a deal while cautioning that as a \"very open economy,\" with global connections, the British economy would still be affected by tariffs applied to other economies.\n\n\"I say that because I hope the UK agreement, if it is the case this afternoon, will be the first of many,\" he said. \"This will be good news all around, including the U.K. economy.\"\n\nThe rate cut comes despite expectations that inflation will rise further above the bank's 2% target over coming months, from the current 2.6% as a result of a raft of price increases in April, such as domestic energy and water bills, and firms passing on tax rises to consumers.\n\n\"While headline inflation is expected to rise in the near-term, we do not expect that to persist,\" said Bailey, adding that it will be back around target in two years time.\n\nUnlike the Bank of England, and the European Central Bank, which last month cut interest rates too, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept rates unchanged Wednesday as its policymakers wait to see how Trump's tariffs affect the U.S. economy before making any moves.\n\nMost economists think the Bank of England will continue to lower borrowing rates over the coming months, though admitted that the three-way split in the voting may complicate its messaging.\n\n\"We still think the Bank will cut rates at least twice more later this year, but much like the Fed's message yesterday, U.K. policy makers will want to see more data on how tariffs and domestic tax increases are being digested by the economy before moving decisively\" said Luke Bartholomew, deputy chief economist at asset management firm Aberdeen."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b0b538eef50caedb7cc4f0fd7576899cd4023f90fd4a6ee11fea16b01ee5b4fe", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire Hathaway when new CEO takes over in 2026\n\nBy Bernard Condon and Josh Funk  \nMay 5th, 2025, 11:29 AM\n\n---\n\nOMAHA, Neb. (AP) \u2014 When Greg Abel becomes Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO next year he will of course take on additional responsibilities, but with Warren Buffett remaining as chairman, the surprise change announced at the annual meeting over the weekend is in some ways just another milestone in the company's succession plans.\n\nShareholders have been worrying about how to replace the world's greatest investor for decades \u2014 even before the 94-year-old hit a typical retirement age. So years ago, Berkshire's board started devoting part of every meeting to the succession question.\n\nThen in 2018, Buffett began publicly handing over the reins when he put Abel in charge of all of Berkshire's dozens of manufacturing, retail, railroad and utility businesses. Fellow Vice Chairman Ajit Jain was given responsibility for the insurance companies including Geico, while Buffett kept responsibility for investing Berkshire's billions. Berkshire confirmed that Abel would be Buffett's successor in 2021 after former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger let it slip at a shareholder meeting.\n\nStarting next year, Abel will have the final say on all of Berkshire's companies and investments, but he will also still have Buffett, Jain and two investment managers \u2014 Ted Weschler and Todd Combs \u2014 coming to the office every day to help. And the CEOs of Berkshire's many different subsidiaries handle all the day-to-day operations.\n\n\"Greg's already been doing it for a couple of years, so his job really doesn't change. His title does, but his job's not really changing that much,\" said Bob Miles, who has taught a course about Buffett and Berkshire at the University of Nebraska-Omaha for 15 years.\n\nBerkshire's board approved the 62-year-old Abel's promotion to CEO and kept Buffett as chairman on Sunday. Berkshire Class B shares fell more than 5% Monday in response to the news after hitting an all-time high Friday, but many investors praised the plan.\n\n\"I think it gives Warren a little more bandwidth instead of running this conglomerate,\" Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said in an interview with The Associated Press. \"It gives Greg more transparency on the opps with also Warren still being his mentor as chairman,\"\n\n## Unmatched track record of success\n\nIn six decades at the helm, Buffett turned a Massachusetts textile company into a sprawling but nimble conglomerate that owns everything from Daily Queen and See's Candies to BNSF Railway and massive insurance and utility companies. As the company grew, Buffett's reputation grew with it as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed steadily, exceeding major indexes by wide margins and returning an average 19.9% each year to investors versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor's 500.\n\nThe decision to continue with the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffett is known, as head of the board differs from the succession plans laid out in the event of Buffett's death. The billionaire has long said that Howard Buffett, the second-born of his three children, should become chairman when he is gone to protect Berkshire's culture.\n\nAbel will take over in a precarious time as the U.S. launches trade wars against friend and foe alike, which Buffett has called a mistake. But that could also create investment opportunities for Berkshire if there is a crisis.\n\n## So much money, so few places to put it\n\nThen there is Berkshire's $348 billion in cash.\n\nBuffett says he doesn't see many bargains to invest that money in now, not even Berkshire's own stock, but he assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, over the weekend that one day the company would be \"bombarded with opportunities.\"\n\nAbel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey who makes it a priority to coach his kids' teams, said Saturday that he wouldn't change Berkshire's approach to investing, which he learned from Buffett. Maintaining Berkshire's fortress-like balance sheet will always be a priority, he said.\n\nEventually, Berkshire might have to consider paying a dividend, which Buffett always resisted because he believed he could deliver better returns by reinvesting the cash. For now, Buffett and Abel want to keep building cash, so they are prepared when opportunities arise.\n\n## High praise for Abel\n\nBuffett endorsed Abel, vowing to keep all of his shares that give him control of 30% of Berkshire Hathaway. Abel is a more hands-on manager than Buffett, asking managers tough questions and encouraging them to collaborate with other subsidiaries when it makes sense.\n\n\"It's way better with Greg than with me because I didn't want to work as hard as he works and I can get away with it because we've got a basically good business -- a very good business \u2014 and I wasn't in danger of you firing me by virtue of the ownership and the fact that we could do pretty well,\" Buffett said. \"The fact that you can do pretty well doesn't mean you couldn't do better, and Greg can do better at many things,\" he said.\n\nThe CEOs of Berkshire subsidiaries who report to Abel have praised his management style of personal accountability, but also autonomy. See's Candy CEO Pat Egan worked with Abel at Berkshire's utility unit for years before he took over the candymaker six years ago and said Abel makes sure he's considered every contingency.\n\n\"He's allowed me to make a lot of decisions that he may or may not have agreed with, but he'll support us at the end of the day, no matter what as long as we're operating with integrity and principles and the long game,\" Egan said.\n\nBut Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren wrote that Buffett's succession announcement left him with plenty of questions and Abel will have to prove himself.\n\n\"Abel, in our view, will be held to a different standard than Buffett, with a greater focus on how well Berkshire is performing\u2014especially with it being likely that there will be some churn in the company's shareholders as we move past the end of an era for the firm,\" Warren said.\n\n## Buffett's philanthropy continues\n\nBuffett has always delegated the decisions about how to distribute his fortune, worth nearly $160 billion, to others through annual share donations to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children.\n\nThe Gates Foundation has received the biggest donations worth more than $40 billion since he started giving away his fortune in 2006.\n\nHe said last summer that his three children will decide how to distribute his remaining fortune after his death, but donations to the Gates Foundation will end. Buffett has said he expects it to take a decade to give away all his shares after his death, ensuring extended support for Abel from the family.\n\n____\n\nAP Business writer Bernard Condon is in New York City. AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York City."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Buffett will remain chairman at Berkshire Hathaway when new CEO takes over in 2026\n\nBy Bernard Condon and Josh Funk  \nMay 5th, 2025, 11:29 AM\n\n---\n\nOMAHA, Neb. (AP) \u2014 When Greg Abel becomes Berkshire Hathaway's new CEO next year he will of course take on additional responsibilities, but with Warren Buffett remaining as chairman, the surprise change announced at the annual meeting over the weekend is in some ways just another milestone in the company's succession plans.\n\nShareholders have been worrying about how to replace the world's greatest investor for decades \u2014 even before the 94-year-old hit a typical retirement age. So years ago, Berkshire's board started devoting part of every meeting to the succession question.\n\nThen in 2018, Buffett began publicly handing over the reins when he put Abel in charge of all of Berkshire's dozens of manufacturing, retail, railroad and utility businesses. Fellow Vice Chairman Ajit Jain was given responsibility for the insurance companies including Geico, while Buffett kept responsibility for investing Berkshire's billions. Berkshire confirmed that Abel would be Buffett's successor in 2021 after former Vice Chairman Charlie Munger let it slip at a shareholder meeting.\n\nStarting next year, Abel will have the final say on all of Berkshire's companies and investments, but he will also still have Buffett, Jain and two investment managers \u2014 Ted Weschler and Todd Combs \u2014 coming to the office every day to help. And the CEOs of Berkshire's many different subsidiaries handle all the day-to-day operations.\n\n\"Greg's already been doing it for a couple of years, so his job really doesn't change. His title does, but his job's not really changing that much,\" said Bob Miles, who has taught a course about Buffett and Berkshire at the University of Nebraska-Omaha for 15 years.\n\nBerkshire's board approved the 62-year-old Abel's promotion to CEO and kept Buffett as chairman on Sunday. Berkshire Class B shares fell more than 5% Monday in response to the news after hitting an all-time high Friday, but many investors praised the plan.\n\n\"I think it gives Warren a little more bandwidth instead of running this conglomerate,\" Macrae Sykes, portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, said in an interview with The Associated Press. \"It gives Greg more transparency on the opps with also Warren still being his mentor as chairman,\"\n\n## Unmatched track record of success\n\nIn six decades at the helm, Buffett turned a Massachusetts textile company into a sprawling but nimble conglomerate that owns everything from Daily Queen and See's Candies to BNSF Railway and massive insurance and utility companies. As the company grew, Buffett's reputation grew with it as shares of Berkshire Hathaway climbed steadily, exceeding major indexes by wide margins and returning an average 19.9% each year to investors versus 10.4% for the Standard & Poor's 500.\n\nThe decision to continue with the Oracle of Omaha, as Buffett is known, as head of the board differs from the succession plans laid out in the event of Buffett's death. The billionaire has long said that Howard Buffett, the second-born of his three children, should become chairman when he is gone to protect Berkshire's culture.\n\nAbel will take over in a precarious time as the U.S. launches trade wars against friend and foe alike, which Buffett has called a mistake. But that could also create investment opportunities for Berkshire if there is a crisis.\n\n## So much money, so few places to put it\n\nThen there is Berkshire's $348 billion in cash.\n\nBuffett says he doesn't see many bargains to invest that money in now, not even Berkshire's own stock, but he assured some of the estimated 40,000 attendees of the company's annual meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, over the weekend that one day the company would be \"bombarded with opportunities.\"\n\nAbel, a low-key Canadian with a love a hockey who makes it a priority to coach his kids' teams, said Saturday that he wouldn't change Berkshire's approach to investing, which he learned from Buffett. Maintaining Berkshire's fortress-like balance sheet will always be a priority, he said.\n\nEventually, Berkshire might have to consider paying a dividend, which Buffett always resisted because he believed he could deliver better returns by reinvesting the cash. For now, Buffett and Abel want to keep building cash, so they are prepared when opportunities arise.\n\n## High praise for Abel\n\nBuffett endorsed Abel, vowing to keep all of his shares that give him control of 30% of Berkshire Hathaway. Abel is a more hands-on manager than Buffett, asking managers tough questions and encouraging them to collaborate with other subsidiaries when it makes sense.\n\n\"It's way better with Greg than with me because I didn't want to work as hard as he works and I can get away with it because we've got a basically good business -- a very good business \u2014 and I wasn't in danger of you firing me by virtue of the ownership and the fact that we could do pretty well,\" Buffett said. \"The fact that you can do pretty well doesn't mean you couldn't do better, and Greg can do better at many things,\" he said.\n\nThe CEOs of Berkshire subsidiaries who report to Abel have praised his management style of personal accountability, but also autonomy. See's Candy CEO Pat Egan worked with Abel at Berkshire's utility unit for years before he took over the candymaker six years ago and said Abel makes sure he's considered every contingency.\n\n\"He's allowed me to make a lot of decisions that he may or may not have agreed with, but he'll support us at the end of the day, no matter what as long as we're operating with integrity and principles and the long game,\" Egan said.\n\nBut Morningstar analyst Greggory Warren wrote that Buffett's succession announcement left him with plenty of questions and Abel will have to prove himself.\n\n\"Abel, in our view, will be held to a different standard than Buffett, with a greater focus on how well Berkshire is performing\u2014especially with it being likely that there will be some churn in the company's shareholders as we move past the end of an era for the firm,\" Warren said.\n\n## Buffett's philanthropy continues\n\nBuffett has always delegated the decisions about how to distribute his fortune, worth nearly $160 billion, to others through annual share donations to the Gates Foundation and four family foundations run by his children.\n\nThe Gates Foundation has received the biggest donations worth more than $40 billion since he started giving away his fortune in 2006.\n\nHe said last summer that his three children will decide how to distribute his remaining fortune after his death, but donations to the Gates Foundation will end. Buffett has said he expects it to take a decade to give away all his shares after his death, ensuring extended support for Abel from the family."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "fb287cc288f5a327de4d4eb925a8d0b79993574ef5f972a7020c632833a9e516", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump's anti-DEI push doesn't stop Black Kentucky grads from holding an off-campus celebration\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:57 PM\n\n---\n\nLEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump's push to eliminate diversity initiatives on college campuses didn't stop minority students from staging their own celebration after the University of Kentucky canceled ceremonies to honor its graduates who are Black or from other historically marginalized groups.\n\nChalk it up as a lesson learned on how to think strategically to get a desired result.\n\nSeveral dozen students, adorned in graduation caps and gowns, basked in the limelight Wednesday as their families and friends cheered them at the off-campus celebration. The graduates were honored for their years of academic work, and they received specialty regalia such as stoles and cords that they can wear at the schoolwide commencement later this week.\n\nSpeakers offered words of encouragement to the graduates, while steering clear of the fallout over federal and state Republican efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.\n\n\"You are charged with standing on our shoulders and doing bigger and better things,\" said Christian Adair, executive director of the Lyric Theatre, the acclaimed cultural center for Lexington's Black community where the celebration was held.\n\nThe \"Senior Salute\" program was organized after Kentucky's flagship university recently called off celebrations for minority graduates. The school said it would no longer host \"identity-based or special-interest graduation celebrations,\" citing \"federal and state policy changes and directives.\"\n\nThat's when members of the historically Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha stepped up and became the driving force behind organizing the replacement celebration.\n\n\"The message that I wanted to send is that if you want something to happen, then you can just go make it happen yourself,\" said fraternity member Kristopher Washington, a key organizer of the new event and who is among the graduating students. \"There's no waiting for somebody else to do it for you.\"\n\nUK's actions were disappointing, but not surprising, Washington said.\n\n\"I already understood that the institution would likely look out for their own financial well-being before considering to do something ... for the students,\" he said.\n\nMost of the new graduates and audience members Wednesday were Black, though the event was billed as multicultural and open to an array of students \u2014 including those who are LGBTQ+ or among the first in their families to finish college. Ushers included David Wirtschafter, a Lexington rabbi who wanted to show his support for the students and who praised them for refusing to accept the loss of a cherished celebration.\n\n\"Kudos to them for taking the initiative and leadership when these unfortunate circumstances unfolded, to organize this event for themselves,\" he said.\n\nAround the country, universities have come under increasing pressure to get in line with the political agenda of Trump's administration, which already has frozen billions of dollars in grants for Harvard University, Columbia University and other colleges over allegations they haven't done enough to counter what the administration feels is antisemitism.\n\nTrump's calls to eliminate any program that treats students differently because of their race have brought new scrutiny of affinity graduation ceremonies. The Education Department directed colleges to distance themselves from DEI with a letter in February. It said a 2023 Supreme Court decision outlawing the use of racial preferences in college admissions also applied to areas such as hiring, scholarships and graduation ceremonies.\n\nKentucky's Republican-dominated Legislature passed legislation this year to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities.\n\nIn a recent video defending the cancellations, university President Eli Capilouto said the decision came at a time when \"every part of our university is under stress and scrutiny.\" The school said in a separate statement that it will celebrate all new graduates at its official commencement ceremonies.\n\n\"We have made tough decisions \u2014 decisions that, in and of themselves, cause concern and in some cases, hurt,\" Capilouto said in the video. \"Canceling celebrations for people on our campus who haven't always seen themselves reflected in our broader community is one example.\n\n\"We have taken that action because we believe that's what is required, and we believe complying with the law is the best way to protect our people and our continued capacity to support them,\" he added.\n\nBut its cancellation of the smaller celebrations to honor LGBTQ+, Black and first-generation graduates drew criticism from some students and relatives Wednesday. The events have long been seen as a way to build community and recognize the achievements and unique experiences of students from historically marginalized groups in society.\n\nBrandy Robinson was one of many family members who cheered on her nephew, Keiron Perez, at Wednesday's ceremony. She said it was important for relatives to share in the moment and she denounced UK's severing of ties to such events as a \"coward move.\"\n\n\"To take those moments away from them out of fear, it's just really disappointing,\" Robinson said.\n\nAsked why the event was important to students, Alpha Phi Alpha's president, Pierre PetitFrere, said: \"It gives the students something to remember and know that, even given the circumstances of what's going on around the world, they are still being recognized for their hard work and fighting through whatever many hardships they may have faced throughout their time in college.\"\n\nUK spokesman Jay Blanton said the school recognized \"how meaningful these celebrations have been to many,\" and said student groups are welcome to host events.\n\n\"While the university can't continue sponsoring these events, we will continue working to ensure all students feel seen, valued and supported,\" he said in a statement.\n\nBut Marshae Dorsey, a graduating senior who took part in Wednesday's celebration, said UK decided to \"roll over\" to the anti-DEI push, calling it \"kind of like a slap in the face because something like this is so harmless.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump's anti-DEI push doesn't stop Black Kentucky grads from holding an off-campus celebration\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:57 PM\n\n---\n\nLEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump's push to eliminate diversity initiatives on college campuses didn't stop minority students from staging their own celebration after the University of Kentucky canceled ceremonies to honor its graduates who are Black or from other historically marginalized groups.\n\nChalk it up as a lesson learned on how to think strategically to get a desired result.\n\nSeveral dozen students, adorned in graduation caps and gowns, basked in the limelight Wednesday as their families and friends cheered them at the off-campus celebration. The graduates were honored for their years of academic work, and they received specialty regalia such as stoles and cords that they can wear at the schoolwide commencement later this week.\n\nSpeakers offered words of encouragement to the graduates, while steering clear of the fallout over federal and state Republican efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs.\n\n\"You are charged with standing on our shoulders and doing bigger and better things,\" said Christian Adair, executive director of the Lyric Theatre, the acclaimed cultural center for Lexington's Black community where the celebration was held.\n\nThe \"Senior Salute\" program was organized after Kentucky's flagship university recently called off celebrations for minority graduates. The school said it would no longer host \"identity-based or special-interest graduation celebrations,\" citing \"federal and state policy changes and directives.\"\n\nThat's when members of the historically Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha stepped up and became the driving force behind organizing the replacement celebration.\n\n\"The message that I wanted to send is that if you want something to happen, then you can just go make it happen yourself,\" said fraternity member Kristopher Washington, a key organizer of the new event and who is among the graduating students. \"There's no waiting for somebody else to do it for you.\"\n\nUK's actions were disappointing, but not surprising, Washington said.\n\n\"I already understood that the institution would likely look out for their own financial well-being before considering to do something ... for the students,\" he said.\n\nMost of the new graduates and audience members Wednesday were Black, though the event was billed as multicultural and open to an array of students \u2014 including those who are LGBTQ+ or among the first in their families to finish college. Ushers included David Wirtschafter, a Lexington rabbi who wanted to show his support for the students and who praised them for refusing to accept the loss of a cherished celebration.\n\n\"Kudos to them for taking the initiative and leadership when these unfortunate circumstances unfolded, to organize this event for themselves,\" he said.\n\nAround the country, universities have come under increasing pressure to get in line with the political agenda of Trump's administration, which already has frozen billions of dollars in grants for Harvard University, Columbia University and other colleges over allegations they haven't done enough to counter what the administration feels is antisemitism.\n\nTrump's calls to eliminate any program that treats students differently because of their race have brought new scrutiny of affinity graduation ceremonies. The Education Department directed colleges to distance themselves from DEI with a letter in February. It said a 2023 Supreme Court decision outlawing the use of racial preferences in college admissions also applied to areas such as hiring, scholarships and graduation ceremonies.\n\nKentucky's Republican-dominated Legislature passed legislation this year to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities.\n\nIn a recent video defending the cancellations, university President Eli Capilouto said the decision came at a time when \"every part of our university is under stress and scrutiny.\" The school said in a separate statement that it will celebrate all new graduates at its official commencement ceremonies.\n\n\"We have made tough decisions \u2014 decisions that, in and of themselves, cause concern and in some cases, hurt,\" Capilouto said in the video. \"Canceling celebrations for people on our campus who haven't always seen themselves reflected in our broader community is one example.\n\n\"We have taken that action because we believe that's what is required, and we believe complying with the law is the best way to protect our people and our continued capacity to support them,\" he added.\n\nBut its cancellation of the smaller celebrations to honor LGBTQ+, Black and first-generation graduates drew criticism from some students and relatives Wednesday. The events have long been seen as a way to build community and recognize the achievements and unique experiences of students from historically marginalized groups in society.\n\nBrandy Robinson was one of many family members who cheered on her nephew, Keiron Perez, at Wednesday's ceremony. She said it was important for relatives to share in the moment and she denounced UK's severing of ties to such events as a \"coward move.\"\n\n\"To take those moments away from them out of fear, it's just really disappointing,\" Robinson said.\n\nAsked why the event was important to students, Alpha Phi Alpha's president, Pierre PetitFrere, said: \"It gives the students something to remember and know that, even given the circumstances of what's going on around the world, they are still being recognized for their hard work and fighting through whatever many hardships they may have faced throughout their time in college.\"\n\nUK spokesman Jay Blanton said the school recognized \"how meaningful these celebrations have been to many,\" and said student groups are welcome to host events.\n\n\"While the university can't continue sponsoring these events, we will continue working to ensure all students feel seen, valued and supported,\" he said in a statement.\n\nBut Marshae Dorsey, a graduating senior who took part in Wednesday's celebration, said UK decided to \"roll over\" to the anti-DEI push, calling it \"kind of like a slap in the face because something like this is so harmless.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1554697364902f47d2144a2f69c2d4fd64afaf6b3437105e844f230792fe9cf2", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Bright auroras on Jupiter are captured by Webb Space Telescope\n\nBy Christina Larson  \nMay 12th, 2025, 03:20 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Jupiter's dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal.\n\nThe solar system's largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles, similar to how the northern lights are triggered on Earth.\n\nBut Jupiter's version has much greater intensity, according to an international team of scientists who analyzed the photos from Webb taken on Christmas in 2023.\n\nWebb previously captured Neptune's glowing auroras in the best detail yet, many decades after they were first faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Bright auroras on Jupiter are captured by Webb Space Telescope\n\nBy Christina Larson  \nMay 12th, 2025, 03:20 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Jupiter's dazzling auroras are hundreds of times brighter than those seen on Earth, new images from the James Webb Space Telescope reveal.\n\nThe solar system's largest planet displays striking dancing lights when high-energy particles from space collide with atoms of gas in the atmosphere near its magnetic poles, similar to how the northern lights are triggered on Earth.\n\nBut Jupiter's version has much greater intensity, according to an international team of scientists who analyzed the photos from Webb taken on Christmas in 2023.\n\nWebb previously captured Neptune's glowing auroras in the best detail yet, many decades after they were first faintly detected during a flyby of the Voyager 2 spacecraft."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "3ee54b3f1171add516846b8dfea9c266190a30ec1b574b64e3d58dedd810ed86", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# What is the special tribunal for Ukraine that world leaders have backed?\n\nBy Molly Quell and Samya Kullab  \nMay 9th, 2025, 01:57 PM\n\n---\n\nKYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Some 40 world leaders announced their support Friday for the creation of a new international court to prosecute those most responsible for Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe special tribunal aims to target senior Russian leaders for the \"crime of aggression,\" which underpins the countless war crimes Ukraine accuses Russian forces of committing since the start of the war in 2022.\n\nBecause Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, it cannot prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior leaders for starting the conflict. Ukrainian and European leaders came up with the special tribunal as an alternative way to hold Russian leaders to account.\n\nThe court will be formed following a joint agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights organization.\n\n## What is the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine?\n\nSince early in the conflict, Kyiv has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal that goes beyond prosecuting war crimes that Ukraine alleged Russian forces committed \u2014 including bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape, taking hostages and torture. Russia denies those claims.\n\n\"If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and should not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law but make bold decisions that will correct those shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law,\" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a visit to the Netherlands in 2023.\n\nSimilar special tribunals were established after World War II, the Balkan wars sparked by the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.\n\nThe institution will be funded by the countries who back it, known as the Core Group, including the Netherlands, Japan and Canada. The United States had backed the project under former President Joe Biden, but President Donald Trump's administration did not support the initiative.\n\nOn Friday, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a joint statement with foreign ministers from some 40 countries that technical legal work necessary to establish the tribunal is complete. It added that the court will be formalized at a Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Luxembourg later this month.\n\nThe statement was agreed in the presence of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in Lviv, in western Ukraine.\n\nOnce established the tribunal will focus on prosecuting Russian leaders most responsible for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.\n\nKyiv has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal since early in the conflict.\n\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Moscow \"will not be reacting\" to the tribunal announcement.\n\nThe legal framework for the project was agreed on by leaders in February.\n\n## What is the crime of aggression?\n\nThe crime of aggression is the planning and execution of a large-scale military invasion of another country.\n\n\"The crime of aggression is sometimes referred to as the 'mother of all other crimes' because it precedes all of the other crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity, even genocide,\" Iva Vukusic, an international law expert at the University of Utrecht, told The Associated Press.\n\n\"You don't prosecute foot soldiers for aggression,\" she added. The tribunal plans to pursue cases against around 20 to 30 high-ranking officials.\n\nA dozen Nazi leaders including Hermann G\u00f6ring and Rudolf Hess were convicted of what was then called \"a crime against peace\" during the Nuremberg trials following WWII. That was the last time anyone has been convicted of aggression.\n\n## Will the tribunal prosecute Putin?\n\nInternational law grants the so-called troika \u2014 consisting of a country's head of state, head of government and foreign affairs minister \u2014 immunity from prosecution while they are in office.\n\nHowever, the tribunal could initiate proceedings against Putin and wait until he leaves office to move forward with a trial. There is no statute of limitation on the crime of aggression.\n\nThe court will have the power to hold trials in absentia, though anyone convicted without being in the custody of the tribunal would have the right to a retrial.\n\n## Why can't the International Criminal Court prosecute these crimes?\n\nThe move to create a special tribunal aims to fill a void created by limitations on the ICC. While The Hague-based court can go after Russian nationals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it cannot prosecute Russians for orchestrating the invasion itself.\n\nThe 2002 Rome Statute which created the court was amended in 2010 to include the crime of aggression \u2014 but only for countries that have joined the court. The Russian Federation is not a member state.\n\nThe court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, as well as five other officials.\n\n## Where will the tribunal be established?\n\nThe Hague, already home to the ICC, the top court of the United Nations and other judicial institutions, has been suggested as a location but a final decision has not yet been made.\n\nThe city is already home to the International Center for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression, which supports evidence-gathering and is overseen by the European Union's judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust. The Council of Europe-backed register of damages, which allows Ukrainian victims of war to catalog the financial harm they have suffered, is also based in the Netherlands.\n\nBackers are hopeful the institution will be up and running by early next year."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# What is the special tribunal for Ukraine that world leaders have backed?\n\nBy Molly Quell and Samya Kullab  \nMay 9th, 2025, 01:57 PM\n\n---\n\nKYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Some 40 world leaders announced their support Friday for the creation of a new international court to prosecute those most responsible for Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.\n\nThe special tribunal aims to target senior Russian leaders for the \"crime of aggression,\" which underpins the countless war crimes Ukraine accuses Russian forces of committing since the start of the war in 2022.\n\nBecause Russia is not a member of the International Criminal Court, it cannot prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior leaders for starting the conflict. Ukrainian and European leaders came up with the special tribunal as an alternative way to hold Russian leaders to account.\n\nThe court will be formed following a joint agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights organization.\n\n## What is the Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine?\n\nSince early in the conflict, Kyiv has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal that goes beyond prosecuting war crimes that Ukraine alleged Russian forces committed \u2014 including bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape, taking hostages and torture. Russia denies those claims.\n\n\"If we want true justice, we should not look for excuses and should not refer to the shortcomings of the current international law but make bold decisions that will correct those shortcomings that unfortunately exist in international law,\" Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a visit to the Netherlands in 2023.\n\nSimilar special tribunals were established after World War II, the Balkan wars sparked by the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia and the 1994 Rwandan genocide.\n\nThe institution will be funded by the countries who back it, known as the Core Group, including the Netherlands, Japan and Canada. The United States had backed the project under former President Joe Biden, but President Donald Trump's administration did not support the initiative.\n\nOn Friday, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a joint statement with foreign ministers from some 40 countries that technical legal work necessary to establish the tribunal is complete. It added that the court will be formalized at a Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Luxembourg later this month.\n\nThe statement was agreed in the presence of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in Lviv, in western Ukraine.\n\nOnce established the tribunal will focus on prosecuting Russian leaders most responsible for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022.\n\nKyiv has been pushing for the creation of a special tribunal since early in the conflict.\n\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday Moscow \"will not be reacting\" to the tribunal announcement.\n\nThe legal framework for the project was agreed on by leaders in February.\n\n## What is the crime of aggression?\n\nThe crime of aggression is the planning and execution of a large-scale military invasion of another country.\n\n\"The crime of aggression is sometimes referred to as the 'mother of all other crimes' because it precedes all of the other crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity, even genocide,\" Iva Vukusic, an international law expert at the University of Utrecht, told The Associated Press.\n\n\"You don't prosecute foot soldiers for aggression,\" she added. The tribunal plans to pursue cases against around 20 to 30 high-ranking officials.\n\nA dozen Nazi leaders including Hermann G\u00f6ring and Rudolf Hess were convicted of what was then called \"a crime against peace\" during the Nuremberg trials following WWII. That was the last time anyone has been convicted of aggression.\n\n## Will the tribunal prosecute Putin?\n\nInternational law grants the so-called troika \u2014 consisting of a country's head of state, head of government and foreign affairs minister \u2014 immunity from prosecution while they are in office.\n\nHowever, the tribunal could initiate proceedings against Putin and wait until he leaves office to move forward with a trial. There is no statute of limitation on the crime of aggression.\n\nThe court will have the power to hold trials in absentia, though anyone convicted without being in the custody of the tribunal would have the right to a retrial.\n\n## Why can't the International Criminal Court prosecute these crimes?\n\nThe move to create a special tribunal aims to fill a void created by limitations on the ICC. While The Hague-based court can go after Russian nationals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it cannot prosecute Russians for orchestrating the invasion itself.\n\nThe 2002 Rome Statute which created the court was amended in 2010 to include the crime of aggression \u2014 but only for countries that have joined the court. The Russian Federation is not a member state.\n\nThe court has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, as well as five other officials.\n\n## Where will the tribunal be established?\n\nThe Hague, already home to the ICC, the top court of the United Nations and other judicial institutions, has been suggested as a location but a final decision has not yet been made.\n\nThe city is already home to the International Center for Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression, which supports evidence-gathering and is overseen by the European Union's judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust. The Council of Europe-backed register of damages, which allows Ukrainian victims of war to catalog the financial harm they have suffered, is also based in the Netherlands.\n\nBackers are hopeful the institution will be up and running by early next year."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "031ff1ec15b2d6d923994003efc4d8bf65857ba22513d7e70166ff12192e84b3", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Aid workers feel helpless as Israel's blockade pushes Gaza towards famine\n\nBy Sarah El Deeb  \nMay 19th, 2025, 05:43 AM\n\n---\n\nBEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Two cases pushed nutritionist Rana Soboh to wits' end. First, a woman was rushed to a Gaza emergency room after fainting while she breastfed her newborn. She told Soboh she hadn't eaten in days.\n\nThe next day at another medical facility, Soboh found a severely malnourished 1-year-old boy weighing 5 kilograms (11 pounds), less than half what's normal. He hadn't grown any teeth. He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished, \"a skeleton, covered in skin.\"\n\nWhen the mother asked for food, Soboh started crying uncontrollably.\n\nA feeling of powerlessness has overwhelmed her. Soboh said sometimes she gives a little money or a bit of her own food. But now she, too, is struggling.\n\n\"This is the worst feeling, wanting to help but knowing you can't. I wished the earth would crack open and swallow me,\" she said. \"What more cruel scenes does the world need to see?\"\n\nAfter months of trying to raise alarm, humanitarian workers are overflowing with anger, frustration and horror over Israel's nearly three-month blockade of Gaza. The Associated Press spoke to over a dozen aid workers, some with years of experience in emergencies around the world and Palestinians who have worked through this and other wars.\n\nThey say what is happening in Gaza is a catastrophe, among the worst they have ever seen. It's more painful, they say, because it's man-made, caused by Israel cutting off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to the territory nearly 11 weeks ago.\n\nThe world's top authority on food crises last week warned of famine unless the blockade ends. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million is acutely malnourished, and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, it said.\n\nIsrael on Sunday said it would allow a \"basic\" amount of food into Gaza, saying it didn't want a \"starvation crisis\" to jeopardize its new military offensive. The first few trucks entered Monday, as Israel acknowledged pressure from allies. It was not immediately clear how much would be allowed in, or when, or how.\n\nIsrael says it imposed the blockade to force Hamas to release hostages, a decision that rights groups call a \"starvation tactic\" and a violation of international law.\n\nAid workers are also wrestling with moves by Israel and the U.S. to impose a new aid system, despite their objections. The system would limit distribution to a few locations and put it under armed private contractors \u2014 to prevent theft by Hamas, Israel says. Humanitarian workers say it won't meet Gaza's needs and violates humanitarian principles. The U.N. denies that significant aid diversion takes place.\n\nThe workers say they should be allowed to do their jobs. Some 170,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel.\n\n\"The humanitarian community is well-experienced and well-versed in terms of treating malnutrition,\" said Rachel Cummings, emergency coordinator for Save the Children in Gaza. But \"we need food into Gaza and to stop this, by design, attack on the children across the whole of Gaza.\"\n\n## Last lifelines are closing\n\nCommunity kitchens are the last lifeline for most people, but more than 60% have shut down as supplies run out. Those still working can only produce 260,000 meals a day.\n\nAt his kitchen in Khan Younis, Nihad Abu Kush and 10 cooks prepare enough meals for about 1,000 people a day. More than 2,000 show up every morning, he said.\n\nThere are no lines, just a sea of people terrified of being among the half who will miss out. They push and shove, waving pots for portions from the vats of lentils, beans or peas in tomato sauce.\n\n\"I feel so helpless because the numbers grow every day,\" Abu Kush said. \"I look at their faces and I am unable to do anything.\"\n\nOn a recent day, he gave up his own portion after he locked eyes with a child with an empty pot. \"I was among the 1,000 who didn't get any,\" Abu Kush said.\n\n## A breaking point\n\nSoboh, a nutritionist with MedGlobal, said her team stretches supplies of malnutrition treatments. Each can of baby formula is divided among several mothers. Therapy food portions are reduced by half. They give supplements only to children up to a year old, no longer up to 2.\n\nBut their fixes get overwhelmed in the rising need.\n\nStaff try to dissuade mothers too weak to breastfeed from giving newborns sugar water, which can cause deadly diarrhea and infections, Soboh said.\n\nBut it's the mothers' only alternative. Flour sold in the markets is rotten, full of insects, devoid of nutrition and enormously expensive. Still, if they find the cash, parents take risky trips to get it just to fill their children's stomachs, she said.\n\nAid groups distributing water have reduced daily allowances to 5 liters a day per person, a third of the minimum in emergency conditions. Families must choose between using water to drink, wash hands or to cook, risking infection.\n\nMahmoud al-Saqqa, Oxfam's food security sector coordinator, said parents tell him their kids are dizzy from lack of food. They search through garbage for scraps.\n\n\"We see the hunger in their eyes,\" he said. His group, like most, distributed its last food stocks weeks ago.\n\nOne of Soboh's colleagues, Fady Abed, said desperate adults in his neighborhood ask him for the nutty-butter bars used to treat severely malnourished children to slake their own hunger.\n\n\"You feel like you let them down\" refusing them, Abed said. He struggles to feed his own family.\n\n\"Fear of famine,\" he said, \"is in every home.\"\n\n## Pumping air for 72 hours\n\nMedical workers improvise alternatives as supplies run out and machines break down.\n\nAl-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza lacks fuel and oxygen cylinders, so staff use hand-pumped respirators to keep patients breathing, said hospital director Mohammed Salha.\n\nStaff took turns hand-pumping air for one patient for 72 hours straight. The patient still died.\n\n\"People are dying ... because we simply don't have the basics,\" he said.\n\nAt Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, doctors don't have drills, sealant or titanium plates to treat the many skull fractures from bombardment.\n\nThey use expired gelatins to stop bleeding, but that doesn't stop spinal fluid from leaking, which can be deadly, said a foreign doctor volunteering with the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.\n\nSometimes, there's nothing he can do. He has child patients whose cochlear implants are defective, but there's no way to replace them. Without them, \"they will never be able to develop normal speech,\" he said.\n\nThe doctor spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations from his organization to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities.\n\nIsrael has cut in half the number of foreign doctors allowed into Gaza since March.\n\n## New aid system\n\nIsrael imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March, breaking a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of overseeing aid, did not comment to the AP. Israeli officials have said they track the calories in Gaza and assert that there is enough aid after an influx during the ceasefire.\n\nIsrael and the United States are pressing the U.N. and aid groups to join the planned new distribution system. The U.N. and most aid groups say they can't join because it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon for its political and military goals.\n\nIn particular, it would depopulate much of Gaza by forcing Palestinians to move to planned distribution hubs.\n\n\"In the end, this is using food to humiliate, control and direct people,\" said al-Saqqa of Oxfam. \"Every human being has the right to food.\"\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Aid workers feel helpless as Israel's blockade pushes Gaza towards famine\n\nBy Sarah El Deeb  \nMay 19th, 2025, 05:43 AM\n\n---\n\nBEIRUT (AP) \u2014 Two cases pushed nutritionist Rana Soboh to wits' end. First, a woman was rushed to a Gaza emergency room after fainting while she breastfed her newborn. She told Soboh she hadn't eaten in days.\n\nThe next day at another medical facility, Soboh found a severely malnourished 1-year-old boy weighing 5 kilograms (11 pounds), less than half what's normal. He hadn't grown any teeth. He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished, \"a skeleton, covered in skin.\"\n\nWhen the mother asked for food, Soboh started crying uncontrollably.\n\nA feeling of powerlessness has overwhelmed her. Soboh said sometimes she gives a little money or a bit of her own food. But now she, too, is struggling.\n\n\"This is the worst feeling, wanting to help but knowing you can't. I wished the earth would crack open and swallow me,\" she said. \"What more cruel scenes does the world need to see?\"\n\nAfter months of trying to raise alarm, humanitarian workers are overflowing with anger, frustration and horror over Israel's nearly three-month blockade of Gaza. The Associated Press spoke to over a dozen aid workers, some with years of experience in emergencies around the world and Palestinians who have worked through this and other wars.\n\nThey say what is happening in Gaza is a catastrophe, among the worst they have ever seen. It's more painful, they say, because it's man-made, caused by Israel cutting off all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to the territory nearly 11 weeks ago.\n\nThe world's top authority on food crises last week warned of famine unless the blockade ends. Almost the entire population of around 2.3 million is acutely malnourished, and one in five Palestinians are on the brink of starvation, it said.\n\nIsrael on Sunday said it would allow a \"basic\" amount of food into Gaza, saying it didn't want a \"starvation crisis\" to jeopardize its new military offensive. The first few trucks entered Monday, as Israel acknowledged pressure from allies. It was not immediately clear how much would be allowed in, or when, or how.\n\nIsrael says it imposed the blockade to force Hamas to release hostages, a decision that rights groups call a \"starvation tactic\" and a violation of international law.\n\nAid workers are also wrestling with moves by Israel and the U.S. to impose a new aid system, despite their objections. The system would limit distribution to a few locations and put it under armed private contractors \u2014 to prevent theft by Hamas, Israel says. Humanitarian workers say it won't meet Gaza's needs and violates humanitarian principles. The U.N. denies that significant aid diversion takes place.\n\nThe workers say they should be allowed to do their jobs. Some 170,000 metric tons of aid, including food, sits in trucks a few miles away, just inside Israel.\n\n\"The humanitarian community is well-experienced and well-versed in terms of treating malnutrition,\" said Rachel Cummings, emergency coordinator for Save the Children in Gaza. But \"we need food into Gaza and to stop this, by design, attack on the children across the whole of Gaza.\"\n\n## Last lifelines are closing\n\nCommunity kitchens are the last lifeline for most people, but more than 60% have shut down as supplies run out. Those still working can only produce 260,000 meals a day.\n\nAt his kitchen in Khan Younis, Nihad Abu Kush and 10 cooks prepare enough meals for about 1,000 people a day. More than 2,000 show up every morning, he said.\n\nThere are no lines, just a sea of people terrified of being among the half who will miss out. They push and shove, waving pots for portions from the vats of lentils, beans or peas in tomato sauce.\n\n\"I feel so helpless because the numbers grow every day,\" Abu Kush said. \"I look at their faces and I am unable to do anything.\"\n\nOn a recent day, he gave up his own portion after he locked eyes with a child with an empty pot. \"I was among the 1,000 who didn't get any,\" Abu Kush said.\n\n## A breaking point\n\nSoboh, a nutritionist with MedGlobal, said her team stretches supplies of malnutrition treatments. Each can of baby formula is divided among several mothers. Therapy food portions are reduced by half. They give supplements only to children up to a year old, no longer up to 2.\n\nBut their fixes get overwhelmed in the rising need.\n\nStaff try to dissuade mothers too weak to breastfeed from giving newborns sugar water, which can cause deadly diarrhea and infections, Soboh said.\n\nBut it's the mothers' only alternative. Flour sold in the markets is rotten, full of insects, devoid of nutrition and enormously expensive. Still, if they find the cash, parents take risky trips to get it just to fill their children's stomachs, she said.\n\nAid groups distributing water have reduced daily allowances to 5 liters a day per person, a third of the minimum in emergency conditions. Families must choose between using water to drink, wash hands or to cook, risking infection.\n\nMahmoud al-Saqqa, Oxfam's food security sector coordinator, said parents tell him their kids are dizzy from lack of food. They search through garbage for scraps.\n\n\"We see the hunger in their eyes,\" he said. His group, like most, distributed its last food stocks weeks ago.\n\nOne of Soboh's colleagues, Fady Abed, said desperate adults in his neighborhood ask him for the nutty-butter bars used to treat severely malnourished children to slake their own hunger.\n\n\"You feel like you let them down\" refusing them, Abed said. He struggles to feed his own family.\n\n\"Fear of famine,\" he said, \"is in every home.\"\n\n## Pumping air for 72 hours\n\nMedical workers improvise alternatives as supplies run out and machines break down.\n\nAl-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza lacks fuel and oxygen cylinders, so staff use hand-pumped respirators to keep patients breathing, said hospital director Mohammed Salha.\n\nStaff took turns hand-pumping air for one patient for 72 hours straight. The patient still died.\n\n\"People are dying ... because we simply don't have the basics,\" he said.\n\nAt Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, doctors don't have drills, sealant or titanium plates to treat the many skull fractures from bombardment.\n\nThey use expired gelatins to stop bleeding, but that doesn't stop spinal fluid from leaking, which can be deadly, said a foreign doctor volunteering with the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.\n\nSometimes, there's nothing he can do. He has child patients whose cochlear implants are defective, but there's no way to replace them. Without them, \"they will never be able to develop normal speech,\" he said.\n\nThe doctor spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations from his organization to avoid reprisals from Israeli authorities.\n\nIsrael has cut in half the number of foreign doctors allowed into Gaza since March.\n\n## New aid system\n\nIsrael imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March, breaking a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of overseeing aid, did not comment to the AP. Israeli officials have said they track the calories in Gaza and assert that there is enough aid after an influx during the ceasefire.\n\nIsrael and the United States are pressing the U.N. and aid groups to join the planned new distribution system. The U.N. and most aid groups say they can't join because it enables Israel to use aid as a weapon for its political and military goals.\n\nIn particular, it would depopulate much of Gaza by forcing Palestinians to move to planned distribution hubs.\n\n\"In the end, this is using food to humiliate, control and direct people,\" said al-Saqqa of Oxfam. \"Every human being has the right to food.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0f837622d41d9b23fb373ed7764a8de8f802c6be353945799180243dc6841fac", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# A UN top court orders Venezuela to halt election plans in Guyana\n\nBy Bert Wilkinson  \nMay 1st, 2025, 09:07 PM\n\n---\n\nGEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) \u2014 The United Nations' top court ordered Venezuela on Thursday to refrain from holding elections for officials who supposedly would oversee a resource-rich area in neighboring Guyana that both countries claim as their own.\n\nThe ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands comes at the request of Guyana, which accused Venezuela of violating an earlier ruling by planning to hold elections on May 25 for a governor and other officials to administer the Essequibo region.\n\nGuyanese President Irfaan Ali said he welcomed the ruling.\n\n\"Once again, Guyana's position has prevailed,\" he said.\n\nVenezuela's press office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.\n\nThe Essequibo region represents two-thirds of Guyana and is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. It also is located close to massive offshore oil deposits, with current production averaging some 650,000 barrels daily.\n\nThe dispute between the South American neighbors over Essequibo began more than a century ago, when an international tribunal in 1899 drew the border between them.\n\nIn 2018, Guyana went to the International Court of Justice and asked judges to uphold the 1899 ruling.\n\nThe case is still pending in court while tensions between the two countries keep rising.\n\nIn late 2023, Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro threatened to annex the region by force after holding a referendum asking voters if Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state.\n\nDays later, Caribbean leaders, joined by Brazil and the U.N., held an emergency summit where Guyana and Venezuela agreed to refrain from using force.\n\nBut the territorial dispute remained unresolved, and tensions have continued to escalate since the summit.\n\nIn March, Guyana's president denounced an incursion by an armed Venezuelan naval vessel in disputed waters that are home to a major offshore oil deposit being developed by ExxonMobil.\n\nVenezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez disputed Ali's claims and called ExxonMobil's oil installations \"illegal.\"\n\n____\n\nFollow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# A UN top court orders Venezuela to halt election plans in Guyana\n\nBy Bert Wilkinson  \nMay 1st, 2025, 09:07 PM\n\n---\n\nGEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) \u2014 The United Nations' top court ordered Venezuela on Thursday to refrain from holding elections for officials who supposedly would oversee a resource-rich area in neighboring Guyana that both countries claim as their own.\n\nThe ruling by the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands comes at the request of Guyana, which accused Venezuela of violating an earlier ruling by planning to hold elections on May 25 for a governor and other officials to administer the Essequibo region.\n\nGuyanese President Irfaan Ali said he welcomed the ruling.\n\n\"Once again, Guyana's position has prevailed,\" he said.\n\nVenezuela's press office did not immediately return a message seeking comment.\n\nThe Essequibo region represents two-thirds of Guyana and is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. It also is located close to massive offshore oil deposits, with current production averaging some 650,000 barrels daily.\n\nThe dispute between the South American neighbors over Essequibo began more than a century ago, when an international tribunal in 1899 drew the border between them.\n\nIn 2018, Guyana went to the International Court of Justice and asked judges to uphold the 1899 ruling.\n\nThe case is still pending in court while tensions between the two countries keep rising.\n\nIn late 2023, Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro threatened to annex the region by force after holding a referendum asking voters if Essequibo should be turned into a Venezuelan state.\n\nDays later, Caribbean leaders, joined by Brazil and the U.N., held an emergency summit where Guyana and Venezuela agreed to refrain from using force.\n\nBut the territorial dispute remained unresolved, and tensions have continued to escalate since the summit.\n\nIn March, Guyana's president denounced an incursion by an armed Venezuelan naval vessel in disputed waters that are home to a major offshore oil deposit being developed by ExxonMobil.\n\nVenezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodr\u00edguez disputed Ali's claims and called ExxonMobil's oil installations \"illegal.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "cafd101a9788bbcad1308ab448fc08e2c04750dcc4bf20b7908fd90a25a6b16b", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# US-China deal to slash tariffs also eases burden on cheap packages\n\nBy Didi Tang  \nMay 13th, 2025, 10:14 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Online shoppers in the U.S. will see a price break on their purchases valued at less than $800 and shipped from China after the Trump administration reached a truce with Beijing over sky-high tariffs.\n\nAn executive order Monday from President Donald Trump said the tariffs on low-value parcels originating from China and coming through the U.S. Postal Service will be lowered to 54%, down from 120%.\n\nIt also says a per-package flat rate \u2014 as an alternative to the value-based tariff \u2014 will be kept at $100, rather than being raised to $200 on June 1 as previously decreed. Packages shipped by commercial carriers are subject to the general tariff, which also has been cut.\n\nThe new rules go into effect Wednesday.\n\nThey are part of a broader agreement by the Trump administration to drastically lower import taxes on all Chinese goods from 145% to 30% following weekend talks in Switzerland with Chinese officials. China issued a public notice on Tuesday lowering its own tariffs on U.S. goods to 10%, down from 125%.\n\nHowever, the reductions are temporary, allowing the two sides to negotiate a longer-term deal in the next 90 days.\n\nIzzy Rosenzweig, founder and CEO of the logistic company Portless, said U.S. brands are \"very excited\" about the broader tariff cut. The import tax is still high, but not as prohibitive as when it was 145%, which amounted to a trade embargo.\n\nOn the low-value shipments, online purchases had been coming into the U.S. duty-free for several years under the de minimis rule, which exempted them from the import tax.\n\nPopular shopping sites such as Shein and Temu that offer ultra-low prices took advantage of the duty-free rule by shipping directly from China to U.S. buyers, bypassing more cumbersome customs paperwork.\n\nPresident Donald Trump terminated the exemption on such parcels originating from China and Hong Kong on May 2, following criticism that it not only resulted in lost tariff revenue but also allowed illicit drugs and unsafe products to flow into the U.S. without adequate scrutiny.\n\nU.S. Customs and Border Protection said as many as 4 million low-value parcels were coming into the U.S. every day \u2014 many of which originated from China.\n\nShortly before the exemption ended on May 2, prices on many items sold by Shein rose. Temu apparently halted shipments from China and tapped its existing inventory in the U.S.\n\nJohn Lash, group vice president of product strategy at the supply chain platform e2open, said he expected the volume of low-value packages would now rise but not back to previous levels. The $100 flat rate, he said, means that higher-value packages could get less of a hit, because the effective duty rate could be as low as 13%.\n\nNeither Shein nor Temu immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday about the lower tariffs."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# US-China deal to slash tariffs also eases burden on cheap packages\n\nBy Didi Tang  \nMay 13th, 2025, 10:14 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Online shoppers in the U.S. will see a price break on their purchases valued at less than $800 and shipped from China after the Trump administration reached a truce with Beijing over sky-high tariffs.\n\nAn executive order Monday from President Donald Trump said the tariffs on low-value parcels originating from China and coming through the U.S. Postal Service will be lowered to 54%, down from 120%.\n\nIt also says a per-package flat rate \u2014 as an alternative to the value-based tariff \u2014 will be kept at $100, rather than being raised to $200 on June 1 as previously decreed. Packages shipped by commercial carriers are subject to the general tariff, which also has been cut.\n\nThe new rules go into effect Wednesday.\n\nThey are part of a broader agreement by the Trump administration to drastically lower import taxes on all Chinese goods from 145% to 30% following weekend talks in Switzerland with Chinese officials. China issued a public notice on Tuesday lowering its own tariffs on U.S. goods to 10%, down from 125%.\n\nHowever, the reductions are temporary, allowing the two sides to negotiate a longer-term deal in the next 90 days.\n\nIzzy Rosenzweig, founder and CEO of the logistic company Portless, said U.S. brands are \"very excited\" about the broader tariff cut. The import tax is still high, but not as prohibitive as when it was 145%, which amounted to a trade embargo.\n\nOn the low-value shipments, online purchases had been coming into the U.S. duty-free for several years under the de minimis rule, which exempted them from the import tax.\n\nPopular shopping sites such as Shein and Temu that offer ultra-low prices took advantage of the duty-free rule by shipping directly from China to U.S. buyers, bypassing more cumbersome customs paperwork.\n\nPresident Donald Trump terminated the exemption on such parcels originating from China and Hong Kong on May 2, following criticism that it not only resulted in lost tariff revenue but also allowed illicit drugs and unsafe products to flow into the U.S. without adequate scrutiny.\n\nU.S. Customs and Border Protection said as many as 4 million low-value parcels were coming into the U.S. every day \u2014 many of which originated from China.\n\nShortly before the exemption ended on May 2, prices on many items sold by Shein rose. Temu apparently halted shipments from China and tapped its existing inventory in the U.S.\n\nJohn Lash, group vice president of product strategy at the supply chain platform e2open, said he expected the volume of low-value packages would now rise but not back to previous levels. The $100 flat rate, he said, means that higher-value packages could get less of a hit, because the effective duty rate could be as low as 13%.\n\nNeither Shein nor Temu immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday about the lower tariffs."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7f71f63acfcde4e3228bef1c145a8b76985433bec5df6aff57ce05e6844e6eb1", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# ICC prosecutor Karim Khan steps aside pending outcome of sexual misconduct investigation\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 16th, 2025, 02:15 PM\n\n---\n\nBRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stepped down temporarily pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court announced Friday.\n\nKarim Khan has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.\n\nThe ICC's announcement was welcomed by women's rights groups, who had called for Khan to step down after the allegations emerged last year.\n\n\"In any other professional setting, someone facing such serious allegations would have been expected to step down months ago,\" said Eimear Shine, a spokesperson for The Hague-based Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice.\n\nAn investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court's independent watchdog. That was a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges.\n\nThe watchdog said it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan himself wasn't questioned at the time.\n\nWhile the watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court's integrity.\n\nThe ICC statement on Friday said Khan \"communicated his decision to take leave until the end\" of an external investigation being carried by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N. internal watchdog.\n\nThe court's deputy prosecutors will be in charge of managing the prosecutor's office while Khan is on leave, the statement said.\n\nThe work of the court will continue, according to Danya Chaikel, the ICC representative from the International Federation for Human Rights. \"The cases and investigations have been carried out by professionals,\" she told the AP.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's administration filed sanctions against Khan in February in relation to his Israel warrants. The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations at the court."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# ICC prosecutor Karim Khan steps aside pending outcome of sexual misconduct investigation\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 16th, 2025, 02:15 PM\n\n---\n\nBRUSSELS (AP) \u2014 The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stepped down temporarily pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court announced Friday.\n\nKarim Khan has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.\n\nThe ICC's announcement was welcomed by women's rights groups, who had called for Khan to step down after the allegations emerged last year.\n\n\"In any other professional setting, someone facing such serious allegations would have been expected to step down months ago,\" said Eimear Shine, a spokesperson for The Hague-based Women's Initiatives for Gender Justice.\n\nAn investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court's independent watchdog. That was a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges.\n\nThe watchdog said it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan himself wasn't questioned at the time.\n\nWhile the watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court's integrity.\n\nThe ICC statement on Friday said Khan \"communicated his decision to take leave until the end\" of an external investigation being carried by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N. internal watchdog.\n\nThe court's deputy prosecutors will be in charge of managing the prosecutor's office while Khan is on leave, the statement said.\n\nThe work of the court will continue, according to Danya Chaikel, the ICC representative from the International Federation for Human Rights. \"The cases and investigations have been carried out by professionals,\" she told the AP.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's administration filed sanctions against Khan in February in relation to his Israel warrants. The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations at the court."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c8a5ea9cfacdaf62c6cc3a1178af502231f2fbd8c1625b5ca873cae078ce1586", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# New Jersey Transit strike disrupts travel\n\nBy Bruce Shipkowski  \nMay 16th, 2025, 10:09 AM\n\n---\n\nTrain engineers in New Jersey's huge commuter rail system went on strike early Friday, leaving its 100,000 daily riders either working from home or seeking other means to transit the state or cross the Hudson River into New York City.\n\nPeople who normally rely on New Jersey Transit took to buses, cars, taxis and boats for the morning rush hour after trains ground to a halt at a minute past midnight.\n\nSome left extra early to avoid problems. A few, unaware that the strike was underway, showed up and waited for trains that weren't going to arrive.\n\nEarly indications were that the strike hadn't resulted in major traffic jams or epic lines to get onto buses. Friday's rail commute into New York from New Jersey is typically the lightest of the week.\n\nBut there was some confusion and extra costs as passengers tried to figure out alternate routes in a system that, besides helping New Jerseyans get to work or into Manhattan to see a Knicks game or a Broadway show, also helps New Yorkers get to Newark Airport or concerts at the Meadowlands.\n\nDavid Milosevich, a fashion and advertising casting director, was on his way to a photo shoot in Brooklyn. At 1 a.m. he checked his phone and saw the strike was on.\n\n\"I left home very early because of it,\" he said, grabbing the bus in Montclair, New Jersey, and arriving in Manhattan at 7 a.m. \"I think a lot of people don't come in on Fridays since COVID. I don't know what's going to happen Monday.\"\n\n## Strike comes after talks this week didn't result in a deal\n\nThe walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn't produce an agreement. It is the state's first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.\n\n\"We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock,\" said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.\n\nNJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri appeared Friday alongside Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy at a news conference. They said they got close to what the union was seeking on wages but raised concerns about the longer-term fiscal health of the transit agency.\n\n\"What's the point of giving you a pay raise if a couple of years from now your job is not going to exist?\" Kolluri said. \"That's sort of what we're talking about in the most plain and simple terms.\"\n\nGroups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said \"Locomotive Engineers on Strike\" and \"NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.\"\n\nBLET National President Mark Wallace walked the picket line outside New York City's Penn Station, and he said the engineers are committed to staying on strike until they get a fair deal. Union members were nearly unanimous in authorizing a strike last summer, and 87% of them rejected the latest agreement.\n\nWallace said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that's comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because engineers are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay,\n\nThe next talks are scheduled for Sunday with the help of federal mediators. The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington, and a mediator was present during Thursday's talks.\n\nThe union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 400. The engineers are responsible for operating trains, ensuring safe and smooth transport between stations,\n\n## Strike leaves some concerned, frustrated\n\nMany people were concerned not only with their morning commute but making sure they had a way to get home.\n\n\"When I come back home to New Jersey what do I do?\" nurse Pam Watkins, of Edison, asked an NJ Transit customer service helper on her way to work on Brooklyn on Friday morning.\n\nThe worker helped her punch through a touch screen that would help her use her commuter ticket for the bus back.\n\n\"I don't want to be figuring it out on my way home,\" she said.\n\nSome riders who were unaware of the strike learned what had happened as they waited at transit stations early Friday for trains that would not be coming. Others sought help to get to their destinations.\n\n\"How do I get to Newark (Liberty Airport)?\" entrepreneur Vishal Gondal, with a large red suitcase in tow, asked a reporter after trying to get a train ticket at an automated terminal. \"It has kind of messed up my plans\" he said, adding he was trying to get a flight to India.\n\nOne frustrated commuter, who works on a in a train yard for a rail freight company, had no sympathy for the engineers on strike, who he called \"greedy.\"\n\n\"They are not appreciative of what they have,\" said David Lopez, a track worker in a train yard as he was, trotting off the PATH train from New Jersey.\n\n\"Trains are never on time and they still complaining about funding,\" he said. Riders like him suffered the consequences of delays, he said, calling the striking workers \"greedy, greedy, greedy.\"\n\n## NJ governor says deal needs to be fair to employees and affordable\n\nMurphy said it was important to \"reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey's commuters and taxpayers.\"\n\nThe announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.\n\nNJ Transit \u2014 the nation's third-largest transit system \u2014 operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.\n\nThe agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add \"very limited\" capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday.\n\nAmid uncertainty ahead of the strike, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press reporters Cedar Attanasio and Larry Neumeister in New York, Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# New Jersey Transit strike disrupts travel\n\nBy Bruce Shipkowski  \nMay 16th, 2025, 10:09 AM\n\n---\n\nTrain engineers in New Jersey's huge commuter rail system went on strike early Friday, leaving its 100,000 daily riders either working from home or seeking other means to transit the state or cross the Hudson River into New York City.\n\nPeople who normally rely on New Jersey Transit took to buses, cars, taxis and boats for the morning rush hour after trains ground to a halt at a minute past midnight.\n\nSome left extra early to avoid problems. A few, unaware that the strike was underway, showed up and waited for trains that weren't going to arrive.\n\nEarly indications were that the strike hadn't resulted in major traffic jams or epic lines to get onto buses. Friday's rail commute into New York from New Jersey is typically the lightest of the week.\n\nBut there was some confusion and extra costs as passengers tried to figure out alternate routes in a system that, besides helping New Jerseyans get to work or into Manhattan to see a Knicks game or a Broadway show, also helps New Yorkers get to Newark Airport or concerts at the Meadowlands.\n\nDavid Milosevich, a fashion and advertising casting director, was on his way to a photo shoot in Brooklyn. At 1 a.m. he checked his phone and saw the strike was on.\n\n\"I left home very early because of it,\" he said, grabbing the bus in Montclair, New Jersey, and arriving in Manhattan at 7 a.m. \"I think a lot of people don't come in on Fridays since COVID. I don't know what's going to happen Monday.\"\n\n## Strike comes after talks this week didn't result in a deal\n\nThe walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn't produce an agreement. It is the state's first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.\n\n\"We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock,\" said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.\n\nNJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri appeared Friday alongside Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy at a news conference. They said they got close to what the union was seeking on wages but raised concerns about the longer-term fiscal health of the transit agency.\n\n\"What's the point of giving you a pay raise if a couple of years from now your job is not going to exist?\" Kolluri said. \"That's sort of what we're talking about in the most plain and simple terms.\"\n\nGroups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said \"Locomotive Engineers on Strike\" and \"NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.\"\n\nBLET National President Mark Wallace walked the picket line outside New York City's Penn Station, and he said the engineers are committed to staying on strike until they get a fair deal. Union members were nearly unanimous in authorizing a strike last summer, and 87% of them rejected the latest agreement.\n\nWallace said NJ Transit needs to pay engineers a wage that's comparable to Amtrak and Long Island Railroad because engineers are leaving for jobs on those other railroads for better pay,\n\nThe next talks are scheduled for Sunday with the help of federal mediators. The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington, and a mediator was present during Thursday's talks.\n\nThe union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 400. The engineers are responsible for operating trains, ensuring safe and smooth transport between stations,\n\n## Strike leaves some concerned, frustrated\n\nMany people were concerned not only with their morning commute but making sure they had a way to get home.\n\n\"When I come back home to New Jersey what do I do?\" nurse Pam Watkins, of Edison, asked an NJ Transit customer service helper on her way to work on Brooklyn on Friday morning.\n\nThe worker helped her punch through a touch screen that would help her use her commuter ticket for the bus back.\n\n\"I don't want to be figuring it out on my way home,\" she said.\n\nSome riders who were unaware of the strike learned what had happened as they waited at transit stations early Friday for trains that would not be coming. Others sought help to get to their destinations.\n\n\"How do I get to Newark (Liberty Airport)?\" entrepreneur Vishal Gondal, with a large red suitcase in tow, asked a reporter after trying to get a train ticket at an automated terminal. \"It has kind of messed up my plans\" he said, adding he was trying to get a flight to India.\n\nOne frustrated commuter, who works on a in a train yard for a rail freight company, had no sympathy for the engineers on strike, who he called \"greedy.\"\n\n\"They are not appreciative of what they have,\" said David Lopez, a track worker in a train yard as he was, trotting off the PATH train from New Jersey.\n\n\"Trains are never on time and they still complaining about funding,\" he said. Riders like him suffered the consequences of delays, he said, calling the striking workers \"greedy, greedy, greedy.\"\n\n## NJ governor says deal needs to be fair to employees and affordable\n\nMurphy said it was important to \"reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey's commuters and taxpayers.\"\n\nThe announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.\n\nNJ Transit \u2014 the nation's third-largest transit system \u2014 operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.\n\nThe agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add \"very limited\" capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday.\n\nAmid uncertainty ahead of the strike, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "14d41335eefb2ed4e6eec8e6233d37e77f7312351ebe5670deab1cd9cb0bd803", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Chilean woman with muscular dystrophy becomes face of euthanasia debate as bill stalls in Senate\n\nBy Nayara Batschke  \nMay 3rd, 2025, 05:08 AM\n\n---\n\nSANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 As a child, Susana Moreira didn't have the same energy as her siblings. Over time, her legs stopped walking and she lost the ability to bathe and take care of herself. Over the last two decades, the 41-year-old Chilean has spent her days bedridden, suffering from degenerative muscular dystrophy. When she finally loses her ability to speak or her lungs fail, she wants to be able to opt for euthanasia \u2014 which is currently prohibited in Chile.\n\nMoreira has become the public face of Chile's decade-long debate over euthanasia and assisted dying, a bill that the left-wing government of President Gabriel Boric has pledged to address in his last year in power, a critical period for its approval ahead of November's presidential election.\n\n\"This disease will progress, and I will reach a point where I won't be able to communicate,\" Moreira told The Associated Press from the house where she lives with her husband in southern Santiago. \"When the time comes, I need the euthanasia bill to be a law.\"\n\n## A debate spanning more than 10 years\n\nIn April 2021, Chile's Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to allow euthanasia and assisted suicide for those over 18 who suffer from a terminal or \"serious and incurable\" illness. But it has since been stalled in the Senate.\n\nThe initiative seeks to regulate euthanasia, in which a doctor administers a drug that causes death, and assisted suicide, in which a doctor provides a lethal substance that the patients take themselves.\n\nIf the bill passes, Chile will join a select group of countries that allow both euthanasia and assisted suicide, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain and Australia.\n\nIt would also make Chile the third Latin American country to rule on the matter, following Colombia's established regulations and Ecuador's recent decriminalization, which remains unimplemented due to a lack of regulation.\n\n## 'As long as my body allows me'\n\nWhen she was 8 years old, Moreira was diagnosed with shoulder-girdle muscular dystrophy, a progressive genetic disease that affects all her muscles and causes difficulty breathing, swallowing and extreme weakness.\n\nConfined to bed, she spends her days playing video games, reading and watching Harry Potter movies. Outings are rare and require preparation, as the intense pain only allows her three or four hours in the wheelchair. As the disease progressed, she said she felt the \"urgency\" to speak out in order to advance the discussion in Congress.\n\n\"I don't want to live plugged into machines, I don't want a tracheostomy, I don't want a feeding tube, I don't want a ventilator to breathe. I want to live as long as my body allows me,\" she said.\n\nIn a letter to President Boric last year, Moreira revealed her condition, detailed her daily struggles and asked him to authorize her euthanasia.\n\nBoric made Moreira's letter public to Congress in June and announced that passing the euthanasia bill would be a priority in his final year in office. \"Passing this law is an act of empathy, responsibility and respect,\" he said.\n\nBut hope soon gave way to uncertainty.\n\nAlmost a year after that announcement, multiple political upheavals have relegated Boric's promised social agenda to the background.\n\n## A change in mood\n\nChile, a country of roughly 19 million inhabitants at the southern tip of the southern hemisphere, began to debate euthanasia more than ten years ago. Despite a predominantly Catholic population and the strong influence of the Church at the time, Representative Vlado Mirosevic, from Chile's Liberal Party, first presented a bill for euthanasia and assisted dying in 2014.\n\nThe proposal was met with skepticism and strong resistance. Over the years, the bill underwent numerous modifications with little significant progress until 2021. \"Chile was then one of the most conservative countries in Latin America,\" Mirosevic told the AP.\n\nMore recently, however, public opinion has shifted, showing greater openness to debating thorny issues. \"There was a change in the mood,\" Mirosevic said, citing the rising support for the euthanasia bill among Chileans.\n\nIndeed, recent surveys show strong public support for euthanasia and assisted dying in Chile.\n\nAccording to a 2024 survey by Chilean public opinion pollster Cadem, 75% of those interviewed said they supported euthanasia, while a study by the Center for Public Studies from October found that 89% of Chileans believe euthanasia should \"always be allowed\" or \"allowed in special cases,\" compared to 11% who believed the procedure \"should never be allowed.\"\n\n## Suffering, 'the only certainty'\n\nBoric's commitment to the euthanasia bill has been welcomed by patients and families of those lost to terminal illnesses, including Fredy Maureira, a decade-long advocate for the right of choosing when to die.\n\nHis 14-year-old daughter Valentina went viral in 2015, after posting a video appealing to then-President Michelle Bachelet for euthanasia. Her request was denied, and she died less than two months later from complications of cystic fibrosis.\n\nThe commotion generated both inside and outside Chile by her story allowed the debate on assisted death to penetrate also into the social sphere.\n\n\"I addressed Congress several times, asking lawmakers to put themselves in the shoes of someone whose child or sibling is pleading to die, and there's no law to allow it,\" said Maureira.\n\nDespite growing public support, euthanasia and assisted death remains a contentious issue in Chile, including among health professionals.\n\n\"Only when all palliative care coverage is available and accessible, will it be time to sit down and discuss the euthanasia law,\" Irene Mu\u00f1oz Pino, a nurse, academic and advisor to the Chilean Scientific Society of Palliative Nursing, said. She was referring to a recent law, enacted in 2022, that ensures palliative care and protects the rights of terminally ill individuals.\n\nOthers argue that the absence of a legal medical option for assisted dying could lead patients to seek other riskier, unsupervised alternatives.\n\n\"Unfortunately, I keep hearing about suicides that could have been instances of medically assisted death or euthanasia,\" said Colombian psychologist Monica Giraldo.\n\nWith only a few months remaining, Chile's leftist government faces a narrow window to pass the euthanasia bill before the November presidential elections dominate the political agenda.\n\n\"A sick person isn't certain of anything; the only certainty they have is that they will suffer,\" Moreira said. \"Knowing that I have the opportunity to choose, gives me peace of mind.\"\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Chilean woman with muscular dystrophy becomes face of euthanasia debate as bill stalls in Senate\n\nBy Nayara Batschke  \nMay 3rd, 2025, 05:08 AM\n\n---\n\nSANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 As a child, Susana Moreira didn't have the same energy as her siblings. Over time, her legs stopped walking and she lost the ability to bathe and take care of herself. Over the last two decades, the 41-year-old Chilean has spent her days bedridden, suffering from degenerative muscular dystrophy. When she finally loses her ability to speak or her lungs fail, she wants to be able to opt for euthanasia \u2014 which is currently prohibited in Chile.\n\nMoreira has become the public face of Chile's decade-long debate over euthanasia and assisted dying, a bill that the left-wing government of President Gabriel Boric has pledged to address in his last year in power, a critical period for its approval ahead of November's presidential election.\n\n\"This disease will progress, and I will reach a point where I won't be able to communicate,\" Moreira told The Associated Press from the house where she lives with her husband in southern Santiago. \"When the time comes, I need the euthanasia bill to be a law.\"\n\n## A debate spanning more than 10 years\n\nIn April 2021, Chile's Chamber of Deputies approved a bill to allow euthanasia and assisted suicide for those over 18 who suffer from a terminal or \"serious and incurable\" illness. But it has since been stalled in the Senate.\n\nThe initiative seeks to regulate euthanasia, in which a doctor administers a drug that causes death, and assisted suicide, in which a doctor provides a lethal substance that the patients take themselves.\n\nIf the bill passes, Chile will join a select group of countries that allow both euthanasia and assisted suicide, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Spain and Australia.\n\nIt would also make Chile the third Latin American country to rule on the matter, following Colombia's established regulations and Ecuador's recent decriminalization, which remains unimplemented due to a lack of regulation.\n\n## 'As long as my body allows me'\n\nWhen she was 8 years old, Moreira was diagnosed with shoulder-girdle muscular dystrophy, a progressive genetic disease that affects all her muscles and causes difficulty breathing, swallowing and extreme weakness.\n\nConfined to bed, she spends her days playing video games, reading and watching Harry Potter movies. Outings are rare and require preparation, as the intense pain only allows her three or four hours in the wheelchair. As the disease progressed, she said she felt the \"urgency\" to speak out in order to advance the discussion in Congress.\n\n\"I don't want to live plugged into machines, I don't want a tracheostomy, I don't want a feeding tube, I don't want a ventilator to breathe. I want to live as long as my body allows me,\" she said.\n\nIn a letter to President Boric last year, Moreira revealed her condition, detailed her daily struggles and asked him to authorize her euthanasia.\n\nBoric made Moreira's letter public to Congress in June and announced that passing the euthanasia bill would be a priority in his final year in office. \"Passing this law is an act of empathy, responsibility and respect,\" he said.\n\nBut hope soon gave way to uncertainty.\n\nAlmost a year after that announcement, multiple political upheavals have relegated Boric's promised social agenda to the background.\n\n## A change in mood\n\nChile, a country of roughly 19 million inhabitants at the southern tip of the southern hemisphere, began to debate euthanasia more than ten years ago. Despite a predominantly Catholic population and the strong influence of the Church at the time, Representative Vlado Mirosevic, from Chile's Liberal Party, first presented a bill for euthanasia and assisted dying in 2014.\n\nThe proposal was met with skepticism and strong resistance. Over the years, the bill underwent numerous modifications with little significant progress until 2021. \"Chile was then one of the most conservative countries in Latin America,\" Mirosevic told the AP.\n\nMore recently, however, public opinion has shifted, showing greater openness to debating thorny issues. \"There was a change in the mood,\" Mirosevic said, citing the rising support for the euthanasia bill among Chileans.\n\nIndeed, recent surveys show strong public support for euthanasia and assisted dying in Chile.\n\nAccording to a 2024 survey by Chilean public opinion pollster Cadem, 75% of those interviewed said they supported euthanasia, while a study by the Center for Public Studies from October found that 89% of Chileans believe euthanasia should \"always be allowed\" or \"allowed in special cases,\" compared to 11% who believed the procedure \"should never be allowed.\"\n\n## Suffering, 'the only certainty'\n\nBoric's commitment to the euthanasia bill has been welcomed by patients and families of those lost to terminal illnesses, including Fredy Maureira, a decade-long advocate for the right of choosing when to die.\n\nHis 14-year-old daughter Valentina went viral in 2015, after posting a video appealing to then-President Michelle Bachelet for euthanasia. Her request was denied, and she died less than two months later from complications of cystic fibrosis.\n\nThe commotion generated both inside and outside Chile by her story allowed the debate on assisted death to penetrate also into the social sphere.\n\n\"I addressed Congress several times, asking lawmakers to put themselves in the shoes of someone whose child or sibling is pleading to die, and there's no law to allow it,\" said Maureira.\n\nDespite growing public support, euthanasia and assisted death remains a contentious issue in Chile, including among health professionals.\n\n\"Only when all palliative care coverage is available and accessible, will it be time to sit down and discuss the euthanasia law,\" Irene Mu\u00f1oz Pino, a nurse, academic and advisor to the Chilean Scientific Society of Palliative Nursing, said. She was referring to a recent law, enacted in 2022, that ensures palliative care and protects the rights of terminally ill individuals.\n\nOthers argue that the absence of a legal medical option for assisted dying could lead patients to seek other riskier, unsupervised alternatives.\n\n\"Unfortunately, I keep hearing about suicides that could have been instances of medically assisted death or euthanasia,\" said Colombian psychologist Monica Giraldo.\n\nWith only a few months remaining, Chile's leftist government faces a narrow window to pass the euthanasia bill before the November presidential elections dominate the political agenda.\n\n\"A sick person isn't certain of anything; the only certainty they have is that they will suffer,\" Moreira said. \"Knowing that I have the opportunity to choose, gives me peace of mind.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "17a95d1383a423cf741651df4e99f21055664d847adc7bc2c93925a3aaada874", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Portugal headed for another minority government after vote won by incumbent center-right party\n\nBy Barry Hatton and Helena Alves  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:14 AM\n\n---\n\nLISBON, Portugal (AP) \u2014 Portugal was headed for yet another minority government after the incumbent center-right Democratic Alliance won a general election but failed to secure a majority in Parliament in a vote that saw surge by a hard-right populist party.\n\nDemocratic Alliance leader Luis Montenegro, the incumbent prime minister, said he was willing to discuss solutions with other parties.\n\nPortugal's third general election in three years Sunday dashed hopes that the ballot could end the worst spell of political instability for decades in the European Union country of 10.6 million people.\n\nAdding uncertainty to Portugal's electoral climate, a surge in support for the Chega, or Enough, meant the hard-right party may yet claim second place with its focus on curbing immigration and cracking down on corruption, challenging the center-left socialists as Portugal's second-biggest party.\n\nWith 99.2% of votes counted, the Democratic Alliance captured at least 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal's Parliament. It had been in power for less than a year when it was ousted in a confidence vote in March. It collected 80 seats in last year's election and served as a minority government.\n\n## Democratic Alliance leader open to deals\n\nMontenegro indicated he would be open to political deals with opposition parties.\n\n\"We all have to be able to speak to each other and put the national interest first,\" he said in a post-election speech to supporters.\n\nSeven smaller parties also won seats.\n\nWithout a majority of seats the Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, can try to recruit support from smaller parties, currently seen as unlikely, or take office as a minority government as it did during its last term. That leaves it at the mercy of opposition parties combining to bring it down, as happened two months ago.\n\nPublic frustration with Portugal's main parties has brought an increasingly fragmented political landscape and defied efforts to unite behind policies on pressing national issues such as immigration, housing and the cost of living.\n\nIn a dramatic demonstration of the changing complexion of Portuguese politics, support for the populist party Chega surged once again. It collected at least 58 seats, up from 50 seats last year, and is challenging the center-left socialists as Portugal's second-biggest party.\n\nChega competed in its first election just six years ago, when it won one seat, and has fed off disaffection with the more moderate traditional parties. Campaigning under the slogan \"Save Portugal,\" it describes itself as a nationalist party and has drawn on the popularity of its leader, lawyer and former soccer pundit Andre Ventura.\n\n\"This is my moment,\" Ventura said. \"It's a great victory for Chega.\"\n\nHe opened the door to an understanding with the Democratic Alliance, saying the country needs stability.\n\nFor the past 50 years, the Social Democrats and the Socialist Party have alternated in power.\n\nThe socialists were contemplating possibly their worst result since 1987, also gaining 58 seats. Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos announced he was standing down.\n\n## The center-right alliance led opinion polls\n\nThe Democratic Alliance, which also includes the smaller Popular Party, lost a confidence vote in parliament in March after less than a year in power, as opposition lawmakers teamed up against it. That triggered an early election, which had been due in 2028.\n\nThe confidence vote was sparked by a political storm around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Social Democratic Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro's family law firm. Montenegro has denied any wrongdoing and is standing for reelection.\n\nCorruption scandals have dogged Portuguese politics in recent years. That has helped fuel the rise of Chega, whose leader Ventura says he has \"zero tolerance\" for misconduct in office.\n\nBut Chega has recently fallen foul of its own lawmakers' alleged wrongdoing.\n\nOne is suspected of stealing suitcases from the Lisbon airport and selling the contents online, and another allegedly faked the signature of a dead woman. Both resigned.\n\n## Immigration and housing are key issues\n\nChega owes much of its success to its demands for a tighter immigration policy that have resonated with voters.\n\nPortugal has witnessed a steep rise in immigration. In 2018, there were fewer than a half-million legal immigrants in the country, according to government statistics. By early this year, there were more than 1.5 million, many of them Brazilians and Asians working in tourism and farming.\n\nThousands more lack the proper documents to be in Portugal. The outgoing government announced two weeks before the election that it was expelling about 18,000 foreigners living in the country without authorization. Though such a step is routine, the timing drew accusations that it was trying to capture votes from Chega.\n\nSocialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, who is also standing for prime minister, described the move as a \"Trumpification\" of Portuguese politics, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's focus on immigration policies.\n\nA housing crisis has also fired up debate. House prices and rents have been soaring for the past 10 years, due in part to an influx of white-collar foreigners who have driven up prices.\n\nHouse prices jumped another 9% last year, said the National Statistics Institute, a government body. Rents in and around the capital Lisbon, where around 1.5 million people live, last year saw the steepest rise in 30 years, climbing more than 7%, the institute said.\n\nThe problem is compounded by Portugal being one of Western Europe's poorest countries. The average monthly salary last year was around 1,200 euros ($1,340) before tax, according to the statistics agency."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Portugal headed for another minority government after vote won by incumbent center-right party\n\nBy Barry Hatton and Helena Alves  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:14 AM\n\n---\n\nLISBON, Portugal (AP) \u2014 Portugal was headed for yet another minority government after the incumbent center-right Democratic Alliance won a general election but failed to secure a majority in Parliament in a vote that saw surge by a hard-right populist party.\n\nDemocratic Alliance leader Luis Montenegro, the incumbent prime minister, said he was willing to discuss solutions with other parties.\n\nPortugal's third general election in three years Sunday dashed hopes that the ballot could end the worst spell of political instability for decades in the European Union country of 10.6 million people.\n\nAdding uncertainty to Portugal's electoral climate, a surge in support for the Chega, or Enough, meant the hard-right party may yet claim second place with its focus on curbing immigration and cracking down on corruption, challenging the center-left socialists as Portugal's second-biggest party.\n\nWith 99.2% of votes counted, the Democratic Alliance captured at least 89 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal's Parliament. It had been in power for less than a year when it was ousted in a confidence vote in March. It collected 80 seats in last year's election and served as a minority government.\n\n## Democratic Alliance leader open to deals\n\nMontenegro indicated he would be open to political deals with opposition parties.\n\n\"We all have to be able to speak to each other and put the national interest first,\" he said in a post-election speech to supporters.\n\nSeven smaller parties also won seats.\n\nWithout a majority of seats the Democratic Alliance, led by the Social Democratic Party, can try to recruit support from smaller parties, currently seen as unlikely, or take office as a minority government as it did during its last term. That leaves it at the mercy of opposition parties combining to bring it down, as happened two months ago.\n\nPublic frustration with Portugal's main parties has brought an increasingly fragmented political landscape and defied efforts to unite behind policies on pressing national issues such as immigration, housing and the cost of living.\n\nIn a dramatic demonstration of the changing complexion of Portuguese politics, support for the populist party Chega surged once again. It collected at least 58 seats, up from 50 seats last year, and is challenging the center-left socialists as Portugal's second-biggest party.\n\nChega competed in its first election just six years ago, when it won one seat, and has fed off disaffection with the more moderate traditional parties. Campaigning under the slogan \"Save Portugal,\" it describes itself as a nationalist party and has drawn on the popularity of its leader, lawyer and former soccer pundit Andre Ventura.\n\n\"This is my moment,\" Ventura said. \"It's a great victory for Chega.\"\n\nHe opened the door to an understanding with the Democratic Alliance, saying the country needs stability.\n\nFor the past 50 years, the Social Democrats and the Socialist Party have alternated in power.\n\nThe socialists were contemplating possibly their worst result since 1987, also gaining 58 seats. Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos announced he was standing down.\n\n## The center-right alliance led opinion polls\n\nThe Democratic Alliance, which also includes the smaller Popular Party, lost a confidence vote in parliament in March after less than a year in power, as opposition lawmakers teamed up against it. That triggered an early election, which had been due in 2028.\n\nThe confidence vote was sparked by a political storm around potential conflicts of interest in the business dealings of Social Democratic Prime Minister Lu\u00eds Montenegro's family law firm. Montenegro has denied any wrongdoing and is standing for reelection.\n\nCorruption scandals have dogged Portuguese politics in recent years. That has helped fuel the rise of Chega, whose leader Ventura says he has \"zero tolerance\" for misconduct in office.\n\nBut Chega has recently fallen foul of its own lawmakers' alleged wrongdoing.\n\nOne is suspected of stealing suitcases from the Lisbon airport and selling the contents online, and another allegedly faked the signature of a dead woman. Both resigned.\n\n## Immigration and housing are key issues\n\nChega owes much of its success to its demands for a tighter immigration policy that have resonated with voters.\n\nPortugal has witnessed a steep rise in immigration. In 2018, there were fewer than a half-million legal immigrants in the country, according to government statistics. By early this year, there were more than 1.5 million, many of them Brazilians and Asians working in tourism and farming.\n\nThousands more lack the proper documents to be in Portugal. The outgoing government announced two weeks before the election that it was expelling about 18,000 foreigners living in the country without authorization. Though such a step is routine, the timing drew accusations that it was trying to capture votes from Chega.\n\nSocialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos, who is also standing for prime minister, described the move as a \"Trumpification\" of Portuguese politics, referring to U.S. President Donald Trump's focus on immigration policies.\n\nA housing crisis has also fired up debate. House prices and rents have been soaring for the past 10 years, due in part to an influx of white-collar foreigners who have driven up prices.\n\nHouse prices jumped another 9% last year, said the National Statistics Institute, a government body. Rents in and around the capital Lisbon, where around 1.5 million people live, last year saw the steepest rise in 30 years, climbing more than 7%, the institute said.\n\nThe problem is compounded by Portugal being one of Western Europe's poorest countries. The average monthly salary last year was around 1,200 euros ($1,340) before tax, according to the statistics agency."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "376dfed652cf69ed7eb37c4108db7d2ca740d5910ff01366f45ac6930a4e34b0", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Indigenous fashion week in Santa Fe, New Mexico, explores heritage in silk and hides\n\nBy Morgan Lee  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:56 PM\n\n---\n\nSANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Fashion designers from across North America are bringing together inspiration from their Indigenous heritage, culture and everyday lives to three days of runway modeling that started Friday in a leading creative hub and marketplace for Indigenous art.\n\nA fashion show affiliated with the century-old Santa Fe Indian Market is collaborating this year with a counterpart from Vancouver, Canada, in a spirit of Indigenous solidarity and artistic freedom. A second, independent runway show at a rail yard district in the city has nearly doubled the bustle of models, makeup and final fittings.\n\nElements of Friday's collections from six Native designers ran the gamut from silk parasols to a quilted hoodie, knee-high fur boots and suede leather earrings that dangled to the waste. Models on the Santa Fe catwalks include professionals, dancers and Indigenous celebrities from TV and the political sphere.\n\nClothing and accessories rely on materials ranging from of wool trade cloth to animal hides, featuring traditional beadwork, ribbons and jewelry with some contemporary twists that include digitally rendered designs and urban Native American streetwear from Phoenix.\n\n\"Native fashion, it's telling a story about our understanding of who we are individually and then within our communities,\" said Taos Pueblo fashion designer Patricia Michaels, of \"Project Runway\" reality TV fame. \"You're getting designers from North America that are here to express a lot of what inspires them from their own heritage and culture.\"\n\n## Santa Fe style\n\nThe stand-alone spring fashion week for Indigenous design is a recent outgrowth of haute couture at the summer Santa Fe Indian Market, where teeming crowds flock to outdoor displays by individual sculptors, potters, jewelers and painters.\n\nDesigner Sage Mountainflower remembers playing in the streets at Indian Market as a child in the 1980s while her artist parents sold paintings and beadwork. She forged a different career in environmental administration, but the world of high fashion called to her as she sewed tribal regalia for her children at home and, eventually, brought international recognition.\n\nAt age 50, Mountainflower on Friday presented her \"Taandi\" collection \u2014 the Tewa word for \"Spring\" \u2014 grounded in satin and chiffon fabric that includes embroidery patterns that invoke her personal and family heritage at the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.\n\n\"I pay attention to trends, but a lot of it's just what I like,\" said Mountainflower, who also traces her heritage to Taos Pueblo and the Navajo Nation. \"This year it's actually just looking at springtime and how it's evolving. \u2026 It's going to be a colorful collection.\"\n\nMore than 20 designers are presenting at the invitation of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts.\n\nFashion plays a prominent part in Santa Fe's renowned arts ecosystem, with Native American vendors each day selling jewelry in the central plaza, while the Institute for American Indian Arts delivers fashion-related college degrees in May.\n\nThis week, a gala at the New Mexico governor's mansion welcomed fashion designers to town, along with social mixers at local galleries and bookstores and plans for pop-up fashion stores to sell clothes fresh off the fashion runway.\n\n## International vision\n\nA full-scale collaboration with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week is bringing a northern, First Nations flair to the gathering this year with many designers crossing into the U.S. from Canada.\n\nSecw\u00e9pemc artist and fashion designer Randi Nelson traveled to Santa Fe from the city of Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon to present collections forged from fur and traditionally cured hides \u2014 she uses primarily elk and caribou. The leather is tanned by hand without chemicals using inherited techniques and tools.\n\n\"We're all so different,\" said Nelson, a member of the Bonaparte/St'uxwt\u00e9ws First Nation who started her career in jewelry assembled from quills, shells and beads. \"There's not one pan-Indigenous theme or pan-Indigenous look. We're all taking from our individual nations, our individual teachings, the things from our family, but then also recreating them in a new and modern way.\"\n\nApril Allen, an Inuk designer from the Nunatsiavut community on the Labrador coast of Canada, presented a mesh dress of blue water droplets. Her work delves into themes of nature and social advocacy for access to clean drinking water.\n\nVocal music accompanied the collection \u2014 layers of wordless, primal sound from musician and runway model Beatrice Deer, who is Inuit and Mohawk.\n\n## Urban Indian couture\n\nPhoenix-based jeweler and designer Jeremy Donavan Arviso said the runway shows in Santa Fe are attempting to break out of the strictly Southwest fashion mold and become a global venue for Native design and collaboration. A panel discussion Thursday dwelled on the threat of new tariffs and prices for fashion supplies \u2014 and tensions between disposable fast fashion and Indigenous ideals.\n\nArviso is bringing a street-smart aesthetic to two shows at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts runway and a warehouse venue organized by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, from the Siksika Nation.\n\n\"My work is definitely contemporary, I don't choose a whole lot of ceremonial or ancestral practices in my work,\" said Arviso, who is Din\u00e9, Hopi, Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham, and grew up in Phoenix. \"I didn't grow up like that. \u2026 I grew up on the streets.\"\n\nArviso said his approach to fashion resembles music sampling by early rap musicians as he draws on themes from major fashion brands and elements of his own tribal cultures. He invited Toronto-based ballet dancer Madison Noon for a \"beautiful and biting\" performance to introduce his collection titled Vision Quest.\n\nSanta Fe runway models will include former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo, adorned with clothing from Michaels and jewelry by Zuni Pueblo silversmith Veronica Poblano."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Indigenous fashion week in Santa Fe, New Mexico, explores heritage in silk and hides\n\nBy Morgan Lee  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:56 PM\n\n---\n\nSANTA FE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Fashion designers from across North America are bringing together inspiration from their Indigenous heritage, culture and everyday lives to three days of runway modeling that started Friday in a leading creative hub and marketplace for Indigenous art.\n\nA fashion show affiliated with the century-old Santa Fe Indian Market is collaborating this year with a counterpart from Vancouver, Canada, in a spirit of Indigenous solidarity and artistic freedom. A second, independent runway show at a rail yard district in the city has nearly doubled the bustle of models, makeup and final fittings.\n\nElements of Friday's collections from six Native designers ran the gamut from silk parasols to a quilted hoodie, knee-high fur boots and suede leather earrings that dangled to the waste. Models on the Santa Fe catwalks include professionals, dancers and Indigenous celebrities from TV and the political sphere.\n\nClothing and accessories rely on materials ranging from of wool trade cloth to animal hides, featuring traditional beadwork, ribbons and jewelry with some contemporary twists that include digitally rendered designs and urban Native American streetwear from Phoenix.\n\n\"Native fashion, it's telling a story about our understanding of who we are individually and then within our communities,\" said Taos Pueblo fashion designer Patricia Michaels, of \"Project Runway\" reality TV fame. \"You're getting designers from North America that are here to express a lot of what inspires them from their own heritage and culture.\"\n\n## Santa Fe style\n\nThe stand-alone spring fashion week for Indigenous design is a recent outgrowth of haute couture at the summer Santa Fe Indian Market, where teeming crowds flock to outdoor displays by individual sculptors, potters, jewelers and painters.\n\nDesigner Sage Mountainflower remembers playing in the streets at Indian Market as a child in the 1980s while her artist parents sold paintings and beadwork. She forged a different career in environmental administration, but the world of high fashion called to her as she sewed tribal regalia for her children at home and, eventually, brought international recognition.\n\nAt age 50, Mountainflower on Friday presented her \"Taandi\" collection \u2014 the Tewa word for \"Spring\" \u2014 grounded in satin and chiffon fabric that includes embroidery patterns that invoke her personal and family heritage at the Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo in the Upper Rio Grande Valley.\n\n\"I pay attention to trends, but a lot of it's just what I like,\" said Mountainflower, who also traces her heritage to Taos Pueblo and the Navajo Nation. \"This year it's actually just looking at springtime and how it's evolving. \u2026 It's going to be a colorful collection.\"\n\nMore than 20 designers are presenting at the invitation of the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts.\n\nFashion plays a prominent part in Santa Fe's renowned arts ecosystem, with Native American vendors each day selling jewelry in the central plaza, while the Institute for American Indian Arts delivers fashion-related college degrees in May.\n\nThis week, a gala at the New Mexico governor's mansion welcomed fashion designers to town, along with social mixers at local galleries and bookstores and plans for pop-up fashion stores to sell clothes fresh off the fashion runway.\n\n## International vision\n\nA full-scale collaboration with Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week is bringing a northern, First Nations flair to the gathering this year with many designers crossing into the U.S. from Canada.\n\nSecw\u00e9pemc artist and fashion designer Randi Nelson traveled to Santa Fe from the city of Whitehorse in the Canadian Yukon to present collections forged from fur and traditionally cured hides \u2014 she uses primarily elk and caribou. The leather is tanned by hand without chemicals using inherited techniques and tools.\n\n\"We're all so different,\" said Nelson, a member of the Bonaparte/St'uxwt\u00e9ws First Nation who started her career in jewelry assembled from quills, shells and beads. \"There's not one pan-Indigenous theme or pan-Indigenous look. We're all taking from our individual nations, our individual teachings, the things from our family, but then also recreating them in a new and modern way.\"\n\nApril Allen, an Inuk designer from the Nunatsiavut community on the Labrador coast of Canada, presented a mesh dress of blue water droplets. Her work delves into themes of nature and social advocacy for access to clean drinking water.\n\nVocal music accompanied the collection \u2014 layers of wordless, primal sound from musician and runway model Beatrice Deer, who is Inuit and Mohawk.\n\n## Urban Indian couture\n\nPhoenix-based jeweler and designer Jeremy Donavan Arviso said the runway shows in Santa Fe are attempting to break out of the strictly Southwest fashion mold and become a global venue for Native design and collaboration. A panel discussion Thursday dwelled on the threat of new tariffs and prices for fashion supplies \u2014 and tensions between disposable fast fashion and Indigenous ideals.\n\nArviso is bringing a street-smart aesthetic to two shows at the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts runway and a warehouse venue organized by Amber-Dawn Bear Robe, from the Siksika Nation.\n\n\"My work is definitely contemporary, I don't choose a whole lot of ceremonial or ancestral practices in my work,\" said Arviso, who is Din\u00e9, Hopi, Akimel O'odham and Tohono O'odham, and grew up in Phoenix. \"I didn't grow up like that. \u2026 I grew up on the streets.\"\n\nArviso said his approach to fashion resembles music sampling by early rap musicians as he draws on themes from major fashion brands and elements of his own tribal cultures. He invited Toronto-based ballet dancer Madison Noon for a \"beautiful and biting\" performance to introduce his collection titled Vision Quest.\n\nSanta Fe runway models will include former U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland of Laguna Pueblo, adorned with clothing from Michaels and jewelry by Zuni Pueblo silversmith Veronica Poblano."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "f17d3f21f867fda70e2bb74a49e1bcc69a86a5df557ff8842df531497bc74e63", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Expedition organizers say 2 climbers have died on Mount Everest\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 08:53 AM\n\n---\n\nKATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) \u2014 An Indian and a Filipino climber have died while climbing Mount Everest as hundreds of climbers are attempting to scale the world's highest peak, expedition organizers said Friday.\n\nThe Indian climber, identified as Subrata Ghosh, died on Thursday just below the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit of the peak while he was returning from the top.\n\nThe other climber, identified as Philipp Santiago, 45, from the Philippines, died Wednesday while he was headed to the summit. He had reached Camp 4, which is the highest camp on the mountain, and was preparing for the final bid to reach the summit.\n\nBodha Raj Bhandari of the Nepal-based Snowy Horizon Trek and Expedition, which equipped and organized the expedition, said the bodies were still on the mountain and it was yet to be decided if and when they would be brought down.\n\nRetrieving bodies is both expensive and difficult as it takes many people to drag them down the icy slopes of the mountain.\n\nThe spring climbing season began in March and ends at the end of May.\n\nMay is the best month to climb the peak and climbers get only a few opportunities when the weather conditions improve, allowing just time for them to try attempt scale the peak.\n\nEverest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. More than 300 people have died on Everest since then."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Expedition organizers say 2 climbers have died on Mount Everest\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 08:53 AM\n\n---\n\nKATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) \u2014 An Indian and a Filipino climber have died while climbing Mount Everest as hundreds of climbers are attempting to scale the world's highest peak, expedition organizers said Friday.\n\nThe Indian climber, identified as Subrata Ghosh, died on Thursday just below the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) summit of the peak while he was returning from the top.\n\nThe other climber, identified as Philipp Santiago, 45, from the Philippines, died Wednesday while he was headed to the summit. He had reached Camp 4, which is the highest camp on the mountain, and was preparing for the final bid to reach the summit.\n\nBodha Raj Bhandari of the Nepal-based Snowy Horizon Trek and Expedition, which equipped and organized the expedition, said the bodies were still on the mountain and it was yet to be decided if and when they would be brought down.\n\nRetrieving bodies is both expensive and difficult as it takes many people to drag them down the icy slopes of the mountain.\n\nThe spring climbing season began in March and ends at the end of May.\n\nMay is the best month to climb the peak and climbers get only a few opportunities when the weather conditions improve, allowing just time for them to try attempt scale the peak.\n\nEverest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. More than 300 people have died on Everest since then."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6dc5e95d9ab6cbc68b82e5e0c3305d01dc446ede1d29808311819e0d41e3ca2f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# China rolls out more stimulus and agrees to trade talks with the US as tariffs hit economy\n\nBy Ken Moritsugu and Elaine Kurtenbach  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:24 AM\n\n---\n\nBEIJING (AP) \u2014 China announced a barrage of measures meant to counter the blow to its economy from U.S. President Donald Trump 's trade war, as the two sides prepared for talks later this week.\n\nBeijing's central bank governor and other top financial officials outlined plans Wednesday to cut interest rates and reduce bank reserve requirements to help free up more funding for lending. They also said the government would increase the amount of money available for factory upgrades and other innovation and for elder care and other service businesses.\n\nTrump's tariffs, set as high as 145% on imports from China, have begun to take a toll on its export-dependent economy at a time when it's already under pressure from a prolonged downturn in the property sector. China has retaliated with tariff hikes of up to 125% on U.S. goods and stopped buying most American farm products.\n\nLate Tuesday, China and the U.S. announced plans for talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng later this week in Geneva, Switzerland.\n\nThe agreement to talk comes at a time when both sides have remained adamant, at least in public, about not compromising on the tariffs.\n\n\"The U.S. has recently expressed a desire to negotiate with China. This meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,\" Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.\n\n\"Any form of pressure or coercion against China will not work,\" Lin said. \"China will firmly safeguard its legitimate interests and uphold international fairness and justice. Please stay tuned for the specific details of the dialogue.\"\n\nBy easing credit, China's leaders are providing a \"policy buffer\" for exporters as Beijing prepares for the talks, economists at ANZ Research said in a report.\n\n\"The authorities are prepared to have a protracted negotiation and hold a strong stance against protectionism,\" the report said.\n\nBoth the U.S. and Chinese economies have been showing signs of strain, after a spurt of activity as companies and consumers rushed to beat the tariff hikes.\n\nThe meetings in Switzerland could offer an opportunity for both sides to dial down the current prohibitively high level of tariffs, which Bessent has described as unsustainable, while they work on a deal. But the process is likely to take time.\n\n\"A durable resolution remains elusive, in our view, given the wide scope of issues in the bilateral relationship,\" Morgan Stanley said in a commentary.\n\nThe U.S. economy contracted by 0.3% in January-March. The Chinese economy grew at a 5.4% annual pace in the first quarter of the year, as factories ramped up production to fill a spike in orders. But economists question the validity of the statistics, and more recent reports show a deterioration in new export orders and business sentiment.\n\nAmong the support measures announced by China on Wednesday:\n\nPeople's Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng said China's reverse repo rate, the rate on commercial banks' deposits with the central bank, was reduced to 1.4% from 1.5%.\n\nThe PBOC's lending rate to commercial banks was cut by 0.25 percentage points to 1.5%.\n\nThe required reserve ratio, or portion of funds banks must hold in their reserves, was cut by 0.5%. Pan said that would free up 1 trillion yuan ($137.6 billion) in extra cash.\n\nThe central bank also reduced interest rates on five-year housing loans.\n\nFinancial markets have been reeling as the world's two largest economies remained embroiled in the trade standoff.\n\nThe news of the extra boost for the economy and markets, plus the plans for China-U.S. trade talks, initially pushed share prices higher in Hong Kong and Shanghai early Wednesday. Shanghai's benchmark Composite index built on those gains, but the rally faded in Hong Kong.\n\nA key factor dragging on the economy is a lack of consumer and business demand, and easing lending conditions will not necessarily change that, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report, adding that \"today's moves are no substitute for an expansion in fiscal support.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# China rolls out more stimulus and agrees to trade talks with the US as tariffs hit economy\n\nBy Ken Moritsugu and Elaine Kurtenbach  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:24 AM\n\n---\n\nBEIJING (AP) \u2014 China announced a barrage of measures meant to counter the blow to its economy from U.S. President Donald Trump 's trade war, as the two sides prepared for talks later this week.\n\nBeijing's central bank governor and other top financial officials outlined plans Wednesday to cut interest rates and reduce bank reserve requirements to help free up more funding for lending. They also said the government would increase the amount of money available for factory upgrades and other innovation and for elder care and other service businesses.\n\nTrump's tariffs, set as high as 145% on imports from China, have begun to take a toll on its export-dependent economy at a time when it's already under pressure from a prolonged downturn in the property sector. China has retaliated with tariff hikes of up to 125% on U.S. goods and stopped buying most American farm products.\n\nLate Tuesday, China and the U.S. announced plans for talks between Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng later this week in Geneva, Switzerland.\n\nThe agreement to talk comes at a time when both sides have remained adamant, at least in public, about not compromising on the tariffs.\n\n\"The U.S. has recently expressed a desire to negotiate with China. This meeting is being held at the request of the U.S. side,\" Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters in Beijing.\n\n\"Any form of pressure or coercion against China will not work,\" Lin said. \"China will firmly safeguard its legitimate interests and uphold international fairness and justice. Please stay tuned for the specific details of the dialogue.\"\n\nBy easing credit, China's leaders are providing a \"policy buffer\" for exporters as Beijing prepares for the talks, economists at ANZ Research said in a report.\n\n\"The authorities are prepared to have a protracted negotiation and hold a strong stance against protectionism,\" the report said.\n\nBoth the U.S. and Chinese economies have been showing signs of strain, after a spurt of activity as companies and consumers rushed to beat the tariff hikes.\n\nThe meetings in Switzerland could offer an opportunity for both sides to dial down the current prohibitively high level of tariffs, which Bessent has described as unsustainable, while they work on a deal. But the process is likely to take time.\n\n\"A durable resolution remains elusive, in our view, given the wide scope of issues in the bilateral relationship,\" Morgan Stanley said in a commentary.\n\nThe U.S. economy contracted by 0.3% in January-March. The Chinese economy grew at a 5.4% annual pace in the first quarter of the year, as factories ramped up production to fill a spike in orders. But economists question the validity of the statistics, and more recent reports show a deterioration in new export orders and business sentiment.\n\nAmong the support measures announced by China on Wednesday:\n\nPeople's Bank of China Gov. Pan Gongsheng said China's reverse repo rate, the rate on commercial banks' deposits with the central bank, was reduced to 1.4% from 1.5%.\n\nThe PBOC's lending rate to commercial banks was cut by 0.25 percentage points to 1.5%.\n\nThe required reserve ratio, or portion of funds banks must hold in their reserves, was cut by 0.5%. Pan said that would free up 1 trillion yuan ($137.6 billion) in extra cash.\n\nThe central bank also reduced interest rates on five-year housing loans.\n\nFinancial markets have been reeling as the world's two largest economies remained embroiled in the trade standoff.\n\nThe news of the extra boost for the economy and markets, plus the plans for China-U.S. trade talks, initially pushed share prices higher in Hong Kong and Shanghai early Wednesday. Shanghai's benchmark Composite index built on those gains, but the rally faded in Hong Kong.\n\nA key factor dragging on the economy is a lack of consumer and business demand, and easing lending conditions will not necessarily change that, Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report, adding that \"today's moves are no substitute for an expansion in fiscal support.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "2312ca61f4a47d79f1fcc34b47ab63956bcb9534c7530b50aa4f932f62ec5626", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Fire destroys a sprawling mansion on a former Louisiana sugar plantation\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 02:45 PM\n\n---\n\nWHITE CASTLE, La. (AP) \u2014 Flames ripped through a massive mansion in Louisiana, destroying much of the historic structure that was used as a plantation house when it was completed in 1859, authorities said.\n\nThe fire that engulfed the Nottoway Plantation House on Thursday devastated the building along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle said on social media. Nearly a dozen fire departments from surrounding towns battled the blaze, he said. No injuries were reported.\n\nBefore the fire, it was a resort and event venue, and its website described it as \"the South's largest remaining antebellum mansion.\" Daigle called it \"a cornerstone of our tourism economy and a site of national significance.\"\n\nThe 53,000-square-foot (4,924-square-meter) home on a former sugar plantation about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans had a three-story rotunda adorned with giant white columns and hand-carved Italian marble fireplaces, according to a description on its website.\n\nThe mansion's owner, Louisiana attorney Dan Dyess, said in a written statement that the fire had led to a \"total loss\" after all the time and money he invested in the building.\n\n\"We are devastated and heartbroken for this loss,\" he said. \"This was my dream that has now been dashed.\"\n\nPhotos from local news outlets showed a giant orange wall of fire consuming the upper portion of the rotunda and sending a plume of thick smoke into the sky.\n\nThe fire has been contained, and no other properties were harmed, said Maj. Monty Migliacio of the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office. Other structures on the grounds have been preserved, parish officials said.\n\n\"We are at the beginning phases of the investigation, we don't know how the fire began and our objective is to determine how it started,\" Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal Public Affairs Director Ken Pastorick said.\n\nIn a statement on Facebook, Daigle touched on the structure's history of racial injustice during a time when enslaved Black people helped build the home and operate the sugar plantation that surrounded it. In 1860, 155 enslaved people were held at the property, according to National Park Service records.\n\n\"While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue,\" Daigle said.\n\n\"Since the 1980s, it has welcomed visitors from around the world who came to appreciate its architecture and confront the legacies of its era,\" he added. \"It stood as both a cautionary monument and a testament to the importance of preserving history \u2014 even the painful parts \u2014 so that future generations can learn and grow from it.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Fire destroys a sprawling mansion on a former Louisiana sugar plantation\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 02:45 PM\n\n---\n\nWHITE CASTLE, La. (AP) \u2014 Flames ripped through a massive mansion in Louisiana, destroying much of the historic structure that was used as a plantation house when it was completed in 1859, authorities said.\n\nThe fire that engulfed the Nottoway Plantation House on Thursday devastated the building along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle said on social media. Nearly a dozen fire departments from surrounding towns battled the blaze, he said. No injuries were reported.\n\nBefore the fire, it was a resort and event venue, and its website described it as \"the South's largest remaining antebellum mansion.\" Daigle called it \"a cornerstone of our tourism economy and a site of national significance.\"\n\nThe 53,000-square-foot (4,924-square-meter) home on a former sugar plantation about 65 miles (105 kilometers) northwest of New Orleans had a three-story rotunda adorned with giant white columns and hand-carved Italian marble fireplaces, according to a description on its website.\n\nThe mansion's owner, Louisiana attorney Dan Dyess, said in a written statement that the fire had led to a \"total loss\" after all the time and money he invested in the building.\n\n\"We are devastated and heartbroken for this loss,\" he said. \"This was my dream that has now been dashed.\"\n\nPhotos from local news outlets showed a giant orange wall of fire consuming the upper portion of the rotunda and sending a plume of thick smoke into the sky.\n\nThe fire has been contained, and no other properties were harmed, said Maj. Monty Migliacio of the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office. Other structures on the grounds have been preserved, parish officials said.\n\n\"We are at the beginning phases of the investigation, we don't know how the fire began and our objective is to determine how it started,\" Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal Public Affairs Director Ken Pastorick said.\n\nIn a statement on Facebook, Daigle touched on the structure's history of racial injustice during a time when enslaved Black people helped build the home and operate the sugar plantation that surrounded it. In 1860, 155 enslaved people were held at the property, according to National Park Service records.\n\n\"While its early history is undeniably tied to a time of great injustice, over the last several decades it evolved into a place of reflection, education, and dialogue,\" Daigle said.\n\n\"Since the 1980s, it has welcomed visitors from around the world who came to appreciate its architecture and confront the legacies of its era,\" he added. \"It stood as both a cautionary monument and a testament to the importance of preserving history \u2014 even the painful parts \u2014 so that future generations can learn and grow from it.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "54a933491e5872b4c64897fa63d631057c754ab9a2b447c611c86ff61b243c24", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Streaming in May 2025: 'Poker Face' and Blake Shelton\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 5th, 2025, 04:01 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The popular whodunit series \"Poker Face\" starring Natasha Lyonne returning for its second season and Steven Soderbergh's sleek and lean spy thriller \"Black Bag\" are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.\n\nAlso among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Blake Shelton releasing a new full-length album, gamers can fight off all sorts of gnarly wildlife in the sci-fi world of Revenge of the Savage Planet and there's a new Lifetime documentary series about the country music iconic family the Judds.\n\n## New movies to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 Steven Soderbergh's sleek and lean spy thriller \"Black Bag\" (streaming now on Peacock), stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married British intelligence operatives whose agency has a mole that needs ferreting out. In my review, I praised the third collaboration between Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp (\" Presence,\"\"Kimi\" ): \"Their movie adopts the air of menace and suspicion of a John Le Carr\u00e9 novel, yet hinges on the sturdiness of its married couple, like a super spy version of Nick and Nora from 'The Thin Man' or a more cerebral 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith.'\"\n\n\u2014 In \"Nonnas\" (Friday, May 9 on Netflix), Vince Vaughn stars as Jody \"Joe\" Scaravella, an MTA worker who, after the death of his mother, opens up a traditional Italian restaurant to honor her memory. He hires only grandmothers \u2014 played by Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Susan Sarandon and Brenda Vaccaro \u2014 to do the cooking.\n\n\u2014 James Jones' documentary \"Antidote,\" playing as part of PBS' \"Frontline,\" follows the Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, a prominent reporter on the imprisonment and death of Alexei Navalny, and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was poisoned twice and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian prison. The film, debuting May 6 on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app, details the lives of opponents to Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n\n\u2014 If the end of season three of \"White Lotus\" has you down, a new film series on the Criterion Channel collects some brilliant tales of trouble in seaside locales. The series, dubbed \"Coastal Thrillers\" includes gems like \"Key Largo\" (1948), \"The Breaking Point\" (1950) and \"The Ghost Writer\" (2010).\n\n\u2014 AP Film Writer Jake Coyle\n\n## New music to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 After four years, country star Blake Shelton will release a new full-length album, \"For Recreational Use Only.\" It kicked off with the rocking, George Strait-referencing immediate radio hit \"Texas,\" followed by the HARDY-penned ballad \"Let Him In Anyway.\" This is classic Shelton, with a few notable collaborations: with John Anderson, Craig Morgan and his wife, Gwen Stefani.\n\n\u2014 Regional Mexican music \u2014 a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norte\u00f1o, sierre\u00f1o and other genres \u2014 has become a global phenomenon over the last few years. Hitmakers Grupo Firme are at least partially responsible for the growth. On Thursday, May 8, the Sinaloan norte\u00f1o banda will release \"EVOLUCI\u00d3N,\" their first new album in three years.\n\n\u2014 On Saturday, May 10, a new Lifetime documentary series, \"The Judd Family: Truth Be Told\" will premiere, becoming available to stream the following day. The show promises to peek behind the curtain, getting at the heart of the family's triumphs and tragedies.\n\n\u2014 Music Writer Maria Sherman\n\n## New television to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 An ex cop gets asked by a former colleague to let a family in danger hide out in his guesthouse. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Christopher Eccleston (also remembered as the ninth doctor in BBC's \"Doctor Who,\") stars alongside Marsha Thomason. \"Safe House\" premieres Monday, May 5 on Acorn TV. It's part of its first Murder Mystery May where they're streaming crime dramas and whodunits all month long.\n\n\u2014 The popular whodunit, \"Poker Face,\" starring Natasha Lyonne returns to Peacock for its second season Thursday, May 8. Lyonne stars as Charlie, a woman with an innate ability to know when someone is lying. \"Knives Out\" director Rian Johnson is the creator and executive producer. The show's second season has more than 30 big name guest stars appearing including Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney, Katie Holmes and John Cho, to name a few.\n\n\u2014 Judy Blume's 1975 novel \"Forever\" about teenage sexuality is the inspiration for a new Netflix series of the same name from Mara Brock Ali, who created acclaimed shows like \"Girlfriends\" and \"Being Mary Jane.\" This \"Forever\" features a predominantly Black cast in a love story between two teens living in Los Angeles at its center. Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. star. It drops Thursday, May 8.\n\n\u2014 Alicia Rancilio\n\n## New video games to play week of May 5-11\n\n\u2014 The goofy sci-fi shooter Journey to the Savage Planet didn't get the audience it deserved in 2020, thanks to some unfortunate corporate maneuvers that left its developers out in the cold. But they held onto the idea and started a new studio called Raccoon Logic, and now they're unleashing Revenge of the Savage Planet. You've been dumped on a faraway rock, and you'll need to explore every inch and fight off all sorts of gnarly wildlife before you can \"get revenge on your former employer\" (ahem). You can play solo or join forces with a friend online or on the couch. Blast off Thursday, May 8, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.\n\n\u2014 Potboy? Sure, I knew a guy like that in high school. But that's not the Potboy who stars in The Midnight Walk \u2014 this poor kid has a lantern for a head, and he can use its flame to keep warm or fend off ghouls. It's the debut title from Swedish studio MoonHood, whose founders are best-known for 2021's eerie Lost in Random, and it has creepy stop-motion animation reminiscent of \"The Nightmare Before Christmas.\" The hike begins Thursday, May 8, on PlayStation 5 and PC.\n\n\u2014 Lou Kesten"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Streaming in May 2025: 'Poker Face' and Blake Shelton\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 5th, 2025, 04:01 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The popular whodunit series \"Poker Face\" starring Natasha Lyonne returning for its second season and Steven Soderbergh's sleek and lean spy thriller \"Black Bag\" are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.\n\nAlso among the streaming offerings worth your time, as selected by The Associated Press' entertainment journalists: Blake Shelton releasing a new full-length album, gamers can fight off all sorts of gnarly wildlife in the sci-fi world of Revenge of the Savage Planet and there's a new Lifetime documentary series about the country music iconic family the Judds.\n\n## New movies to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 Steven Soderbergh's sleek and lean spy thriller \"Black Bag\" (streaming now on Peacock), stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married British intelligence operatives whose agency has a mole that needs ferreting out. In my review, I praised the third collaboration between Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp (\" Presence,\"\"Kimi\" ): \"Their movie adopts the air of menace and suspicion of a John Le Carr\u00e9 novel, yet hinges on the sturdiness of its married couple, like a super spy version of Nick and Nora from 'The Thin Man' or a more cerebral 'Mr. & Mrs. Smith.'\"\n\n\u2014 In \"Nonnas\" (Friday, May 9 on Netflix), Vince Vaughn stars as Jody \"Joe\" Scaravella, an MTA worker who, after the death of his mother, opens up a traditional Italian restaurant to honor her memory. He hires only grandmothers \u2014 played by Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire, Susan Sarandon and Brenda Vaccaro \u2014 to do the cooking.\n\n\u2014 James Jones' documentary \"Antidote,\" playing as part of PBS' \"Frontline,\" follows the Bulgarian investigative journalist Christo Grozev, a prominent reporter on the imprisonment and death of Alexei Navalny, and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the wife of activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was poisoned twice and sentenced to 25 years in a Russian prison. The film, debuting May 6 on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app, details the lives of opponents to Russian President Vladimir Putin.\n\n\u2014 If the end of season three of \"White Lotus\" has you down, a new film series on the Criterion Channel collects some brilliant tales of trouble in seaside locales. The series, dubbed \"Coastal Thrillers\" includes gems like \"Key Largo\" (1948), \"The Breaking Point\" (1950) and \"The Ghost Writer\" (2010).\n\n\u2014 AP Film Writer Jake Coyle\n\n## New music to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 After four years, country star Blake Shelton will release a new full-length album, \"For Recreational Use Only.\" It kicked off with the rocking, George Strait-referencing immediate radio hit \"Texas,\" followed by the HARDY-penned ballad \"Let Him In Anyway.\" This is classic Shelton, with a few notable collaborations: with John Anderson, Craig Morgan and his wife, Gwen Stefani.\n\n\u2014 Regional Mexican music \u2014 a catchall term that encompasses mariachi, banda, corridos, norte\u00f1o, sierre\u00f1o and other genres \u2014 has become a global phenomenon over the last few years. Hitmakers Grupo Firme are at least partially responsible for the growth. On Thursday, May 8, the Sinaloan norte\u00f1o banda will release \"EVOLUCI\u00d3N,\" their first new album in three years.\n\n\u2014 On Saturday, May 10, a new Lifetime documentary series, \"The Judd Family: Truth Be Told\" will premiere, becoming available to stream the following day. The show promises to peek behind the curtain, getting at the heart of the family's triumphs and tragedies.\n\n\u2014 Music Writer Maria Sherman\n\n## New television to stream from May 5-11\n\n\u2014 An ex cop gets asked by a former colleague to let a family in danger hide out in his guesthouse. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Christopher Eccleston (also remembered as the ninth doctor in BBC's \"Doctor Who,\") stars alongside Marsha Thomason. \"Safe House\" premieres Monday, May 5 on Acorn TV. It's part of its first Murder Mystery May where they're streaming crime dramas and whodunits all month long.\n\n\u2014 The popular whodunit, \"Poker Face,\" starring Natasha Lyonne returns to Peacock for its second season Thursday, May 8. Lyonne stars as Charlie, a woman with an innate ability to know when someone is lying. \"Knives Out\" director Rian Johnson is the creator and executive producer. The show's second season has more than 30 big name guest stars appearing including Cynthia Erivo, John Mulaney, Katie Holmes and John Cho, to name a few.\n\n\u2014 Judy Blume's 1975 novel \"Forever\" about teenage sexuality is the inspiration for a new Netflix series of the same name from Mara Brock Ali, who created acclaimed shows like \"Girlfriends\" and \"Being Mary Jane.\" This \"Forever\" features a predominantly Black cast in a love story between two teens living in Los Angeles at its center. Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. star. It drops Thursday, May 8.\n\n\u2014 Alicia Rancilio\n\n## New video games to play week of May 5-11\n\n\u2014 The goofy sci-fi shooter Journey to the Savage Planet didn't get the audience it deserved in 2020, thanks to some unfortunate corporate maneuvers that left its developers out in the cold. But they held onto the idea and started a new studio called Raccoon Logic, and now they're unleashing Revenge of the Savage Planet. You've been dumped on a faraway rock, and you'll need to explore every inch and fight off all sorts of gnarly wildlife before you can \"get revenge on your former employer\" (ahem). You can play solo or join forces with a friend online or on the couch. Blast off Thursday, May 8, on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.\n\n\u2014 Potboy? Sure, I knew a guy like that in high school. But that's not the Potboy who stars in The Midnight Walk \u2014 this poor kid has a lantern for a head, and he can use its flame to keep warm or fend off ghouls. It's the debut title from Swedish studio MoonHood, whose founders are best-known for 2021's eerie Lost in Random, and it has creepy stop-motion animation reminiscent of \"The Nightmare Before Christmas.\" The hike begins Thursday, May 8, on PlayStation 5 and PC.\n\n\u2014 Lou Kesten"}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ad3a66dfb77d2f6d374a683a1a7cd1223aad7297edbfbded240f0bf9f419a5d1", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Family of Black man fatally shot by Washington sheriff's deputy settles lawsuit for $3.5 million\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 02:43 AM\n\n---\n\nVANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) \u2014 Family members of a Black motorist fatally shot by a deputy in southwestern Washington state during a traffic stop have settled their wrongful death lawsuit for $3.5 million.\n\nThe Clark County Council agreed Wednesday to make the payment in the 2021 death of 30-year-old Jenoah Donald, The Columbian reported.\n\nDonald lived in the city of Battle Ground, Washington, and died Feb. 12, eight days after he was shot in the head by Sean Boyle, a deputy with the Clark Sounty Sheriff's Office.\n\nThe family filed the federal lawsuit in 2022 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma alleging wrongful death, assault and battery, negligence and deprivation of civil rights. Trial was set to start June 9.\n\nAttorneys for the Donald family said in a statement that the settlement provides accountability and closure.\n\n\"This outcome honors Jenoah Donald's life and underscores a simple truth: When officers ignore their training and resort to needless lethal force, they will be held accountable,\" attorney Angus Lee said in the statement.\n\nThe county \"continues to deny liability for this unfortunate incident,\" county spokeswoman Joni McAnally told the newspaper.\n\nProsecuting attorneys from outside Clark County examined the shooting and found it was justified in protecting the deputies.\n\nDeputies that night responded to a call about two cars suspiciously driving around a neighborhood and pulled over Donald's car for what they described as a faulty rear light.\n\nLawyers for Donald's family argued in the lawsuit that was an unlawful stop, citing a 1999 Washington Supreme Court case that found it is unconstitutional for police to use a traffic stop as an excuse to investigate suspected criminal activity.\n\nThe family's attorneys said Donald was cooperative initially. The situation escalated after another deputy, Holly Troupe, said she saw a sharp object inside Donald's vehicle, which investigators later said was a screwdriver.\n\nA struggle ensued as Boyle and Troupe tried to pull Donald out of the car, an outside investigation showed. Boyle fired twice when Donald ignored commands to let him go as the car lurched forward with the deputy partially inside, according to investigators. One bullet hit and killed Donald.\n\nDonald was on the autism spectrum and prone to withdrawal in stressful situations, his lawyers have said.\n\nDonald was the second Black man killed by deputies in four months. On Oct. 29, a law enforcement task force attempted a drug sting involving 21-year-old Kevin Peterson Jr. It ended with three deputies firing at Peterson as he ran away while carrying a gun.\n\nPeterson's family, represented by the same attorneys, sued the county in 2022. The county later agreed to pay his family $1.25 million to settle the lawsuit. That shooting also was deemed justified by prosecutors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Family of Black man fatally shot by Washington sheriff's deputy settles lawsuit for $3.5 million\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 02:43 AM\n\n---\n\nVANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) \u2014 Family members of a Black motorist fatally shot by a deputy in southwestern Washington state during a traffic stop have settled their wrongful death lawsuit for $3.5 million.\n\nThe Clark County Council agreed Wednesday to make the payment in the 2021 death of 30-year-old Jenoah Donald, The Columbian reported.\n\nDonald lived in the city of Battle Ground, Washington, and died Feb. 12, eight days after he was shot in the head by Sean Boyle, a deputy with the Clark Sounty Sheriff's Office.\n\nThe family filed the federal lawsuit in 2022 in U.S. District Court in Tacoma alleging wrongful death, assault and battery, negligence and deprivation of civil rights. Trial was set to start June 9.\n\nAttorneys for the Donald family said in a statement that the settlement provides accountability and closure.\n\n\"This outcome honors Jenoah Donald's life and underscores a simple truth: When officers ignore their training and resort to needless lethal force, they will be held accountable,\" attorney Angus Lee said in the statement.\n\nThe county \"continues to deny liability for this unfortunate incident,\" county spokeswoman Joni McAnally told the newspaper.\n\nProsecuting attorneys from outside Clark County examined the shooting and found it was justified in protecting the deputies.\n\nDeputies that night responded to a call about two cars suspiciously driving around a neighborhood and pulled over Donald's car for what they described as a faulty rear light.\n\nLawyers for Donald's family argued in the lawsuit that was an unlawful stop, citing a 1999 Washington Supreme Court case that found it is unconstitutional for police to use a traffic stop as an excuse to investigate suspected criminal activity.\n\nThe family's attorneys said Donald was cooperative initially. The situation escalated after another deputy, Holly Troupe, said she saw a sharp object inside Donald's vehicle, which investigators later said was a screwdriver.\n\nA struggle ensued as Boyle and Troupe tried to pull Donald out of the car, an outside investigation showed. Boyle fired twice when Donald ignored commands to let him go as the car lurched forward with the deputy partially inside, according to investigators. One bullet hit and killed Donald.\n\nDonald was on the autism spectrum and prone to withdrawal in stressful situations, his lawyers have said.\n\nDonald was the second Black man killed by deputies in four months. On Oct. 29, a law enforcement task force attempted a drug sting involving 21-year-old Kevin Peterson Jr. It ended with three deputies firing at Peterson as he ran away while carrying a gun.\n\nPeterson's family, represented by the same attorneys, sued the county in 2022. The county later agreed to pay his family $1.25 million to settle the lawsuit. That shooting also was deemed justified by prosecutors."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ab094be755b64238fb5689004c792500194be47379c36ffed63502f8e07914d9", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Michigan governor candidate says miscarriage prompted her to prioritize reproductive health access\n\nBy Isabella Volmert  \nMay 6th, 2025, 04:02 AM\n\n---\n\nLANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Ahead of a nationally watched bid to become Michigan's next governor, Democrat Jocelyn Benson is releasing a memoir this month that includes her first public discussion of a miscarriage she had about eight years ago \u2014 an experience she says will shape her commitment to increasing access to reproductive healthcare in the swing state.\n\nBenson, Michigan's secretary of state, is part of a crowded field seeking to succeed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and she's the only woman in the running so far.\n\nIn an interview with The Associated Press ahead of Tuesday's release of her political memoir entitled, \"The Purposeful Warrior,\" Benson said miscarrying made her value easy access to reproductive health care in an emotional and difficult situation, something she wants to deliver for the state if elected.\n\n\"It opened my eyes to the need to not just protect reproductive freedom and rights, but actually make sure they're real,\" said Benson.\n\n## Personal stories shaping policy\n\nIn a chapter entitled \"Grit and Grace,\" Benson describes finding out she was pregnant shortly after her son's first birthday and shortly before she launched her bid for secretary of state in 2017. Waves of worry over the timing and elation over becoming a mother of two ensued. But just a day later, she began to miscarry.\n\nShe writes about the doctor's appointment during her eighth week of pregnancy where she learned about her options: surgery, medication or stillbirth and what to expect as her miscarriage continued. By the following morning, she had miscarried on her own.\n\n\"The emotional impact of that stays with you for your whole life,\" she told AP.\n\nBenson said she struggled with shame and guilt, emotions she has learned many women experience.\n\n\"I want to tell my story to say it's OK to tell yours as well,\" she said.\n\nIn the years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women seeking public office have shared personal stories of miscarriages and abortions. Democrats and Republicans alike have spoken about their pregnancies as reproductive and maternal health care became a central concern for Americans.\n\nIn Michigan, voters approved a ballot measure in 2022 to protect abortion access, in an election that also saw Democrats sweep statewide and legislative elections. But Benson said that protection isn't enough.\n\nStep one is to incentivize talented physicians to work in Michigan, she said. Step two is to bolster reproductive health care in rural Michigan, she said, suggesting mobile clinics that can reach remote areas.\n\nShe noted the recent closure of three Planned Parenthood locations in Michigan, including its only location in the Upper Peninsula. Some Planned Parenthood locations provide abortions in addition to services such as birth control, disease screenings and miscarriage management.\n\nPlanned Parenthood of Michigan leaders cited financial challenges exacerbated by a freeze of federal dollars for the closures. Federal law already prohibited taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions.\n\n## A governor's race watched nationally\n\nCentering reproductive rights in the 2026 primary will be another test of the issue's importance to Democratic voters. Benson will face Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson in the gubernatorial primary. Whitmer, who is term limited, has said she does not plan to endorse in the race.\n\nOn the Republican side, U.S. Rep. John James, state Senate Minority Leader Aaric Nesbitt and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox are vying for the nomination and likely also the endorsement of President Donald Trump.\n\nAnd the twist \u2014 Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat, is pursuing the office as an independent. The move comes as Democrats lost considerable ground in the 2024 election. The state swung back to Trump in the 2024 election and Republicans gained a majority in the state House of Representatives, splitting control of the legislature.\n\nAmong anecdotes from her memoir that include her tenure as the state's chief election official during the 2020 election and her law career before, Benson took a swing at Duggan over his handling of the 2018 primary election for governor. She criticized him for not supporting Whitmer early in the race and encouraging other Democrats, who are men, to pursue a run, citing reporting in the New Yorker years later.\n\n\"I will never forget the message those efforts sent to women across our state,\" Benson wrote. She noted that her own primary campaign became tied to Whitmer's by gender.\n\n\"The argument went something like, surely we can't have more than one woman on the ticket at the same time,\" Benson wrote.\n\nBenson's memoir comments on Duggan were first reported by the Detroit News. A spokesperson for Duggan's campaign told the publication that the Detroit mayor endorsed Whitmer in the Democratic primary over two men.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Michigan governor candidate says miscarriage prompted her to prioritize reproductive health access\n\nBy Isabella Volmert  \nMay 6th, 2025, 04:02 AM\n\n---\n\nLANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Ahead of a nationally watched bid to become Michigan's next governor, Democrat Jocelyn Benson is releasing a memoir this month that includes her first public discussion of a miscarriage she had about eight years ago \u2014 an experience she says will shape her commitment to increasing access to reproductive healthcare in the swing state.\n\nBenson, Michigan's secretary of state, is part of a crowded field seeking to succeed Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and she's the only woman in the running so far.\n\nIn an interview with The Associated Press ahead of Tuesday's release of her political memoir entitled, \"The Purposeful Warrior,\" Benson said miscarrying made her value easy access to reproductive health care in an emotional and difficult situation, something she wants to deliver for the state if elected.\n\n\"It opened my eyes to the need to not just protect reproductive freedom and rights, but actually make sure they're real,\" said Benson.\n\n## Personal stories shaping policy\n\nIn a chapter entitled \"Grit and Grace,\" Benson describes finding out she was pregnant shortly after her son's first birthday and shortly before she launched her bid for secretary of state in 2017. Waves of worry over the timing and elation over becoming a mother of two ensued. But just a day later, she began to miscarry.\n\nShe writes about the doctor's appointment during her eighth week of pregnancy where she learned about her options: surgery, medication or stillbirth and what to expect as her miscarriage continued. By the following morning, she had miscarried on her own.\n\n\"The emotional impact of that stays with you for your whole life,\" she told AP.\n\nBenson said she struggled with shame and guilt, emotions she has learned many women experience.\n\n\"I want to tell my story to say it's OK to tell yours as well,\" she said.\n\nIn the years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, women seeking public office have shared personal stories of miscarriages and abortions. Democrats and Republicans alike have spoken about their pregnancies as reproductive and maternal health care became a central concern for Americans.\n\nIn Michigan, voters approved a ballot measure in 2022 to protect abortion access, in an election that also saw Democrats sweep statewide and legislative elections. But Benson said that protection isn't enough.\n\nStep one is to incentivize talented physicians to work in Michigan, she said. Step two is to bolster reproductive health care in rural Michigan, she said, suggesting mobile clinics that can reach remote areas.\n\nShe noted the recent closure of three Planned Parenthood locations in Michigan, including its only location in the Upper Peninsula. Some Planned Parenthood locations provide abortions in addition to services such as birth control, disease screenings and miscarriage management.\n\nPlanned Parenthood of Michigan leaders cited financial challenges exacerbated by a freeze of federal dollars for the closures. Federal law already prohibited taxpayer dollars from paying for most abortions.\n\n## A governor's race watched nationally\n\nCentering reproductive rights in the 2026 primary will be another test of the issue's importance to Democratic voters. Benson will face Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson in the gubernatorial primary. Whitmer, who is term limited, has said she does not plan to endorse in the race.\n\nOn the Republican side, U.S. Rep. John James, state Senate Minority Leader Aaric Nesbitt and former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox are vying for the nomination and likely also the endorsement of President Donald Trump.\n\nAnd the twist \u2014 Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, a longtime Democrat, is pursuing the office as an independent. The move comes as Democrats lost considerable ground in the 2024 election. The state swung back to Trump in the 2024 election and Republicans gained a majority in the state House of Representatives, splitting control of the legislature.\n\nAmong anecdotes from her memoir that include her tenure as the state's chief election official during the 2020 election and her law career before, Benson took a swing at Duggan over his handling of the 2018 primary election for governor. She criticized him for not supporting Whitmer early in the race and encouraging other Democrats, who are men, to pursue a run, citing reporting in the New Yorker years later.\n\n\"I will never forget the message those efforts sent to women across our state,\" Benson wrote. She noted that her own primary campaign became tied to Whitmer's by gender.\n\n\"The argument went something like, surely we can't have more than one woman on the ticket at the same time,\" Benson wrote.\n\nBenson's memoir comments on Duggan were first reported by the Detroit News. A spokesperson for Duggan's campaign told the publication that the Detroit mayor endorsed Whitmer in the Democratic primary over two men."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6f08c4fe5d3b614115ffced452348dea2ed8ded88608fc0afa72ef08de8e312b", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Fetterman raises alarms with outburst at union meeting, AP sources say\n\nBy Marc Levy  \nMay 8th, 2025, 02:13 AM\n\n---\n\nHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved.\n\nBefore long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why \"everybody is mad at me,\" \"why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do\" and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.\n\nAs the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman's behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.\n\nThe interaction at Fetterman's Washington office, described to The Associated Press by the two people who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity, came the day before New York Magazine published a story in which former staff and political advisers to Fetterman aired concerns about the senator's mental health.\n\nThat story included a 2024 letter, also obtained by the AP, in which Fetterman's one-time chief of staff Adam Jentleson told a neuropsychiatrist who had treated Fetterman for depression that the senator appeared to be off his recovery plan and was exhibiting alarming behavior, including a tendency toward \"long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues.\"\n\nAsked about the meeting with teachers union representatives, Fetterman said in a statement through his office that they \"had a spirited conversation about our collective frustration with the Trump administration's cuts to our education system.\" He also said he \"will always support our teachers, and I will always reject anyone's attempt to turn Pennsylvania's public schools into a voucher program.\"\n\nFetterman earlier this week brushed off the New York Magazine story as a \"one-source hit piece and some anonymous sources, so there's nothing new.\" Asked by a reporter in a Senate corridor what he would say to people who are concerned about him, Fetterman said: \"They're not. They're actually not concerned. It's a hit piece. There's no news.\"\n\nReached by telephone, Aaron Chapin, the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association who was in the meeting with Fetterman, said he didn't want to discuss what was a private conversation.\n\n## Surviving a stroke, battling depression\n\nThe teachers union encounter adds to the questions being raised about Fetterman's mental health and behavior barely three years after he survived a stroke on the 2022 campaign trail that he said almost killed him. That was followed by a bout with depression that landed him in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for six weeks, barely a month after he was sworn into the Senate.\n\nThe scrutiny also comes at a time when Fetterman, now serving third year of his term, is being criticized by many rank-and-file Democrats in his home state for being willing to cooperate with President Donald Trump, amid Democrats' growing alarm over Trump's actions and agenda.\n\nFetterman \u2014 who has been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged, and auditory processing disorder, a complication from the stroke \u2014 has talked openly about his struggle with depression and urged people to get help.\n\nIn November, he told podcast host Joe Rogan that he had recovered and fended off thoughts of harming himself.\n\n\"I was at the point where I was really, you know, in a very dark place. And I stayed in that game and I am staying in front of you right now and having this conversation,\" Fetterman said.\n\nBut some who have worked closely with Fetterman question whether his recovery is complete.\n\nIn the 2024 letter to Dr. David Williamson, Jentleson warned that Fetterman was not seeing his doctors, had pushed out the people who were supposed to help him stay on his recovery plan and might not be taking his prescribed medications. Jentleson also said Fetterman had been driving recklessly and exhibiting paranoia, isolating him from colleagues.\n\n\"Overall, over the last nine months or so, John has dismantled the early-warning system we all agreed upon when he was released,\" Jentleson wrote. \"He has picked fights with each person involved in that system and used those fights as excuses to push them out and cut them off from any knowledge about his health situation.\"\n\nWalter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Williamson works, declined to make him available for an interview, citing privacy and confidentiality laws protecting patient medical information.\n\n## A lone wolf in the Senate\n\nFetterman has long been a wild card in the political realm, forging a career largely on his own, independently from the Democratic Party.\n\nAs a small-town mayor in Braddock, the plainspoken Fetterman became a minor celebrity for his bare-knuckled progressive politics, his looks \u2014 he's 6-foot-8 and tattooed with a shaved head \u2014 and his unconventional efforts to put the depressed former steel town back on the map.\n\nHe endorsed the insurgent Democrat Bernie Sanders in 2016's presidential primary and ran from the left against the party-backed Democrat in 2016's Senate primary. In 2020, when he was lieutenant governor, he became a top surrogate on cable TV news shows for Joe Biden's presidential bid and gathered a national political following that made him a strong small-dollar fundraiser.\n\nElected to the Senate in 2022, he has made waves with his casual dress \u2014 hoodies and gym shorts \u2014 at work and at formal events and his willingness to chastise other Democrats.\n\nFetterman returned to the Senate after his hospitalization in 2023 a much more outgoing lawmaker, frequently joking with his fellow senators and engaging with reporters in the hallways with the assistance of an iPad or iPhone that transcribes conversations in real time.\n\nYet two years later, Fetterman is still something of a loner in the Senate.\n\nHe has separated himself from many of his fellow Democrats on Israel policy and argued at times that his party needs to work with, not against, Trump. He met with Trump and Trump's nominees \u2014 and voted for some \u2014 when other Democrats wouldn't.\n\nHe has stood firmly with Democrats in other cases and criticized Trump on some issues, such as trade and food aid.\n\nOne particularly head-scratching video of Fetterman emerged earlier this year in which he was on a flight to Pittsburgh apparently arguing with a pilot over his seatbelt.\n\nDespite fallout with progressives over his staunch support of Israel in its war in Gaza, Fetterman was still an in-demand personality last year to campaign in the battleground state of Pennsylvania for Biden and, after Biden dropped his reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris.\n\nSince Trump won November's election \u2014 and Pennsylvania \u2014 things have changed. Many one-time supporters have turned on Fetterman over his softer approach to Trump and his willingness to criticize fellow Democrats for raising alarm bells.\n\nIt nevertheless brought Fetterman plaudits.\n\nBill Maher, host of the political talk show \"Real Time with Bill Maher,\" suggested that Fetterman should run for president in 2028. Conservatives \u2014 who had long made Fetterman a target for his progressive politics \u2014 have sprung to Fetterman's defense.\n\nStill, Democrats in Pennsylvania say they are hearing from people worried about him.\n\n\"People are concerned about his health,\" said Sharif Street, the state's Democratic Party chairman. \"They want to make sure he's OK. People care about him. There's a lot of love for him out there.\"\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press reporter Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy on X at https://x.com/timelywriter."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Fetterman raises alarms with outburst at union meeting, AP sources say\n\nBy Marc Levy  \nMay 8th, 2025, 02:13 AM\n\n---\n\nHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) \u2014 Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was meeting last week with representatives from a teachers union in his home state when things quickly devolved.\n\nBefore long, Fetterman began repeating himself, shouting and questioning why \"everybody is mad at me,\" \"why does everyone hate me, what did I ever do\" and slamming his hands on a desk, according to one person who was briefed on what occurred.\n\nAs the meeting deteriorated, a staff member moved to end it and ushered the visitors into the hallway, where she broke down crying. The staffer was comforted by the teachers who were themselves rattled by Fetterman's behavior, according to a second person who was briefed separately on the meeting.\n\nThe interaction at Fetterman's Washington office, described to The Associated Press by the two people who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity, came the day before New York Magazine published a story in which former staff and political advisers to Fetterman aired concerns about the senator's mental health.\n\nThat story included a 2024 letter, also obtained by the AP, in which Fetterman's one-time chief of staff Adam Jentleson told a neuropsychiatrist who had treated Fetterman for depression that the senator appeared to be off his recovery plan and was exhibiting alarming behavior, including a tendency toward \"long, rambling, repetitive and self-centered monologues.\"\n\nAsked about the meeting with teachers union representatives, Fetterman said in a statement through his office that they \"had a spirited conversation about our collective frustration with the Trump administration's cuts to our education system.\" He also said he \"will always support our teachers, and I will always reject anyone's attempt to turn Pennsylvania's public schools into a voucher program.\"\n\nFetterman earlier this week brushed off the New York Magazine story as a \"one-source hit piece and some anonymous sources, so there's nothing new.\" Asked by a reporter in a Senate corridor what he would say to people who are concerned about him, Fetterman said: \"They're not. They're actually not concerned. It's a hit piece. There's no news.\"\n\nReached by telephone, Aaron Chapin, the president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association who was in the meeting with Fetterman, said he didn't want to discuss what was a private conversation.\n\n## Surviving a stroke, battling depression\n\nThe teachers union encounter adds to the questions being raised about Fetterman's mental health and behavior barely three years after he survived a stroke on the 2022 campaign trail that he said almost killed him. That was followed by a bout with depression that landed him in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for six weeks, barely a month after he was sworn into the Senate.\n\nThe scrutiny also comes at a time when Fetterman, now serving third year of his term, is being criticized by many rank-and-file Democrats in his home state for being willing to cooperate with President Donald Trump, amid Democrats' growing alarm over Trump's actions and agenda.\n\nFetterman \u2014 who has been diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, in which the heart muscle becomes weakened and enlarged, and auditory processing disorder, a complication from the stroke \u2014 has talked openly about his struggle with depression and urged people to get help.\n\nIn November, he told podcast host Joe Rogan that he had recovered and fended off thoughts of harming himself.\n\n\"I was at the point where I was really, you know, in a very dark place. And I stayed in that game and I am staying in front of you right now and having this conversation,\" Fetterman said.\n\nBut some who have worked closely with Fetterman question whether his recovery is complete.\n\nIn the 2024 letter to Dr. David Williamson, Jentleson warned that Fetterman was not seeing his doctors, had pushed out the people who were supposed to help him stay on his recovery plan and might not be taking his prescribed medications. Jentleson also said Fetterman had been driving recklessly and exhibiting paranoia, isolating him from colleagues.\n\n\"Overall, over the last nine months or so, John has dismantled the early-warning system we all agreed upon when he was released,\" Jentleson wrote. \"He has picked fights with each person involved in that system and used those fights as excuses to push them out and cut them off from any knowledge about his health situation.\"\n\nWalter Reed National Military Medical Center, where Williamson works, declined to make him available for an interview, citing privacy and confidentiality laws protecting patient medical information.\n\n## A lone wolf in the Senate\n\nFetterman has long been a wild card in the political realm, forging a career largely on his own, independently from the Democratic Party.\n\nAs a small-town mayor in Braddock, the plainspoken Fetterman became a minor celebrity for his bare-knuckled progressive politics, his looks \u2014 he's 6-foot-8 and tattooed with a shaved head \u2014 and his unconventional efforts to put the depressed former steel town back on the map.\n\nHe endorsed the insurgent Democrat Bernie Sanders in 2016's presidential primary and ran from the left against the party-backed Democrat in 2016's Senate primary. In 2020, when he was lieutenant governor, he became a top surrogate on cable TV news shows for Joe Biden's presidential bid and gathered a national political following that made him a strong small-dollar fundraiser.\n\nElected to the Senate in 2022, he has made waves with his casual dress \u2014 hoodies and gym shorts \u2014 at work and at formal events and his willingness to chastise other Democrats.\n\nFetterman returned to the Senate after his hospitalization in 2023 a much more outgoing lawmaker, frequently joking with his fellow senators and engaging with reporters in the hallways with the assistance of an iPad or iPhone that transcribes conversations in real time.\n\nYet two years later, Fetterman is still something of a loner in the Senate.\n\nHe has separated himself from many of his fellow Democrats on Israel policy and argued at times that his party needs to work with, not against, Trump. He met with Trump and Trump's nominees \u2014 and voted for some \u2014 when other Democrats wouldn't.\n\nHe has stood firmly with Democrats in other cases and criticized Trump on some issues, such as trade and food aid.\n\nOne particularly head-scratching video of Fetterman emerged earlier this year in which he was on a flight to Pittsburgh apparently arguing with a pilot over his seatbelt.\n\nDespite fallout with progressives over his staunch support of Israel in its war in Gaza, Fetterman was still an in-demand personality last year to campaign in the battleground state of Pennsylvania for Biden and, after Biden dropped his reelection bid, Vice President Kamala Harris.\n\nSince Trump won November's election \u2014 and Pennsylvania \u2014 things have changed. Many one-time supporters have turned on Fetterman over his softer approach to Trump and his willingness to criticize fellow Democrats for raising alarm bells.\n\nIt nevertheless brought Fetterman plaudits.\n\nBill Maher, host of the political talk show \"Real Time with Bill Maher,\" suggested that Fetterman should run for president in 2028. Conservatives \u2014 who had long made Fetterman a target for his progressive politics \u2014 have sprung to Fetterman's defense.\n\nStill, Democrats in Pennsylvania say they are hearing from people worried about him.\n\n\"People are concerned about his health,\" said Sharif Street, the state's Democratic Party chairman. \"They want to make sure he's OK. People care about him. There's a lot of love for him out there.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "341852418891a3729790936e367c93bfa0c850ff9f77570f143e589f00464eb5", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Red Cross escorts over 1,000 disarmed Congolese soldiers from rebel-controlled city to capital\n\nBy Justin Kabumba and Mark Banchereau  \nMay 15th, 2025, 07:53 PM\n\n---\n\nGOMA, Congo (AP) \u2014 Over a thousand disarmed Congolese soldiers and police officers, along with their families, have safely been transferred from the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo to the capital over the last two weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Thursday.\n\nThe soldiers and police officers had been taking refuge at the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Congo's base since January, when the decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma.\n\nThe Red Cross said in a statement it helped escort the 1,359 disarmed members of the government forces and their families from Goma to the capital Kinshasa between April 30 and May 15th, traveling nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and across a front line.\n\nThe ICRC said it accompanied several convoys on the road, while transport by helicopter and plane was carried out by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo and the country's armed forces.\n\n\"The operation has been a success, it has enabled those transported to Kinshasa to get back in touch with their families and, we hope, will reduce tensions in the city of Goma,\" Myriam Favier, head of the ICRC's sub-delegation in Goma, said.\n\nThe transfer of the government forces was the result of an agreement reached between the Congolese government, the rebels, the U.N. mission and the ICRC, which was called upon as a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross said, adding that it made sure that all the individuals had consented to being transported in the convoys.\n\nFor security reasons, no media outlets were allowed to film or photograph the operation.\n\nThe news of the successful transfer comes amid persistent tensions in eastern Congo, where fighting between Congo's army and M23 continues, despite both sides having agreed to work toward a truce last month.\n\nEastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. Dozens of armed groups are vying for territory in the mining region near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including 100,000 who fled homes this year.\n\nThe M23 rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo's capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the west.\n\nOn Thursday, Congolese authorities accused Rwanda's army and M23 of having killed dozens and abducted thousands in eastern Congo.\n\nLast week, Congo and Rwanda submitted a draft peace proposal as part of a U.S.-led process, with the Trump administration eyeing access to critical minerals in the resource-rich region.\n\n\u2014\u2014-\n\nBanchereau reported from Dakar, Senegal."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Red Cross escorts over 1,000 disarmed Congolese soldiers from rebel-controlled city to capital\n\nBy Justin Kabumba and Mark Banchereau  \nMay 15th, 2025, 07:53 PM\n\n---\n\nGOMA, Congo (AP) \u2014 Over a thousand disarmed Congolese soldiers and police officers, along with their families, have safely been transferred from the rebel-controlled city of Goma in eastern Congo to the capital over the last two weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Thursday.\n\nThe soldiers and police officers had been taking refuge at the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Congo's base since January, when the decades-long conflict in eastern Congo escalated as the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advanced and seized the strategic city of Goma.\n\nThe Red Cross said in a statement it helped escort the 1,359 disarmed members of the government forces and their families from Goma to the capital Kinshasa between April 30 and May 15th, traveling nearly 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles) and across a front line.\n\nThe ICRC said it accompanied several convoys on the road, while transport by helicopter and plane was carried out by the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in Congo and the country's armed forces.\n\n\"The operation has been a success, it has enabled those transported to Kinshasa to get back in touch with their families and, we hope, will reduce tensions in the city of Goma,\" Myriam Favier, head of the ICRC's sub-delegation in Goma, said.\n\nThe transfer of the government forces was the result of an agreement reached between the Congolese government, the rebels, the U.N. mission and the ICRC, which was called upon as a neutral intermediary, the Red Cross said, adding that it made sure that all the individuals had consented to being transported in the convoys.\n\nFor security reasons, no media outlets were allowed to film or photograph the operation.\n\nThe news of the successful transfer comes amid persistent tensions in eastern Congo, where fighting between Congo's army and M23 continues, despite both sides having agreed to work toward a truce last month.\n\nEastern Congo has been in and out of crisis for decades. Dozens of armed groups are vying for territory in the mining region near the border with Rwanda. The conflict has created one of the world's largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including 100,000 who fled homes this year.\n\nThe M23 rebels are supported by about 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to U.N. experts, and at times have vowed to march as far as Congo's capital, Kinshasa, about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) to the west.\n\nOn Thursday, Congolese authorities accused Rwanda's army and M23 of having killed dozens and abducted thousands in eastern Congo.\n\nLast week, Congo and Rwanda submitted a draft peace proposal as part of a U.S.-led process, with the Trump administration eyeing access to critical minerals in the resource-rich region."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c436fa93d843670a10459732170245d91369fae07ad82ab8717eff5bbcd19648", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# How the stock market made back all its losses after Trump escalated the trade war\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 4th, 2025, 12:40 PM\n\n---\n\nIt felt much longer, but the U.S. stock market needed just a few weeks to roar all the way back to where it was on President Donald Trump's \"Liberation Day.\" That's when he shocked Wall Street by announcing much steeper tariffs than expected on nearly all U.S. trading partners.\n\nThose tariffs unveiled on April 2 were so severe that they raised fears Trump did not worry about causing a recession in his attempt to reshape the global economy. Within just four days, the S&P 500 fell about 12%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 4,600 points, or about 11%.\n\nThis past Friday, though, the S&P 500 rallied 1.5% for a ninth straight gain and pulled back to where it was on April 2.\n\nOf course, the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts is still more than 7% below its all-time high set earlier this year. And stocks could easily fall again as uncertainty remains high about what Trump's tariffs will ultimately do to the economy. But the run for U.S. stocks back upward has been just as wild and unexpected as its fall. Here's a look at what happened:\n\n## The pause\n\nOn April 9, Trump announced on social media a \"90-day PAUSE\" for most of the tariffs he'd announced a week earlier, except those against China. The S&P 500 soared 9.5% for one of its best days ever. Even that good news came with a bit of controversy, however: hours before he announced the pause, Trump proclaimed on Truth Social that \"this is a great time to buy.\"\n\n## De-escalation\n\nThe weeks after the pause were a roller coaster. Trump talked about negotiating tariffs with the trading partners while also using tariffs to force companies to move manufacturing to the U.S., two goals seemingly at odds with one another. The market did find relief in what the Treasury secretary referred to as de-escalation between the U.S. and China. Investors also welcomed Trump's moves to ease tariffs on autos as well as smartphones and other electronics.\n\n## Bonds and the buck\n\nThe severity of the U.S. stock market's fall after Liberation Day surprised some market watchers. They had assumed Trump would backtrack on policies that hurt the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is a president, after all, who crowed repeatedly during his first term about how the Dow was doing.\n\nBut it was fear in other financial markets that may have forced Trump's hand. Tumbling prices for U.S. government bonds raised worries that the U.S. Treasury market was losing its status as the world's safest place to keep cash. The value of the U.S. dollar also sank in another signal of diminishing faith in the United States as a safe haven for investors.\n\nTrump himself said he had noticed how bond investors were \"getting a little queasy\" before he paused his tariffs.\n\n## The economy\n\nEconomists and investors had to reconcile contradictory signals about the economy. Surveys of consumers showed declining confidence, largely due to the uncertainty created by the Trump trade policy. But what investors call \"hard data,\" such as employment numbers, indicated the economy was still doing OK. As of Friday, when the government said employers had added 177,000 jobs in April, the hard numbers appeared to have a advantage over the weak sentiment.\n\n## The Fed\n\nThe Federal Reserve cut rates three times at the end of 2024, but then implemented a pause of its own by keeping rates steady, in part to assess the impact of the Trump trade policy. The strong jobs report seemed to give the Fed clearance to keep rates where they are for now \u2014 despite Trump repeating his call for cuts \u2014 but the market is still looking for 3 cuts before the end of the year.\n\n## Plenty of profits\n\nThrough all the market's tumult, U.S. companies have continued to deliver profit reports for the start of the year that have topped analysts' expectations. Stock prices tend to follow profits over the long term, and that's given the market a notable boost.\n\nThree out of every four companies in the S&P 500 have beaten analysts' expectations for profits in recent weeks, including such market heavyweights as Microsoft and Meta Platforms. They're on track to deliver growth of nearly 13% from a year earlier, according to FactSet.\n\n## To be sure\n\nEven as companies have delivered fatter profits than expected, many have also warned they're unsure whether it can last. CEOs have been either lowering or withdrawing their financial forecasts for the year given all the uncertainty around how Trump's tariffs will end up.\n\nUnited Airlines even made the unusual move of offering two separate forecasts for the year: one if there's a recession, and one if not.\n\nTrump's off-again-on-again approach to tariffs had made this the most volatile period for the market since the onset of the pandemic. The pause is in its fourth week and the administration has yet to announce an agreement with any of U.S. trading partners. Based on his recent comments, Trump is still all-in on tariffs, so the pause could prove to be just that.\n\n\"We've already seen how financial markets will react if the administration moves forward with their initial tariff plan, so unless they take a different tack in July when the 90-day pause expires, we will see market action similar to the first week of April,\" said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# How the stock market made back all its losses after Trump escalated the trade war\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 4th, 2025, 12:40 PM\n\n---\n\nIt felt much longer, but the U.S. stock market needed just a few weeks to roar all the way back to where it was on President Donald Trump's \"Liberation Day.\" That's when he shocked Wall Street by announcing much steeper tariffs than expected on nearly all U.S. trading partners.\n\nThose tariffs unveiled on April 2 were so severe that they raised fears Trump did not worry about causing a recession in his attempt to reshape the global economy. Within just four days, the S&P 500 fell about 12%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 4,600 points, or about 11%.\n\nThis past Friday, though, the S&P 500 rallied 1.5% for a ninth straight gain and pulled back to where it was on April 2.\n\nOf course, the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts is still more than 7% below its all-time high set earlier this year. And stocks could easily fall again as uncertainty remains high about what Trump's tariffs will ultimately do to the economy. But the run for U.S. stocks back upward has been just as wild and unexpected as its fall. Here's a look at what happened:\n\n## The pause\n\nOn April 9, Trump announced on social media a \"90-day PAUSE\" for most of the tariffs he'd announced a week earlier, except those against China. The S&P 500 soared 9.5% for one of its best days ever. Even that good news came with a bit of controversy, however: hours before he announced the pause, Trump proclaimed on Truth Social that \"this is a great time to buy.\"\n\n## De-escalation\n\nThe weeks after the pause were a roller coaster. Trump talked about negotiating tariffs with the trading partners while also using tariffs to force companies to move manufacturing to the U.S., two goals seemingly at odds with one another. The market did find relief in what the Treasury secretary referred to as de-escalation between the U.S. and China. Investors also welcomed Trump's moves to ease tariffs on autos as well as smartphones and other electronics.\n\n## Bonds and the buck\n\nThe severity of the U.S. stock market's fall after Liberation Day surprised some market watchers. They had assumed Trump would backtrack on policies that hurt the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is a president, after all, who crowed repeatedly during his first term about how the Dow was doing.\n\nBut it was fear in other financial markets that may have forced Trump's hand. Tumbling prices for U.S. government bonds raised worries that the U.S. Treasury market was losing its status as the world's safest place to keep cash. The value of the U.S. dollar also sank in another signal of diminishing faith in the United States as a safe haven for investors.\n\nTrump himself said he had noticed how bond investors were \"getting a little queasy\" before he paused his tariffs.\n\n## The economy\n\nEconomists and investors had to reconcile contradictory signals about the economy. Surveys of consumers showed declining confidence, largely due to the uncertainty created by the Trump trade policy. But what investors call \"hard data,\" such as employment numbers, indicated the economy was still doing OK. As of Friday, when the government said employers had added 177,000 jobs in April, the hard numbers appeared to have a advantage over the weak sentiment.\n\n## The Fed\n\nThe Federal Reserve cut rates three times at the end of 2024, but then implemented a pause of its own by keeping rates steady, in part to assess the impact of the Trump trade policy. The strong jobs report seemed to give the Fed clearance to keep rates where they are for now \u2014 despite Trump repeating his call for cuts \u2014 but the market is still looking for 3 cuts before the end of the year.\n\n## Plenty of profits\n\nThrough all the market's tumult, U.S. companies have continued to deliver profit reports for the start of the year that have topped analysts' expectations. Stock prices tend to follow profits over the long term, and that's given the market a notable boost.\n\nThree out of every four companies in the S&P 500 have beaten analysts' expectations for profits in recent weeks, including such market heavyweights as Microsoft and Meta Platforms. They're on track to deliver growth of nearly 13% from a year earlier, according to FactSet.\n\n## To be sure\n\nEven as companies have delivered fatter profits than expected, many have also warned they're unsure whether it can last. CEOs have been either lowering or withdrawing their financial forecasts for the year given all the uncertainty around how Trump's tariffs will end up.\n\nUnited Airlines even made the unusual move of offering two separate forecasts for the year: one if there's a recession, and one if not.\n\nTrump's off-again-on-again approach to tariffs had made this the most volatile period for the market since the onset of the pandemic. The pause is in its fourth week and the administration has yet to announce an agreement with any of U.S. trading partners. Based on his recent comments, Trump is still all-in on tariffs, so the pause could prove to be just that.\n\n\"We've already seen how financial markets will react if the administration moves forward with their initial tariff plan, so unless they take a different tack in July when the 90-day pause expires, we will see market action similar to the first week of April,\" said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ecffcc9a302a8b49b14a077502c685d5453e27e0a59bb78678b2de697ed9b3d1", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Photos: Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill dozens of people\n\nBy Jehad Alshrafi  \nMay 14th, 2025, 08:34 AM\n\n---\n\nJabalia, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 At least 22 children were killed in Gaza overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday in a punishing series of Israeli airstrikes on homes in northern Gaza, according to local hospitals.\n\nThe strikes killed at least 48 people, the Indonesian Hospital in Jabaliya reported. The strikes came a day after Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage in a deal brokered by the United States, and as President Donald Trump was visiting Saudi Arabia.\n\nIt was unclear of the numbers would increase.\n\n-This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Photos: Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill dozens of people\n\nBy Jehad Alshrafi  \nMay 14th, 2025, 08:34 AM\n\n---\n\nJabalia, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 At least 22 children were killed in Gaza overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday in a punishing series of Israeli airstrikes on homes in northern Gaza, according to local hospitals.\n\nThe strikes killed at least 48 people, the Indonesian Hospital in Jabaliya reported. The strikes came a day after Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage in a deal brokered by the United States, and as President Donald Trump was visiting Saudi Arabia.\n\nIt was unclear of the numbers would increase."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "12efba44fa563bed24f29ace357e28a555cff68d5c2cb916cdc244e9889b8b9c", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# AP PHOTOS: Across the globe, workers observe May Day\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 1st, 2025, 08:11 AM\n\n---\n\nPeople across Asia kicked off May Day celebrations with big marches and protests, many of which focused on U.S. President Donald Trump's policies and fears of global economic uncertainty.\n\nThe holiday, also known as International Workers' Day or Labor Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and demonstrations calling for stronger protections for workers, higher wages, greater equality and more.\n\n____\n\nThis is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# AP PHOTOS: Across the globe, workers observe May Day\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 1st, 2025, 08:11 AM\n\n---\n\nPeople across Asia kicked off May Day celebrations with big marches and protests, many of which focused on U.S. President Donald Trump's policies and fears of global economic uncertainty.\n\nThe holiday, also known as International Workers' Day or Labor Day, marks the struggles and achievements of workers and the labor movement around the world. Thousands of people are expected to attend rallies and demonstrations calling for stronger protections for workers, higher wages, greater equality and more."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "adec21086be1805eb9bfb1ff20127ccd8b5adfcd735b071937f8d15129c10967", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Nissan slashes 15% of its global work force as the Japan automaker sinks into losses\n\nBy Yuri Kageyama  \nMay 13th, 2025, 08:29 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Nissan is slashing about 15% of its global work force, or about 20,000 employees, as the Japanese automaker reported a loss Tuesday for the fiscal year that just ended amid slipping vehicle sales in China and other nations, and towering restructuring costs.\n\nNissan Motor Corp. said it will reduce the number of its auto plants to 10 from 17, under what it called its recovery plan to carry out \"decisive and bold actions to enhance performance and create a leaner, more resilient business that adapts quickly to market changes.\" It did not say which plants were being closed but confirmed the closures will include factories in Japan.\n\n\"We have a mountain to climb,\" its Chief Executive Ivan Espinosa told reporters, stressing the task will not be easy, requiring discipline and team work. \"Starting today, we build the future for Nissan.\"\n\nThe job cuts to be done by March 2028 include the 9,000 head count reduction announced last year. Nissan also previously announced the scrapping of plans to build a battery plant in Japan.\n\nEspinosa, who took the helm earlier this year, said the latest plans followed a careful review of operations, to align production with demand, including coming up with market and product strategies. Nissan will also leverage its partnerships such as the one with Renault SA of France in Europe and Dongfeng Nissan in China, he said.\n\nThe Yokohama-based automaker said U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on auto imports also hurt its results.\n\nNissan racked up a loss of 670.9 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March, down from a 426.6 billion yen profit recorded the previous fiscal year.\n\nFor the latest quarter through March, Nissan recorded red ink totaling 676 billion yen ($4.6 billion). It also said its recovery plan includes trying to reduce costs by 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion) compared to current costs.\n\n\"As new management, we are taking a prudent approach to reassess our targets and actively seek every possible opportunity to implement and ensure a robust recovery,\" Espinosa said.\n\n\"All employees are committed to working together as a team to implement this plan, with the goal of returning to profitability by fiscal year 2026,\" he said.\n\nBut Nissan Chief Financial Officer Jeremie Papin acknowledged the automaker faces serious challenges. Nissan did not give a profit projection for the fiscal year through March 2026, citing uncertainties.\n\n___\n\nYuri Kageyama is on Threads:"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Nissan slashes 15% of its global work force as the Japan automaker sinks into losses\n\nBy Yuri Kageyama  \nMay 13th, 2025, 08:29 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Nissan is slashing about 15% of its global work force, or about 20,000 employees, as the Japanese automaker reported a loss Tuesday for the fiscal year that just ended amid slipping vehicle sales in China and other nations, and towering restructuring costs.\n\nNissan Motor Corp. said it will reduce the number of its auto plants to 10 from 17, under what it called its recovery plan to carry out \"decisive and bold actions to enhance performance and create a leaner, more resilient business that adapts quickly to market changes.\" It did not say which plants were being closed but confirmed the closures will include factories in Japan.\n\n\"We have a mountain to climb,\" its Chief Executive Ivan Espinosa told reporters, stressing the task will not be easy, requiring discipline and team work. \"Starting today, we build the future for Nissan.\"\n\nThe job cuts to be done by March 2028 include the 9,000 head count reduction announced last year. Nissan also previously announced the scrapping of plans to build a battery plant in Japan.\n\nEspinosa, who took the helm earlier this year, said the latest plans followed a careful review of operations, to align production with demand, including coming up with market and product strategies. Nissan will also leverage its partnerships such as the one with Renault SA of France in Europe and Dongfeng Nissan in China, he said.\n\nThe Yokohama-based automaker said U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs on auto imports also hurt its results.\n\nNissan racked up a loss of 670.9 billion yen ($4.5 billion) for the fiscal year through March, down from a 426.6 billion yen profit recorded the previous fiscal year.\n\nFor the latest quarter through March, Nissan recorded red ink totaling 676 billion yen ($4.6 billion). It also said its recovery plan includes trying to reduce costs by 500 billion yen ($3.4 billion) compared to current costs.\n\n\"As new management, we are taking a prudent approach to reassess our targets and actively seek every possible opportunity to implement and ensure a robust recovery,\" Espinosa said.\n\n\"All employees are committed to working together as a team to implement this plan, with the goal of returning to profitability by fiscal year 2026,\" he said.\n\nBut Nissan Chief Financial Officer Jeremie Papin acknowledged the automaker faces serious challenges. Nissan did not give a profit projection for the fiscal year through March 2026, citing uncertainties."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "956eaa21b54b2c2629ad61a74908873a28d81a1e4c88561a32f0b2b14f8eaae4", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Cannes bans nudity on its red carpet\n\nMay 12th, 2025, 05:53 PM\n\n---\n\nCANNES, France (AP) \u2014 The Cannes Film Festival red carpet is perhaps the most rigidly controlled red carpet in the world. Now, the festival has added a new stipulation: no nudity.\n\nWhile nudity was never previously endorsed at the festival, Cannes updated its dress policy on the eve of its 78th edition to read that \"nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.\"\n\nWhile a no-shirt-no-service policy is standard in places far less glamorous than Cannes, the policy tweak sparked widespread attention Monday because of the recent trend of sheer and \"nude dresses, \" such as Bianca Censori's Grammys appearance.\n\nAsked for clarity on the policy, Cannes press officers said the festival \"made explicit in its charter certain rules that have long been in effect.\"\n\n\"The aim is not to regulate attire per se, but to prohibit full nudity on the red carpet, in accordance with the institutional framework of the event and French law,\" it said.\n\nCannes also noted that \"voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater are not permitted.\"\n\nStill, skin has often been flashed at the French Riviera festival by celebrities like Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Kendall Jenner, and dress policies have long been flouted by celebrities. For evening premieres at the Palais' Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Lumi\u00e8re, black tie and evening wear is required. Though not in recent years, Cannes security officials have sometimes turned away women for not wearing heels.\n\nThe festival also banned selfies in 2018 \u2014 Cannes director Thierry Fr\u00e9maux called them \"grotesque\" \u2014 but A-listers sometimes snap a quick photo on the Palais steps.\n\nThe festival kicks off Tuesday.\n\n___\n\nFor more on the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Cannes bans nudity on its red carpet\n\nMay 12th, 2025, 05:53 PM\n\n---\n\nCANNES, France (AP) \u2014 The Cannes Film Festival red carpet is perhaps the most rigidly controlled red carpet in the world. Now, the festival has added a new stipulation: no nudity.\n\nWhile nudity was never previously endorsed at the festival, Cannes updated its dress policy on the eve of its 78th edition to read that \"nudity is prohibited on the red carpet, as well as in any other area of the festival.\"\n\nWhile a no-shirt-no-service policy is standard in places far less glamorous than Cannes, the policy tweak sparked widespread attention Monday because of the recent trend of sheer and \"nude dresses, \" such as Bianca Censori's Grammys appearance.\n\nAsked for clarity on the policy, Cannes press officers said the festival \"made explicit in its charter certain rules that have long been in effect.\"\n\n\"The aim is not to regulate attire per se, but to prohibit full nudity on the red carpet, in accordance with the institutional framework of the event and French law,\" it said.\n\nCannes also noted that \"voluminous outfits, in particular those with a large train, that hinder the proper flow of traffic of guests and complicate seating in the theater are not permitted.\"\n\nStill, skin has often been flashed at the French Riviera festival by celebrities like Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell and Kendall Jenner, and dress policies have long been flouted by celebrities. For evening premieres at the Palais' Grand Th\u00e9\u00e2tre Lumi\u00e8re, black tie and evening wear is required. Though not in recent years, Cannes security officials have sometimes turned away women for not wearing heels.\n\nThe festival also banned selfies in 2018 \u2014 Cannes director Thierry Fr\u00e9maux called them \"grotesque\" \u2014 but A-listers sometimes snap a quick photo on the Palais steps.\n\nThe festival kicks off Tuesday."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ed1ae71ffc61b8b5057a2131617d2ad39010e0327f3e127001eb469c2980c79f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Japan's imperial palace fires an employee for stealing cash from the household\n\nBy Mari Yamaguchi  \nMay 1st, 2025, 12:59 PM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Japan 's Imperial palace said Thursday that it has fired an employee for stealing cash totaling 3.6 million yen ($24,900) from Emperor Naruhito and his family over more than a year.\n\nThe Imperial Household Agency identified the suspect as an employee in their 20s who was one of about 80 attendants assigned to the palace or the agency building to serve daily needs of Naruhito and his family. The theft is an embarrassment for the royal household and its officials said it's been unheard of in modern history.\n\nThe case surfaced in March during an internal investigation by the IHA that started in January when an assistant manager of the department noticed a discrepancy between the cash in the safe and the accounting book.\n\nWhen an agency official detected the loss of 30,000 yen ($207) in late March, the suspect who just ended an overnight duty was asked about it and admitted stealing cash, citing financial difficulty, the agency said.\n\nIn all, the suspect admitted to stealing a total of 3.6 million yen in a number of occasions from November 2023 to late March this year, and later returned the money by mid-April, it said.\n\nThe money was part of 324 million yen ($2.24 million) annual budget allocated as living expenses for the emperor, his wife Masako, their daughter Princess Aiko and Naruhito's parents \u2014 former Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.\n\nThe IHA said it had filed a criminal complaint to the palace police and formally dismissed the employee. The assistant manager in his 40s, who initially noticed the cash irregularity in January, was given a one-month salary cut over his lax accounting management, the IHA said.\n\nIHA chief Yasuhiko Nishimura said the theft by the employee as a public servant and a staff serving the Imperial family was \"unthinkable\" and \"extremely regrettable,\" and apologized to the emperor and his family, NHK public television reported.\n\nHe pledged to tighten discipline among the palace staff, according to media reports."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Japan's imperial palace fires an employee for stealing cash from the household\n\nBy Mari Yamaguchi  \nMay 1st, 2025, 12:59 PM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Japan 's Imperial palace said Thursday that it has fired an employee for stealing cash totaling 3.6 million yen ($24,900) from Emperor Naruhito and his family over more than a year.\n\nThe Imperial Household Agency identified the suspect as an employee in their 20s who was one of about 80 attendants assigned to the palace or the agency building to serve daily needs of Naruhito and his family. The theft is an embarrassment for the royal household and its officials said it's been unheard of in modern history.\n\nThe case surfaced in March during an internal investigation by the IHA that started in January when an assistant manager of the department noticed a discrepancy between the cash in the safe and the accounting book.\n\nWhen an agency official detected the loss of 30,000 yen ($207) in late March, the suspect who just ended an overnight duty was asked about it and admitted stealing cash, citing financial difficulty, the agency said.\n\nIn all, the suspect admitted to stealing a total of 3.6 million yen in a number of occasions from November 2023 to late March this year, and later returned the money by mid-April, it said.\n\nThe money was part of 324 million yen ($2.24 million) annual budget allocated as living expenses for the emperor, his wife Masako, their daughter Princess Aiko and Naruhito's parents \u2014 former Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.\n\nThe IHA said it had filed a criminal complaint to the palace police and formally dismissed the employee. The assistant manager in his 40s, who initially noticed the cash irregularity in January, was given a one-month salary cut over his lax accounting management, the IHA said.\n\nIHA chief Yasuhiko Nishimura said the theft by the employee as a public servant and a staff serving the Imperial family was \"unthinkable\" and \"extremely regrettable,\" and apologized to the emperor and his family, NHK public television reported.\n\nHe pledged to tighten discipline among the palace staff, according to media reports."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "011ca92c898348c28dfcde5ca1a6a987ca04d69bcfed038a5d9fabb1f7a94870", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Forget China's navy, Chinese small boats landings on Taiwan are a new source of concern\n\nMay 20th, 2025, 08:40 AM\n\n---\n\nTAIPEI (AP) \u2014 China has long sought to intimidate Taiwan with its massive navy, air force and the world's largest standing army, but it's mere dinghies that are now causing the most consternation.\n\nTaiwan's coast guard has documented five cases totaling 38 Chinese citizens crossing the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Taiwan Strait separating the self-governing island democracy from the authoritarian Chinese mainland, according to the body's deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chin.\n\nThat includes at least one case posted to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in which a man speaking with a strong mainland Chinese accent is seen planting a Chinese flag on what he says is a Taiwanese beach. Scenes in the background appear to show a stretch of coastline south of the capital Taipei.\n\nChina claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary. The man has not been found or publicly identified, and Taiwanese authorities are seeking to ascertain whether he received help from anyone on the island.\n\nAnother case involved a father and son who were apprehended shortly after reaching land, along with a man who came ashore at a fishing port in a popular tourist area north of Taipei.\n\nThe small size of the boats, some just inflatables for having fun at the beach, makes it difficult for Taiwan's radar to pick them up. More cameras and other detection devices and manpower would be needed to cover the vast spaces of inhospitable coastline surrounding the island, but the terrain would make a Chinese D-Day-type landing highly challenging.\n\nWhile such cases are not unheard of, they come amid a rise in tensions between the sides, with Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te designating China as an enemy to be defended against, and China holding frequent military exercises seen as a rehearsal for an invasion or boycott of Taiwan.\n\nThose entering Taiwan illegally are liable to a fine of 500,000 Taiwan dollars ($16,666) and five years in prison, but such penalties are usually waived as long as no one is hurt and there is no property damage. In the 1990s, there was a wave of hijackings by Chinese to Taiwan, but the perpetrators were sent home after serving brief prison terms in Taiwan.\n\nIn addition to facing China's formidable military, Taiwan faces a range of so-called \"gray area\" strategies, including in the media and among entertainers hoping to grab a share of the massive Chinese market. Taiwan has also deported the Chinese wives of Taiwanese men for posting videos supporting a takeover of the island.\n\nThe small boat landings may be a further attempt to confuse and undermine confidence among the public, Hsieh said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Forget China's navy, Chinese small boats landings on Taiwan are a new source of concern\n\nMay 20th, 2025, 08:40 AM\n\n---\n\nTAIPEI (AP) \u2014 China has long sought to intimidate Taiwan with its massive navy, air force and the world's largest standing army, but it's mere dinghies that are now causing the most consternation.\n\nTaiwan's coast guard has documented five cases totaling 38 Chinese citizens crossing the 160-kilometer (100-mile) wide Taiwan Strait separating the self-governing island democracy from the authoritarian Chinese mainland, according to the body's deputy director-general Hsieh Ching-chin.\n\nThat includes at least one case posted to Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in which a man speaking with a strong mainland Chinese accent is seen planting a Chinese flag on what he says is a Taiwanese beach. Scenes in the background appear to show a stretch of coastline south of the capital Taipei.\n\nChina claims Taiwan as its own territory, to be conquered by force if necessary. The man has not been found or publicly identified, and Taiwanese authorities are seeking to ascertain whether he received help from anyone on the island.\n\nAnother case involved a father and son who were apprehended shortly after reaching land, along with a man who came ashore at a fishing port in a popular tourist area north of Taipei.\n\nThe small size of the boats, some just inflatables for having fun at the beach, makes it difficult for Taiwan's radar to pick them up. More cameras and other detection devices and manpower would be needed to cover the vast spaces of inhospitable coastline surrounding the island, but the terrain would make a Chinese D-Day-type landing highly challenging.\n\nWhile such cases are not unheard of, they come amid a rise in tensions between the sides, with Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te designating China as an enemy to be defended against, and China holding frequent military exercises seen as a rehearsal for an invasion or boycott of Taiwan.\n\nThose entering Taiwan illegally are liable to a fine of 500,000 Taiwan dollars ($16,666) and five years in prison, but such penalties are usually waived as long as no one is hurt and there is no property damage. In the 1990s, there was a wave of hijackings by Chinese to Taiwan, but the perpetrators were sent home after serving brief prison terms in Taiwan.\n\nIn addition to facing China's formidable military, Taiwan faces a range of so-called \"gray area\" strategies, including in the media and among entertainers hoping to grab a share of the massive Chinese market. Taiwan has also deported the Chinese wives of Taiwanese men for posting videos supporting a takeover of the island.\n\nThe small boat landings may be a further attempt to confuse and undermine confidence among the public, Hsieh said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c308906e0839363ca4898c61b9011b786850acdbfbe86a495d0841e569d6803d", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Lainey Wilson rules the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards once again\n\nBy Maria Sherman  \nMay 8th, 2025, 04:02 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 It was her night once again. Lainey Wilson took home the top prize at the 60th annual Academy of Country Music Awards \u2014 the title of entertainer of the year \u2014 for a second year in a row. And that was after she cleaned house, taking home trophies for both female artist and album of the year.\n\n\"I really do have the best fans in the world,\" she said in her final acceptance speech, admitting to experiencing impostor syndrome. \"I dreamed about entertaining. ... Country music has given me more than I deserve.\"\n\nBeyond Wilson's dominance, the 2025 ACM Awards were packed with celebration. Earlier, first-time and leading nominee Ella Langley's duet with Riley Green, the ubiquitous \"You Look Like You Love Me,\" was named single and music event of the year.\n\nBoth Langley and Green used their first acceptance speech to shout out classic country \u2014 songs with talking in them \u2014 that inspired their modern hit.\n\nA revisitation of the past might have been a theme Thursday night, evidenced right at the top of the ceremony: a 14-minute medley of six decades of country classics, performed by giants of the genre.\n\nHost Reba McEntire launched into Merle Haggard's \"Okie from Muskogee,\" followed by Clint Black with Glen Campbell's \"Rhinestone Cowboy\" and Wynonna Judd with The Judds' \"Why Not Me.\" LeAnn Rimes returned to the ACM Awards stage for her 1997 ballad \"Blue.\" Little Big Town tackled their 2014 track \"Girl Crush\" and Dan + Shay delivered their \"Tequila.\"\n\nIt was an exciting way to kick off the ACM Awards, live from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas.\n\nAnd it was a show highlight, rivaled only by the introduction of the ACM Alan Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award, the inaugural trophy given to its namesake, Jackson, after he performed \"Remember When.\"\n\nIn his acceptance speech, he joked that a fan named a dog after him. Having an award named after him? That isn't half bad, either.\n\nThe first trophy of the night, the coveted song of the year, was awarded to Cody Johnson for his radio hit \"Dirt Cheap.\"\n\nPerformances followed, fast and furious. McEntire, Wilson and Miranda Lambert teamed up for the world premiere of their new single \"Trailblazer,\" celebrating women in country music.\n\nEric Church performed his brand-new single \"Hands of Time,\" succeeded by the most awarded artist in the history of the award show, Lambert with \"Run.\" She was then joined by Langley to duet \"Kerosene\" from Lambert's 2005 debut album of the same name.\n\nZach Top stripped things down for \"Use Me.\" Blake Shelton channeled the great George Strait for his new single \"Texas,\" followed by Wilson with \"Whirlwind.\" Kelsea Ballerini performed atop her \"Baggage.\" Johnson rocked \"The Fall,\" before performing \"Red Dirt Road\" with Brooks & Dunn. Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, harmonized on \"It Takes a Woman.\"\n\nJelly Roll and Shaboozey joined forces for their collaboration, \"Amen.\"\n\n\"It's Shaboozey's birthday,\" Jelly Roll said. \"We wanna thank y'all and we wanna thank God.\"\n\nBackstreet Boys and Rascal Flatts closed the show.\n\nThe Oak Ridge Boys gave the group of the year award to Old Dominion. It was a moving gesture; in 2024 the Oak Ridge Boys' Joe Bonsall, a Grammy award winner and celebrated tenor, died from complications of the neuromuscular disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.\n\nAnother tearjerker: McEntire leading the audience in a sing-along of the late Kris Kristofferson's \"Me and Bobby McGee.\"\n\nMale artist of the year went to Stapleton. Duo of the year was awarded to Brooks & Dunn.\n\nMegan Moroney covered Keith Urban's \"Stupid Boy\" and Stapleton did \"Blue Ain't Your Color\" ahead of the Australian superstar's reception of the coveted ACM Triple Crown Award, marking the first time an artist has received the trophy on stage since Carrie Underwood was honored in 2010.\n\nIf anything, the 60th ACM Awards proved the show is at its best when it celebrates new acts and legends in equal measure.\n\nThe ACM Awards streamed on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch Live. No Prime membership was required to view the livestream.\n\n___\n\nFor more coverage of this year's ACM Awards, visit https://apnews.com/hub/academy-of-country-music-awards"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Lainey Wilson rules the 2025 Academy of Country Music Awards once again\n\nBy Maria Sherman  \nMay 8th, 2025, 04:02 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 It was her night once again. Lainey Wilson took home the top prize at the 60th annual Academy of Country Music Awards \u2014 the title of entertainer of the year \u2014 for a second year in a row. And that was after she cleaned house, taking home trophies for both female artist and album of the year.\n\n\"I really do have the best fans in the world,\" she said in her final acceptance speech, admitting to experiencing impostor syndrome. \"I dreamed about entertaining. ... Country music has given me more than I deserve.\"\n\nBeyond Wilson's dominance, the 2025 ACM Awards were packed with celebration. Earlier, first-time and leading nominee Ella Langley's duet with Riley Green, the ubiquitous \"You Look Like You Love Me,\" was named single and music event of the year.\n\nBoth Langley and Green used their first acceptance speech to shout out classic country \u2014 songs with talking in them \u2014 that inspired their modern hit.\n\nA revisitation of the past might have been a theme Thursday night, evidenced right at the top of the ceremony: a 14-minute medley of six decades of country classics, performed by giants of the genre.\n\nHost Reba McEntire launched into Merle Haggard's \"Okie from Muskogee,\" followed by Clint Black with Glen Campbell's \"Rhinestone Cowboy\" and Wynonna Judd with The Judds' \"Why Not Me.\" LeAnn Rimes returned to the ACM Awards stage for her 1997 ballad \"Blue.\" Little Big Town tackled their 2014 track \"Girl Crush\" and Dan + Shay delivered their \"Tequila.\"\n\nIt was an exciting way to kick off the ACM Awards, live from the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas.\n\nAnd it was a show highlight, rivaled only by the introduction of the ACM Alan Jackson Lifetime Achievement Award, the inaugural trophy given to its namesake, Jackson, after he performed \"Remember When.\"\n\nIn his acceptance speech, he joked that a fan named a dog after him. Having an award named after him? That isn't half bad, either.\n\nThe first trophy of the night, the coveted song of the year, was awarded to Cody Johnson for his radio hit \"Dirt Cheap.\"\n\nPerformances followed, fast and furious. McEntire, Wilson and Miranda Lambert teamed up for the world premiere of their new single \"Trailblazer,\" celebrating women in country music.\n\nEric Church performed his brand-new single \"Hands of Time,\" succeeded by the most awarded artist in the history of the award show, Lambert with \"Run.\" She was then joined by Langley to duet \"Kerosene\" from Lambert's 2005 debut album of the same name.\n\nZach Top stripped things down for \"Use Me.\" Blake Shelton channeled the great George Strait for his new single \"Texas,\" followed by Wilson with \"Whirlwind.\" Kelsea Ballerini performed atop her \"Baggage.\" Johnson rocked \"The Fall,\" before performing \"Red Dirt Road\" with Brooks & Dunn. Chris Stapleton and his wife, Morgane, harmonized on \"It Takes a Woman.\"\n\nJelly Roll and Shaboozey joined forces for their collaboration, \"Amen.\"\n\n\"It's Shaboozey's birthday,\" Jelly Roll said. \"We wanna thank y'all and we wanna thank God.\"\n\nBackstreet Boys and Rascal Flatts closed the show.\n\nThe Oak Ridge Boys gave the group of the year award to Old Dominion. It was a moving gesture; in 2024 the Oak Ridge Boys' Joe Bonsall, a Grammy award winner and celebrated tenor, died from complications of the neuromuscular disorder Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.\n\nAnother tearjerker: McEntire leading the audience in a sing-along of the late Kris Kristofferson's \"Me and Bobby McGee.\"\n\nMale artist of the year went to Stapleton. Duo of the year was awarded to Brooks & Dunn.\n\nMegan Moroney covered Keith Urban's \"Stupid Boy\" and Stapleton did \"Blue Ain't Your Color\" ahead of the Australian superstar's reception of the coveted ACM Triple Crown Award, marking the first time an artist has received the trophy on stage since Carrie Underwood was honored in 2010.\n\nIf anything, the 60th ACM Awards proved the show is at its best when it celebrates new acts and legends in equal measure.\n\nThe ACM Awards streamed on Prime Video and the Amazon Music channel on Twitch Live. No Prime membership was required to view the livestream."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1118d71c23f36b39473f214b34c6a2001008e1dda877c44a51c448f0e5a3965a", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Massachusetts man pleads guilty to attacking a flight attendant with a broken spoon\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 09:56 PM\n\n---\n\nBOSTON (AP) \u2014 A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attacking a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon and attempting to open an airliner's emergency door on a cross-country flight.\n\nFrancisco Severo Torres, of Leominster, pleaded guilty to one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon in the March 2023 disturbance on United Airlines Flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston.\n\nAccording to prosecutor and witness accounts, Torres went on a midair rant and tried to stab a crew member with a modified metal spoon.\n\nThe plane was about 45 minutes from Boston when the crew received an alarm that a side door on the aircraft was disarmed, according to court documents. One flight attendant noticed the door's locking handle had been moved. Another saw Torres near the door and believed he had moved the handle. Cabin pressure during flight prevents airplane doors from opening.\n\nTorres started loudly rambling that his father was Dracula, that he wanted to be shot so he could be reincarnated and that he would kill everyone on board, another passenger said. He punched a male flight attendant, who felt the metal spoon in Torres' hand hit him on his shirt collar and tie three times, according to court documents. No one was injured.\n\nTorres was eventually subdued and restrained by other passengers. He was arrested when the flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.\n\nTorres could be sentenced up to life in prison.\n\nA lawyer for Torres could not be reached for comment.\n\nTorres has spent time in mental health facilities, according to court records. The police chief in his hometown said officers have dealt with him several times since 2014, mostly over family issues and mental health episodes.\n\nDuring one court appearance after his arrest, a federal judge ruled that Torres was not competent to stand trial and that he needed additional treatment. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein based her decision on a mental health evaluation of Torres and her own observations."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Massachusetts man pleads guilty to attacking a flight attendant with a broken spoon\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 09:56 PM\n\n---\n\nBOSTON (AP) \u2014 A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty Tuesday to attacking a flight attendant with a broken metal spoon and attempting to open an airliner's emergency door on a cross-country flight.\n\nFrancisco Severo Torres, of Leominster, pleaded guilty to one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon in the March 2023 disturbance on United Airlines Flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston.\n\nAccording to prosecutor and witness accounts, Torres went on a midair rant and tried to stab a crew member with a modified metal spoon.\n\nThe plane was about 45 minutes from Boston when the crew received an alarm that a side door on the aircraft was disarmed, according to court documents. One flight attendant noticed the door's locking handle had been moved. Another saw Torres near the door and believed he had moved the handle. Cabin pressure during flight prevents airplane doors from opening.\n\nTorres started loudly rambling that his father was Dracula, that he wanted to be shot so he could be reincarnated and that he would kill everyone on board, another passenger said. He punched a male flight attendant, who felt the metal spoon in Torres' hand hit him on his shirt collar and tie three times, according to court documents. No one was injured.\n\nTorres was eventually subdued and restrained by other passengers. He was arrested when the flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.\n\nTorres could be sentenced up to life in prison.\n\nA lawyer for Torres could not be reached for comment.\n\nTorres has spent time in mental health facilities, according to court records. The police chief in his hometown said officers have dealt with him several times since 2014, mostly over family issues and mental health episodes.\n\nDuring one court appearance after his arrest, a federal judge ruled that Torres was not competent to stand trial and that he needed additional treatment. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein based her decision on a mental health evaluation of Torres and her own observations."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7dd5f2c37b9275ca4438626efa895c0638f20a3c4edf8212f45b842be704b18a", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Iranian student in Alabama to self-deport despite withdrawal of initial charge behind his arrest\n\nBy Safiyah Riddle  \nMay 9th, 2025, 02:06 AM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 An Iranian mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama has decided to self-deport after six weeks in a Louisiana detention center despite the government dropping a charge behind his initial arrest, his lawyer and fiancee said.\n\nAlireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of President Donald Trump's widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where he lived with his fiancee in Alabama.\n\nAt the time the State Department said Doroudi posed \"significant national security concerns.\"\n\nDoroudi's lawyer, David Rozas, said the government has not offered any evidence to support that claim, however.\n\nDoroudi's visa was revoked in June 2023. Officials did not give a reason and ignored numerous inquiries from him that year, according to his fiancee, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani.\n\nBack then the University of Alabama advised Doroudi that he was legally allowed to stay but would not be allowed to re-enter if he left, Bajgani added.\n\nThis spring the government filed two charges against Doroudi to justify deporting him, saying his visa was revoked and he was not \"in status\" as a student, Rozas said.\n\nOn Thursday a U.S. government attorney withdrew the first of those and said the visa revocation was \"prudential,\" meaning it would not go into effect until after he leaves the country \u2014 in line with what the university told Doroudi earlier.\n\nRozas said he has submitted evidence disputing the remaining accusation, that he is not an active student.\n\nA State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, including Rozas' characterization of the initial arrest as an error.\n\nThe judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave both sides until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi's request to redetermine eligibility for bond. Doroudi decided to give up rather than continue to fight deportation.\n\n\"He told me that if they let him to go out, there was a good chance that he would have fought his case for the sake of other students and for the sake of himself,\" Bajgani said afterward by phone. \"They just want to make him tired so he can deport himself.\"\n\nBajgani, who drove 11 hours round-trip to attend the hourlong hearing, echoed Rozas' confusion about why Doroudi was targeted for deportation, saying he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.\n\nShe affectionately described her fiance as a \"nerd\" and \"a really big thinker\" who spent long days in the lab and enjoys anime. He does not deserve what happened to him, she said, and now the life they built in Alabama is over.\n\n\"I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,\" Bajgani said. \"All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.\"\n\nIn a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a \"pure injustice.\"\n\n\"I didn't cause any trouble in this country,\" he said. \"I didn't enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.\"\n\nRozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney. He accused authorities of denying his client due process and forcing him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.\n\n\"I'm absolutely devastated,\" Rozas said, \"and I think it's a travesty of justice.\"\n\n___\n\nRiddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Iranian student in Alabama to self-deport despite withdrawal of initial charge behind his arrest\n\nBy Safiyah Riddle  \nMay 9th, 2025, 02:06 AM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 An Iranian mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama has decided to self-deport after six weeks in a Louisiana detention center despite the government dropping a charge behind his initial arrest, his lawyer and fiancee said.\n\nAlireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of President Donald Trump's widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 300 miles (480 kilometers) from where he lived with his fiancee in Alabama.\n\nAt the time the State Department said Doroudi posed \"significant national security concerns.\"\n\nDoroudi's lawyer, David Rozas, said the government has not offered any evidence to support that claim, however.\n\nDoroudi's visa was revoked in June 2023. Officials did not give a reason and ignored numerous inquiries from him that year, according to his fiancee, Sama Ebrahimi Bajgani.\n\nBack then the University of Alabama advised Doroudi that he was legally allowed to stay but would not be allowed to re-enter if he left, Bajgani added.\n\nThis spring the government filed two charges against Doroudi to justify deporting him, saying his visa was revoked and he was not \"in status\" as a student, Rozas said.\n\nOn Thursday a U.S. government attorney withdrew the first of those and said the visa revocation was \"prudential,\" meaning it would not go into effect until after he leaves the country \u2014 in line with what the university told Doroudi earlier.\n\nRozas said he has submitted evidence disputing the remaining accusation, that he is not an active student.\n\nA State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the case, including Rozas' characterization of the initial arrest as an error.\n\nThe judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave both sides until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi's request to redetermine eligibility for bond. Doroudi decided to give up rather than continue to fight deportation.\n\n\"He told me that if they let him to go out, there was a good chance that he would have fought his case for the sake of other students and for the sake of himself,\" Bajgani said afterward by phone. \"They just want to make him tired so he can deport himself.\"\n\nBajgani, who drove 11 hours round-trip to attend the hourlong hearing, echoed Rozas' confusion about why Doroudi was targeted for deportation, saying he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.\n\nShe affectionately described her fiance as a \"nerd\" and \"a really big thinker\" who spent long days in the lab and enjoys anime. He does not deserve what happened to him, she said, and now the life they built in Alabama is over.\n\n\"I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,\" Bajgani said. \"All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.\"\n\nIn a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a \"pure injustice.\"\n\n\"I didn't cause any trouble in this country,\" he said. \"I didn't enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.\"\n\nRozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney. He accused authorities of denying his client due process and forcing him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.\n\n\"I'm absolutely devastated,\" Rozas said, \"and I think it's a travesty of justice.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c0c47d9233affd30c5b1b56c8e5d8aa089d2af773269cca544c4f6c26f9d246f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Harvey Weinstein's lawyers get their turn to question accuser Miriam Haley at #MeToo retrial\n\nBy Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak  \nMay 1st, 2025, 04:57 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Harvey Weinstein 's lawyers got their turn Thursday to question a woman who alleges the one-time Hollywood heavyweight held her down and forced oral sex on her nearly two decades ago.\n\nMiriam Haley, testifying for a third day at Weinstein's rape retrial, was grilled about details of her recollections \u2014 such as exactly how she once propped open an apartment building door \u2014 and the bigger picture of her story.\n\nDefense lawyer Jennifer Bonjean underscored that Haley, who was then looking for entertainment production work, stayed in touch with Weinstein despite feeling humiliated when he complimented her legs and asked for a massage at a meeting a few months before the alleged 2006 assault.\n\n\"You understood these were sexual overtures?\" Bonjean asked.\n\nHaley said she did.\n\n\"You rebuffed them, and he still gave you his phone number, right?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Haley, who got a short gig on the Weinstein-produced \"Project Runway\" shortly after that meeting, which happened in his company's hotel suite during the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.\n\nHaley has repeatedly testified that she was pursuing only job opportunities, nothing else, from Weinstein.\n\nBonjean also sparred with the witness over her decision to get a lawyer and hold a press conference airing her allegations as the #MeToo movement exploded in October 2017, fueled by other women's claims that the Oscar-winning producer had sexually assaulted or harassed them.\n\nWeinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting anyone. His lawyers argue that all of his accusers consented to sexual encounters in hopes of getting work in show business.\n\nHaley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first of three accusers expected to testify at the retrial. She is reprising and adding some new details to testimony that led to Weinstein's since-overturned 2020 conviction.\n\nShe testified Wednesday that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to his apartment for what she expected to be a friendly, professional meeting. She said he pushed her onto a bed, ignoring her pleas of: \"No, no \u2014 it's not going to happen.\"\n\nShe and two friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her.\n\nHaley testified that she took a prearranged flight to Los Angeles on Weinstein's dime the next day, and a few weeks later agreed to meet him at a Manhattan hotel. She said she had expected to talk in the lobby, but was instead directed to his room, where she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him.\n\nEven after that, Haley testified, she kept in touch, sometimes sending emails signed \"Lots of love\" to Weinstein and his assistant. She said that she was still trying to capitalize professionally on knowing Weinstein and that she \"suppressed a lot of things\" to cope with them.\n\nBonjean pointed out Thursday that when Haley went public in 2017, she didn't mention her subsequent sexual encounter with Weinstein, nor their continued contact.\n\n\"You told the press only part of the story, correct?\" Bonjean asked.\n\n\"I told the part that was relevant to what I was trying to share,\" Haley said.\n\nShe denied Bonjean's suggestion that she spoke out in hopes of suing Weinstein, though she later sued and got a roughly $475,000 settlement.\n\nFocusing on the Cannes meeting, Bonjean pressed Haley on what to make of the fact that she had secured a meeting with a top producer while she had limited experience herself.\n\n\"So, as somebody in my position, I should have turned it down, is what you're saying?\" Haley shot back.\n\n\"I'm not saying you should have done anything,\" Bonjean replied.\n\nShe will step away from Weinstein's defense team to attend to another trial after she finishes questioning Haley, who is due back on the stand Friday.\n\nWeinstein's retrial includes charges related to Haley and another accuser from the original trial, Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013. He's also being tried, for the first time, for allegedly forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola in 2006.\n\nMann and Sokola also are expected to testify.\n\nThe Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they've been sexually assaulted unless they give permission for their names to be used. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Harvey Weinstein's lawyers get their turn to question accuser Miriam Haley at #MeToo retrial\n\nBy Jennifer Peltz and Michael R. Sisak  \nMay 1st, 2025, 04:57 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Harvey Weinstein 's lawyers got their turn Thursday to question a woman who alleges the one-time Hollywood heavyweight held her down and forced oral sex on her nearly two decades ago.\n\nMiriam Haley, testifying for a third day at Weinstein's rape retrial, was grilled about details of her recollections \u2014 such as exactly how she once propped open an apartment building door \u2014 and the bigger picture of her story.\n\nDefense lawyer Jennifer Bonjean underscored that Haley, who was then looking for entertainment production work, stayed in touch with Weinstein despite feeling humiliated when he complimented her legs and asked for a massage at a meeting a few months before the alleged 2006 assault.\n\n\"You understood these were sexual overtures?\" Bonjean asked.\n\nHaley said she did.\n\n\"You rebuffed them, and he still gave you his phone number, right?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Haley, who got a short gig on the Weinstein-produced \"Project Runway\" shortly after that meeting, which happened in his company's hotel suite during the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.\n\nHaley has repeatedly testified that she was pursuing only job opportunities, nothing else, from Weinstein.\n\nBonjean also sparred with the witness over her decision to get a lawyer and hold a press conference airing her allegations as the #MeToo movement exploded in October 2017, fueled by other women's claims that the Oscar-winning producer had sexually assaulted or harassed them.\n\nWeinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting anyone. His lawyers argue that all of his accusers consented to sexual encounters in hopes of getting work in show business.\n\nHaley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first of three accusers expected to testify at the retrial. She is reprising and adding some new details to testimony that led to Weinstein's since-overturned 2020 conviction.\n\nShe testified Wednesday that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to his apartment for what she expected to be a friendly, professional meeting. She said he pushed her onto a bed, ignoring her pleas of: \"No, no \u2014 it's not going to happen.\"\n\nShe and two friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her.\n\nHaley testified that she took a prearranged flight to Los Angeles on Weinstein's dime the next day, and a few weeks later agreed to meet him at a Manhattan hotel. She said she had expected to talk in the lobby, but was instead directed to his room, where she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him.\n\nEven after that, Haley testified, she kept in touch, sometimes sending emails signed \"Lots of love\" to Weinstein and his assistant. She said that she was still trying to capitalize professionally on knowing Weinstein and that she \"suppressed a lot of things\" to cope with them.\n\nBonjean pointed out Thursday that when Haley went public in 2017, she didn't mention her subsequent sexual encounter with Weinstein, nor their continued contact.\n\n\"You told the press only part of the story, correct?\" Bonjean asked.\n\n\"I told the part that was relevant to what I was trying to share,\" Haley said.\n\nShe denied Bonjean's suggestion that she spoke out in hopes of suing Weinstein, though she later sued and got a roughly $475,000 settlement.\n\nFocusing on the Cannes meeting, Bonjean pressed Haley on what to make of the fact that she had secured a meeting with a top producer while she had limited experience herself.\n\n\"So, as somebody in my position, I should have turned it down, is what you're saying?\" Haley shot back.\n\n\"I'm not saying you should have done anything,\" Bonjean replied.\n\nShe will step away from Weinstein's defense team to attend to another trial after she finishes questioning Haley, who is due back on the stand Friday.\n\nWeinstein's retrial includes charges related to Haley and another accuser from the original trial, Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in 2013. He's also being tried, for the first time, for allegedly forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola in 2006.\n\nMann and Sokola also are expected to testify.\n\nThe Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they've been sexually assaulted unless they give permission for their names to be used. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b0a58aea3c9e9335ebbebb2421441187f360c34697874f02107edb3b96fd4148", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence\n\nBy Holly Ramer and Amanda Swinhart  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:04 AM\n\n---\n\nMONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) \u2014 A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.\n\nMohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. On Friday, an appeals court in New York denied the government's request to halt that order, saying the Trump administration's jurisdictional arguments were unlikely to succeed and that it hadn't shown that Mahdawi's release has caused irreparable harm.\n\n\"Individual liberty substantially outweighs the government's weak assertions of administrative and logistical costs,\" wrote the three-judge panel at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nThe Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him on bail ruled that he has raised a \"substantial claim\" that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.\n\nMahdawi spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said.\n\nMahdawi said instead of being a \"beacon of hope,\" the university is inciting violence against students.\n\n\"Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,\" Mahdawi said in the interview. \"They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school's acting president to Wednesday's protests.\n\nThe acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in \"to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,\" she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions \"outrageous\" and a disruption to students for final exams.\n\nMahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was arrested in March.\n\nOn April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions.\n\n\"Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,\" he said.\n\nImmigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest.\n\nIn another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released.\n\nMahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was \"stay positive and don't let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.\"\n\n\"People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,\" he said. \"The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa's yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.\"\n\nMahdawi's release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students.\n\n\"I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message,\" he said. \"This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Freed Palestinian student accuses Columbia University of inciting violence\n\nBy Holly Ramer and Amanda Swinhart  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:04 AM\n\n---\n\nMONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) \u2014 A Palestinian student arrested as he was about to finalize his U.S. citizenship accused Columbia University on Thursday of eroding democracy with its handling of campus protests against the Israel-Hamas war.\n\nMohsen Mahdawi, 34, who led anti-war protests at the Ivy League school in New York in 2023 and 2024, spent 16 days in a Vermont prison before a judge ordered him released on April 30. On Friday, an appeals court in New York denied the government's request to halt that order, saying the Trump administration's jurisdictional arguments were unlikely to succeed and that it hadn't shown that Mahdawi's release has caused irreparable harm.\n\n\"Individual liberty substantially outweighs the government's weak assertions of administrative and logistical costs,\" wrote the three-judge panel at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.\n\nThe Trump administration has said Mahdawi should be deported because his activism threatens its foreign policy goals, but the judge who released him on bail ruled that he has raised a \"substantial claim\" that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.\n\nMahdawi spoke to The Associated Press on Thursday, a day after pro-Palestinian protestors clashed with campus security guards inside the university's main library. At least 80 people were taken into custody, police said.\n\nMahdawi said instead of being a \"beacon of hope,\" the university is inciting violence against students.\n\n\"Columbia University is participating in the destruction of the democratic system,\" Mahdawi said in the interview. \"They are supporting the initiatives and the agenda of the Trump administration, and they are punishing and torturing their students.\"\n\nA spokesperson for Columbia University, which in March announced sweeping policy changes related to protests following Trump administration threats to revoke its federal funding, declined to comment Thursday beyond the response of the school's acting president to Wednesday's protests.\n\nThe acting president, Claire Shipman, said the protesters who had holed up inside a library reading room were asked repeatedly to show identification and to leave, but they refused. The school then asked police in \"to assist in securing the building and the safety of our community,\" she said in a statement Wednesday evening, calling the protest actions \"outrageous\" and a disruption to students for final exams.\n\nMahdawi, a legal permanent resident, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and moved to the United States in 2014. At Columbia, he organized campus protests and co-founded the Palestinian Student Union with Mahmoud Khalil, another Palestinian permanent resident of the U.S. and graduate student who was arrested in March.\n\nOn April 14, Mahdawi had taken a written citizenship test, answered verbal questions and signed a document about the pledge of allegiance at an immigration office in Colchester when his interviewer left the room. Masked and armed agents then entered and arrested him, he said. Though he had suspected a trap, the moment was still shocking, he said, triggering a cascade of contrasting emotions.\n\n\"Light and darkness, cold and hot. Having rights or not having rights at all,\" he said.\n\nImmigration authorities have detained college students from around the country since the first days of the Trump administration, many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Mahdawi was among the first to win release from custody after challenging his arrest.\n\nIn another case, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday in favor of Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, upholding an order to transfer her from a Louisiana detention center back to New England to determine whether her rights were violated and if she should be released.\n\nMahdawi said his message to the Turkish student and others was \"stay positive and don't let this injustice shake your belief in the inevitability of justice.\"\n\n\"People are working hard. Communities are mobilizing,\" he said. \"The justice system has signaled to America with my case, and with Rumeysa's yesterday with the Second Circuit, that justice is functioning and checks and balances is still in function.\"\n\nMahdawi's release, which is being challenged by the government, allows him to travel outside of his home state of Vermont and attend his graduation from Columbia in New York later this month. He said he plans to do so, though he believes the administration has turned its back on him and rejected the work of a student diplomacy council he served on alongside Jewish, Israeli and Lebanese students.\n\n\"I plan to attend the graduation because it is a message,\" he said. \"This is a message that education is hope, education is light, and there is no power in the world that should take that away from us.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7eea7a4eeb6ef3eabda703ade8ef7fb6f7594e98cb64826bbcc2277d2e5352fe", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# South Africa says its peacekeeping troops are withdrawing from rebel-held eastern Congo\n\nMay 1st, 2025, 04:24 PM\n\n---\n\nCAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 The South African armed forces said Thursday they had begun withdrawing their peacekeeping troops from rebel-controlled eastern Congo.\n\nThe South African National Defense Force said the troops began moving out earlier this week and would travel through neighboring Rwanda to Tanzania and fly home from there.\n\nPeacekeeping troops from Malawi and Tanzania have also started withdrawing from Congo. The three countries contributed soldiers to a southern African peacekeeping force but they had been left trapped in eastern Congo after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launched an offensive in late January and took control of the strategic city of Goma.\n\nFourteen South African and three Malaiwan soldiers were killed in fighting with M23 in January. The southern African regional body decided in March to end its peacekeeping mission early and bring the troops home.\n\nRwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on X that his country was providing safe passage and an escort for the peacekeepers and their equipment.\n\nOn Wednesday, hundreds of stranded Congolese government soldiers and police officers, along with their families, were also starting to be transferred from Goma back to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was escorting them.\n\nM23 controls Goma and a second major city in eastern Congo and is supported by around 4,000 troops from Rwanda, according to experts from the United Nations.\n\nCongo and Rwanda have held talks mediated by Qatar and supported by the United States and say they are working toward a peace agreement.\n\n___\n\nAP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# South Africa says its peacekeeping troops are withdrawing from rebel-held eastern Congo\n\nMay 1st, 2025, 04:24 PM\n\n---\n\nCAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 The South African armed forces said Thursday they had begun withdrawing their peacekeeping troops from rebel-controlled eastern Congo.\n\nThe South African National Defense Force said the troops began moving out earlier this week and would travel through neighboring Rwanda to Tanzania and fly home from there.\n\nPeacekeeping troops from Malawi and Tanzania have also started withdrawing from Congo. The three countries contributed soldiers to a southern African peacekeeping force but they had been left trapped in eastern Congo after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels launched an offensive in late January and took control of the strategic city of Goma.\n\nFourteen South African and three Malaiwan soldiers were killed in fighting with M23 in January. The southern African regional body decided in March to end its peacekeeping mission early and bring the troops home.\n\nRwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe said on X that his country was providing safe passage and an escort for the peacekeepers and their equipment.\n\nOn Wednesday, hundreds of stranded Congolese government soldiers and police officers, along with their families, were also starting to be transferred from Goma back to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which was escorting them.\n\nM23 controls Goma and a second major city in eastern Congo and is supported by around 4,000 troops from Rwanda, according to experts from the United Nations.\n\nCongo and Rwanda have held talks mediated by Qatar and supported by the United States and say they are working toward a peace agreement."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "726208ac0bc6ac761008fead604e82a6e2be1c446fe7bf61e58f02396894139f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# A look at the leading candidates for Poland's next president\n\nBy Vanessa Gera  \nMay 14th, 2025, 06:51 AM\n\n---\n\nWARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Poland holds a presidential election Sunday as the conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda nears the end of his second and final term. If none of the 13 candidates wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held June 1 between the top two. All signs indicate it will be a showdown between Warsaw Mayor Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.\n\nWhile much of the power in Poland lies with the prime minister and legislature, the presidency is far more than ceremonial, with influence over foreign policy and military affairs and the ability to veto legislation.\n\nHere is a look at the top four candidates:\n\n## Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw\n\nTrzaskowski, a political ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has been leading in polls with support just above 30% \u2014 a clear edge over his two main rivals, both conservative nationalists.\n\nSupporters of the 53-year-old praise his pro-European stance and his role in modernizing Warsaw, which has seen significant infrastructure and cultural investment during his tenure.\n\nHowever, Poland remains a largely conservative, Catholic country. Trzaskowski's liberal views \u2014 particularly his support for LGBTQ+ rights and participation in Pride parades \u2014 alienate some voters outside urban centers. He also faces criticism over local governance, including allegations of inefficiency, controversial real estate management and perceived wasteful spending.\n\nIn a runoff, he could expect the bulk of right-wing voters to coalesce behind the other candidate. Trzaskowski could also be vulnerable to voter apathy among centrists and progressives who are frustrated with Tusk's inability to deliver on key campaign promises, such as loosening Poland's strict abortion law.\n\nThis is the second presidential campaign for Trzaskowski after Duda narrowly defeated him five years ago.\n\n## Karol Nawrocki, a conservative histo\n\nNawrocki, 42, is the candidate representing Poland's conservative Law and Justice party. The historian currently heads the Institute of National Remembrance, where he angered Russia with efforts to topple Soviet-era memorials. He previously directed the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, putting his national conservative stamp on the institution. His academic work has focused on anti-communist resistance and organized crime in communist-era Poland.\n\nHe is not a party member, and his candidacy represents the Law and Justice party's strategy to present a fresh face as it aims to regain influence. The party ruled for eight years but lost power to Tusk's coalition in 2023.\n\nNawrocki's campaign has been marred by controversies.\n\nJournalists revealed that in 2018, under the pseudonym \"Tadeusz Batyr,\" he published a book on a notorious gangster. In a television interview, Batyr \u2014 with his face blurred and his voice altered \u2014 praised Nawrocki's work without disclosing they were the same person. Separately Nawrocki, using his real identity, praised Batyr's work.\n\nNawrocki has also been linked to a scandal involving the acquisition of a Gdansk apartment from an elderly pensioner named Jerzy. Allegations suggest Nawrocki promised to care for Jerzy in return but failed to fulfill the commitment, leading the man to end up in a city-funded retirement home. Journalists uncovered the story after Nawrocki claimed in a debate that he owned only one home, and the explanations he has given to explain the existence of his second apartment have shifted \u2014 creating a clear impression of impropriety that his competitors have seized on.\n\n## S\u0142awomir Mentzen, a far-right firebrand and beer entrepreneur\n\nAt 38, S\u0142awomir Mentzen has emerged as a prominent figure in the presidential race, leveraging his savvy use of social media platforms to connect with younger voters. His sleek videos and populist messaging have resonated with many young people, especially men. Mentzen also has been actively touring the country, aiming to broaden his appeal to older demographics.\n\nThe rise of his Confederation party coincides with a broader surge of populist right-wing movements across Europe.\n\nHowever, Mentzen's political journey has not been without controversy. In 2019, he made headlines with a statement saying: \"We don't want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes or the European Union.\"\n\nWhile he later said the remark was taken out of context, it has continued to shadow him. Although the Confederation party has emphasized its free-market positions and distanced itself from some extreme elements, many Poles remain wary of Mentzen's past statements.\n\nHe experienced an early surge in the polls that faded after he advocated for the introduction of tuition fees at state universities, a stance that proved unpopular given Poland's tradition of free higher education.\n\nHe also has taken a hard-line position on abortion, opposing it even in cases of rape \u2014 a view that for many went too far.\n\nMentzen is also a successful entrepreneur. He has degrees in economics and physics and owns a brewery in the central city of Torun that has produced beers with names such as \"White IPA Matters,\" \"Hate Speech\" and \"Bitcoin.\" The \"White IPA Matters\" beer had a marketing campaign featuring a Black bartender, triggering controversy.\n\nIn a personal revelation, Mentzen disclosed in 2024 that he has autism. He shared that while he possesses strong concentration skills, he sometimes struggles with interpreting others' emotions.\n\n## Szymon Ho\u0142ownia, parliament speaker with a showman's flair\n\nSzymon Ho\u0142ownia, 48, is a former television personality who transitioned into politics, bringing charisma and a fresh face to the political scene.\n\nOnce a seminary student, he became widely known as the co-host of Poland's version of \"Got Talent.\" His political journey began in earnest with his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election, where he secured nearly 14% of the vote to finish third.\n\nIn 2020, Ho\u0142ownia founded the Poland 2050 movement, which evolved into a political party. In the 2023 election, the party joined forces with the conservative agrarian Polish People's Party to create the Third Way coalition, which then joined Tusk's coalition. Ho\u0142ownia was elected as the speaker of the Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.\n\nHis showman's flair energized Poles hungry for new faces in a political scene dominated by many of the same figures for decades, including Tusk. Captivated citizens began watching live sessions of parliament online, drawn by his energy and wit.\n\nSome analysts say his decision to join Tusk's government, however, has undermined his image as a refreshing outsider."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# A look at the leading candidates for Poland's next president\n\nBy Vanessa Gera  \nMay 14th, 2025, 06:51 AM\n\n---\n\nWARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Poland holds a presidential election Sunday as the conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda nears the end of his second and final term. If none of the 13 candidates wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held June 1 between the top two. All signs indicate it will be a showdown between Warsaw Mayor Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.\n\nWhile much of the power in Poland lies with the prime minister and legislature, the presidency is far more than ceremonial, with influence over foreign policy and military affairs and the ability to veto legislation.\n\nHere is a look at the top four candidates:\n\n## Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw\n\nTrzaskowski, a political ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, has been leading in polls with support just above 30% \u2014 a clear edge over his two main rivals, both conservative nationalists.\n\nSupporters of the 53-year-old praise his pro-European stance and his role in modernizing Warsaw, which has seen significant infrastructure and cultural investment during his tenure.\n\nHowever, Poland remains a largely conservative, Catholic country. Trzaskowski's liberal views \u2014 particularly his support for LGBTQ+ rights and participation in Pride parades \u2014 alienate some voters outside urban centers. He also faces criticism over local governance, including allegations of inefficiency, controversial real estate management and perceived wasteful spending.\n\nIn a runoff, he could expect the bulk of right-wing voters to coalesce behind the other candidate. Trzaskowski could also be vulnerable to voter apathy among centrists and progressives who are frustrated with Tusk's inability to deliver on key campaign promises, such as loosening Poland's strict abortion law.\n\nThis is the second presidential campaign for Trzaskowski after Duda narrowly defeated him five years ago.\n\n## Karol Nawrocki, a conservative histo\n\nNawrocki, 42, is the candidate representing Poland's conservative Law and Justice party. The historian currently heads the Institute of National Remembrance, where he angered Russia with efforts to topple Soviet-era memorials. He previously directed the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, putting his national conservative stamp on the institution. His academic work has focused on anti-communist resistance and organized crime in communist-era Poland.\n\nHe is not a party member, and his candidacy represents the Law and Justice party's strategy to present a fresh face as it aims to regain influence. The party ruled for eight years but lost power to Tusk's coalition in 2023.\n\nNawrocki's campaign has been marred by controversies.\n\nJournalists revealed that in 2018, under the pseudonym \"Tadeusz Batyr,\" he published a book on a notorious gangster. In a television interview, Batyr \u2014 with his face blurred and his voice altered \u2014 praised Nawrocki's work without disclosing they were the same person. Separately Nawrocki, using his real identity, praised Batyr's work.\n\nNawrocki has also been linked to a scandal involving the acquisition of a Gdansk apartment from an elderly pensioner named Jerzy. Allegations suggest Nawrocki promised to care for Jerzy in return but failed to fulfill the commitment, leading the man to end up in a city-funded retirement home. Journalists uncovered the story after Nawrocki claimed in a debate that he owned only one home, and the explanations he has given to explain the existence of his second apartment have shifted \u2014 creating a clear impression of impropriety that his competitors have seized on.\n\n## S\u0142awomir Mentzen, a far-right firebrand and beer entrepreneur\n\nAt 38, S\u0142awomir Mentzen has emerged as a prominent figure in the presidential race, leveraging his savvy use of social media platforms to connect with younger voters. His sleek videos and populist messaging have resonated with many young people, especially men. Mentzen also has been actively touring the country, aiming to broaden his appeal to older demographics.\n\nThe rise of his Confederation party coincides with a broader surge of populist right-wing movements across Europe.\n\nHowever, Mentzen's political journey has not been without controversy. In 2019, he made headlines with a statement saying: \"We don't want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes or the European Union.\"\n\nWhile he later said the remark was taken out of context, it has continued to shadow him. Although the Confederation party has emphasized its free-market positions and distanced itself from some extreme elements, many Poles remain wary of Mentzen's past statements.\n\nHe experienced an early surge in the polls that faded after he advocated for the introduction of tuition fees at state universities, a stance that proved unpopular given Poland's tradition of free higher education.\n\nHe also has taken a hard-line position on abortion, opposing it even in cases of rape \u2014 a view that for many went too far.\n\nMentzen is also a successful entrepreneur. He has degrees in economics and physics and owns a brewery in the central city of Torun that has produced beers with names such as \"White IPA Matters,\" \"Hate Speech\" and \"Bitcoin.\" The \"White IPA Matters\" beer had a marketing campaign featuring a Black bartender, triggering controversy.\n\nIn a personal revelation, Mentzen disclosed in 2024 that he has autism. He shared that while he possesses strong concentration skills, he sometimes struggles with interpreting others' emotions.\n\n## Szymon Ho\u0142ownia, parliament speaker with a showman's flair\n\nSzymon Ho\u0142ownia, 48, is a former television personality who transitioned into politics, bringing charisma and a fresh face to the political scene.\n\nOnce a seminary student, he became widely known as the co-host of Poland's version of \"Got Talent.\" His political journey began in earnest with his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election, where he secured nearly 14% of the vote to finish third.\n\nIn 2020, Ho\u0142ownia founded the Poland 2050 movement, which evolved into a political party. In the 2023 election, the party joined forces with the conservative agrarian Polish People's Party to create the Third Way coalition, which then joined Tusk's coalition. Ho\u0142ownia was elected as the speaker of the Sejm, Poland's lower house of parliament.\n\nHis showman's flair energized Poles hungry for new faces in a political scene dominated by many of the same figures for decades, including Tusk. Captivated citizens began watching live sessions of parliament online, drawn by his energy and wit.\n\nSome analysts say his decision to join Tusk's government, however, has undermined his image as a refreshing outsider."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "a9f3824495dbda7d4bbafd1f3a493f3bb657df38bca4f8962bb43f6e15192cc9", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Pakistani police search for the suspect in the killing of an Ahmadi minority doctor\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 07:03 AM\n\n---\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan (AP) \u2014 Pakistani police stepped up their search Monday for the suspect in the killing of a doctor from the country's tiny Ahmadi minority, the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting the community.\n\nThe physician was gunned down at a private hospital where he worked in the eastern city of Sargodha on Friday; the gunman fled the scene.\n\nThe Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam but Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. There are about 500,000 Ahmadis in Pakistan, a nation of 250 million.\n\nNo one claimed responsibility for Friday's killing but supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a radical Islamist party, have carried out many of the attacks on Ahmadis, accusing them of blasphemy.\n\nBlasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan and even just rumors or allegations of insulting Islam can incite mobs to deadly violence.\n\nSargodha police official, Sikandar Ali, said the motive behind the killing of Dr. Sheikh Mahmood remains unclear. An investigation is ongoing, he said.\n\nMahmood's killing was the third attack on Ahmadis in Pakistan in since April, said Amir Mahmood, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community. He urged the government to protect Ahmadis, whose places of worship and even graveyards are also often desecrated by extremist Sunni groups."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Pakistani police search for the suspect in the killing of an Ahmadi minority doctor\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 07:03 AM\n\n---\n\nLAHORE, Pakistan (AP) \u2014 Pakistani police stepped up their search Monday for the suspect in the killing of a doctor from the country's tiny Ahmadi minority, the latest in a string of deadly attacks targeting the community.\n\nThe physician was gunned down at a private hospital where he worked in the eastern city of Sargodha on Friday; the gunman fled the scene.\n\nThe Ahmadi religion is an offshoot of Islam but Pakistan declared Ahmadis non-Muslims in 1974. There are about 500,000 Ahmadis in Pakistan, a nation of 250 million.\n\nNo one claimed responsibility for Friday's killing but supporters of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a radical Islamist party, have carried out many of the attacks on Ahmadis, accusing them of blasphemy.\n\nBlasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan and even just rumors or allegations of insulting Islam can incite mobs to deadly violence.\n\nSargodha police official, Sikandar Ali, said the motive behind the killing of Dr. Sheikh Mahmood remains unclear. An investigation is ongoing, he said.\n\nMahmood's killing was the third attack on Ahmadis in Pakistan in since April, said Amir Mahmood, a spokesman for the Ahmadi community. He urged the government to protect Ahmadis, whose places of worship and even graveyards are also often desecrated by extremist Sunni groups."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "3e9fcf4ea38d028992cc9375de73982918eb56584a4d9a3417b7307fa3f1f492", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# UN chief pleads with countries to pay their share for peacekeeping, points to financial problems\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 11:39 AM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres told countries that the world body's peacekeeping operation is \"only as strong as member states' commitment to it\" as he pleaded with them Tuesday to pay their share.\n\nThe United Nations' peackeeping department currently leads 11 operations, in countries including Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Kosovo. The budget for nine of those operations during the fiscal year that ends on June 30 totals $5.6 billion, 8.2% lower than a year earlier. Each of the U.N.'s 193 member countries is legally obliged to pay its share toward peacekeeping.\n\nGuterres argued that, with a budget \"representing a tiny fraction of global military spending \u2014 around one half of one per cent \u2014 U.N. Peacekeeping remains one of the most effective and cost-effective tools to build international peace and security.\"\n\n\"But it's only as strong as member states' commitment to it,\" he added at the opening of a two-day, German-hosted conference of ministers to discuss the future of peacekeeping. \"Unfortunately, peacekeeping operations have been facing serious liquidity problems. It is absolutely essential that all member states respect their financial obligations, paying their contributions in full and on time.\"\n\nGuterres didn't offer details of the problems, but acknowledged that \"these are tough times for the financing of our work across the board.\"\n\nMore broadly, the U.N. has been scrambling to respond to funding cuts for aid operations from its biggest donor, the United States, under President Donald Trump's administration.\n\nGerman Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that his country, like many others, \"is prepared to pledge additional resources\" for peacekeeping. But he said there should also be an effort to make missions \"more efficient and more focused\" through clearer mandates, cutting back on bureaucracy and avoiding duplication.\n\n___\n\nThis version corrects the figure in the second paragraph to billion instead of million."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# UN chief pleads with countries to pay their share for peacekeeping, points to financial problems\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 11:39 AM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 U.N. Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres told countries that the world body's peacekeeping operation is \"only as strong as member states' commitment to it\" as he pleaded with them Tuesday to pay their share.\n\nThe United Nations' peackeeping department currently leads 11 operations, in countries including Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Lebanon, Cyprus and Kosovo. The budget for nine of those operations during the fiscal year that ends on June 30 totals $5.6 billion, 8.2% lower than a year earlier. Each of the U.N.'s 193 member countries is legally obliged to pay its share toward peacekeeping.\n\nGuterres argued that, with a budget \"representing a tiny fraction of global military spending \u2014 around one half of one per cent \u2014 U.N. Peacekeeping remains one of the most effective and cost-effective tools to build international peace and security.\"\n\n\"But it's only as strong as member states' commitment to it,\" he added at the opening of a two-day, German-hosted conference of ministers to discuss the future of peacekeeping. \"Unfortunately, peacekeeping operations have been facing serious liquidity problems. It is absolutely essential that all member states respect their financial obligations, paying their contributions in full and on time.\"\n\nGuterres didn't offer details of the problems, but acknowledged that \"these are tough times for the financing of our work across the board.\"\n\nMore broadly, the U.N. has been scrambling to respond to funding cuts for aid operations from its biggest donor, the United States, under President Donald Trump's administration.\n\nGerman Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that his country, like many others, \"is prepared to pledge additional resources\" for peacekeeping. But he said there should also be an effort to make missions \"more efficient and more focused\" through clearer mandates, cutting back on bureaucracy and avoiding duplication."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e3eb2fdf288f805480e5788d18ad8972b0a006407d221b19cc1f756330368b6c", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Report finds big drop in FBI's use of intelligence database to search for information on Americans\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 6th, 2025, 08:22 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 New federal statistics show a steep decrease in the number of times the FBI searched a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and others in the United States last year.\n\nThe number of \"U.S. person queries\" plunged from 57,094 in 2023 to 5,518 in 2024, according to the report published Monday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.\n\nThe report details the use of a surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located in other countries \u2014 including when they are in contact with Americans or other people inside the U.S.\n\nNational security officials have said the program is vital to protecting the country, but civil liberties advocates have condemned it as a violation of Americans' privacy.\n\nThe report concludes that the decrease is due in large part to the adoption of tighter rules governing the program, including a requirement that the FBI enter a justification for a database query about an American before conducting it.\n\nThe numbers have dropped consistently in recent years. In 2022, the FBI racked up nearly 120,000 U.S. person queries.\n\nFormer President Joe Biden signed legislation reauthorizing the surveillance law last year after debates over civil liberty protections nearly forced the statute to lapse.\n\nA key source of concern \u2014 uniting an unusual alliance of far-right Republican supporters of President Donald Trump with Democratic champions of civil liberties \u2014 is that FBI analysts have repeatedly run improper or unjustified database queries about people in the U.S.\n\nThe surveillance tool was first authorized in 2008.\n\nThe latest figures are included in an annual report, mandated by law, that provides statistical data about a broad array of the U.S. government's surveillance powers.\n\nThe FBI had no immediate comment on the report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Report finds big drop in FBI's use of intelligence database to search for information on Americans\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 6th, 2025, 08:22 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 New federal statistics show a steep decrease in the number of times the FBI searched a vast foreign intelligence repository for information about Americans and others in the United States last year.\n\nThe number of \"U.S. person queries\" plunged from 57,094 in 2023 to 5,518 in 2024, according to the report published Monday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.\n\nThe report details the use of a surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, that allows the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of targeted foreigners located in other countries \u2014 including when they are in contact with Americans or other people inside the U.S.\n\nNational security officials have said the program is vital to protecting the country, but civil liberties advocates have condemned it as a violation of Americans' privacy.\n\nThe report concludes that the decrease is due in large part to the adoption of tighter rules governing the program, including a requirement that the FBI enter a justification for a database query about an American before conducting it.\n\nThe numbers have dropped consistently in recent years. In 2022, the FBI racked up nearly 120,000 U.S. person queries.\n\nFormer President Joe Biden signed legislation reauthorizing the surveillance law last year after debates over civil liberty protections nearly forced the statute to lapse.\n\nA key source of concern \u2014 uniting an unusual alliance of far-right Republican supporters of President Donald Trump with Democratic champions of civil liberties \u2014 is that FBI analysts have repeatedly run improper or unjustified database queries about people in the U.S.\n\nThe surveillance tool was first authorized in 2008.\n\nThe latest figures are included in an annual report, mandated by law, that provides statistical data about a broad array of the U.S. government's surveillance powers.\n\nThe FBI had no immediate comment on the report."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "2b66a8d1c2a8c71a025bc090b41e8526949b001ab4b6174cc2aee3fc52d97ca7", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Turbulent waters may have contributed to ship's crash into Brooklyn Bridge\n\nBy Joshua Goodman and Susan Haigh  \nMay 18th, 2025, 03:32 PM\n\n---\n\nWhen a Mexican navy tall ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, it was maneuvering in turbulent waters. The tide had just turned, and a fast current was heading up the East River as a 10 mph wind set in.\n\nWhile such hazards are easily handled by an experienced captain, mistakes can be costly in the heavily transited New York harbor, where narrow, curvy channels, winds howling off the jagged Manhattan skyline and whirlpool-like eddies can combine to make for difficult passage.\n\nIn the case of the 300-foot (90-meter) Cuauhtemoc, two sailors were killed and 19 were injured Saturday evening when the training ship struck the iconic bridge, toppling the vessel's three masts like dominoes as it drifted toward a crowded pier. It's unknown what caused the collision, and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is likely to take months.\n\nBut footage of the collision shot by horrified onlookers show the ship hurtling into the bridge in reverse at full speed, suggesting the captain lost control of the engine. There are also questions about whether a tugboat escort peeled away too soon and should have been rigged to the ship or stayed with it until it headed out to sea. Similar tugboat concerns emerged when a large cargo vessel crashed into a bridge in Baltimore last year.\n\nSal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner who has powered multiple ships through the New York harbor, said all those \"worst-case scenarios\" \u2014 the ship's height, a strong current, heavy wind and the absence of a more controlled tugboat escort \u2014 all contributed to the tragedy.\n\n\"The prudent thing would've been to leave two hours earlier, when the tide was going out. That would've been the ideal time,\" said Mercogliano, who writes a widely followed shipping blog. \"But I don't think they ever envisioned that their engine would've propelled them into the bridge.\"\n\nStill, he said an even deadlier catastrophe was avoided by the ship's steel rigging, which prevented the masts from falling into the water, as well as the fact that the crew stayed harnessed in position rather than taking the risk that some members could tumble from a 12-story height as they scrambled down the rat lines.\n\n\"You could have had guys strapped in drowning in the river,\" he said. \"This could have been a lot worse.\"\n\nMexican authorities told the family of Am\u00e9rica Yamilet S\u00e1nchez that the 20-year-old sailor died after falling from one of the Cuauhtemoc's masts, her aunt Mar\u00eda del Rosario Hern\u00e1ndez Jacome said Sunday at the family's home in Xalapa in the Mexican state of Veracruz.\n\nEarlier in the day Saturday, S\u00e1nchez, who was studying engineering at the Mexican naval academy, had spoken with her mother and excitedly told her that the ship's next stop would be Iceland. Her parents traveled to Mexico City on Sunday to arrange for the return of their daughter's body, Hern\u00e1ndez said.\n\nRelatives and friends arrived at the family's home carrying flowers. A small altar was set up on the patio with a photograph of S\u00e1nchez and candles.\n\n## Ship was on a goodwill tour\n\nThe Cuauhtemoc visited New York as part of a 15-nation global goodwill tour and was departing when it struck the bridge at around 8:20 p.m., briefly halting traffic atop the span.\n\nMayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge escaped major damage, but at least 19 of the 277 sailors aboard the ship needed medical treatment. Two of the four people who suffered serious injuries later died.\n\nThe Cuauhtemoc sailed for the first time in 1982. It is almost 300 feet long and its main mast has a height of 160 feet (50 meters), about 30 feet (9 meters) higher than the span of the Brooklyn Bridge.\n\nThe vessel, which arrived in New York on May 13, backed out from the tourist-heavy South Street Seaport, where it had been docked for several days welcoming visitors. It's unknown if the Mexican captain requested a dock pilot to assist with the unmooring, but a harbor pilot was on board to sail it through the harbor, as required.\n\nTracking data from Marine Traffic and eyewitness videos show that an 1,800-horsepower tugboat, the Charles D. McAllister, gently nudged the vessel as it backed astern into the channel but dropped off before the vessel turned. Seconds later, as the ship continued drifting in the wrong direction, the tugboat tried to overtake the vessel but arrived too late to wedge itself between the fast-moving ship and the Brooklyn riverbank.\n\nMcAllister Towing, the company that would have operated the tug and been responsible for any docking pilot aboard, declined to comment.\n\nFollowing last year's crash in Baltimore, Mercogliano said, port authorities there tightened rules to require a tug escort and slower speeds for vessels sailing through the harbor entrance past the partially collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The ship in that crash, the MV Dali, was a 95,000-ton container ship about 50 times heavier than the Cuauhtemoc.\n\n## Some vessels avoid harbor because of low bridges\n\nAccidents in New York harbor are rare because large cargo ships and modern warships generally avoid the area due to the low height of the bridges. But in July 2026, the harbor is expected to play host to the largest-ever flotilla of tall ships from around the world to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.\n\nMercogliano said investigators will evaluate whether the Mexican crew performed the recommended safety checks prior to their departure. Typically that involves testing the engine's propellers, rudder and propulsion six to 12 hours in advance to make sure everything is working properly and nothing is left to chance.\n\n\"It's not like your car where you're just throwing your shifter,\" he said.\n\nOn Sunday, the damaged ship was moored at Pier 35 in lower Manhattan. A stream of people, including those who appeared to be investigators and crew, could be seeing getting on and off the vessel.\n\nThe Coast Guard said damage to the Cuauht\u00e9moc was being assessed. The Coast Guard established a 50-yard (46-meter) safety zone around the ship as the investigation by both the U.S. and Mexican governments got underway.\n\nSen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, said any investigation should look into whether the Trump administration's federal hiring freeze affected the U.S. Coast Guard's staffing levels, safety procedures and accident-response readiness.\n\n\"After being fully briefed on last night's Brooklyn Bridge accident, one thing is predominantly clear: There are more questions than answers as it relates to exactly how this accident occurred,\" Schumer said.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press Writer Alba Alem\u00e1n in Xalapa, Mexico, contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Turbulent waters may have contributed to ship's crash into Brooklyn Bridge\n\nBy Joshua Goodman and Susan Haigh  \nMay 18th, 2025, 03:32 PM\n\n---\n\nWhen a Mexican navy tall ship crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge, it was maneuvering in turbulent waters. The tide had just turned, and a fast current was heading up the East River as a 10 mph wind set in.\n\nWhile such hazards are easily handled by an experienced captain, mistakes can be costly in the heavily transited New York harbor, where narrow, curvy channels, winds howling off the jagged Manhattan skyline and whirlpool-like eddies can combine to make for difficult passage.\n\nIn the case of the 300-foot (90-meter) Cuauhtemoc, two sailors were killed and 19 were injured Saturday evening when the training ship struck the iconic bridge, toppling the vessel's three masts like dominoes as it drifted toward a crowded pier. It's unknown what caused the collision, and an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is likely to take months.\n\nBut footage of the collision shot by horrified onlookers show the ship hurtling into the bridge in reverse at full speed, suggesting the captain lost control of the engine. There are also questions about whether a tugboat escort peeled away too soon and should have been rigged to the ship or stayed with it until it headed out to sea. Similar tugboat concerns emerged when a large cargo vessel crashed into a bridge in Baltimore last year.\n\nSal Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner who has powered multiple ships through the New York harbor, said all those \"worst-case scenarios\" \u2014 the ship's height, a strong current, heavy wind and the absence of a more controlled tugboat escort \u2014 all contributed to the tragedy.\n\n\"The prudent thing would've been to leave two hours earlier, when the tide was going out. That would've been the ideal time,\" said Mercogliano, who writes a widely followed shipping blog. \"But I don't think they ever envisioned that their engine would've propelled them into the bridge.\"\n\nStill, he said an even deadlier catastrophe was avoided by the ship's steel rigging, which prevented the masts from falling into the water, as well as the fact that the crew stayed harnessed in position rather than taking the risk that some members could tumble from a 12-story height as they scrambled down the rat lines.\n\n\"You could have had guys strapped in drowning in the river,\" he said. \"This could have been a lot worse.\"\n\nMexican authorities told the family of Am\u00e9rica Yamilet S\u00e1nchez that the 20-year-old sailor died after falling from one of the Cuauhtemoc's masts, her aunt Mar\u00eda del Rosario Hern\u00e1ndez Jacome said Sunday at the family's home in Xalapa in the Mexican state of Veracruz.\n\nEarlier in the day Saturday, S\u00e1nchez, who was studying engineering at the Mexican naval academy, had spoken with her mother and excitedly told her that the ship's next stop would be Iceland. Her parents traveled to Mexico City on Sunday to arrange for the return of their daughter's body, Hern\u00e1ndez said.\n\nRelatives and friends arrived at the family's home carrying flowers. A small altar was set up on the patio with a photograph of S\u00e1nchez and candles.\n\n## Ship was on a goodwill tour\n\nThe Cuauhtemoc visited New York as part of a 15-nation global goodwill tour and was departing when it struck the bridge at around 8:20 p.m., briefly halting traffic atop the span.\n\nMayor Eric Adams said the 142-year-old bridge escaped major damage, but at least 19 of the 277 sailors aboard the ship needed medical treatment. Two of the four people who suffered serious injuries later died.\n\nThe Cuauhtemoc sailed for the first time in 1982. It is almost 300 feet long and its main mast has a height of 160 feet (50 meters), about 30 feet (9 meters) higher than the span of the Brooklyn Bridge.\n\nThe vessel, which arrived in New York on May 13, backed out from the tourist-heavy South Street Seaport, where it had been docked for several days welcoming visitors. It's unknown if the Mexican captain requested a dock pilot to assist with the unmooring, but a harbor pilot was on board to sail it through the harbor, as required.\n\nTracking data from Marine Traffic and eyewitness videos show that an 1,800-horsepower tugboat, the Charles D. McAllister, gently nudged the vessel as it backed astern into the channel but dropped off before the vessel turned. Seconds later, as the ship continued drifting in the wrong direction, the tugboat tried to overtake the vessel but arrived too late to wedge itself between the fast-moving ship and the Brooklyn riverbank.\n\nMcAllister Towing, the company that would have operated the tug and been responsible for any docking pilot aboard, declined to comment.\n\nFollowing last year's crash in Baltimore, Mercogliano said, port authorities there tightened rules to require a tug escort and slower speeds for vessels sailing through the harbor entrance past the partially collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. The ship in that crash, the MV Dali, was a 95,000-ton container ship about 50 times heavier than the Cuauhtemoc.\n\n## Some vessels avoid harbor because of low bridges\n\nAccidents in New York harbor are rare because large cargo ships and modern warships generally avoid the area due to the low height of the bridges. But in July 2026, the harbor is expected to play host to the largest-ever flotilla of tall ships from around the world to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.\n\nMercogliano said investigators will evaluate whether the Mexican crew performed the recommended safety checks prior to their departure. Typically that involves testing the engine's propellers, rudder and propulsion six to 12 hours in advance to make sure everything is working properly and nothing is left to chance.\n\n\"It's not like your car where you're just throwing your shifter,\" he said.\n\nOn Sunday, the damaged ship was moored at Pier 35 in lower Manhattan. A stream of people, including those who appeared to be investigators and crew, could be seeing getting on and off the vessel.\n\nThe Coast Guard said damage to the Cuauht\u00e9moc was being assessed. The Coast Guard established a 50-yard (46-meter) safety zone around the ship as the investigation by both the U.S. and Mexican governments got underway.\n\nSen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, said any investigation should look into whether the Trump administration's federal hiring freeze affected the U.S. Coast Guard's staffing levels, safety procedures and accident-response readiness.\n\n\"After being fully briefed on last night's Brooklyn Bridge accident, one thing is predominantly clear: There are more questions than answers as it relates to exactly how this accident occurred,\" Schumer said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "fbdcdfde404f3d91f9f78a1df563d74abe5b5492d885396505c69c5749aad821", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# What to do if you're in a toxic workplace\n\nBy Cathy Bussewitz  \nMay 15th, 2025, 10:53 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 One week into a new job, Lisa Grouette discovered something missing come Sunday night: the sinking feeling of dread she used to experience before going to work every Monday.\n\nGroutte spent 10 years at an insurance agency with a boss whom she alleges screamed at her, slammed his hands on the desk, insulted her appearance and punched things. He falsely accused her of taking money and threatened to withhold an employment recommendation if she quit, she says.\n\nFearing she wouldn't land another job if she left the toxic workplace, she stayed. \"It was this implied, 'You're stuck,'\" Grouette, 48, recalled.\n\nBut eventually, she found a way out. When a full-time job opened up at a newspaper where she worked a part-time photography job, she resigned from the insurance agency. The new position paid $400 less per month, but Grouette reduced her expenses to make it work.\n\n\"You can't put a price tag on it,\" she said. \"It was the best 400 bucks a month I've ever spent, worth every penny. I was a little tight at first, but it didn't matter because I was happy.\"\n\n## Growing intolerance of toxic behavior\n\nAs mental health awareness increases, so are conversations about about what constitutes unhealthy behavior and the kinds of treatment people will not \u2014 or should not \u2014 tolerate for a steady paycheck.\n\n\"We're developing language now around things like toxic workplaces,\" said Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, a professor of organizational behavior at Babson College in Massachusetts.\n\nYounger generations entering the workforce, including millennials and members of Generation Z, are less willing to endure bullying behavior from colleagues and managers, and better at establishing boundaries, she said.\n\nAt the start of her own career, \"if I encountered toxicity in the workplace, I had more of a 'Suck it up' attitude,\" said Tosti-Kharas, who identifies as a member of Generation X. \"I don't think we were as vocal about taking care of our mental health as we should have been.\"\n\n## How do you identify a toxic work environment?\n\nConflicts and difficult relationships may be inevitable in any work environment. But there's a difference between an occasional disagreement and persistent abuse.\n\n\"What makes something toxic: it's more pervasive, more consistent over time,\" Tosti-Kharas said. \"You may have tried some things and it's not getting better. ... It's very deeply entrenched.\"\n\nPossible indications of an emotionally harmful workplace include a widespread lack of trust and fear of being shot down if you speak up, she said.\n\nLoud screamers aren't the only kind of toxic co-workers and supervisors. There are quieter forms of toxicity, such as passive-aggressive behavior by leaders who use sarcasm, backhanded compliments, indirect criticism and exclusion to control their employees, according to Alana Atchison, a clinical psychologist based in Chicago.\n\n\"It is a relationship where you can't communicate clearly or directly, so you have to silence yourself. You can't say truly what you need to say and feel safe,\" Atchison said.\n\nTo spot a potentially toxic environment when applying for a new job, follow your gut instincts and consider warning signs. For example, frequent ads for the same position may reflect high turnover resulting from a negative environment. You can also search employee reviews online.\n\n\"I'm reading Glassdoor reviews like crazy to see what the environment is like, what the culture is like, on anyplace I'm applying to, because I can't lose my hair again over a job,\" said Grouette, who recently was laid off after several successful years at the newspaper.\n\n## What might explain toxic behavior?\n\nWhen on the receiving end of toxicity, consider whether the offending behavior says more about the person perpetuating it than the recipient.\n\n\"It's almost like a smokescreen to hide their deficits,\" Atchison said. \"If someone feels insecure about their role or fears being overshadowed, they might resort to undermining others, gossiping or sabotaging projects to regain a sense of control or safety.\"\n\nSince the COVID-19 pandemic, Atchison's clients have increasingly complained about toxic work environments. She attributes that in part to the social isolation that accompanied lockdowns and restrictions on public activities.\n\n\"Socializing is a skill set, and that skill set has declined,\" she said.\n\n## Voice your concerns\n\nIf you find yourself in a toxic work situation, talking about it with a trusted friend or professional therapist can help you process what is happening and develop a plan to deal with it, instead of letting it fester in your mind.\n\nStephanie Strausser, 42, a video production manager, said she sought support from friends and family members when she worked under an extreme micromanager who made her feel unsafe and whose decisions she considered unethical.\n\n\"Don't hide it or keep it in. Talk to people. Even if you're talking to ChatGPT,\" Strausser advises those who find themselves in similar circumstances. \"Don't internalize it. And don't take someone's perception as fact.\"\n\nAmanda Szmuc, a Philadelphia lawyer who considers some of her past work environments to have been toxic, recommends documenting your concerns in case it becomes necessary to escalate them.\n\nWriting down the details of troubling interactions as they happen and keeping copies of inappropriate messages or approved meeting recordings may come in handy if the human resources department gets involved, for example.\n\nMaintaining a record may also help you avoid gaslighting and reinforce your determination to protect yourself.\n\n## Set boundaries\n\nIf leaving a toxic environment isn't financially possible or you want to try to make your circumstances more bearable, think about exploring ways to limit your interaction with the difficult party may be an option.\n\nPossibilities may include negotiating a role that puts distance between you and the toxic person, such as working different shifts or on different projects, Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nYou can also set deadlines for yourself to keep things from deteriorating, according to Szmuc. Examples: \"I'm going to give this two weeks. Is there any improvement?\" she said. \"Is there a way internally where I can maybe change my circumstances or get someone else's opinion?\"\n\n## Find a way out\n\nIdeally, an employee who feels mistreated could appeal to someone from human resources or the offending employee's manager with evidence to show a pattern of conduct violations and disciplinary action would be taken, Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nBut that doesn't always happen, leaving the reporting party in close proximity with the person they reported. \"In the real world, you may realize they are unlikely to go anywhere, and it's you who has to go somewhere,\" Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nIn extreme situations, it's best to look for another job, she said.\n\nIf an inspector found radon in your house, \"you wouldn't say, 'Let me try to work with the radon,' or 'How can I keep it there but maybe lessen the effects?'\" she said. \"You would get the toxin out of the situation or you would get yourself out of the situation.\"\n\nMost people can't afford to leave their jobs without another one lined up. Carving out time to apply for different jobs is difficult when you feel under assault but also is empowering and may lead to a better situation.\n\n\"If somebody gives you an impression that you're not able to leave this job, that's just not true,\" Grouette said. \"Those sorts of people don't have the reach or respect that they claim to have, because if they're volatile to you, they're volatile to others.\"\n\n____\n\nShare your stories and questions about workplace wellness at [email protected]. Follow AP's Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# What to do if you're in a toxic workplace\n\nBy Cathy Bussewitz  \nMay 15th, 2025, 10:53 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 One week into a new job, Lisa Grouette discovered something missing come Sunday night: the sinking feeling of dread she used to experience before going to work every Monday.\n\nGroutte spent 10 years at an insurance agency with a boss whom she alleges screamed at her, slammed his hands on the desk, insulted her appearance and punched things. He falsely accused her of taking money and threatened to withhold an employment recommendation if she quit, she says.\n\nFearing she wouldn't land another job if she left the toxic workplace, she stayed. \"It was this implied, 'You're stuck,'\" Grouette, 48, recalled.\n\nBut eventually, she found a way out. When a full-time job opened up at a newspaper where she worked a part-time photography job, she resigned from the insurance agency. The new position paid $400 less per month, but Grouette reduced her expenses to make it work.\n\n\"You can't put a price tag on it,\" she said. \"It was the best 400 bucks a month I've ever spent, worth every penny. I was a little tight at first, but it didn't matter because I was happy.\"\n\n## Growing intolerance of toxic behavior\n\nAs mental health awareness increases, so are conversations about about what constitutes unhealthy behavior and the kinds of treatment people will not \u2014 or should not \u2014 tolerate for a steady paycheck.\n\n\"We're developing language now around things like toxic workplaces,\" said Jennifer Tosti-Kharas, a professor of organizational behavior at Babson College in Massachusetts.\n\nYounger generations entering the workforce, including millennials and members of Generation Z, are less willing to endure bullying behavior from colleagues and managers, and better at establishing boundaries, she said.\n\nAt the start of her own career, \"if I encountered toxicity in the workplace, I had more of a 'Suck it up' attitude,\" said Tosti-Kharas, who identifies as a member of Generation X. \"I don't think we were as vocal about taking care of our mental health as we should have been.\"\n\n## How do you identify a toxic work environment?\n\nConflicts and difficult relationships may be inevitable in any work environment. But there's a difference between an occasional disagreement and persistent abuse.\n\n\"What makes something toxic: it's more pervasive, more consistent over time,\" Tosti-Kharas said. \"You may have tried some things and it's not getting better. ... It's very deeply entrenched.\"\n\nPossible indications of an emotionally harmful workplace include a widespread lack of trust and fear of being shot down if you speak up, she said.\n\nLoud screamers aren't the only kind of toxic co-workers and supervisors. There are quieter forms of toxicity, such as passive-aggressive behavior by leaders who use sarcasm, backhanded compliments, indirect criticism and exclusion to control their employees, according to Alana Atchison, a clinical psychologist based in Chicago.\n\n\"It is a relationship where you can't communicate clearly or directly, so you have to silence yourself. You can't say truly what you need to say and feel safe,\" Atchison said.\n\nTo spot a potentially toxic environment when applying for a new job, follow your gut instincts and consider warning signs. For example, frequent ads for the same position may reflect high turnover resulting from a negative environment. You can also search employee reviews online.\n\n\"I'm reading Glassdoor reviews like crazy to see what the environment is like, what the culture is like, on anyplace I'm applying to, because I can't lose my hair again over a job,\" said Grouette, who recently was laid off after several successful years at the newspaper.\n\n## What might explain toxic behavior?\n\nWhen on the receiving end of toxicity, consider whether the offending behavior says more about the person perpetuating it than the recipient.\n\n\"It's almost like a smokescreen to hide their deficits,\" Atchison said. \"If someone feels insecure about their role or fears being overshadowed, they might resort to undermining others, gossiping or sabotaging projects to regain a sense of control or safety.\"\n\nSince the COVID-19 pandemic, Atchison's clients have increasingly complained about toxic work environments. She attributes that in part to the social isolation that accompanied lockdowns and restrictions on public activities.\n\n\"Socializing is a skill set, and that skill set has declined,\" she said.\n\n## Voice your concerns\n\nIf you find yourself in a toxic work situation, talking about it with a trusted friend or professional therapist can help you process what is happening and develop a plan to deal with it, instead of letting it fester in your mind.\n\nStephanie Strausser, 42, a video production manager, said she sought support from friends and family members when she worked under an extreme micromanager who made her feel unsafe and whose decisions she considered unethical.\n\n\"Don't hide it or keep it in. Talk to people. Even if you're talking to ChatGPT,\" Strausser advises those who find themselves in similar circumstances. \"Don't internalize it. And don't take someone's perception as fact.\"\n\nAmanda Szmuc, a Philadelphia lawyer who considers some of her past work environments to have been toxic, recommends documenting your concerns in case it becomes necessary to escalate them.\n\nWriting down the details of troubling interactions as they happen and keeping copies of inappropriate messages or approved meeting recordings may come in handy if the human resources department gets involved, for example.\n\nMaintaining a record may also help you avoid gaslighting and reinforce your determination to protect yourself.\n\n## Set boundaries\n\nIf leaving a toxic environment isn't financially possible or you want to try to make your circumstances more bearable, think about exploring ways to limit your interaction with the difficult party may be an option.\n\nPossibilities may include negotiating a role that puts distance between you and the toxic person, such as working different shifts or on different projects, Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nYou can also set deadlines for yourself to keep things from deteriorating, according to Szmuc. Examples: \"I'm going to give this two weeks. Is there any improvement?\" she said. \"Is there a way internally where I can maybe change my circumstances or get someone else's opinion?\"\n\n## Find a way out\n\nIdeally, an employee who feels mistreated could appeal to someone from human resources or the offending employee's manager with evidence to show a pattern of conduct violations and disciplinary action would be taken, Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nBut that doesn't always happen, leaving the reporting party in close proximity with the person they reported. \"In the real world, you may realize they are unlikely to go anywhere, and it's you who has to go somewhere,\" Tosti-Kharas said.\n\nIn extreme situations, it's best to look for another job, she said.\n\nIf an inspector found radon in your house, \"you wouldn't say, 'Let me try to work with the radon,' or 'How can I keep it there but maybe lessen the effects?'\" she said. \"You would get the toxin out of the situation or you would get yourself out of the situation.\"\n\nMost people can't afford to leave their jobs without another one lined up. Carving out time to apply for different jobs is difficult when you feel under assault but also is empowering and may lead to a better situation.\n\n\"If somebody gives you an impression that you're not able to leave this job, that's just not true,\" Grouette said. \"Those sorts of people don't have the reach or respect that they claim to have, because if they're volatile to you, they're volatile to others.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e4acceca6acf4ab5f5ccab383343d1b366f30f216862a6cc5017973666021372", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# The nominees for 2025 Tony Awards\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 1st, 2025, 01:59 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Tony Award nominations have been announced, and the five shows competing for best musical are \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" \"Dead Outlaw,\" \"Death Becomes Her,\" \"Maybe Happy Ending\" and \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.\"\n\nThe best new play category is made up of \"English,\" \"The Hills of California,\" \"John Proctor Is the Villain,\" \"Oh, Mary!\" and \"Purpose.\"\n\nThe leading lady in a musical category is fierce, with Megan Hilty, Audra McDonald, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Nicole Scherzinger and Jennifer Simard facing off. As is the leading actor in a play category, which has George Clooney, Cole Escola, Jon Michael Hill, Daniel Dae Kim, Harry Lennix and Louis McCartney.\n\nThe Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by \"Wicked\" star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.\n\nHere are select nominations for the 2025 Tony Awards, announced Thursday:\n\n## Best Musical\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club\"; \"Dead Outlaw\"; \"Death Becomes Her\"; \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\"\n\n## Best Play\n\n\"English\"; \"The Hills of California\"; \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; \"Oh, Mary!\"; \"Purpose\"\n\n## Best Revival of a Play\n\n\"Eureka Day\"; \"Romeo + Juliet\"; \"Thornton Wilder's Our Town\"; \"Yellow Face\"\n\n## Best Revival of a Musical\n\n\"Floyd Collins\"; \"Gypsy\"; \"Pirates! The Penzance Musical\"; \"Sunset Blvd.\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play\n\nGeorge Clooney, \"Good Night, and Good Luck\"; Cole Escola, \"Oh, Mary!\"; Jon Michael Hill, \"Purpose\"; Daniel Dae Kim, \"Yellow Face\"; Harry Lennix, \"Purpose\"; Louis McCartney, \"Stranger Things: The First Shadow\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play\n\nLaura Donnelly, \"The Hills of California\"; Mia Farrow, \"The Roommate\"; LaTanya Richardson Jackson, \"Purpose\"; Sadie Sink, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Sarah Snook, \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical\n\nDarren Criss, \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; Andrew Durand, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Tom Francis, \"Sunset Blvd.\"; Jonathan Groff, \"Just in Time\"; James Monroe Iglehart, \"A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical\"; Jeremy Jordan, \"Floyd Collins\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical\n\nMegan Hilty, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Audra McDonald, \"Gypsy\"; Jasmine Amy Rogers, \"Boop! The Musical\"; Nicole Scherzinger, \"Sunset Blvd.\"; Jennifer Simard, \"Death Becomes Her\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical\n\nNatalie Venetia Belcon, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"; Julia Knitel, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Gracie Lawrence, \"Just in Time\"; Justina Machado, \"Real Women Have Curves: The Musical\"; Joy Woods, \"Gypsy\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical\n\nBrooks Ashmanskas, \"Smash\"; Jeb Brown, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Danny Burstein, \"Gypsy\"; Jak Malone, \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\"; Taylor Trensch, \"Floyd Collins\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play\n\nTala Ashe, \"English\"; Jessica Hecht, \"Eureka Day\"; Marjan Neshat, \"English\"; Fina Strazza, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Kara Young, \"Purpose\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play\n\nGlenn Davis, \"Purpose\"; Gabriel Ebert, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Francis Jue, \"Yellow Face\"; Bob Odenkirk, \"Glengarry Glen Ross\"; Conrad Ricamora, \"Oh, Mary!\"\n\n## Best Direction of a Play\n\nKnud Adams, \"English\"; Sam Mendes, \"The Hills of California\"; Sam Pinkleton, \"Oh, Mary!\"; Danya Taymor, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Kip Williams, \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\"\n\n## Best Direction of a Musical\n\nSaheem Ali, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"; Michael Arden, \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; David Cromer, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Christopher Gattelli, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Jamie Lloyd, \"Sunset Blvd.\"\n\n## Best Choreography\n\nJoshua Bergasse, \"Smash\"; Camille A. Brown, \"Gypsy\"; Christopher Gattelli, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Jerry Mitchell, \"Boop! The Musical\"; Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"\n\n## Best Book of a Musical\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club,\" Marco Ramirez; \"Dead Outlaw,\" Itamar Moses; \"Death Becomes Her,\" Marco Pennette; \"Maybe Happy Ending,\" Will Aronson and Hue Park; \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical,\" David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zo\u00eb Roberts\n\n## Best Original Score\n\n\"Dead Outlaw\" (Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna); \"Death Becomes Her\" (Music & Lyrics: Julia Mattison and Noel Carey); \"Maybe Happy Ending\" (Music: Will Aronson, Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park); \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\" (Music & Lyrics: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zo\u00eb Roberts); \"Real Women Have Curves: The Musical\" (Music & Lyrics: Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez)\n\n___\n\nOnline: http://tonyawards.com"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# The nominees for 2025 Tony Awards\n\nBy The Associated Press  \nMay 1st, 2025, 01:59 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Tony Award nominations have been announced, and the five shows competing for best musical are \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" \"Dead Outlaw,\" \"Death Becomes Her,\" \"Maybe Happy Ending\" and \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical.\"\n\nThe best new play category is made up of \"English,\" \"The Hills of California,\" \"John Proctor Is the Villain,\" \"Oh, Mary!\" and \"Purpose.\"\n\nThe leading lady in a musical category is fierce, with Megan Hilty, Audra McDonald, Jasmine Amy Rogers, Nicole Scherzinger and Jennifer Simard facing off. As is the leading actor in a play category, which has George Clooney, Cole Escola, Jon Michael Hill, Daniel Dae Kim, Harry Lennix and Louis McCartney.\n\nThe Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by \"Wicked\" star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo.\n\nHere are select nominations for the 2025 Tony Awards, announced Thursday:\n\n## Best Musical\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club\"; \"Dead Outlaw\"; \"Death Becomes Her\"; \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\"\n\n## Best Play\n\n\"English\"; \"The Hills of California\"; \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; \"Oh, Mary!\"; \"Purpose\"\n\n## Best Revival of a Play\n\n\"Eureka Day\"; \"Romeo + Juliet\"; \"Thornton Wilder's Our Town\"; \"Yellow Face\"\n\n## Best Revival of a Musical\n\n\"Floyd Collins\"; \"Gypsy\"; \"Pirates! The Penzance Musical\"; \"Sunset Blvd.\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play\n\nGeorge Clooney, \"Good Night, and Good Luck\"; Cole Escola, \"Oh, Mary!\"; Jon Michael Hill, \"Purpose\"; Daniel Dae Kim, \"Yellow Face\"; Harry Lennix, \"Purpose\"; Louis McCartney, \"Stranger Things: The First Shadow\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play\n\nLaura Donnelly, \"The Hills of California\"; Mia Farrow, \"The Roommate\"; LaTanya Richardson Jackson, \"Purpose\"; Sadie Sink, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Sarah Snook, \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical\n\nDarren Criss, \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; Andrew Durand, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Tom Francis, \"Sunset Blvd.\"; Jonathan Groff, \"Just in Time\"; James Monroe Iglehart, \"A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical\"; Jeremy Jordan, \"Floyd Collins\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical\n\nMegan Hilty, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Audra McDonald, \"Gypsy\"; Jasmine Amy Rogers, \"Boop! The Musical\"; Nicole Scherzinger, \"Sunset Blvd.\"; Jennifer Simard, \"Death Becomes Her\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical\n\nNatalie Venetia Belcon, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"; Julia Knitel, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Gracie Lawrence, \"Just in Time\"; Justina Machado, \"Real Women Have Curves: The Musical\"; Joy Woods, \"Gypsy\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical\n\nBrooks Ashmanskas, \"Smash\"; Jeb Brown, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Danny Burstein, \"Gypsy\"; Jak Malone, \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\"; Taylor Trensch, \"Floyd Collins\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play\n\nTala Ashe, \"English\"; Jessica Hecht, \"Eureka Day\"; Marjan Neshat, \"English\"; Fina Strazza, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Kara Young, \"Purpose\"\n\n## Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play\n\nGlenn Davis, \"Purpose\"; Gabriel Ebert, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Francis Jue, \"Yellow Face\"; Bob Odenkirk, \"Glengarry Glen Ross\"; Conrad Ricamora, \"Oh, Mary!\"\n\n## Best Direction of a Play\n\nKnud Adams, \"English\"; Sam Mendes, \"The Hills of California\"; Sam Pinkleton, \"Oh, Mary!\"; Danya Taymor, \"John Proctor Is the Villain\"; Kip Williams, \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\"\n\n## Best Direction of a Musical\n\nSaheem Ali, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"; Michael Arden, \"Maybe Happy Ending\"; David Cromer, \"Dead Outlaw\"; Christopher Gattelli, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Jamie Lloyd, \"Sunset Blvd.\"\n\n## Best Choreography\n\nJoshua Bergasse, \"Smash\"; Camille A. Brown, \"Gypsy\"; Christopher Gattelli, \"Death Becomes Her\"; Jerry Mitchell, \"Boop! The Musical\"; Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck, \"Buena Vista Social Club\"\n\n## Best Book of a Musical\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club,\" Marco Ramirez; \"Dead Outlaw,\" Itamar Moses; \"Death Becomes Her,\" Marco Pennette; \"Maybe Happy Ending,\" Will Aronson and Hue Park; \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical,\" David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zo\u00eb Roberts\n\n## Best Original Score\n\n\"Dead Outlaw\" (Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek and Erik Della Penna); \"Death Becomes Her\" (Music & Lyrics: Julia Mattison and Noel Carey); \"Maybe Happy Ending\" (Music: Will Aronson, Lyrics: Will Aronson and Hue Park); \"Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical\" (Music & Lyrics: David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson and Zo\u00eb Roberts); \"Real Women Have Curves: The Musical\" (Music & Lyrics: Joy Huerta and Benjamin Velez)"}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "265c388a3d67eac03827adb38bc96e6d8a050359479c6d3c990b2a50ca8c83f3", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Public broadcasting frets about the future after Trump executive order\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:08 PM\n\n---\n\nThe nation's public broadcasting system \u2014 decades-long home to Big Bird, Ken Burns documentaries and \"All Things Considered\" \u2014 faces the biggest crisis in its nearly 60-year history with President Donald Trump's order to slash federal subsidies.\n\nA court fight seems inevitable, with the heads of PBS, NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting all suggesting Friday that Trump's order is illegal.\n\n\"We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,\" said Katherine Maher, NPR's president and CEO. \"We will challenge this executive order using all means available.\" Her counterpart at PBS, Paula Kerger, said Trump's order was blatantly unlawful.\n\nThe public broadcasting system dates back to the late 1960s, devised as an educational and public service-oriented alternative to commercial broadcasters available at the time. In his order, Trump said the system has become politically biased and time has passed it by.\n\n\"Today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,\" the president said in his order, issued just before midnight Thursday. \"Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.\"\n\n## The focus is on news, but there could be other casualties\n\nTrump's order concentrates on news, and between PBS' \"NewsHour\" and a robust reporting corps at NPR, that's an important part of their operations. But public broadcasting also has entertainment programming, educational children's shows and Burns' historical documentaries.\n\nPBS and NPR get about a half-billion dollars a year in public funding funneled through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly 70% of that goes directly to the 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations.\n\nOn average, PBS says 15% of its stations' budgets come from public funding. But there are wide variations; stations in larger markets usually get more money through philanthropy and fund drives, while smaller stations depend much more on the government.\n\nBesides Trump's order, Congress has been considering future funding levels for the public broadcasters, and the Federal Communications Commission is questioning public broadcasting efforts at corporate underwriting, said Josh Shepperd, author of the 2023 book \"Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting.\"\n\n\"It's a three-pronged effort that is frankly very smart in its institutional understanding,\" Shepperd said. \"They're not just going after programs that they don't like. They're going after the operations and the infrastructure that makes it possible to even air the programming.\"\n\n## A ripple effect is possible, and could be local\n\nTrump's order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to \"cease Federal funding\" for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing. Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas.\n\nThe administration's plan might not threaten your favorite program \u2014 Burns gets plenty of corporate and philanthropic support \u2014 but it may impact local programming and potential growth, Shepperd said.\n\nCongressional Republicans aired some of their grievances about public broadcasting to Kerger and Maher at a public hearing in March. Such complaints have been common over the years, but the broadcasters have avoided funding cuts, in large part because members of Congress don't want to be seen as responsible if a station in their district shuts down. Who wants to be the public official who killed \"Sesame Street\"?\n\nAlso, public pressure from constituents is minimized because most Republicans don't watch PBS or listen to NPR, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. \"I have this morning habit of listening to NPR on my commute,\" Graham said. \"I yell at the radio.\"\n\nFor years, Graham's group has issued reports with examples of what it says is bias against conservatives. For example, during an 18-month period that ended last November, his researchers counted 162 examples of PBS journalists or contributors making reference labeling some politicians \"far right\" or some variation, with only six called \"far left.\"\n\nHe said he's not trying to shut down these stations, but resists them receiving public money.\n\n\"Let the people who listen to it do the funding,\" Graham said.\n\n## Bias concerns are taken seriously, officials say\n\nAt a board meeting Friday, CPB president and CEO Pat Harrison said her agency has taken bias concerns seriously. It has increased investments in fact-based local journalism, and provided a grant to NPR to make changes in its newsroom to address issues of bias.\n\nThe court fight over public broadcasting has already begun. The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members \u2014 threatening its ability to do any work \u2014 and was immediately sued by the CPB to stop it.\n\nThe executive order is also the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with \u2014 particularly those related to media.\n\nSince taking office in January for a second term, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agree to eliminate diversity programs and other measures he has found objectionable.\n\nThe move against PBS and NPR comes as Trump's administration works to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press.\n\nThose efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, which have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.\n\n___\n\nAP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Public broadcasting frets about the future after Trump executive order\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:08 PM\n\n---\n\nThe nation's public broadcasting system \u2014 decades-long home to Big Bird, Ken Burns documentaries and \"All Things Considered\" \u2014 faces the biggest crisis in its nearly 60-year history with President Donald Trump's order to slash federal subsidies.\n\nA court fight seems inevitable, with the heads of PBS, NPR and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting all suggesting Friday that Trump's order is illegal.\n\n\"We will vigorously defend our right to provide essential news, information and life-saving services to the American public,\" said Katherine Maher, NPR's president and CEO. \"We will challenge this executive order using all means available.\" Her counterpart at PBS, Paula Kerger, said Trump's order was blatantly unlawful.\n\nThe public broadcasting system dates back to the late 1960s, devised as an educational and public service-oriented alternative to commercial broadcasters available at the time. In his order, Trump said the system has become politically biased and time has passed it by.\n\n\"Today the media landscape is filled with abundant, diverse and innovative news options,\" the president said in his order, issued just before midnight Thursday. \"Government funding of news media in this environment is not only outdated and unnecessary, but corrosive to the appearance of journalistic independence.\"\n\n## The focus is on news, but there could be other casualties\n\nTrump's order concentrates on news, and between PBS' \"NewsHour\" and a robust reporting corps at NPR, that's an important part of their operations. But public broadcasting also has entertainment programming, educational children's shows and Burns' historical documentaries.\n\nPBS and NPR get about a half-billion dollars a year in public funding funneled through the private Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Roughly 70% of that goes directly to the 330 local PBS outlets and 246 NPR stations.\n\nOn average, PBS says 15% of its stations' budgets come from public funding. But there are wide variations; stations in larger markets usually get more money through philanthropy and fund drives, while smaller stations depend much more on the government.\n\nBesides Trump's order, Congress has been considering future funding levels for the public broadcasters, and the Federal Communications Commission is questioning public broadcasting efforts at corporate underwriting, said Josh Shepperd, author of the 2023 book \"Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting.\"\n\n\"It's a three-pronged effort that is frankly very smart in its institutional understanding,\" Shepperd said. \"They're not just going after programs that they don't like. They're going after the operations and the infrastructure that makes it possible to even air the programming.\"\n\n## A ripple effect is possible, and could be local\n\nTrump's order instructs the CPB and other government agencies to \"cease Federal funding\" for PBS and National Public Radio and further requires that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing. Separate from the CPB grant, for example, PBS gets a grant from the U.S. Department of Education for programming that helps build the reading, math and science skills for children age 2 to 8, particularly in poor areas.\n\nThe administration's plan might not threaten your favorite program \u2014 Burns gets plenty of corporate and philanthropic support \u2014 but it may impact local programming and potential growth, Shepperd said.\n\nCongressional Republicans aired some of their grievances about public broadcasting to Kerger and Maher at a public hearing in March. Such complaints have been common over the years, but the broadcasters have avoided funding cuts, in large part because members of Congress don't want to be seen as responsible if a station in their district shuts down. Who wants to be the public official who killed \"Sesame Street\"?\n\nAlso, public pressure from constituents is minimized because most Republicans don't watch PBS or listen to NPR, said Tim Graham, director of media analysis at the conservative Media Research Center. \"I have this morning habit of listening to NPR on my commute,\" Graham said. \"I yell at the radio.\"\n\nFor years, Graham's group has issued reports with examples of what it says is bias against conservatives. For example, during an 18-month period that ended last November, his researchers counted 162 examples of PBS journalists or contributors making reference labeling some politicians \"far right\" or some variation, with only six called \"far left.\"\n\nHe said he's not trying to shut down these stations, but resists them receiving public money.\n\n\"Let the people who listen to it do the funding,\" Graham said.\n\n## Bias concerns are taken seriously, officials say\n\nAt a board meeting Friday, CPB president and CEO Pat Harrison said her agency has taken bias concerns seriously. It has increased investments in fact-based local journalism, and provided a grant to NPR to make changes in its newsroom to address issues of bias.\n\nThe court fight over public broadcasting has already begun. The president earlier this week said he was firing three of the five remaining CPB board members \u2014 threatening its ability to do any work \u2014 and was immediately sued by the CPB to stop it.\n\nThe executive order is also the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with \u2014 particularly those related to media.\n\nSince taking office in January for a second term, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agree to eliminate diversity programs and other measures he has found objectionable.\n\nThe move against PBS and NPR comes as Trump's administration works to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press.\n\nThose efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, which have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "23c7a37b6c57968c820f57c54598fe5adc0541c69f0cf0e29698aec922c5672a", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump orders federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:25 AM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged \"bias\" in the broadcasters' reporting.\n\nThe order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies \"to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS\" and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets \"receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'\"\n\nIt's the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures Trump has found objectionable.\n\nThe broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump's election, as Republicans have long complained about them.\n\nPaula Kerger, PBS' CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration's effort to rescind funding for public media would \"disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.\"\n\n\"There's nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,\" she said. \"This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.\"\n\nThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump earlier this week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.\n\nJust two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.\n\nThe move against PBS and NPR comes as his administration has been working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press. Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, who have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress.\n\n\u2014\n\nAP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump orders federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:25 AM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged \"bias\" in the broadcasters' reporting.\n\nThe order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies \"to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS\" and further requires that that they work to root out indirect sources of public financing for the news organizations. The White House, in a social media posting announcing the signing, said the outlets \"receive millions from taxpayers to spread radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news.'\"\n\nIt's the latest move by Trump and his administration to utilize federal powers to control or hamstring institutions whose actions or viewpoints he disagrees with. Since taking office, Trump has ousted leaders, placed staff on administrative leave and cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to artists, libraries, museums, theaters and others, through takeovers of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Trump has also pushed to withhold federal research and education funds from universities and punish law firms unless they agreed to eliminate diversity programs and other measures Trump has found objectionable.\n\nThe broadcasters get roughly half a billion dollars in public money through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and have been preparing for the possibility of stiff cuts since Trump's election, as Republicans have long complained about them.\n\nPaula Kerger, PBS' CEO and president, said in a statement last month that the Trump administration's effort to rescind funding for public media would \"disrupt the essential service PBS and local member stations provide to the American people.\"\n\n\"There's nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress,\" she said. \"This public-private partnership allows us to help prepare millions of children for success in school and in life and also supports enriching and inspiring programs of the highest quality.\"\n\nThe Corporation for Public Broadcasting sued Trump earlier this week over his move to fire three members of its five-person board, contending that the president was exceeding his authority and that the move would deprive the board of a quorum needed to conduct business.\n\nJust two weeks ago, the White House said it would be asking Congress to rescind funding for the CPB as part of a $9.1 billion package of cuts. That package, however, which budget director Russell Vought said would likely be the first of several, has not yet been sent to Capitol Hill.\n\nThe move against PBS and NPR comes as his administration has been working to dismantle the U.S. Agency for Global Media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which were designed to model independent news gathering globally in societies that restrict the press. Those efforts have faced pushback from federal courts, who have ruled in some cases that the Trump administration may have overstepped its authority in holding back funds appropriated to the outlets by Congress."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "61442d2d24b5fe7e0389dcef4ed20021deac94f8f9a5b26370cb83cff6ad2545", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Merz's stumble casts shadow over hopes for rebooting Germany's struggling economy\n\nBy David Mchugh  \nMay 6th, 2025, 01:32 PM\n\n---\n\nFRANKFURT, Germany (AP) \u2014 Friedrich Merz's unprecedented failure to win election as German chancellor in the first round of voting in parliament \u2014 though he won in the second \u2014 raised doubts about his new government's ability to carry through on plans to push Europe's largest economy out of stagnation.\n\nTuesday's stumble at the start of his new coalition government between his Union bloc and the Social Democrats added uncertainty around the future of an economy that hasn't seen significant growth since before the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAbove all, Merz had been expected to end the squabbling over spending and budgets that plagued predecessor Olaf Scholz's unruly three-party coalition that collapsed in November. His Feb. 23 election win and coalition deal seemed to provide assurance that his government could end policy paralysis and confront challenges including lagging investment in pro-growth projects, choking bureaucracy and a lack of skilled labor.\n\nBut the first-round flop in parliament raised questions about how solid Merz's majority would be and whether it can pass reforms to raise growth after two years of shrinking output. The outgoing government predicted zero growth for this year.\n\n\"The failed vote, and fact that it came out of the blue, have already weakened Merz significantly,\" said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics.\n\n\"His promise to run a much more efficient and conflict-free government ... looks much less credible now. And delivering on his economic proposals, including a big increase in defense and infrastructure spending, corporate tax cuts, bureaucracy cuts and digitalization, will be more difficult than expected,\" Palmas added.\n\nMerz's coalition has 328 members in the new parliament. The fact that he received only 310 votes on the first secret ballot \u2014 when he needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes \u2014 led to speculation that some fiscally conservative legislators are resisting his post-election decision to loosen Germany's constitutional limit on deficit spending and set up a 500 billion euro fund to spend on infrastructure such as bridges, schools and rail lines.\n\nThose measures were passed in the outgoing parliament.\n\nMerz won election with 325 votes on the second try, but significant damage has been done. He is taking office \"with two black eyes and shaky knees,\" said Andrea Roemmele, professor of communications in politics and civil society at Berlin's Hertie School.\n\nHope that the government will quickly push ahead with new investments and reforms \"has been shattered,\" said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank: \"Today's events show that not everyone seems to have understood the sense of urgency and the need to have a functioning government.\"\n\nFor years, the debt limits constrained spending on infrastructure and was ultimately blamed for slowing growth. On top of that, China has gone from a lucrative export market for German companies to a competitor in German specialties such as autos and industrial machinery. Extensive permissions processes are blamed for slowing new business projects, while the loss of cheap Russian natural gas due to the invasion of Ukraine has raised energy costs for businesses.\n\nWhile the vote was \"a bad surprise,\" some of the tough decisions on spending and the debt limit were already taken care of in the outgoing parliament, said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank. \"The extra fiscal space exists ... today's upset will probably not affect the way the additional money for defense and infrastructure is allocated in a major way.\"\n\nSchmieding noted that most votes in parliament are not by secret ballot, which could prevent some of the coalition members who spurned Merz from voting against bills in parliament.\n\nThe decision to set up the infrastructure fund outside the debt limit had raised hope for more government spending and an exit from stagnation. Those hopes were dampened April 2 when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a slew of new tariffs on almost all U.S. trading partners, including a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union.\n\nThat immediately added to the headwinds for Germany's export-dominated economy, amid uncertainty over whether EU officials can negotiate a lower tariff rate during the 90-day pause institute by Trump before the tariffs take effect."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Merz's stumble casts shadow over hopes for rebooting Germany's struggling economy\n\nBy David Mchugh  \nMay 6th, 2025, 01:32 PM\n\n---\n\nFRANKFURT, Germany (AP) \u2014 Friedrich Merz's unprecedented failure to win election as German chancellor in the first round of voting in parliament \u2014 though he won in the second \u2014 raised doubts about his new government's ability to carry through on plans to push Europe's largest economy out of stagnation.\n\nTuesday's stumble at the start of his new coalition government between his Union bloc and the Social Democrats added uncertainty around the future of an economy that hasn't seen significant growth since before the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nAbove all, Merz had been expected to end the squabbling over spending and budgets that plagued predecessor Olaf Scholz's unruly three-party coalition that collapsed in November. His Feb. 23 election win and coalition deal seemed to provide assurance that his government could end policy paralysis and confront challenges including lagging investment in pro-growth projects, choking bureaucracy and a lack of skilled labor.\n\nBut the first-round flop in parliament raised questions about how solid Merz's majority would be and whether it can pass reforms to raise growth after two years of shrinking output. The outgoing government predicted zero growth for this year.\n\n\"The failed vote, and fact that it came out of the blue, have already weakened Merz significantly,\" said Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics.\n\n\"His promise to run a much more efficient and conflict-free government ... looks much less credible now. And delivering on his economic proposals, including a big increase in defense and infrastructure spending, corporate tax cuts, bureaucracy cuts and digitalization, will be more difficult than expected,\" Palmas added.\n\nMerz's coalition has 328 members in the new parliament. The fact that he received only 310 votes on the first secret ballot \u2014 when he needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes \u2014 led to speculation that some fiscally conservative legislators are resisting his post-election decision to loosen Germany's constitutional limit on deficit spending and set up a 500 billion euro fund to spend on infrastructure such as bridges, schools and rail lines.\n\nThose measures were passed in the outgoing parliament.\n\nMerz won election with 325 votes on the second try, but significant damage has been done. He is taking office \"with two black eyes and shaky knees,\" said Andrea Roemmele, professor of communications in politics and civil society at Berlin's Hertie School.\n\nHope that the government will quickly push ahead with new investments and reforms \"has been shattered,\" said Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank: \"Today's events show that not everyone seems to have understood the sense of urgency and the need to have a functioning government.\"\n\nFor years, the debt limits constrained spending on infrastructure and was ultimately blamed for slowing growth. On top of that, China has gone from a lucrative export market for German companies to a competitor in German specialties such as autos and industrial machinery. Extensive permissions processes are blamed for slowing new business projects, while the loss of cheap Russian natural gas due to the invasion of Ukraine has raised energy costs for businesses.\n\nWhile the vote was \"a bad surprise,\" some of the tough decisions on spending and the debt limit were already taken care of in the outgoing parliament, said Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg bank. \"The extra fiscal space exists ... today's upset will probably not affect the way the additional money for defense and infrastructure is allocated in a major way.\"\n\nSchmieding noted that most votes in parliament are not by secret ballot, which could prevent some of the coalition members who spurned Merz from voting against bills in parliament.\n\nThe decision to set up the infrastructure fund outside the debt limit had raised hope for more government spending and an exit from stagnation. Those hopes were dampened April 2 when U.S. President Donald Trump announced a slew of new tariffs on almost all U.S. trading partners, including a 20% tariff on goods from the European Union.\n\nThat immediately added to the headwinds for Germany's export-dominated economy, amid uncertainty over whether EU officials can negotiate a lower tariff rate during the 90-day pause institute by Trump before the tariffs take effect."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1427def996ad31ccfa8e23bfd8d60d566660f37d911170b95e177e319652a724", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# The 225-year-old Library of Congress has never had a moment like this\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 15th, 2025, 07:21 PM\n\n---\n\nThe Library of Congress, a 225-year-old Washington institution, has never had a moment like this.\n\nA week ago, the Trump administration fired the longtime librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The man appointed by President Donald Trump to be interim librarian, Todd Blanche, may not actually be the interim librarian. And Hayden's ouster may not even be legal.\n\nHere's more about the library, Hayden's ouster and the mystery of who's in charge now:\n\n## What is the Library of Congress?\n\nThe country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.\n\nIn addition to its billing as \"the largest library in the world,\" it could also be called the country's unofficial memory bank. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill.\n\nEach year, the library's National Film Registry chooses 25 movies \"showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage.\" The National Recording Registry selects for preservation sound recordings that \"are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States.\"\n\nThe library also manages the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which responds to tens of thousands of requests from Congress each year. Communications are confidential from disclosure under the \"speech or debate\" clause of the U.S. Constitution. Library of Congress events include an annual book festival, tours, films, exhibits and conferences.\n\nThe Library of Congress is not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. No one under 16 can get a reader card to access the collection. Those 16 and 17 require a parent's permission.\n\n## What does the librarian of Congress do?\n\nThe librarian has a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing the Library of Congress' collections to selecting the country's poet laureate to awarding the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.\n\nLibrarians serve 10-year terms, and Hayden's was scheduled to end in 2026.\n\nHer predecessors include James Billington, Daniel Boorstin and Archibald MacLeish.\n\n## Who was fired? Who was hired?\n\nLate last week, the Trump administration abruptly fired Hayden, the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position. Hayden, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and confirmed 74-18 by the Republican-led Senate the following year, was informed via email that \"your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.\"\n\nMore upheavals quickly followed. The White House fired U.S. Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter, whom Hayden had appointed in 2020. The Justice Department then announced that Blanche, the deputy attorney general, had been named acting librarian of Congress and that Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, was acting director of the Copyright Office.\n\nBlanche was a member of Trump's defense team in his New York hush money trial, which ended last year in a conviction on 34 felony counts.\n\n## Why was Hayden fired?\n\nThe White House cited no specific reason in its email to her, although Trump has been purging officials he believes opposed to him and his policies. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had alleged she was promoting children's books with \"radical content,\" and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that she was \"putting inappropriate books in the library for children.\"\n\nA copy of virtually every book published in the U.S. during a given year is given to the Copyright Office, with the Library of Congress deciding whether to include it in the main collection.\n\nHayden's firing was denounced by Democrats, librarians, educators and others, including the outgoing U.S. poet laureate, Ada Lim\u00f3n. Appointed by Hayden in 2022, Lim\u00f3n called her the \"kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation.\"\n\n## Did the White House have the legal right to fire her?\n\nDespite being nominated by the president, the librarian of Congress is a legislative branch employee and appoints leaders to other positions under it, such as the assistant librarian and the director of the Copyright Office.\n\nThat's why a dispute between Congress and the White House has erupted as Republican leaders sort out how much authority the president -- the head of the executive branch -- has in tapping an acting librarian.\n\nUsually, if that position is vacant, an interim librarian is chosen from the current ranks of the Library of Congress.\n\n## Who is in charge right now?\n\nAlthough Blanche was announced as acting librarian, he has yet to turn up at the Library of Congress offices, according to a person with knowledge of internal operations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.\n\nThe library is currently being run by Robert Randolph Newlen, the person says.\n\nNewlen had been principal deputy librarian, and, per library regulations, was in line to succeed the librarian of Congress in case of absence or temporary unavailability.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this report from Washington."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# The 225-year-old Library of Congress has never had a moment like this\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 15th, 2025, 07:21 PM\n\n---\n\nThe Library of Congress, a 225-year-old Washington institution, has never had a moment like this.\n\nA week ago, the Trump administration fired the longtime librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. The man appointed by President Donald Trump to be interim librarian, Todd Blanche, may not actually be the interim librarian. And Hayden's ouster may not even be legal.\n\nHere's more about the library, Hayden's ouster and the mystery of who's in charge now:\n\n## What is the Library of Congress?\n\nThe country's oldest federal cultural institution, the Library of Congress was founded in 1800 under legislation by President John Adams and has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan backing.\n\nIn addition to its billing as \"the largest library in the world,\" it could also be called the country's unofficial memory bank. It contains more than 100 million books, recordings, images and other artifacts and offers a vast online archive, and its contents span three buildings on Capitol Hill.\n\nEach year, the library's National Film Registry chooses 25 movies \"showcasing the range and diversity of American film heritage.\" The National Recording Registry selects for preservation sound recordings that \"are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States.\"\n\nThe library also manages the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, which responds to tens of thousands of requests from Congress each year. Communications are confidential from disclosure under the \"speech or debate\" clause of the U.S. Constitution. Library of Congress events include an annual book festival, tours, films, exhibits and conferences.\n\nThe Library of Congress is not a traditional circulating library but is instead a research library. No one under 16 can get a reader card to access the collection. Those 16 and 17 require a parent's permission.\n\n## What does the librarian of Congress do?\n\nThe librarian has a wide range of responsibilities, from overseeing the Library of Congress' collections to selecting the country's poet laureate to awarding the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction.\n\nLibrarians serve 10-year terms, and Hayden's was scheduled to end in 2026.\n\nHer predecessors include James Billington, Daniel Boorstin and Archibald MacLeish.\n\n## Who was fired? Who was hired?\n\nLate last week, the Trump administration abruptly fired Hayden, the first Black person and the first woman to hold the position. Hayden, nominated by President Barack Obama in 2015 and confirmed 74-18 by the Republican-led Senate the following year, was informed via email that \"your position as the Librarian of Congress is terminated effective immediately. Thank you for your service.\"\n\nMore upheavals quickly followed. The White House fired U.S. Copyright Office head Shira Perlmutter, whom Hayden had appointed in 2020. The Justice Department then announced that Blanche, the deputy attorney general, had been named acting librarian of Congress and that Paul Perkins, an associate deputy attorney general and veteran Justice Department attorney, was acting director of the Copyright Office.\n\nBlanche was a member of Trump's defense team in his New York hush money trial, which ended last year in a conviction on 34 felony counts.\n\n## Why was Hayden fired?\n\nThe White House cited no specific reason in its email to her, although Trump has been purging officials he believes opposed to him and his policies. The conservative American Accountability Foundation had alleged she was promoting children's books with \"radical content,\" and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that she was \"putting inappropriate books in the library for children.\"\n\nA copy of virtually every book published in the U.S. during a given year is given to the Copyright Office, with the Library of Congress deciding whether to include it in the main collection.\n\nHayden's firing was denounced by Democrats, librarians, educators and others, including the outgoing U.S. poet laureate, Ada Lim\u00f3n. Appointed by Hayden in 2022, Lim\u00f3n called her the \"kindest, brightest, most generous Librarian of Congress we could have hoped for as a nation.\"\n\n## Did the White House have the legal right to fire her?\n\nDespite being nominated by the president, the librarian of Congress is a legislative branch employee and appoints leaders to other positions under it, such as the assistant librarian and the director of the Copyright Office.\n\nThat's why a dispute between Congress and the White House has erupted as Republican leaders sort out how much authority the president -- the head of the executive branch -- has in tapping an acting librarian.\n\nUsually, if that position is vacant, an interim librarian is chosen from the current ranks of the Library of Congress.\n\n## Who is in charge right now?\n\nAlthough Blanche was announced as acting librarian, he has yet to turn up at the Library of Congress offices, according to a person with knowledge of internal operations. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.\n\nThe library is currently being run by Robert Randolph Newlen, the person says.\n\nNewlen had been principal deputy librarian, and, per library regulations, was in line to succeed the librarian of Congress in case of absence or temporary unavailability."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "70575165b92af2ab3dd58ec8b8f5eb908af980007d8189f79cb4e5ffc18006bf", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Planned water reserve intended to ease shortages in the Panama Canal fuels river protest\n\nBy Alma Sol\u00eds  \nMay 16th, 2025, 09:44 PM\n\n---\n\nPANAMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Dozens of boats carrying around 200 people, mostly farmers waving Panamanian flags, traveled along the country's central Indio River on Friday to protest a planned reservoir in the Panama Canal intended to solve water shortages in the waterway that have threatened international trade flow.\n\nThe Panama Canal Authority (ACP) says building the reservoir is the best way to provide an additional water source for over 2 million people in Panama City and to ensure the canal operates efficiently in the coming decades.\n\nThe canal, which needs around 189 million liters (50 million gallons) of freshwater for each ship crossing, faced severe water shortages in 2023 due to lack of rain, forcing authorities to cut crossings by 20% and delay traffic. The proposed reservoir, which would take four years and $1.6 billion to build, could allow 12 to 13 more ship crossings per day and support new water treatment facilities being built, authorities say.\n\nBut protesters say building the reservoir using the Indio River, in the canal's watershed, would also force 2,000 people to be relocated from their homes because their communities would be flooded. Other areas downstream could also be affected by reduced river flow.\n\nIris Gallardo, a teacher from the Guasimo community and a member of the \"No to Reservoirs\" movement, was among the group of mostly farmers waving Panamanian flags. She told the Associated Press they held the boat protest to show their rejection of the project and forced relocations.\n\n\"We are demanding that the multipurpose reservoir proposed by the ACP not be built without consulting and getting permission from the affected communities,\" Gallardo said.\n\nInstead, protestors suggest using the nearby Bayano Lake, located east of the capital. Authorities dismissed that idea due to logistical, legal challenges and cost, and said that such a project would displace 200,000 people \u2013 far more than the current plan. They said the project would also offer jobs to communities and that the resettlement plan is being developed with the community.\n\nFormer Panama Canal administrator Jorge Luis Quijano said opponents of the project don't understand how serious the water problem is.\n\n\"The only way to have water is to store it,\" he said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Planned water reserve intended to ease shortages in the Panama Canal fuels river protest\n\nBy Alma Sol\u00eds  \nMay 16th, 2025, 09:44 PM\n\n---\n\nPANAMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Dozens of boats carrying around 200 people, mostly farmers waving Panamanian flags, traveled along the country's central Indio River on Friday to protest a planned reservoir in the Panama Canal intended to solve water shortages in the waterway that have threatened international trade flow.\n\nThe Panama Canal Authority (ACP) says building the reservoir is the best way to provide an additional water source for over 2 million people in Panama City and to ensure the canal operates efficiently in the coming decades.\n\nThe canal, which needs around 189 million liters (50 million gallons) of freshwater for each ship crossing, faced severe water shortages in 2023 due to lack of rain, forcing authorities to cut crossings by 20% and delay traffic. The proposed reservoir, which would take four years and $1.6 billion to build, could allow 12 to 13 more ship crossings per day and support new water treatment facilities being built, authorities say.\n\nBut protesters say building the reservoir using the Indio River, in the canal's watershed, would also force 2,000 people to be relocated from their homes because their communities would be flooded. Other areas downstream could also be affected by reduced river flow.\n\nIris Gallardo, a teacher from the Guasimo community and a member of the \"No to Reservoirs\" movement, was among the group of mostly farmers waving Panamanian flags. She told the Associated Press they held the boat protest to show their rejection of the project and forced relocations.\n\n\"We are demanding that the multipurpose reservoir proposed by the ACP not be built without consulting and getting permission from the affected communities,\" Gallardo said.\n\nInstead, protestors suggest using the nearby Bayano Lake, located east of the capital. Authorities dismissed that idea due to logistical, legal challenges and cost, and said that such a project would displace 200,000 people \u2013 far more than the current plan. They said the project would also offer jobs to communities and that the resettlement plan is being developed with the community.\n\nFormer Panama Canal administrator Jorge Luis Quijano said opponents of the project don't understand how serious the water problem is.\n\n\"The only way to have water is to store it,\" he said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "868a047ba7cd031220bc0599c675bee08ee6433a5b3b7683273379afea65285b", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Thousands of chickens euthanized in South Africa after they were left starving and eating each other\n\nMay 6th, 2025, 08:30 PM\n\n---\n\nCAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 Animal welfare officers faced the grisly task of euthanizing more than 350,000 chickens by hand after they were left starving and cannibalizing each other when a South African state-owned poultry company ran out of money to feed them, officials said Tuesday.\n\nThe National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or NSPCA, said it wasn't able to say for certain how many other chickens had already died by the time its officers reached several neglected poultry farming sites because of the \"mass cannibalism\" that took place among the birds.\n\nThe NSPCA managed to save more than 500,000 chickens, it said.\n\n\"It was a harrowing scene,\" the NSPCA said in a statement. \"Skeletal chickens huddled together, chickens eating one another, feeding lines stripped bare.\"\n\nThe chickens were owned by Daybreak Foods, a major poultry supplier owned by South Africa's state asset management company Public Investment Corp.\n\nNSPCA officers were first alerted to a crisis at one farm on April 30. The organization uncovered at least five other farms in northern South Africa with multiple sites on each farm where birds had been left to starve, it said.\n\nDaybreak Foods was denied permission to take the birds to a slaughterhouse because they were too small.\n\nThere was no immediate response to an email message seeking comment from Daybreak Foods late Tuesday.\n\nCompany spokesperson Nokwazi Ngcongo told the Daily Maverick news outlet that the birds went unfed for a period of time due to financial challenges affecting feed delivery. She said efforts had been made to limit animal suffering as much as possible.\n\nNazareth Appalsamy, the manager of the NSPCA's farm animal protection unit, told The Associated Press that the mass culling began last Wednesday and was only completed on Monday. Around 75 animal protection officers were tasked with euthanizing the chickens that weren't able to recover one by one, Appalsamy said.\n\n\"Culling took a real toll on the staff, being exposed to such extreme measures,\" he said.\n\nThe NSPCA said the chickens hadn't been fed for more than a week and pledged to file a court case against Daybreak Foods under animal protection laws for abandoning its responsibilities.\n\nThe South African government said it is in talks with Daybreak Foods leadership over its financial troubles.\n\n___\n\nAP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Thousands of chickens euthanized in South Africa after they were left starving and eating each other\n\nMay 6th, 2025, 08:30 PM\n\n---\n\nCAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) \u2014 Animal welfare officers faced the grisly task of euthanizing more than 350,000 chickens by hand after they were left starving and cannibalizing each other when a South African state-owned poultry company ran out of money to feed them, officials said Tuesday.\n\nThe National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, or NSPCA, said it wasn't able to say for certain how many other chickens had already died by the time its officers reached several neglected poultry farming sites because of the \"mass cannibalism\" that took place among the birds.\n\nThe NSPCA managed to save more than 500,000 chickens, it said.\n\n\"It was a harrowing scene,\" the NSPCA said in a statement. \"Skeletal chickens huddled together, chickens eating one another, feeding lines stripped bare.\"\n\nThe chickens were owned by Daybreak Foods, a major poultry supplier owned by South Africa's state asset management company Public Investment Corp.\n\nNSPCA officers were first alerted to a crisis at one farm on April 30. The organization uncovered at least five other farms in northern South Africa with multiple sites on each farm where birds had been left to starve, it said.\n\nDaybreak Foods was denied permission to take the birds to a slaughterhouse because they were too small.\n\nThere was no immediate response to an email message seeking comment from Daybreak Foods late Tuesday.\n\nCompany spokesperson Nokwazi Ngcongo told the Daily Maverick news outlet that the birds went unfed for a period of time due to financial challenges affecting feed delivery. She said efforts had been made to limit animal suffering as much as possible.\n\nNazareth Appalsamy, the manager of the NSPCA's farm animal protection unit, told The Associated Press that the mass culling began last Wednesday and was only completed on Monday. Around 75 animal protection officers were tasked with euthanizing the chickens that weren't able to recover one by one, Appalsamy said.\n\n\"Culling took a real toll on the staff, being exposed to such extreme measures,\" he said.\n\nThe NSPCA said the chickens hadn't been fed for more than a week and pledged to file a court case against Daybreak Foods under animal protection laws for abandoning its responsibilities.\n\nThe South African government said it is in talks with Daybreak Foods leadership over its financial troubles."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "52cfac163d34b0680a2f327b624f38395116d5126bf28eafdd4894c10e5e6b1d", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Miniature dachshund reunited with owner after 18 months lost\n\nBy Rod Mcguirk  \nMay 7th, 2025, 06:50 AM\n\n---\n\nMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Valerie, a miniature dachshund lost for 18 months \u2014 or around half her life \u2014 on an Australian island, has been reunited with her owners, her rescuers said Wednesday.\n\nOwner Georgia Gardner said her pet approached without hesitation when they were reunited by Kangala Wildlife Rescue on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia state on Tuesday for the first time since November 2023.\n\n\"She ran straight up to me \u2014 I just burst into tears,\" Gardner said in a statement released on Wednesday.\n\n\"She was wagging her tail, making her little happy sounds and wiggling around with joy. I held her and cried and cried,\" Gardner added.\n\nThe almost 3-year-old Valerie was trapped on April 25 in remarkably good condition after 529 days spent living like a feral animal. Valerie had weighted 4 kilograms (9 pounds) when she was lost and now weighs 6.8 kilograms (15 pounds). There is speculation that she survived on road kill and animal droppings.\n\nGardner and her partner, Josh Fishlock, had been holidaying on the island and were away from their campsite fishing when their pet escaped from a pen. The couple searched but eventually had to return to the mainland without her.\n\nVolunteers from Kangala Wildlife Rescue, a not-for-profit service, spotted the distinctive addition to the Australian wilderness in March.\n\nShe was captured after volunteers spent an estimated 1,000 hours searching while covering 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) of the island.\n\nHaving seen video camera images of the dog sniffing a trap last month, Kangala Wildlife Rescue director Jared Karran said he was surprised by how small she was in reality.\n\n\"If it was a miracle that she's survived \u2014 seeing her size \u2014 it's just unbelievable that she was able to survive and thrive out there,\" Karran said.\n\nGardner and Fishlock will drive Valerie back to their home in Albury in New South Wales state.\n\nGarner said she had been working with a dog behaviorist to help Valerie transition to home life. Valerie will be kept on a raw food diet \"considering her incredible condition when she was found,\" Gardner said.\n\nIn Albury, Valerie will be reunited with rescue cat Lucy and cattle dog Mason. She will also be introduced to her owners' new dachshund, Dorothy."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Miniature dachshund reunited with owner after 18 months lost\n\nBy Rod Mcguirk  \nMay 7th, 2025, 06:50 AM\n\n---\n\nMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Valerie, a miniature dachshund lost for 18 months \u2014 or around half her life \u2014 on an Australian island, has been reunited with her owners, her rescuers said Wednesday.\n\nOwner Georgia Gardner said her pet approached without hesitation when they were reunited by Kangala Wildlife Rescue on Kangaroo Island off the coast of South Australia state on Tuesday for the first time since November 2023.\n\n\"She ran straight up to me \u2014 I just burst into tears,\" Gardner said in a statement released on Wednesday.\n\n\"She was wagging her tail, making her little happy sounds and wiggling around with joy. I held her and cried and cried,\" Gardner added.\n\nThe almost 3-year-old Valerie was trapped on April 25 in remarkably good condition after 529 days spent living like a feral animal. Valerie had weighted 4 kilograms (9 pounds) when she was lost and now weighs 6.8 kilograms (15 pounds). There is speculation that she survived on road kill and animal droppings.\n\nGardner and her partner, Josh Fishlock, had been holidaying on the island and were away from their campsite fishing when their pet escaped from a pen. The couple searched but eventually had to return to the mainland without her.\n\nVolunteers from Kangala Wildlife Rescue, a not-for-profit service, spotted the distinctive addition to the Australian wilderness in March.\n\nShe was captured after volunteers spent an estimated 1,000 hours searching while covering 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) of the island.\n\nHaving seen video camera images of the dog sniffing a trap last month, Kangala Wildlife Rescue director Jared Karran said he was surprised by how small she was in reality.\n\n\"If it was a miracle that she's survived \u2014 seeing her size \u2014 it's just unbelievable that she was able to survive and thrive out there,\" Karran said.\n\nGardner and Fishlock will drive Valerie back to their home in Albury in New South Wales state.\n\nGarner said she had been working with a dog behaviorist to help Valerie transition to home life. Valerie will be kept on a raw food diet \"considering her incredible condition when she was found,\" Gardner said.\n\nIn Albury, Valerie will be reunited with rescue cat Lucy and cattle dog Mason. She will also be introduced to her owners' new dachshund, Dorothy."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0e754d4193d404d40b6259f1d803be1011785b4948f498322f1ab6abf0056a33", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Huge crowd piles pressure on Dutch government to seek an end to Israel's campaign in Gaza\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 18th, 2025, 04:39 PM\n\n---\n\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital on Sunday to demand their government do more to halt Israel's campaign in Gaza, in what organizers called the country's biggest demonstration in two decades.\n\nHuman rights groups and aid agencies \u2014 including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders \u2014 estimated the peaceful crowd at more than 100,000 people, and the streets of The Hague were packed with the old, young and even some babies on their first protest.\n\n\"We hope this is a wake-up call for the government,\" said teacher Roos Lingbeek, attending the march with her husband and their 12-week-old daughter, Dido, who slept in a carrier as her parents brandished a sign simply reading: \"STOP.\"\n\nThe march took the young family past the Peace Palace, headquarters of the United Nations' International Court of Justice, where last year judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.\n\nAs the protest wound its way past the court, canals and the seat of the Netherlands' right-wing government, Israeli forces continued to pound northern Gaza, where they have launched new ground operations.\n\nAirstrikes in the offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza's main hospital to close.\n\nAn Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.\n\nDavid Prins, whose yarmulke was printed with the image of a watermelon \u2014 which shares the colors of the Palestinian flag \u2014 told The Associated Press he was attending the protest \"to speak out against the atrocities.\" The 64-year-old was standing across the street from the synagogue he attended growing up, which overlooks the field where the demonstration began.\n\nProtesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the city center of The Hague, to symbolically create the red line they say the government has failed to set.\n\n\"We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,\" Marjon Rozema, of Amnesty International, told the AP.\n\nIsrael strongly denies that it is committing genocide or violating international law in Gaza.\n\nSome unable to make the trek through the city sat along the route to cheer on the marchers. \"It's beyond time for the government to act,\" Aletha Steijns told the AP, while holding crutches for a knee injury. She was joined by several friends in camping chairs on the sidewalk.\n\nDutch policy toward Israel is just one of many issues causing splits in the Netherlands' fragile coalition government. Hard-right leader Geert Wilders is staunchly pro-Israel and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom holds the largest number of seats in the country's parliament.\n\nLast week, however, foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp of the minority center-right VVD party urged the European Union to review a trade agreement with Israel, arguing that its blockade of humanitarian aid violated international law. Wilders hit back, denouncing the call as an \"affront to cabinet policy.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Huge crowd piles pressure on Dutch government to seek an end to Israel's campaign in Gaza\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 18th, 2025, 04:39 PM\n\n---\n\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters marched through the Dutch capital on Sunday to demand their government do more to halt Israel's campaign in Gaza, in what organizers called the country's biggest demonstration in two decades.\n\nHuman rights groups and aid agencies \u2014 including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Doctors Without Borders \u2014 estimated the peaceful crowd at more than 100,000 people, and the streets of The Hague were packed with the old, young and even some babies on their first protest.\n\n\"We hope this is a wake-up call for the government,\" said teacher Roos Lingbeek, attending the march with her husband and their 12-week-old daughter, Dido, who slept in a carrier as her parents brandished a sign simply reading: \"STOP.\"\n\nThe march took the young family past the Peace Palace, headquarters of the United Nations' International Court of Justice, where last year judges ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and any acts of genocide in Gaza.\n\nAs the protest wound its way past the court, canals and the seat of the Netherlands' right-wing government, Israeli forces continued to pound northern Gaza, where they have launched new ground operations.\n\nAirstrikes in the offensive killed at least 103 people, including dozens of children, overnight and into Sunday, hospitals and medics said, and forced northern Gaza's main hospital to close.\n\nAn Israeli blockade on food, medicine and other supplies is now in its third month, with global food security experts warning of famine across the territory of more than 2 million people.\n\nDavid Prins, whose yarmulke was printed with the image of a watermelon \u2014 which shares the colors of the Palestinian flag \u2014 told The Associated Press he was attending the protest \"to speak out against the atrocities.\" The 64-year-old was standing across the street from the synagogue he attended growing up, which overlooks the field where the demonstration began.\n\nProtesters walked a 3-mile (5-kilometer) loop around the city center of The Hague, to symbolically create the red line they say the government has failed to set.\n\n\"We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories,\" Marjon Rozema, of Amnesty International, told the AP.\n\nIsrael strongly denies that it is committing genocide or violating international law in Gaza.\n\nSome unable to make the trek through the city sat along the route to cheer on the marchers. \"It's beyond time for the government to act,\" Aletha Steijns told the AP, while holding crutches for a knee injury. She was joined by several friends in camping chairs on the sidewalk.\n\nDutch policy toward Israel is just one of many issues causing splits in the Netherlands' fragile coalition government. Hard-right leader Geert Wilders is staunchly pro-Israel and his anti-immigrant Party for Freedom holds the largest number of seats in the country's parliament.\n\nLast week, however, foreign affairs minister Caspar Veldkamp of the minority center-right VVD party urged the European Union to review a trade agreement with Israel, arguing that its blockade of humanitarian aid violated international law. Wilders hit back, denouncing the call as an \"affront to cabinet policy.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c6e6ed596db54d007db27fb354957c97357596247a1d2d7f81c7e7454d6b81dd", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Taiwan's president downplays tariff tensions with the US as 'frictions between friends'\n\nBy Simina Mistreanu  \nMay 20th, 2025, 05:36 AM\n\n---\n\nTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) \u2014 The Taiwanese president said Tuesday that trade tensions between the United States and Taiwan are just \"frictions between friends\" in a show of optimism as tariff negotiations are underway with Washington.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump imposed 32% tariffs on all imports from Taiwan as part of sweeping duties levied against all U.S. trading partners last month.\n\nThe tariffs on Taiwanese goods were subsequently lowered to 10% for 90 days to allow for trade negotiations. Officials from both sides held a first round of talks last month, to be followed by another one in the coming weeks.\n\nIn a speech marking his first year as president and focusing on Taiwan's strategies to defuse the effects of U.S. tariffs and military threats from China, Lai Ching-te struck an accommodating tone despite the tariff pressure.\n\nThe U.S. and Taiwan have long \"cooperated and have also encouraged each other to grow,\" he said. \"There are bound to be frictions between friends, but they can eventually be reconciled.\"\n\n\"Even if there are differences of opinion, as long as there is a foundation of trust and sincere dialogue, they can understand each other better and deepen their friendship,\" he added.\n\nThe U.S. has traditionally been Taiwan's strongest unofficial ally in the face of military threats by China, which considers the self-ruled island its own territory, to be retaken by force if necessary. Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.\n\nLai said Taiwan would continue to strengthen its national defense capabilities, both through foreign military procurement and domestic arms development, and stand \"shoulder to shoulder\" with its allies \"to exert deterrent power.\"\n\n\"We will prepare adequately to avoid war and achieve the goal of peace,\" he said.\n\nHe kept open the possibility of talks with Beijing, saying that \"Taiwan is very willing to engage in exchanges and cooperation with China\" as long as there is mutual respect and dignity.\n\nTaiwan's economy is supported by massive semiconductor firms that supply microchips globally as well as other electronics, advanced manufacturing and green tech makers.\n\nLai said he would continue to encourage foreign investment in Taiwan, citing Monday's announcement by American technology company Nvidia about opening a new office in northern Taipei.\n\nNvidia's Taiwan-born CEO Jensen Huang also announced his company would build an artificial intelligence supercomputer on the island in partnership with chipmaker TSMC, tech firm Foxconn and the Taiwanese government.\n\nHe also backed increased investments by Taiwanese firms in the U.S.\n\nIn March, TSMC responded to Trump's tariff threats by pledging a new $100 billion investment in the U.S., in addition to earlier commitments to invest more than $65 billion in three factories in Arizona, one of which began production late last year.\n\nHowever, Lai's controversial proposal to completely remove tariffs on U.S. goods \"on the basis of reciprocity,\" in addition to bumping up procurement of U.S. products, triggered protests last week by Taiwanese farmers.\n\nLai opened his speech by offering his \"deepest condolences\" to the families of three people, including two 12-year-old girls, who were killed when a driver plowed through pedestrians in New Taipei City on Monday. He promised a speedy investigation into the tragedy that has shaken many on this self-governing island of 23 million people.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press video journalist Johnson Lai in Taipei, Taiwan, contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Taiwan's president downplays tariff tensions with the US as 'frictions between friends'\n\nBy Simina Mistreanu  \nMay 20th, 2025, 05:36 AM\n\n---\n\nTAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) \u2014 The Taiwanese president said Tuesday that trade tensions between the United States and Taiwan are just \"frictions between friends\" in a show of optimism as tariff negotiations are underway with Washington.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump imposed 32% tariffs on all imports from Taiwan as part of sweeping duties levied against all U.S. trading partners last month.\n\nThe tariffs on Taiwanese goods were subsequently lowered to 10% for 90 days to allow for trade negotiations. Officials from both sides held a first round of talks last month, to be followed by another one in the coming weeks.\n\nIn a speech marking his first year as president and focusing on Taiwan's strategies to defuse the effects of U.S. tariffs and military threats from China, Lai Ching-te struck an accommodating tone despite the tariff pressure.\n\nThe U.S. and Taiwan have long \"cooperated and have also encouraged each other to grow,\" he said. \"There are bound to be frictions between friends, but they can eventually be reconciled.\"\n\n\"Even if there are differences of opinion, as long as there is a foundation of trust and sincere dialogue, they can understand each other better and deepen their friendship,\" he added.\n\nThe U.S. has traditionally been Taiwan's strongest unofficial ally in the face of military threats by China, which considers the self-ruled island its own territory, to be retaken by force if necessary. Washington is bound by its own laws to provide Taipei with the means to defend itself.\n\nLai said Taiwan would continue to strengthen its national defense capabilities, both through foreign military procurement and domestic arms development, and stand \"shoulder to shoulder\" with its allies \"to exert deterrent power.\"\n\n\"We will prepare adequately to avoid war and achieve the goal of peace,\" he said.\n\nHe kept open the possibility of talks with Beijing, saying that \"Taiwan is very willing to engage in exchanges and cooperation with China\" as long as there is mutual respect and dignity.\n\nTaiwan's economy is supported by massive semiconductor firms that supply microchips globally as well as other electronics, advanced manufacturing and green tech makers.\n\nLai said he would continue to encourage foreign investment in Taiwan, citing Monday's announcement by American technology company Nvidia about opening a new office in northern Taipei.\n\nNvidia's Taiwan-born CEO Jensen Huang also announced his company would build an artificial intelligence supercomputer on the island in partnership with chipmaker TSMC, tech firm Foxconn and the Taiwanese government.\n\nHe also backed increased investments by Taiwanese firms in the U.S.\n\nIn March, TSMC responded to Trump's tariff threats by pledging a new $100 billion investment in the U.S., in addition to earlier commitments to invest more than $65 billion in three factories in Arizona, one of which began production late last year.\n\nHowever, Lai's controversial proposal to completely remove tariffs on U.S. goods \"on the basis of reciprocity,\" in addition to bumping up procurement of U.S. products, triggered protests last week by Taiwanese farmers.\n\nLai opened his speech by offering his \"deepest condolences\" to the families of three people, including two 12-year-old girls, who were killed when a driver plowed through pedestrians in New Taipei City on Monday. He promised a speedy investigation into the tragedy that has shaken many on this self-governing island of 23 million people."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "d0116770d165eb11fab4ce2eac835ed2233d33537d2bde97abc419f55d6ae51b", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 'Nonnas' review: Vince Vaughn leads sweet, schmaltzy comfort food movie\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 8th, 2025, 11:00 PM\n\n---\n\nThe new Vince Vaughn movie \"Nonnas\" aspires to be a bit of cinematic comfort food. It's based on a heartwarming true story, features a lot of shots of simmering Sunday sauces and touts a lovable cast of veteran Italian American actors in Talia Shire, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro and Susan Sarandon. One would hope that those are the kind of ingredients that would be difficult to mess up too badly.\n\nAnd \"Nonnas,\" streaming on Netflix Friday, is what it wants to be: A glossy, movie version of the local joint. Nothing's groundbreaking or particularly unexpected, the story beats are predictable, and the music choices and Italian American stereotypes a bit clich\u00e9. And yet it's done with an evident earnestness and kindness that makes it impossible to write off. Is it a sign of the times that a bunch of people just being kind to one another is basically enough?\n\n\"Nonnas\" was directed by Stephen Chbosky (\"Perks of Being a Wallflower\") working off of a script by Liz Maccie, whom he is married to, and based on the true story of a New Yorker named Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) who starts a Staten Island restaurant with Italian grandmothers as the chefs.\n\nJoe has no business savvy or restaurant knowledge, just an idea after the loss of his own mother and grandmother. He just wants to pay tribute to the way that they always made him feel with their cooking in the kitchen. There's a gauzy, sun soaked flashback to the neighborhood in the 1960s showing a young Joe watching his mother and grandmother make the Sunday sauce that's so idealized, so full of smiles as substitute for character, it might as well be a Prego commercial.\n\nThere is an obvious reverence for cultural predecessors like \"Moonstruck\" and \"My Cousin Vinny\" baked into \"Nonnas,\" though it can't quite find the natural rhythm that might have made it work better. It whiplashes between big comedic swings (including a food fight between the feuding nonnas) and utter sincerity and it is in no rush to get anywhere fast.\n\nBut perhaps the greatest miscalculation is centering the story on Joe instead of the women. The nonnas are met where they are in life \u2014 a former nun (Shire), a hair salon owner (Sarandon), a retiree (Bracco) who's estranged from her kids and a widow (Vaccaro) who needs to get out of the house. It seems like there was a missed opportunity to get to know their stories and recipes more. If food is love, give the audience a chance to fall in love with them through their favorite dishes. Instead, they bond not over food or new appreciation of one another's heritage, but a makeover.\n\nStill, it's worth noting that \"Nonnas\" is not nearly as gimmicky as it could have been. Vaughn is good in a more subdued role \u2014 the stereotypes-for-comedy's-sake are left for his friends ( Joe Manganiello and Drea de Matteo) to live and die by. A love story with his old prom date (played by Linda Cardellini) feels a little tacked on to everything else, but I suppose is also just another layer to the second chances narrative.\n\nChbosky and his cinematographer Florian Ballhaus take care to shoot working class Staten Island beautifully, without gimmicks to overromanticize the reality. Even the \"before\" images of the restaurant have a glint to them, drawing the audience in to see the potential that Joe sees. Be sure to keep watching through the credits for a little real-life coda.\n\n\"Nonnas,\" like comfort food, may be a little obvious, a little safe, but that's the point.\n\n\"Nonnas,\" a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for \"suggestive material, language and thematic elements.\" Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 'Nonnas' review: Vince Vaughn leads sweet, schmaltzy comfort food movie\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 8th, 2025, 11:00 PM\n\n---\n\nThe new Vince Vaughn movie \"Nonnas\" aspires to be a bit of cinematic comfort food. It's based on a heartwarming true story, features a lot of shots of simmering Sunday sauces and touts a lovable cast of veteran Italian American actors in Talia Shire, Lorraine Bracco, Brenda Vaccaro and Susan Sarandon. One would hope that those are the kind of ingredients that would be difficult to mess up too badly.\n\nAnd \"Nonnas,\" streaming on Netflix Friday, is what it wants to be: A glossy, movie version of the local joint. Nothing's groundbreaking or particularly unexpected, the story beats are predictable, and the music choices and Italian American stereotypes a bit clich\u00e9. And yet it's done with an evident earnestness and kindness that makes it impossible to write off. Is it a sign of the times that a bunch of people just being kind to one another is basically enough?\n\n\"Nonnas\" was directed by Stephen Chbosky (\"Perks of Being a Wallflower\") working off of a script by Liz Maccie, whom he is married to, and based on the true story of a New Yorker named Joe Scaravella (Vince Vaughn) who starts a Staten Island restaurant with Italian grandmothers as the chefs.\n\nJoe has no business savvy or restaurant knowledge, just an idea after the loss of his own mother and grandmother. He just wants to pay tribute to the way that they always made him feel with their cooking in the kitchen. There's a gauzy, sun soaked flashback to the neighborhood in the 1960s showing a young Joe watching his mother and grandmother make the Sunday sauce that's so idealized, so full of smiles as substitute for character, it might as well be a Prego commercial.\n\nThere is an obvious reverence for cultural predecessors like \"Moonstruck\" and \"My Cousin Vinny\" baked into \"Nonnas,\" though it can't quite find the natural rhythm that might have made it work better. It whiplashes between big comedic swings (including a food fight between the feuding nonnas) and utter sincerity and it is in no rush to get anywhere fast.\n\nBut perhaps the greatest miscalculation is centering the story on Joe instead of the women. The nonnas are met where they are in life \u2014 a former nun (Shire), a hair salon owner (Sarandon), a retiree (Bracco) who's estranged from her kids and a widow (Vaccaro) who needs to get out of the house. It seems like there was a missed opportunity to get to know their stories and recipes more. If food is love, give the audience a chance to fall in love with them through their favorite dishes. Instead, they bond not over food or new appreciation of one another's heritage, but a makeover.\n\nStill, it's worth noting that \"Nonnas\" is not nearly as gimmicky as it could have been. Vaughn is good in a more subdued role \u2014 the stereotypes-for-comedy's-sake are left for his friends ( Joe Manganiello and Drea de Matteo) to live and die by. A love story with his old prom date (played by Linda Cardellini) feels a little tacked on to everything else, but I suppose is also just another layer to the second chances narrative.\n\nChbosky and his cinematographer Florian Ballhaus take care to shoot working class Staten Island beautifully, without gimmicks to overromanticize the reality. Even the \"before\" images of the restaurant have a glint to them, drawing the audience in to see the potential that Joe sees. Be sure to keep watching through the credits for a little real-life coda.\n\n\"Nonnas,\" like comfort food, may be a little obvious, a little safe, but that's the point.\n\n\"Nonnas,\" a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for \"suggestive material, language and thematic elements.\" Running time: 111 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ce68bd35f9ef834c2eac966a6325ec7e621316459fd5ef301a0967a7dbbfe473", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Cannes readies for 78th edition with new challenges on the horizon\n\nBy Jake Coyle  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:06 AM\n\n---\n\nNowhere is the border-crossing nature of cinema more evident than the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off Tuesday in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to enact tariffs on international films.\n\nCannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme d'Or, to give out at the end. Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.\n\n\"You release a film into that Colosseum-like situation,\" says Brazilian director Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho, who's returning to Cannes with \"The Secret Agent,\" a thriller set during Brazil's dictatorship. \"You've got to really prepare for the whole experience because it's quite intense \u2014 not very far from the feeling of approaching a roller coaster as you go up the steps at the Palais.\"\n\nPerhaps as much as ever, all eyes in the movie world will be on the 78th Cannes Film Festival when it gets underway this week. That's not just because of the long list of anticipated films set to premiere at the Cote d'Azur festival (including films from Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Lynne Ramsay, Richard Linklater and Ari Aster) and the extensive coterie of stars set to walk the fabled red carpet (Jennifer Lawrence, Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart among them).\n\nAs the movies, and the Oscar race, have grown more international, the global launchpad of Cannes has become only more central to the larger film ecosystem \u2014 even with the ongoing absence of Netflix. Recent editions of Cannes have produced a string of Academy Awards contenders, including this year's best-picture winner, \"Anora.\"\n\nAt the same time, geopolitics course through Cannes unlike any other festival. The Cannes red carpet can be as much a platform for political protest as it is for glamour. This year's festival will include a dissident Iranian filmmaker (Jafar Panahi), a Ukrainian filmmaker (Sergei Loznitsa) and the first Nigerian production in the official selection (Akinola Davies Jr.'s \"My Father's Shadow\").\n\n## The many roads to Cannes\n\nIn the run-up to the festival, three filmmakers from different corners of the world spoke about their roads to the Cannes competition lineup. For many directors, reaching the Cannes competition \u2014 this year, that's 22 movies vying for the Palme d'Or \u2014 is career milestone.\n\n\"It's meaningful for me. It's meaningful for the country,\" says Oliver Hermanus, speaking from outside Cape Town. Hermanus, the South African filmmaker of \"Moffie\" and \"Living,\" is in competition for the first time with \"The History of Sound,\" a period love story starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor.\n\n\"I was born here and made movies here for most of my career, so I still see myself as a South African filmmaker who's interested in the South African perspective on things and South African representation,\" adds Hermanus. \"The competition is something I've always wanted to be part of.\"\n\nChie Hayakawa, the Japanese filmmaker of 2022's \"Plan 75,\" is also in competition for the first time. She first came to Cannes with a student film that she never expected to make it into the festival's shorts program. This week, she'll debut \"Renoir,\" a semiautobiographical tale about an 11-year-old girl with a father who has terminal cancer.\n\n\"It gives me a huge encouragement and keeps me motivated to making films,\" Hayakawa said from Tokyo. \"I don't feel like I'm going to compete with other films. But it meaningful. I know how prestigious and meaningful it is to be in competition.\"\n\n\"Film is global and easily crosses the borders of any country or culture,\" she adds. \"That's what special about Cannes.\"\n\n## Will tariffs topple Cannes?\n\nCannes' global approach is part of what makes this year more complicated than usual. Trump sent shock waves through Hollywood and the international film community when he announced on May 4 that all movies \"produced in Foreign Lands\" will face 100% tariffs.\n\nThe White House has said no final decisions have been made. Options being explored include federal incentives for U.S.-based productions, rather than tariffs. But the announcement was a reminder of how international tensions can destabilize even the oldest cultural institutions.\n\nFilho first attended Cannes as a critic. Once he began making movies, the allure of the festival remained. To him, participating in Cannes means joining a timeline of cinema history. \"The Secret Agent\" marks his third time in competition.\n\n\"I have always felt that there was a seriousness that I appreciated,\" Filho says. \"For example, I will be attending a 2 a.m. test for sound and picture. This is done with scientist types who will take care of the projection and how everything will go.\"\n\nAs to the threat of tariffs? He shrugs.\n\n\"I have been trained by Brazil, because we had a very strange and weird historic moment under (former president Jair) Bolsonaro,\" Filho said. \"I used my training to say: This is probably some bad idea or misunderstanding that will be corrected in the coming days or weeks. Even for leaders like them, Bolsonaro and Trump, it makes no sense whatsoever.\"\n\n## 'Everything to lose, everything to gain'\n\nThe Cannes Film Festival originally emerged in the World War II years, when the rise of fascism in Italy led to the founding of an alternative to the then-government controlled Venice Film Festival. In the time since, Cannes' resolute commitment to cinema has made it a beacon to filmmakers. Countless directors have come to make their name.\n\nThis year is no different, though some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known. Stewart (\"The Chronology of Water\"), Scarlett Johansson (\"Eleanor the Great\") and Harris Dickinson (\"Urchin\") will all be unveiling their feature directorial debuts in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar section.\n\nMany Cannes veterans will be back, too, including Tom Cruise (\"Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning\"), Robert De Niro (who's to receive an honorary Palme d'Or 49 years after \"Taxi Driver\" premiered in Cannes) and Quentin Tarantino (to pay tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman).\n\nHermanus first came to Cannes with his 2011 film \"Beauty.\" He went naively optimistic before realizing, he laughs, that a Cannes selection is \"a potential invitation to a beheading.\n\n\"Even going now with 'The History of Sound,' I'm trying to be realistic about the fact that it's a gladiatorial arena. It's everything to lose and everything to gain,\" says Hermanus. \"When Cannes selected us, it came down to me and Paul going, 'Oh God, here comes the real stress. Will we survive the intensity of Cannes?' \u2014 which we both agreed is the reason to go.\"\n\n___\n\nFor more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival,"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Cannes readies for 78th edition with new challenges on the horizon\n\nBy Jake Coyle  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:06 AM\n\n---\n\nNowhere is the border-crossing nature of cinema more evident than the Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off Tuesday in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's vow to enact tariffs on international films.\n\nCannes, where filmmakers, sales agents and journalists gather from around the world, is the Olympics of the big screen, with its own golden prize, the Palme d'Or, to give out at the end. Filmmakers come from nearly every corner of the globe to showcase their films while dealmakers work through the night to sell finished films or packaged productions to various territories.\n\n\"You release a film into that Colosseum-like situation,\" says Brazilian director Kleber Mendon\u00e7a Filho, who's returning to Cannes with \"The Secret Agent,\" a thriller set during Brazil's dictatorship. \"You've got to really prepare for the whole experience because it's quite intense \u2014 not very far from the feeling of approaching a roller coaster as you go up the steps at the Palais.\"\n\nPerhaps as much as ever, all eyes in the movie world will be on the 78th Cannes Film Festival when it gets underway this week. That's not just because of the long list of anticipated films set to premiere at the Cote d'Azur festival (including films from Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Lynne Ramsay, Richard Linklater and Ari Aster) and the extensive coterie of stars set to walk the fabled red carpet (Jennifer Lawrence, Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart among them).\n\nAs the movies, and the Oscar race, have grown more international, the global launchpad of Cannes has become only more central to the larger film ecosystem \u2014 even with the ongoing absence of Netflix. Recent editions of Cannes have produced a string of Academy Awards contenders, including this year's best-picture winner, \"Anora.\"\n\nAt the same time, geopolitics course through Cannes unlike any other festival. The Cannes red carpet can be as much a platform for political protest as it is for glamour. This year's festival will include a dissident Iranian filmmaker (Jafar Panahi), a Ukrainian filmmaker (Sergei Loznitsa) and the first Nigerian production in the official selection (Akinola Davies Jr.'s \"My Father's Shadow\").\n\n## The many roads to Cannes\n\nIn the run-up to the festival, three filmmakers from different corners of the world spoke about their roads to the Cannes competition lineup. For many directors, reaching the Cannes competition \u2014 this year, that's 22 movies vying for the Palme d'Or \u2014 is career milestone.\n\n\"It's meaningful for me. It's meaningful for the country,\" says Oliver Hermanus, speaking from outside Cape Town. Hermanus, the South African filmmaker of \"Moffie\" and \"Living,\" is in competition for the first time with \"The History of Sound,\" a period love story starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor.\n\n\"I was born here and made movies here for most of my career, so I still see myself as a South African filmmaker who's interested in the South African perspective on things and South African representation,\" adds Hermanus. \"The competition is something I've always wanted to be part of.\"\n\nChie Hayakawa, the Japanese filmmaker of 2022's \"Plan 75,\" is also in competition for the first time. She first came to Cannes with a student film that she never expected to make it into the festival's shorts program. This week, she'll debut \"Renoir,\" a semiautobiographical tale about an 11-year-old girl with a father who has terminal cancer.\n\n\"It gives me a huge encouragement and keeps me motivated to making films,\" Hayakawa said from Tokyo. \"I don't feel like I'm going to compete with other films. But it meaningful. I know how prestigious and meaningful it is to be in competition.\"\n\n\"Film is global and easily crosses the borders of any country or culture,\" she adds. \"That's what special about Cannes.\"\n\n## Will tariffs topple Cannes?\n\nCannes' global approach is part of what makes this year more complicated than usual. Trump sent shock waves through Hollywood and the international film community when he announced on May 4 that all movies \"produced in Foreign Lands\" will face 100% tariffs.\n\nThe White House has said no final decisions have been made. Options being explored include federal incentives for U.S.-based productions, rather than tariffs. But the announcement was a reminder of how international tensions can destabilize even the oldest cultural institutions.\n\nFilho first attended Cannes as a critic. Once he began making movies, the allure of the festival remained. To him, participating in Cannes means joining a timeline of cinema history. \"The Secret Agent\" marks his third time in competition.\n\n\"I have always felt that there was a seriousness that I appreciated,\" Filho says. \"For example, I will be attending a 2 a.m. test for sound and picture. This is done with scientist types who will take care of the projection and how everything will go.\"\n\nAs to the threat of tariffs? He shrugs.\n\n\"I have been trained by Brazil, because we had a very strange and weird historic moment under (former president Jair) Bolsonaro,\" Filho said. \"I used my training to say: This is probably some bad idea or misunderstanding that will be corrected in the coming days or weeks. Even for leaders like them, Bolsonaro and Trump, it makes no sense whatsoever.\"\n\n## 'Everything to lose, everything to gain'\n\nThe Cannes Film Festival originally emerged in the World War II years, when the rise of fascism in Italy led to the founding of an alternative to the then-government controlled Venice Film Festival. In the time since, Cannes' resolute commitment to cinema has made it a beacon to filmmakers. Countless directors have come to make their name.\n\nThis year is no different, though some of the first-time filmmakers at Cannes are already particularly well-known. Stewart (\"The Chronology of Water\"), Scarlett Johansson (\"Eleanor the Great\") and Harris Dickinson (\"Urchin\") will all be unveiling their feature directorial debuts in Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar section.\n\nMany Cannes veterans will be back, too, including Tom Cruise (\"Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning\"), Robert De Niro (who's to receive an honorary Palme d'Or 49 years after \"Taxi Driver\" premiered in Cannes) and Quentin Tarantino (to pay tribute to low-budget Western director George Sherman).\n\nHermanus first came to Cannes with his 2011 film \"Beauty.\" He went naively optimistic before realizing, he laughs, that a Cannes selection is \"a potential invitation to a beheading.\n\n\"Even going now with 'The History of Sound,' I'm trying to be realistic about the fact that it's a gladiatorial arena. It's everything to lose and everything to gain,\" says Hermanus. \"When Cannes selected us, it came down to me and Paul going, 'Oh God, here comes the real stress. Will we survive the intensity of Cannes?' \u2014 which we both agreed is the reason to go.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "9a6b33d13e1d1b081866dc2f1d45cc682e25c71293f6e670cbcf952b0a700dc1", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 'Buena Vista Social Club,' 'Death Becomes Her' and 'Maybe Happy Ending' lead Tony Award nominations\n\nBy Mark Kennedy  \nMay 1st, 2025, 04:01 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Three Broadway shows \u2014 \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" \"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Maybe Happy Ending\" \u2014 each earned a leading 10 Tony Award nominations Thursday, as nominators spread out the joy and gave nods to George Clooney,Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk in their debuts.\n\nTwenty-nine shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, even long-closed shows like \"A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical\" and \"Swept Away.\"\n\nJames Monroe Iglehart, who played Armstrong in his musical, wasn't expecting the nomination and woke to his phone blowing up. \"I was like, 'What's going on? Is everything OK?' And then I was, 'OK! How cool is that?\" he said. \"I'm just really excited to be a part of this crop of amazing performers.\"\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club,\" which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders' 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" will face off for best musical crown with \"Death Becomes Her,\" based on the 1992 cult classic film of the same name about frenemeies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion.\n\nThe category also includes \"Maybe Happy Ending,\" a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackles with humanity and \" Dead Outlaw,\" a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed at carnivals and sideshows for decades.\n\nA second show with a corpse, the British import \"Operation Mincemeat,\" also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily.\n\n\"What I think is so cool about this year is that the shows are so widely different and I love that for Broadway,\" says Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer and first-time director of \"Death Becomes Her,\" who earned nods for both jobs.\n\n\"We have chamber pieces and really small intimate shows and these wildly funny black box shows, and so, I love that it's been such a great scope of a year. I love that we get to add to that mix.\"\n\n\"Dead Outlaw\" \u2014 conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna \u2014 reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on the Tony-winning \"The Band's Visit.\" Yazbek said Thursday that the team learned a lesson with that show that they applied to \"Dead Outlaw.\"\n\n\"If you make the thing you want to make and make it true to itself and leave the rest of it up to the fates, then you might actually get the reception that you want. And so we sort of stuck to that approach,\" he said.\n\n## Best play category\n\nIn the best play category, \"English,\" Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. As did \"The Hills of California,\" Jez Butterworth's look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England.\n\nThey'll compete with \"John Proctor Is the Villain,\" Kimberly Belflower's examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to \"The Crucible,\" and \"Purpose,\" Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within.\n\nThe category is completed with \"Oh, Mary!,\" an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centered on Mary Todd Lincoln, portrayed as a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her.\n\nJacobs-Jenkins, whose \"Appropriate,\" won best play revival last year, said Thursday morning that his category was filled with plays that started regionally or off-Broadway, showing the art's strength.\n\n\"I hope people kind of see the diversity of what's happening in terms of writing for the American stages right now. It's really an amazing time,\" he said. \"I think that's just the testament to how fruitful the form is.\"\n\n## Acting nods and some missing\n\nAudra McDonald, as expected, heard her name called for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of \"Gypsy,\" a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Patti LuPone. McDonald, already a holder for the most Tonys by a performer \u2014 with six \u2014 now vies for a seventh.\n\nShe will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in \"Sunset Blvd.,\" Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in \"Death Becomes Her,\" and Jasmine Amy Rogers from \"Boop! The Musical,\" which follows the Depression-era cartoon character as she goes on a journey of transformation.\n\nMcDonald credits the late Broadway star Gavin Creel for suggesting she lead \"Gypsy\" some eight years ago during a dinner party at her house. It wasn't on her radar, and she didn't think a Black-led \"Gypsy\" would fly. Creel insisted. He died the first day of \"Gypsy\" rehearsals. \"We have another reason to thank him,\" she said.\n\nClooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film \"Good Night, and Good Luck.\" Another hot ticket \u2014 a revival of David Mamet's \"Glengarry Glen Ross\" earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr. (The snub derails Culkin possibly winning an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony in less than 18 months.)\n\nSnook, Culkin's \"Succession\" co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\" and \"Stranger Things\" star Sadie Sink earned one for leading \"John Proctor is the Villain.\" \"Stranger Things: The First Shadow,\" an effects-driven prequel to her old Netflix hit show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney.\n\nThe news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their \"Romeo + Juliet\" pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr., who also made his Broadway debut in the play \"McNeal,\" also wasn't recognized. Mia Farrow earned a nomination for \"The Roommate\" but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not.\n\nAnd, in a shock, an edgy \"Othello\" with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that producers are charging north of $900 for orchestra seats, got not a single nomination. Idina Menzel's return to Broadway in \"Redwood,\" a contemporary fable about trees, grief and the quest for healing, also got no nominations, nor did \"The Last Five Years,\" with Nick Jonas and Tony-winner Adrienne Warren\n\nThornton Wilder's \"Our Town,\" starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. Elton John's musical about 1980s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and the Stephen Sondheim revue starring Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga both came up blank.\n\nThe Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by \"Wicked\" star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 'Buena Vista Social Club,' 'Death Becomes Her' and 'Maybe Happy Ending' lead Tony Award nominations\n\nBy Mark Kennedy  \nMay 1st, 2025, 04:01 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Three Broadway shows \u2014 \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" \"Death Becomes Her\" and \"Maybe Happy Ending\" \u2014 each earned a leading 10 Tony Award nominations Thursday, as nominators spread out the joy and gave nods to George Clooney,Sarah Snook and Bob Odenkirk in their debuts.\n\nTwenty-nine shows got at least one nomination across the 26 Tony categories, even long-closed shows like \"A Wonderful World: The Louis Armstrong Musical\" and \"Swept Away.\"\n\nJames Monroe Iglehart, who played Armstrong in his musical, wasn't expecting the nomination and woke to his phone blowing up. \"I was like, 'What's going on? Is everything OK?' And then I was, 'OK! How cool is that?\" he said. \"I'm just really excited to be a part of this crop of amazing performers.\"\n\n\"Buena Vista Social Club,\" which takes its inspiration from Wim Wenders' 1999 Oscar-nominated documentary on the making of the album \"Buena Vista Social Club,\" will face off for best musical crown with \"Death Becomes Her,\" based on the 1992 cult classic film of the same name about frenemeies who seek a magic eternal youth and beauty potion.\n\nThe category also includes \"Maybe Happy Ending,\" a rom-com musical about a pair of androids that crackles with humanity and \" Dead Outlaw,\" a musical about a real life alcoholic drifter who was shot dead in 1911 and whose afterlife proved to be stranger than fiction as he was displayed at carnivals and sideshows for decades.\n\nA second show with a corpse, the British import \"Operation Mincemeat,\" also made it, the improbably true story about a British deception operation designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the location of the Allied landing at Sicily.\n\n\"What I think is so cool about this year is that the shows are so widely different and I love that for Broadway,\" says Christopher Gattelli, the choreographer and first-time director of \"Death Becomes Her,\" who earned nods for both jobs.\n\n\"We have chamber pieces and really small intimate shows and these wildly funny black box shows, and so, I love that it's been such a great scope of a year. I love that we get to add to that mix.\"\n\n\"Dead Outlaw\" \u2014 conceived by David Yazbek, who wrote the music and lyrics with Erik Della Penna \u2014 reunites Yazbek with book writer Itamar Moses and the director David Cromer, who collaborated so winningly on the Tony-winning \"The Band's Visit.\" Yazbek said Thursday that the team learned a lesson with that show that they applied to \"Dead Outlaw.\"\n\n\"If you make the thing you want to make and make it true to itself and leave the rest of it up to the fates, then you might actually get the reception that you want. And so we sort of stuck to that approach,\" he said.\n\n## Best play category\n\nIn the best play category, \"English,\" Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sanaz Toossi's look at four Iranian students preparing for an English language exam, made the cut. As did \"The Hills of California,\" Jez Butterworth's look at a family gathering for the impending death of its matriarch set in a hotel in the summer of 1976 in England.\n\nThey'll compete with \"John Proctor Is the Villain,\" Kimberly Belflower's examination of girlhood, feminism, the #MeToo movement and a compelling rebuttal to \"The Crucible,\" and \"Purpose,\" Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' drawing-room drama about an accomplished Black family destroying itself from within.\n\nThe category is completed with \"Oh, Mary!,\" an irreverent, raunchy, gleefully deranged revisionist history by Cole Escola centered on Mary Todd Lincoln, portrayed as a boozy, narcissistic, potty-mouthed first lady determined to strike out of the subordinate role into which history has placed her.\n\nJacobs-Jenkins, whose \"Appropriate,\" won best play revival last year, said Thursday morning that his category was filled with plays that started regionally or off-Broadway, showing the art's strength.\n\n\"I hope people kind of see the diversity of what's happening in terms of writing for the American stages right now. It's really an amazing time,\" he said. \"I think that's just the testament to how fruitful the form is.\"\n\n## Acting nods and some missing\n\nAudra McDonald, as expected, heard her name called for her turn as Rose in a hailed revival of \"Gypsy,\" a role that led to previous Tonys for the likes of Angela Lansbury, Tyne Daly and Patti LuPone. McDonald, already a holder for the most Tonys by a performer \u2014 with six \u2014 now vies for a seventh.\n\nShe will face off against Nicole Scherzinger in \"Sunset Blvd.,\" Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in \"Death Becomes Her,\" and Jasmine Amy Rogers from \"Boop! The Musical,\" which follows the Depression-era cartoon character as she goes on a journey of transformation.\n\nMcDonald credits the late Broadway star Gavin Creel for suggesting she lead \"Gypsy\" some eight years ago during a dinner party at her house. It wasn't on her radar, and she didn't think a Black-led \"Gypsy\" would fly. Creel insisted. He died the first day of \"Gypsy\" rehearsals. \"We have another reason to thank him,\" she said.\n\nClooney got a nod as a leading actor in a play for his retelling the story of legendary reporter Edward R. Murrow in an adaptation of his 2005 film \"Good Night, and Good Luck.\" Another hot ticket \u2014 a revival of David Mamet's \"Glengarry Glen Ross\" earned Odenkirk a nod, but not for his co-stars Kieran Culkin or comedian Bill Burr. (The snub derails Culkin possibly winning an Oscar, an Emmy and a Tony in less than 18 months.)\n\nSnook, Culkin's \"Succession\" co-star, earned a nomination for playing all 26 parts in \"The Picture of Dorian Gray\" and \"Stranger Things\" star Sadie Sink earned one for leading \"John Proctor is the Villain.\" \"Stranger Things: The First Shadow,\" an effects-driven prequel to her old Netflix hit show, earned five nods, including for lead actor Louis McCartney.\n\nThe news was less good for Kit Connor and Rachel Zegler, both in their Broadway debuts. Neither got nominations for their \"Romeo + Juliet\" pitched to Generation X and millennials. Robert Downey Jr., who also made his Broadway debut in the play \"McNeal,\" also wasn't recognized. Mia Farrow earned a nomination for \"The Roommate\" but her co-star, the Broadway diva Patti LuPone, did not.\n\nAnd, in a shock, an edgy \"Othello\" with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal that producers are charging north of $900 for orchestra seats, got not a single nomination. Idina Menzel's return to Broadway in \"Redwood,\" a contemporary fable about trees, grief and the quest for healing, also got no nominations, nor did \"The Last Five Years,\" with Nick Jonas and Tony-winner Adrienne Warren\n\nThornton Wilder's \"Our Town,\" starring Jim Parsons and Katie Holmes, earned a best play revival Tony nomination, but nothing for its actors. Elton John's musical about 1980s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker and the Stephen Sondheim revue starring Tony Award-winners Bernadette Peters and Lea Salonga both came up blank.\n\nThe Tony Awards will be handed out June 8 at Radio City Music Hall during a telecast hosted by \"Wicked\" star and Tony winner Cynthia Erivo."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "2e3704f0a4dd5f06f8fea46ae184d454c0dc5b340eae1ce24b1c2d9c5aea5506", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 'Thunderbolts' and 'Sinners' top box office charts once more\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:07 PM\n\n---\n\nMarvel's \"Thunderbolts\" and Ryan Coogler's \"Sinners\" dominated the North American box office charts again this weekend.\n\nNow in their second and fourth weekends respectively, the two films had some new competition, including a horror movie, a Kerry Washington action pic, a Josh Hartnett airplane thriller, and a Shakespeare-inspired musical. None of the additions made a significant impact.\n\n\"Thunderbolts\" took first place, with $33.1 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. That's down 55% from its opening. Internationally, it added $34 million, bringing its global total to $272.2 million. In just two weekends, the Walt Disney Co. release is already the fourth biggest of the year, globally and domestically.\n\nThe movie is also faring better than the previous Marvel movie, \"Captain America: Brave New World,\" which took a big 68% dive in its second weekend. The key difference was reviews, which don't always dictate the fate of superhero movies, but good word of mouth has helped \"Thunderbolts.\"\n\n\"The holding power of this film harkens back to the heyday of Marvel,\" said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. \"The currency of the long-term playability is more important than the sheer opening weekends.\"\n\nThe studio also has another big movie coming later this summer in \"The Fantastic Four: First Steps.\"\n\n\"Sinners,\" meanwhile, crossed the $200 million mark in North American ticket sales this weekend, which is especially notable for an original R-rated movie. It added $21.1 million domestically, and $6.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $283.3 million. Next weekend, it's also returning to 70mm IMAX screens \"by popular demand,\" IMAX said.\n\nWarner Bros.' other juggernaut, \"A Minecraft Movie,\" has made $409 million domestically and $909.6 million globally in its six weekends in theaters. It added just under $8 million to take third place this weekend, followed by \"The Accountant 2\" in fourth with $6.1 million.\n\nSeveral new movies also opened in wide release this weekend, but none seemed to break through the noise. The biggest of the bunch was \"Clown in a Cornfield,\" which earned $3.7 million (a relative high water mark for its distributor IFC) and cracked the top five.\n\n\"The second weekend in May, there is typically a bit of a lull,\" Dergarabedian said. \"IFC picked a perfect date for this clown to scare people into the theater.\"\n\n\"Shadow Force,\" a Lionsgate action pic with Washington and Omar Sy from \"The Grey\" filmmaker Joe Carnahan, made $2 million from 2,170 screens. Vertical's \"Flight or Fight,\" starring Hartnett as a mercenary on a plane full of assassins, also debuted with an estimated $2 million from 2,153 screens.\n\nIn limited release, the Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd movie \"Friendship\" launched on six screens in New York and Los Angeles and scored the best per-screen average of the year ($75,317) with many sellouts reported. A24 plans to expand the release nationwide over Memorial Day.\n\nOverall, it was a relatively quiet weekend, but thanks to \"A Minecraft Movie,\" \"Sinners\" and \"Thunderbolts,\" the year-to-date box office is up around 16% from last year, according to Comscore data. Compared with 2019, however, it's down over 32%.\n\nNext week, \"Final Destination: Bloodlines\" should give the marketplace another jolt before two giants debut over the holiday weekend: \"Lilo & Stitch\" and \"Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning.\"\n\n## Top 10 movies by domestic box office\n\nWith final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:\n\n1. \"Thunderbolts,\" $33.1 million.\n\n2. \"Sinners,\" $21.1 million.\n\n3. \"A Minecraft Movie,\" $8 million.\n\n4. \"The Accountant 2,\" $6.1 million.\n\n5. \"Clown in a Cornfield,\" $3.7 million.\n\n6. \"Shadow Force,\" $2 million.\n\n7. \"Fight or Flight,\" $2 million.\n\n8. \"Until Dawn,\" $2 million.\n\n9. \"The Amateur,\" $1.1 million.\n\n10. \"The King of Kings,\" $680,656."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 'Thunderbolts' and 'Sinners' top box office charts once more\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 11th, 2025, 04:07 PM\n\n---\n\nMarvel's \"Thunderbolts\" and Ryan Coogler's \"Sinners\" dominated the North American box office charts again this weekend.\n\nNow in their second and fourth weekends respectively, the two films had some new competition, including a horror movie, a Kerry Washington action pic, a Josh Hartnett airplane thriller, and a Shakespeare-inspired musical. None of the additions made a significant impact.\n\n\"Thunderbolts\" took first place, with $33.1 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday. That's down 55% from its opening. Internationally, it added $34 million, bringing its global total to $272.2 million. In just two weekends, the Walt Disney Co. release is already the fourth biggest of the year, globally and domestically.\n\nThe movie is also faring better than the previous Marvel movie, \"Captain America: Brave New World,\" which took a big 68% dive in its second weekend. The key difference was reviews, which don't always dictate the fate of superhero movies, but good word of mouth has helped \"Thunderbolts.\"\n\n\"The holding power of this film harkens back to the heyday of Marvel,\" said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. \"The currency of the long-term playability is more important than the sheer opening weekends.\"\n\nThe studio also has another big movie coming later this summer in \"The Fantastic Four: First Steps.\"\n\n\"Sinners,\" meanwhile, crossed the $200 million mark in North American ticket sales this weekend, which is especially notable for an original R-rated movie. It added $21.1 million domestically, and $6.6 million internationally, bringing its global total to $283.3 million. Next weekend, it's also returning to 70mm IMAX screens \"by popular demand,\" IMAX said.\n\nWarner Bros.' other juggernaut, \"A Minecraft Movie,\" has made $409 million domestically and $909.6 million globally in its six weekends in theaters. It added just under $8 million to take third place this weekend, followed by \"The Accountant 2\" in fourth with $6.1 million.\n\nSeveral new movies also opened in wide release this weekend, but none seemed to break through the noise. The biggest of the bunch was \"Clown in a Cornfield,\" which earned $3.7 million (a relative high water mark for its distributor IFC) and cracked the top five.\n\n\"The second weekend in May, there is typically a bit of a lull,\" Dergarabedian said. \"IFC picked a perfect date for this clown to scare people into the theater.\"\n\n\"Shadow Force,\" a Lionsgate action pic with Washington and Omar Sy from \"The Grey\" filmmaker Joe Carnahan, made $2 million from 2,170 screens. Vertical's \"Flight or Fight,\" starring Hartnett as a mercenary on a plane full of assassins, also debuted with an estimated $2 million from 2,153 screens.\n\nIn limited release, the Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd movie \"Friendship\" launched on six screens in New York and Los Angeles and scored the best per-screen average of the year ($75,317) with many sellouts reported. A24 plans to expand the release nationwide over Memorial Day.\n\nOverall, it was a relatively quiet weekend, but thanks to \"A Minecraft Movie,\" \"Sinners\" and \"Thunderbolts,\" the year-to-date box office is up around 16% from last year, according to Comscore data. Compared with 2019, however, it's down over 32%.\n\nNext week, \"Final Destination: Bloodlines\" should give the marketplace another jolt before two giants debut over the holiday weekend: \"Lilo & Stitch\" and \"Mission: Impossible \u2013 The Final Reckoning.\"\n\n## Top 10 movies by domestic box office\n\nWith final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:\n\n1. \"Thunderbolts,\" $33.1 million.\n\n2. \"Sinners,\" $21.1 million.\n\n3. \"A Minecraft Movie,\" $8 million.\n\n4. \"The Accountant 2,\" $6.1 million.\n\n5. \"Clown in a Cornfield,\" $3.7 million.\n\n6. \"Shadow Force,\" $2 million.\n\n7. \"Fight or Flight,\" $2 million.\n\n8. \"Until Dawn,\" $2 million.\n\n9. \"The Amateur,\" $1.1 million.\n\n10. \"The King of Kings,\" $680,656."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "832e9ab80d3574d1ecd145b0fc9331a506697a8edf377a32245ff9a6f1c5727d", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Israel's blockade means Gaza's hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients\n\nBy Mohammed Jahjouh  \nMay 11th, 2025, 09:45 AM\n\n---\n\nKHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 It cost a fortune, she said, but Asmaa Fayez managed to buy a few zucchinis in a Gaza market. She cooked them with rice and brought it to her 4-year-old son, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The soup was his only meal of the day, and he asked for more.\n\n\"It's all finished, darling,\" Fayez replied softly. Still, it was an improvement from the canned beans and tuna she brings on other days, she said.\n\nHospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel's blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month.\n\nWith hospitals unable to provide food, families must bring whatever they can find for loved ones.\n\n\"Most, if not all, wounded patients have lost weight, especially in the past two months,\" Dr. Khaled Alserr, a general surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. Nutritional supplements for intensive care unit patients are lacking, he said.\n\n\"Our hands are tied when it comes to making the best choice for patients. Choices are limited,\" he said.\n\n## Hunger worsens as supplies dwindle\n\nMalnutrition is on the rise across Gaza, aid groups say. Thousands of children have been found with acute malnutrition in the past month, but adults as well are not getting proper nutrients, according to the U.N. It estimates that 16,000 pregnant women and new mothers this year face acute malnutrition.\n\nSince Israel's blockade began on March 2, food sources have been drying up. Aid groups have stopped food distribution. Bakeries have closed. Charity kitchens handing out bowls of pasta or lentils remain the last lifeline for most of the population, but they are rapidly closing for lack of supplies, the U.N. says.\n\nMarkets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising. Local production of vegetables has plummeted because Israeli forces have damaged 80% of Gaza's farmlands, the U.N. says, and much of the rest is inaccessible inside newly declared military zones.\n\nFayez's son, Ali al-Dbary, was admitted to Nasser Hospital because of a blocked intestine, suffering from severe cramps and unable to use the bathroom. Fayez believes it's because he has been eating little but canned goods. She splurged on the zucchini, which now costs around $10 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Before the war it was less than a dollar.\n\nDoctors said the hospital doesn't have a functioning scanner to diagnose her son and decide whether he needs surgery.\n\nIsrael says it imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm.\n\nHamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.\n\n## Concern over Israeli plans to control aid\n\nIsraeli officials have asserted that enough food entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Rights groups have disputed that and called the blockade a \"starvation tactic\" and a potential war crime.\n\nNow Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, using private contractors to distribute supplies. The U.N. and aid groups have rejected the idea, saying it could restrict who is eligible to give and receive aid and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move \u2014 which would violate international law.\n\nThose under care at hospitals, and their families who scrounge to feed them, would face further challenges under Israel's proposal. Moving to reach aid could be out of the question.\n\nAnother patient at Nasser Hospital, 19-year-old Asmaa Faraj, had shrapnel in her chest from an airstrike that hit close to her tent and a nearby charity kitchen in camps for displaced people outside Khan Younis.\n\nWhen the AP visited, the only food she had was a small bag of dates, a date cookie and some water bottles. Her sister brought her some pickles.\n\n\"People used to bring fruits as a gift when they visited sick people in hospitals,\" said the sister, Salwa Faraj. \"Today, we have bottles of water.\"\n\nShe said her sister needs protein, fruits and vegetables but none are available.\n\nMohammed al-Bursh managed to find a few cans of tuna and beans to bring for his 30-year-old son, Sobhi, who was wounded in an airstrike three months ago. Sobhi's left foot was amputated, and he has two shattered vertebrae in his neck.\n\nAl-Bursh gently gave his son spoonfuls of beans as he lay still in the hospital bed, a brace on his neck.\n\n\"Everything is expensive,\" Sobhi al-Bursh said, gritting with pain that he says is constant. He said he limits what he eats to help save his father money.\n\nHe believes that his body needs meat to heal. \"It has been three months, and nothing heals,\" he said.\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Israel's blockade means Gaza's hospitals cannot provide food to recovering patients\n\nBy Mohammed Jahjouh  \nMay 11th, 2025, 09:45 AM\n\n---\n\nKHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) \u2014 It cost a fortune, she said, but Asmaa Fayez managed to buy a few zucchinis in a Gaza market. She cooked them with rice and brought it to her 4-year-old son, who has been in the hospital for the past week. The soup was his only meal of the day, and he asked for more.\n\n\"It's all finished, darling,\" Fayez replied softly. Still, it was an improvement from the canned beans and tuna she brings on other days, she said.\n\nHospital patients are among the most vulnerable as Palestinians across Gaza struggle to feed themselves, with Israel's blockade on food and other supplies entering the territory now in its third month.\n\nWith hospitals unable to provide food, families must bring whatever they can find for loved ones.\n\n\"Most, if not all, wounded patients have lost weight, especially in the past two months,\" Dr. Khaled Alserr, a general surgeon at Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, told The Associated Press. Nutritional supplements for intensive care unit patients are lacking, he said.\n\n\"Our hands are tied when it comes to making the best choice for patients. Choices are limited,\" he said.\n\n## Hunger worsens as supplies dwindle\n\nMalnutrition is on the rise across Gaza, aid groups say. Thousands of children have been found with acute malnutrition in the past month, but adults as well are not getting proper nutrients, according to the U.N. It estimates that 16,000 pregnant women and new mothers this year face acute malnutrition.\n\nSince Israel's blockade began on March 2, food sources have been drying up. Aid groups have stopped food distribution. Bakeries have closed. Charity kitchens handing out bowls of pasta or lentils remain the last lifeline for most of the population, but they are rapidly closing for lack of supplies, the U.N. says.\n\nMarkets are empty of almost everything but canned goods and small amounts of vegetables, and prices have been rising. Local production of vegetables has plummeted because Israeli forces have damaged 80% of Gaza's farmlands, the U.N. says, and much of the rest is inaccessible inside newly declared military zones.\n\nFayez's son, Ali al-Dbary, was admitted to Nasser Hospital because of a blocked intestine, suffering from severe cramps and unable to use the bathroom. Fayez believes it's because he has been eating little but canned goods. She splurged on the zucchini, which now costs around $10 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Before the war it was less than a dollar.\n\nDoctors said the hospital doesn't have a functioning scanner to diagnose her son and decide whether he needs surgery.\n\nIsrael says it imposed the blockade and resumed its military campaign in March to pressure Hamas to release its remaining hostages and disarm.\n\nHamas ignited the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostage, most of whom have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's offensive has killed over 52,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants.\n\n## Concern over Israeli plans to control aid\n\nIsraeli officials have asserted that enough food entered Gaza during a two-month ceasefire earlier this year. Rights groups have disputed that and called the blockade a \"starvation tactic\" and a potential war crime.\n\nNow Israeli plans to control aid distribution in Gaza, using private contractors to distribute supplies. The U.N. and aid groups have rejected the idea, saying it could restrict who is eligible to give and receive aid and could force large numbers of Palestinians to move \u2014 which would violate international law.\n\nThose under care at hospitals, and their families who scrounge to feed them, would face further challenges under Israel's proposal. Moving to reach aid could be out of the question.\n\nAnother patient at Nasser Hospital, 19-year-old Asmaa Faraj, had shrapnel in her chest from an airstrike that hit close to her tent and a nearby charity kitchen in camps for displaced people outside Khan Younis.\n\nWhen the AP visited, the only food she had was a small bag of dates, a date cookie and some water bottles. Her sister brought her some pickles.\n\n\"People used to bring fruits as a gift when they visited sick people in hospitals,\" said the sister, Salwa Faraj. \"Today, we have bottles of water.\"\n\nShe said her sister needs protein, fruits and vegetables but none are available.\n\nMohammed al-Bursh managed to find a few cans of tuna and beans to bring for his 30-year-old son, Sobhi, who was wounded in an airstrike three months ago. Sobhi's left foot was amputated, and he has two shattered vertebrae in his neck.\n\nAl-Bursh gently gave his son spoonfuls of beans as he lay still in the hospital bed, a brace on his neck.\n\n\"Everything is expensive,\" Sobhi al-Bursh said, gritting with pain that he says is constant. He said he limits what he eats to help save his father money.\n\nHe believes that his body needs meat to heal. \"It has been three months, and nothing heals,\" he said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "36c1e4aec83a845715644bf14818f986ce719f8e3488b63bc655519f1c1c468d", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Several dozen people in Mali hold a rare protest against the army after massacre allegations\n\nBy Baba Ahmed  \nMay 15th, 2025, 11:16 AM\n\n---\n\nBAMAKO, Mali (AP) \u2014 Several dozen people, notably women and children, have demonstrated in the central Malian village of Diafarab\u00e9 following allegations that the Malian army killed more than 20 people.\n\nThe protest happened on Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.\n\n\"The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday,\" said Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuward\u00e9.\n\n\"The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrab\u00e9 market to sell their animals,\" Diallo told The Associated Press on Thursday. \"The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others,\"\n\nDiafarab\u00e9, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.\n\nThe army said it has launched an inquiry.\n\n\"An investigation has been opened following these allegations, and we are waiting for its conclusion to determine what happened,\" Malian army spokesman Col. Maj. Souleymane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 said Thursday.\n\nLast December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.\n\nHuman rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country's security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Ke\u00efta to stage a coup and seize power.\n\nMali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Several dozen people in Mali hold a rare protest against the army after massacre allegations\n\nBy Baba Ahmed  \nMay 15th, 2025, 11:16 AM\n\n---\n\nBAMAKO, Mali (AP) \u2014 Several dozen people, notably women and children, have demonstrated in the central Malian village of Diafarab\u00e9 following allegations that the Malian army killed more than 20 people.\n\nThe protest happened on Wednesday, two days after the alleged massacre. Although allegations of Malian army killings are frequent in this part of West Africa, demonstrations have been rare since military rule and restrictions on freedom of expression were installed in Mali.\n\n\"The women are demonstrating their anger to denounce the alleged murder of 27 people by the Malian army last Monday,\" said Diowro Diallo, president of the Fulani association Dental Wuward\u00e9.\n\n\"The army arrested 28 men who were at the Diafrab\u00e9 market to sell their animals,\" Diallo told The Associated Press on Thursday. \"The soldiers crossed the river behind the village with the prisoners, but one escaped and returned to the village to report that the army had executed the others,\"\n\nDiafarab\u00e9, a predominantly Fulani ethnic village located in central Mali, is an area where JNIM, an Al Qaida-linked group, is active and regularly targets the Malian army with attacks.\n\nThe army said it has launched an inquiry.\n\n\"An investigation has been opened following these allegations, and we are waiting for its conclusion to determine what happened,\" Malian army spokesman Col. Maj. Souleymane Demb\u00e9l\u00e9 said Thursday.\n\nLast December, Human Rights Watch published a report accusing the Malian army and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing dozens of civilians and setting fire to at least 100 houses during military operations in central and northern Mali.\n\nHuman rights associations have regularly accused the Malian army of human rights violations since the beginning of the country's security and political crisis in 2012. In 2020, a group of military officers took advantage of the widespread discontent against democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Ke\u00efta to stage a coup and seize power.\n\nMali's military government cut military cooperation with France and the European Union, which had troops in Mali as part of the fight against extremism, and forged new security ties with Russia instead. However, analysts say that the security situation has worsened."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "9ff7ef92dff6cc65f7ecf57b8288ae9becfd39d5b975f8186eb2c73938916db5", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# PinkPantheress' 'Fancy That' review: A lighthearted level up\n\nBy Kiana Doyle  \nMay 7th, 2025, 03:02 PM\n\n---\n\nFor the curious and ultra-trendy, Charli xcx's neon, vomit green party banger \"BRAT \" was more than an album; it inspired the cultural moment of \"BRAT summer.\" While internet-pop sensation PinkPantheress' style is quite different, it seems her sophomore mixtape is coming out just in time for a \"Fancy That\" season of her own.\n\nGen Z immediately flocked to 24-year-old British singer-songwriter PinkPantheress' \"Fancy That\" singles on TikTok, the platform on which she's come up significantly in the last few years, with earlier hits like the U.K. garage \"Break it Off\" and \"Boy's a Liar PT. 2,\" featuring New York rapper Ice Spice.\n\nA producer first and foremost, PinkPantheress launched with those viral songs \u2014 her sweet soprano carrying addictive choruses that resonate with the very online.\n\nAcross \"Fancy That,\" with grounded but baby-soft vocals, PinkPantheress' signature sound is reminiscent of '90s British electronic music as pulsing club beats layer over dreamy synths, melding U.K. garage with bedroom hyperpop.\n\nThe mixtape is a leveling up for a young artist indulging in the flirty fun of liking someone whom you shouldn't. That's clear from the strong opener \"Illegal,\" with its bold synths and bolder lyrics.\n\n\"My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you / You're recommended to me by some people / Hey, ouuuuu, is this illegal?\" she sings.\n\nDespite the throes of forbidden, complicated or even unrequited love, there's a lightheartedness to her new tracks, and listeners won't find a single sappy ballad across the album.\n\nIt's an on-and-off romance, as she puts her foot down in next track, the fun and layered \"Girl Like Me.\" \"I'm not a fan of the way we're moving,\" she sings. \"No explanation for why we do this.\"\n\nShe explores themes of infatuation and obsession in energetic album highlights \"Tonight\" and \"Stateside,\" pining after famous musicians and American boys. Both feature catchy and bouncy production, a simple choice but oh so danceable.\n\n\"Never met a British girl, you say? No one treats me this way / Are all boys out here the same?\" she teases in the latter.\n\nThe final dance track \"Romeo\" is a whirlwind of violins, evoking the feeling of butterflies in the stomach or racing pulses.\n\nOnly nine songs long, \"Fancy That\" is fun, uncomplicated and anything but overdone. It's a successful step forward for the rising artist."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# PinkPantheress' 'Fancy That' review: A lighthearted level up\n\nBy Kiana Doyle  \nMay 7th, 2025, 03:02 PM\n\n---\n\nFor the curious and ultra-trendy, Charli xcx's neon, vomit green party banger \"BRAT \" was more than an album; it inspired the cultural moment of \"BRAT summer.\" While internet-pop sensation PinkPantheress' style is quite different, it seems her sophomore mixtape is coming out just in time for a \"Fancy That\" season of her own.\n\nGen Z immediately flocked to 24-year-old British singer-songwriter PinkPantheress' \"Fancy That\" singles on TikTok, the platform on which she's come up significantly in the last few years, with earlier hits like the U.K. garage \"Break it Off\" and \"Boy's a Liar PT. 2,\" featuring New York rapper Ice Spice.\n\nA producer first and foremost, PinkPantheress launched with those viral songs \u2014 her sweet soprano carrying addictive choruses that resonate with the very online.\n\nAcross \"Fancy That,\" with grounded but baby-soft vocals, PinkPantheress' signature sound is reminiscent of '90s British electronic music as pulsing club beats layer over dreamy synths, melding U.K. garage with bedroom hyperpop.\n\nThe mixtape is a leveling up for a young artist indulging in the flirty fun of liking someone whom you shouldn't. That's clear from the strong opener \"Illegal,\" with its bold synths and bolder lyrics.\n\n\"My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you / You're recommended to me by some people / Hey, ouuuuu, is this illegal?\" she sings.\n\nDespite the throes of forbidden, complicated or even unrequited love, there's a lightheartedness to her new tracks, and listeners won't find a single sappy ballad across the album.\n\nIt's an on-and-off romance, as she puts her foot down in next track, the fun and layered \"Girl Like Me.\" \"I'm not a fan of the way we're moving,\" she sings. \"No explanation for why we do this.\"\n\nShe explores themes of infatuation and obsession in energetic album highlights \"Tonight\" and \"Stateside,\" pining after famous musicians and American boys. Both feature catchy and bouncy production, a simple choice but oh so danceable.\n\n\"Never met a British girl, you say? No one treats me this way / Are all boys out here the same?\" she teases in the latter.\n\nThe final dance track \"Romeo\" is a whirlwind of violins, evoking the feeling of butterflies in the stomach or racing pulses.\n\nOnly nine songs long, \"Fancy That\" is fun, uncomplicated and anything but overdone. It's a successful step forward for the rising artist."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "89cb70a7cfe5f6534227e89f0482c50b4087cf390c0e11fb1ebe3791b9d36aff", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump-backed Vivek Ramaswamy wins Ohio Republican Party's endorsement in 2026 governor's race\n\nBy Julie Carr Smyth  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:58 PM\n\n---\n\nCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) \u2014 Trump-backed biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy won the Ohio Republican Party's gubernatorial endorsement Friday, overcoming more experienced and potentially more popular rivals to land coveted institutional and monetary support nearly a year before the 2026 primary.\n\nRamaswamy, 39, former co-chair of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative, benefited from Trump's backing and from an 11th-hour post on X by Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., who urged members of the State Central Committee to back him.\n\n\"I understand that early endorsements aren't the norm, but these are not ordinary times,\" the younger Trump wrote. \"We have a country to save, and we don't have any time or money to waste.\"\n\nLara Trump, former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law to the president, opened Friday's meeting by phone. She stopped short of calling for a Ramaswamy endorsement, but reminded the committee that the GOP's motto headed into 2026 is, \"Unite, unite, unite!\"\n\nThe party's governing board held both the debate and vote for Ramaswamy behind closed doors, as objections swirled from some corners of the party that taking sides in the race was unfair, premature or both. Term-limited Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who formally heads the state party, had himself warned that the near-year until next year's primary is \"a lifetime\" in politics.\n\n## Others making a bid for governor\n\nFriday's march toward the early endorsement came even as DeWine's lieutenant governor, Jim Tressel, broke his silence late Thursday to say he is also considering a bid for governor. Tressel is a championship-winning former Ohio State Buckeyes head football coach who could play well among a sports fan base known as Buckeye Nation and the university's 600,000 living alumni. The filing deadline for the race is Feb. 4, 2026.\n\nMore immediately, the endorsement was a blow to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, 68, the fourth-term state officeholder who is Ramaswamy's best known primary rival.\n\nIn a statement, Yost's campaign manager, Emily Hottinger, congratulated Ramaswamy.\n\n\"The Attorney General is going to take a few days to consult with key supporters about the path forward,\" she said, \"but the people of Ohio deserve a choice, not a premature coronation of an untested candidate.\"\n\nDr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who helped lead Ohio through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the only announced Democrat in the race.\n\n## Ramaswamy's candidacy\n\nRamaswamy, 39, an unsuccessful 2024 presidential candidate, staged a spirited campaign launch in February, and Trump endorsed Ramaswamy the same day as \"Young, Strong, and Smart!\" He has been barnstorming the state ever since.\n\nHe said Friday that the state party endorsement puts his campaign in \"an incredibly strong\" position headed into 2026, when he said he will work to appeal to not just Republicans but all voters.\n\n\"The way we're running this campaign is really not about left versus right,\" he told reporters after the vote. \"It is about up versus down. And we in Ohio choose up.\" He said the next \"policy-rich\" phase of the campaign will feature his proposed solutions to the state's lagging population growth, a looming energy shortage and deficiencies in educational achievement.\n\nA native of Cincinnati, Ramaswamy had shown interest in the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance before, but DeWine chose then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted as Vance's successor. In a separate vote Friday, the Central Committee joined Trump in endorsing Husted in his 2026 bid to retain his seat for the remainder of Vance's unexpired term.\n\nWith decades in Ohio politics, Husted had been considered the front-runner for governor when he suddenly accepted the Senate appointment. Removing him from the gubernatorial race opened a pathway for Ramaswamy in state politics that could deter him from challenging Vance \u2014 a fellow Cincinnatian whom he has known since Yale Law School \u2014 for the presidency in 2028.\n\n## Where the other contenders stand\n\nRather than attend the party meeting, Yost had joined DeWine in attending the funeral of a retired Hamilton County sheriff's deputy struck and killed last week by the father of a teen who had been fatally shot by police a day earlier. He said in a letter to Central Committee members obtained by The Associated Press that it was a difficult decision.\n\n\"My favorite part of a trial was always the closing argument \u2014 the distillation of all the evidence, its meaning, and the application of reason and law,\" Yost wrote. \"I relish the battle. But I believe this is the right thing to do (regardless of whether it is politically wise) and have so chosen my course.\"\n\nOhio's other three statewide officeholders attended the meeting, with both Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Treasurer Robert Sprague urging the committee to endorse Ramaswamy. Auditor Keith Faber didn't mention the gubernatorial contender, instead warning against a ban on police immunity that is working its way to the statewide ballot.\n\nIn an interview, another gubernatorial candidate, Appalachian entrepreneur Heather Hill, called the endorsement decision unfair. She said the party should have remained neutral \u2014 as it often has in the past \u2014 and allowed the candidates to battle it out in the primary."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump-backed Vivek Ramaswamy wins Ohio Republican Party's endorsement in 2026 governor's race\n\nBy Julie Carr Smyth  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:58 PM\n\n---\n\nCOLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) \u2014 Trump-backed biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy won the Ohio Republican Party's gubernatorial endorsement Friday, overcoming more experienced and potentially more popular rivals to land coveted institutional and monetary support nearly a year before the 2026 primary.\n\nRamaswamy, 39, former co-chair of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency initiative, benefited from Trump's backing and from an 11th-hour post on X by Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., who urged members of the State Central Committee to back him.\n\n\"I understand that early endorsements aren't the norm, but these are not ordinary times,\" the younger Trump wrote. \"We have a country to save, and we don't have any time or money to waste.\"\n\nLara Trump, former co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law to the president, opened Friday's meeting by phone. She stopped short of calling for a Ramaswamy endorsement, but reminded the committee that the GOP's motto headed into 2026 is, \"Unite, unite, unite!\"\n\nThe party's governing board held both the debate and vote for Ramaswamy behind closed doors, as objections swirled from some corners of the party that taking sides in the race was unfair, premature or both. Term-limited Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who formally heads the state party, had himself warned that the near-year until next year's primary is \"a lifetime\" in politics.\n\n## Others making a bid for governor\n\nFriday's march toward the early endorsement came even as DeWine's lieutenant governor, Jim Tressel, broke his silence late Thursday to say he is also considering a bid for governor. Tressel is a championship-winning former Ohio State Buckeyes head football coach who could play well among a sports fan base known as Buckeye Nation and the university's 600,000 living alumni. The filing deadline for the race is Feb. 4, 2026.\n\nMore immediately, the endorsement was a blow to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, 68, the fourth-term state officeholder who is Ramaswamy's best known primary rival.\n\nIn a statement, Yost's campaign manager, Emily Hottinger, congratulated Ramaswamy.\n\n\"The Attorney General is going to take a few days to consult with key supporters about the path forward,\" she said, \"but the people of Ohio deserve a choice, not a premature coronation of an untested candidate.\"\n\nDr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who helped lead Ohio through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the only announced Democrat in the race.\n\n## Ramaswamy's candidacy\n\nRamaswamy, 39, an unsuccessful 2024 presidential candidate, staged a spirited campaign launch in February, and Trump endorsed Ramaswamy the same day as \"Young, Strong, and Smart!\" He has been barnstorming the state ever since.\n\nHe said Friday that the state party endorsement puts his campaign in \"an incredibly strong\" position headed into 2026, when he said he will work to appeal to not just Republicans but all voters.\n\n\"The way we're running this campaign is really not about left versus right,\" he told reporters after the vote. \"It is about up versus down. And we in Ohio choose up.\" He said the next \"policy-rich\" phase of the campaign will feature his proposed solutions to the state's lagging population growth, a looming energy shortage and deficiencies in educational achievement.\n\nA native of Cincinnati, Ramaswamy had shown interest in the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance before, but DeWine chose then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted as Vance's successor. In a separate vote Friday, the Central Committee joined Trump in endorsing Husted in his 2026 bid to retain his seat for the remainder of Vance's unexpired term.\n\nWith decades in Ohio politics, Husted had been considered the front-runner for governor when he suddenly accepted the Senate appointment. Removing him from the gubernatorial race opened a pathway for Ramaswamy in state politics that could deter him from challenging Vance \u2014 a fellow Cincinnatian whom he has known since Yale Law School \u2014 for the presidency in 2028.\n\n## Where the other contenders stand\n\nRather than attend the party meeting, Yost had joined DeWine in attending the funeral of a retired Hamilton County sheriff's deputy struck and killed last week by the father of a teen who had been fatally shot by police a day earlier. He said in a letter to Central Committee members obtained by The Associated Press that it was a difficult decision.\n\n\"My favorite part of a trial was always the closing argument \u2014 the distillation of all the evidence, its meaning, and the application of reason and law,\" Yost wrote. \"I relish the battle. But I believe this is the right thing to do (regardless of whether it is politically wise) and have so chosen my course.\"\n\nOhio's other three statewide officeholders attended the meeting, with both Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Treasurer Robert Sprague urging the committee to endorse Ramaswamy. Auditor Keith Faber didn't mention the gubernatorial contender, instead warning against a ban on police immunity that is working its way to the statewide ballot.\n\nIn an interview, another gubernatorial candidate, Appalachian entrepreneur Heather Hill, called the endorsement decision unfair. She said the party should have remained neutral \u2014 as it often has in the past \u2014 and allowed the candidates to battle it out in the primary."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "aabc1d212b9e02cd8e9101148c2395dada1be8c523fe639d37799ed3bbd6a5e9", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Saudi oil giant Aramco announces first-quarter profits of $26 billion, down 4.6% from a year earlier\n\nBy Gabe Levin  \nMay 11th, 2025, 06:09 AM\n\n---\n\nDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco posted first-quarter profits of $26 billion on Sunday, down 4.6% from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom's multi-trillion-dollar development plans.\n\nAramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., had revenues of $108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw $107.2 billion in revenues and profits of $27.2 billion the same quarter last year.\n\nSaudi Arabia has promised to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the course of President Donald Trump's term.\n\nTrump, who is set to touch down in Riyadh on Tuesday on his first official foreign trip since he retook the Oval Office, said in January that he wants that number to be even higher, at around $1 trillion.\n\nMeanwhile, the Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has his sights set on a $500 billion project to build Neom, a vast, futuristic city in the desert along the Red Sea. The kingdom will also need new stadiums and infrastructure costing tens of billions of dollars by 2034, when Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup.\n\nThe announcement of Aramco's first-quarter results comes as the OPEC+ alliance has ramped up oil production. The oil cartel has agreed to boost output by 411,000 barrels per day next month, as uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs has rippled through Middle Eastern markets. That means Saudi Arabia will likely need to borrow or spend reserve funds to finance the crown prince's expensive goals.\n\nAramco's stock traded at over $6 a share Sunday, down from a high of around $8 last year. It has dropped over the past year as oil prices have dipped, and in recent months.\n\n\"Global trade dynamics affected energy markets in the first quarter of 2025, with economic uncertainty impacting oil prices,\" Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement.\n\nBenchmark Brent crude traded Friday at over $63 a barrel, down from highs of over $80 in the last year.\n\nAramco has a market value of over $1.6 trillion, making it the sixth richest company behind Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon and Alphabet, the owner of Google. Analysts see the company as a trend leader for global oil markets.\n\nA fraction of Aramco trades on the Tadawul while the lion's share of the company is owned by Saudi Arabia's government, helping pay for expenditures and adding to the wealth of the country's Al Saud royal family."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Saudi oil giant Aramco announces first-quarter profits of $26 billion, down 4.6% from a year earlier\n\nBy Gabe Levin  \nMay 11th, 2025, 06:09 AM\n\n---\n\nDUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil giant Aramco posted first-quarter profits of $26 billion on Sunday, down 4.6% from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom's multi-trillion-dollar development plans.\n\nAramco, formally known as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., had revenues of $108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw $107.2 billion in revenues and profits of $27.2 billion the same quarter last year.\n\nSaudi Arabia has promised to invest $600 billion in the U.S. over the course of President Donald Trump's term.\n\nTrump, who is set to touch down in Riyadh on Tuesday on his first official foreign trip since he retook the Oval Office, said in January that he wants that number to be even higher, at around $1 trillion.\n\nMeanwhile, the Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has his sights set on a $500 billion project to build Neom, a vast, futuristic city in the desert along the Red Sea. The kingdom will also need new stadiums and infrastructure costing tens of billions of dollars by 2034, when Saudi Arabia will host the World Cup.\n\nThe announcement of Aramco's first-quarter results comes as the OPEC+ alliance has ramped up oil production. The oil cartel has agreed to boost output by 411,000 barrels per day next month, as uncertainty driven by U.S. tariffs has rippled through Middle Eastern markets. That means Saudi Arabia will likely need to borrow or spend reserve funds to finance the crown prince's expensive goals.\n\nAramco's stock traded at over $6 a share Sunday, down from a high of around $8 last year. It has dropped over the past year as oil prices have dipped, and in recent months.\n\n\"Global trade dynamics affected energy markets in the first quarter of 2025, with economic uncertainty impacting oil prices,\" Aramco President and CEO Amin H. Nasser said in a statement.\n\nBenchmark Brent crude traded Friday at over $63 a barrel, down from highs of over $80 in the last year.\n\nAramco has a market value of over $1.6 trillion, making it the sixth richest company behind Microsoft, Apple, NVIDIA, Amazon and Alphabet, the owner of Google. Analysts see the company as a trend leader for global oil markets.\n\nA fraction of Aramco trades on the Tadawul while the lion's share of the company is owned by Saudi Arabia's government, helping pay for expenditures and adding to the wealth of the country's Al Saud royal family."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "b50859bee6dddd46aeb9d8d0143784a83be29bc4fafdcbe89b8ba89e634bb7af", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Indiana executes Benjamin Ritchie for 2000 killing of a police officer\n\nBy Sophia Tareen and Ed White  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:27 AM\n\n---\n\nMICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) \u2014 An Indiana man convicted in the fatal shooting of a police officer in 2000 was executed Tuesday by lethal injection in the state's second execution in 15 years.\n\nBenjamin Ritchie, 45, had been on Indiana's death row since 2002, when he was convicted of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a chase on foot.\n\nRitchie was executed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Indiana Department of Correction officials. IDOC said in a statement that the process started shortly after midnight and Ritchie was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m.\n\nRitchie's last meal was from the Olive Garden and he expressed love, support and peace for his friends and family, according to the statement.\n\nUnder state law, he was allowed five witnesses at his execution, which included his attorney Steve Schutte, who told reporters he had a limited view of the process.\n\n\"I couldn't see his face. He was lying flat by that time,\" Schutte said. \"He sat up, twitched, laid back down.\"\n\nThe process was carried out hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case, exhausting all of Ritchie's legal options to fight the death sentence.\n\nDozens of people, both anti-death penalty advocates and supporters of Toney, stood outside the prison until early Tuesday.\n\nIndiana resumed executions in December after a yearslong hiatus due to a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide. Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber before Joseph Corcoran's execution, showing a space that looks like an operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting and an adjacent viewing room. They've since offered few other details.\n\nAmong 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bars media witnesses. The other, Wyoming, has conducted one execution in the last half-century.\n\nThe Associated Press and other media organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access, but a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction last week that would have allowed journalists to witness Ritchie's execution and future ones. The judge found that barring the news media doesn't violate the First Amendment nor does it single out the news media for unequal treatment.\n\nThe execution in Indiana was among 12 scheduled in eight states this year. Texas and Tennessee also plan to execute prisoners this week.\n\n## The 2000 fatal shooting of a police officer\n\nRitchie was 20 when he and others stole a van in Beech Grove, near Indianapolis. He then fired at Toney during a foot chase, killing him.\n\nAt the time Ritchie was on probation from a 1998 burglary conviction.\n\nToney, 31, had worked at the Beech Grove Police Department for two years. The married father of two was the first officer of the small department to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty.\n\nRelatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week in support of the execution.\n\n\"It's time. We're all tired,\" said Dee Dee Horen, who was Toney's wife. \"It is time for this chapter of my story, our story, to be closed. It's time for us to remember Bill, to remember Bill's life, and not his death.\"\n\n## Appealing a death sentence\n\nRitchie's attorneys fought the death sentence, arguing his legal counsel at trial was ineffective because his lawyers failed to fully investigate and present evidence on his fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and childhood lead exposure.\n\nCurrent defense attorneys say Ritchie suffered \"severe brain damage\" because his mother abused alcohol and drugs during pregnancy and that he struggled with decision-making. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005.\n\nDisability rights advocates argued that Ritchie's brain damage should have excluded him from the death penalty.\n\n\"This is a foolish, senseless, agonizing waste of time and money,\" said Schutte, who added that Ritchie was no longer \"the same person who committed that crime.\"\n\nAttorney General Todd Rokita said the execution honored Toney's \"sacrifice to the community.\"\n\nRepublican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie's clemency bid last week without explanation.\n\nThe Indiana Supreme Court denied a request to stop the execution. Ritchie's attorneys challenged that decision in federal court, which a judge rejected. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the lower court on Sunday.\n\nAs the sun set Monday, the Rev. Richard Holy, a Catholic priest, recited the rosary with about 20 people in the prison parking lot.\n\n\"We don't have to keep taking one life to exact justice for taking another,\" he said.\n\nDozens also showed up to honor Toney's memory.\n\n\"I support the death penalty in certain cases and this is one of them,\" said Mark Hamner, an Indianapolis-area officer.\n\n## Expressing regret and awaiting execution\n\nAttorneys said Ritchie changed during his more than two decades behind bars and had shown remorse.\n\nIn court as a young man, Ritchie smiled at Horen and laughed as the verdict was read.\n\nHe told a parole board he deeply regretted his actions, especially how he acted with Toney's widow.\n\n\"I wish I could go back to the day in court, because that man's wife deserved to say everything she needed to say to me, and that punk kid should have just kept his mouth shut and let her say whatever she needed to say,\" Ritchie said.\n\nRitchie, who was also a father, spent his last days getting visits from friends and family.\n\n\"I've ruined my life and other people's lives, and I'm so sorry for that night,\" he told the parole board earlier this month. \"You can't take back what you did.\"\n\n___\n\nTareen reported from Chicago. Associated Press writer John O'Connor contributed from Springfield, Illinois."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Indiana executes Benjamin Ritchie for 2000 killing of a police officer\n\nBy Sophia Tareen and Ed White  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:27 AM\n\n---\n\nMICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (AP) \u2014 An Indiana man convicted in the fatal shooting of a police officer in 2000 was executed Tuesday by lethal injection in the state's second execution in 15 years.\n\nBenjamin Ritchie, 45, had been on Indiana's death row since 2002, when he was convicted of killing Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney during a chase on foot.\n\nRitchie was executed at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, according to Indiana Department of Correction officials. IDOC said in a statement that the process started shortly after midnight and Ritchie was pronounced dead at 12:46 a.m.\n\nRitchie's last meal was from the Olive Garden and he expressed love, support and peace for his friends and family, according to the statement.\n\nUnder state law, he was allowed five witnesses at his execution, which included his attorney Steve Schutte, who told reporters he had a limited view of the process.\n\n\"I couldn't see his face. He was lying flat by that time,\" Schutte said. \"He sat up, twitched, laid back down.\"\n\nThe process was carried out hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take the case, exhausting all of Ritchie's legal options to fight the death sentence.\n\nDozens of people, both anti-death penalty advocates and supporters of Toney, stood outside the prison until early Tuesday.\n\nIndiana resumed executions in December after a yearslong hiatus due to a scarcity of lethal injection drugs nationwide. Prison officials provided photos of the execution chamber before Joseph Corcoran's execution, showing a space that looks like an operating room with a gurney, fluorescent lighting and an adjacent viewing room. They've since offered few other details.\n\nAmong 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bars media witnesses. The other, Wyoming, has conducted one execution in the last half-century.\n\nThe Associated Press and other media organizations filed a federal lawsuit in Indiana seeking media access, but a federal judge denied a preliminary injunction last week that would have allowed journalists to witness Ritchie's execution and future ones. The judge found that barring the news media doesn't violate the First Amendment nor does it single out the news media for unequal treatment.\n\nThe execution in Indiana was among 12 scheduled in eight states this year. Texas and Tennessee also plan to execute prisoners this week.\n\n## The 2000 fatal shooting of a police officer\n\nRitchie was 20 when he and others stole a van in Beech Grove, near Indianapolis. He then fired at Toney during a foot chase, killing him.\n\nAt the time Ritchie was on probation from a 1998 burglary conviction.\n\nToney, 31, had worked at the Beech Grove Police Department for two years. The married father of two was the first officer of the small department to be killed by gunfire in the line of duty.\n\nRelatives spoke at a clemency hearing last week in support of the execution.\n\n\"It's time. We're all tired,\" said Dee Dee Horen, who was Toney's wife. \"It is time for this chapter of my story, our story, to be closed. It's time for us to remember Bill, to remember Bill's life, and not his death.\"\n\n## Appealing a death sentence\n\nRitchie's attorneys fought the death sentence, arguing his legal counsel at trial was ineffective because his lawyers failed to fully investigate and present evidence on his fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and childhood lead exposure.\n\nCurrent defense attorneys say Ritchie suffered \"severe brain damage\" because his mother abused alcohol and drugs during pregnancy and that he struggled with decision-making. He was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2005.\n\nDisability rights advocates argued that Ritchie's brain damage should have excluded him from the death penalty.\n\n\"This is a foolish, senseless, agonizing waste of time and money,\" said Schutte, who added that Ritchie was no longer \"the same person who committed that crime.\"\n\nAttorney General Todd Rokita said the execution honored Toney's \"sacrifice to the community.\"\n\nRepublican Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ritchie's clemency bid last week without explanation.\n\nThe Indiana Supreme Court denied a request to stop the execution. Ritchie's attorneys challenged that decision in federal court, which a judge rejected. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the lower court on Sunday.\n\nAs the sun set Monday, the Rev. Richard Holy, a Catholic priest, recited the rosary with about 20 people in the prison parking lot.\n\n\"We don't have to keep taking one life to exact justice for taking another,\" he said.\n\nDozens also showed up to honor Toney's memory.\n\n\"I support the death penalty in certain cases and this is one of them,\" said Mark Hamner, an Indianapolis-area officer.\n\n## Expressing regret and awaiting execution\n\nAttorneys said Ritchie changed during his more than two decades behind bars and had shown remorse.\n\nIn court as a young man, Ritchie smiled at Horen and laughed as the verdict was read.\n\nHe told a parole board he deeply regretted his actions, especially how he acted with Toney's widow.\n\n\"I wish I could go back to the day in court, because that man's wife deserved to say everything she needed to say to me, and that punk kid should have just kept his mouth shut and let her say whatever she needed to say,\" Ritchie said.\n\nRitchie, who was also a father, spent his last days getting visits from friends and family.\n\n\"I've ruined my life and other people's lives, and I'm so sorry for that night,\" he told the parole board earlier this month. \"You can't take back what you did.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "8d015f70b7d0134dedc758fccbf5024b7a5f4925a663354a463c1c7600997dd4", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Texas governor signs $1 billion voucher bill in milestone for school choice supporters nationally\n\nBy Nadia Lathan  \nMay 3rd, 2025, 08:16 PM\n\n---\n\nAUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Texas will implement a $1 billion school voucher program, one of the largest in the country, that uses public dollars to fund private school tuition under a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed Saturday, capping off a yearslong effort by Republicans.\n\nSchool voucher supporters have long targeted the state, where past efforts buckled for decades against resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans. Last month President Donald Trump called lawmakers before a key vote needed to finally get the bill to Abbott's desk.\n\nTexas joins more than 30 other states that have implemented a similar program, of which about a dozen have launched or expanded their programs in recent years to make most students eligible.\n\nSchool vouchers have been Abbott's primary focus this year, coming off a 2024 election cycle in which he led a campaign to oust GOP lawmakers who voted against a similar bill last session.\n\nRepublican lawmakers and bill supporters say it will give parents more choice by letting them pull their children out of poor-performing public schools.\n\n\"Gone are the days that families are limited to only the schools assigned by government,\" Abbott said before signing the bill at the governor's mansion. \"The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that is best for their child.\"\n\nDemocrats and Republicans in rural districts have criticized the program, saying it will drain financial resources from Texas' more than 5 million public school students and subsidize the private education of wealthy families.\n\nBeginning next school year, Texas families can receive $10,000 per year to help pay for students' private school tuition. Children with disabilities can qualify for as much as $30,000 a year. The program will be capped at $1 billion for the first year and cover up to 90,000 students but could cost up to $4.5 billion a year by 2030.\n\n___\n\nLathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Texas governor signs $1 billion voucher bill in milestone for school choice supporters nationally\n\nBy Nadia Lathan  \nMay 3rd, 2025, 08:16 PM\n\n---\n\nAUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Texas will implement a $1 billion school voucher program, one of the largest in the country, that uses public dollars to fund private school tuition under a bill Gov. Greg Abbott signed Saturday, capping off a yearslong effort by Republicans.\n\nSchool voucher supporters have long targeted the state, where past efforts buckled for decades against resistance from Democrats and rural Republicans. Last month President Donald Trump called lawmakers before a key vote needed to finally get the bill to Abbott's desk.\n\nTexas joins more than 30 other states that have implemented a similar program, of which about a dozen have launched or expanded their programs in recent years to make most students eligible.\n\nSchool vouchers have been Abbott's primary focus this year, coming off a 2024 election cycle in which he led a campaign to oust GOP lawmakers who voted against a similar bill last session.\n\nRepublican lawmakers and bill supporters say it will give parents more choice by letting them pull their children out of poor-performing public schools.\n\n\"Gone are the days that families are limited to only the schools assigned by government,\" Abbott said before signing the bill at the governor's mansion. \"The day has arrived that empowers parents to choose the school that is best for their child.\"\n\nDemocrats and Republicans in rural districts have criticized the program, saying it will drain financial resources from Texas' more than 5 million public school students and subsidize the private education of wealthy families.\n\nBeginning next school year, Texas families can receive $10,000 per year to help pay for students' private school tuition. Children with disabilities can qualify for as much as $30,000 a year. The program will be capped at $1 billion for the first year and cover up to 90,000 students but could cost up to $4.5 billion a year by 2030."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "420eb97de3a570d59d506c1f5f5164b4127953d547a9781377e2d2a718b40799", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump's plan to accept free jet from Qatar raises questions\n\nBy Chris Megerian, Zeke Miller, and Bernard Condon  \nMay 12th, 2025, 09:06 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.\n\n\"I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,\" the Republican told reporters on Monday. \"I could be a stupid person and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.'\"\n\nCritics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.\n\n\"This is unprecedented,\" said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. \"We just haven't tested these boundaries before.\"\n\nTrump tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn't fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends. Instead, he said, the $400 million plane would be donated to a future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece.\n\n\"It would go directly to the library after I leave office,\" Trump said. \"I wouldn't be using it.\"\n\nHowever, that did little to quell the controversy over the plane. Democrats are united in outrage, and even some of the Republican president's allies are worried. Laura Loomer, an outspoken conspiracy theorist who has tried to purge disloyal officials from the administration, wrote on social media that she would \"take a bullet for Trump\" but said she's \"so disappointed.\"\n\nCongressional Republicans have also expressed some doubts about the plan.\n\n\"My view is that it would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America. That would be ideal,\" said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.\n\nAnd Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul flatly said he was a \"No\" on whether Trump should accept the plane. When asked to elaborate on his reasoning, Paul replied: \"I don't think it looks good or smells good.\" The Republican shrugged when asked by a reporter if there were \"constitutional questions.\"\n\nTrump will likely face persistent questions about the plane in the coming days as he travels to the Middle East, including a stop in Qatar.\n\n## Why does Trump want the Qatari plane?\n\nThe two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades, and Trump is eager to replace them. During his first term, he displayed a model of a new jumbo jet in the Oval Office, complete with a revised paint scheme that echoed the red, white and dark blue design of his personal plane.\n\nBoeing has been working on retrofitting 747s that were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airliner. But the program has faced nearly a decade of delays \u2014 with perhaps more on the way \u2014 from a series of issues, including a critical subcontractor's bankruptcy and the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified staff who could be awarded high-level security clearances.\n\nThe new planes aren't due to be finished until near the end of Trump's term, and he's out of patience. He has described the situation as \"a total mess,\" and he has complained that Air Force One isn't as nice as the planes flown by some Arab leaders.\n\n\"It's not even the same ballgame,\" he said.\n\nTrump said Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, offered a replacement plane that could be used while the government was waiting for Boeing to finish.\n\n\"We give free things out,\" he said. \"We'll take one, too.\"\n\nHe bristled at suggestions that he should turn down the plane, comparing the potential gift to favors on the golf course.\n\n\"When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, 'Thank you very much,'\" he said.\n\nSenate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota expressed skepticism.\n\n\"I understand his frustration. They're way behind schedule on delivering the next Air Force One,\" the Republican told reporters. \"Whether or not this is the right solution or not, I don't know.\"\n\nMississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said that any plane \"needs to be gifted to the United States of America.\"\n\nHe added that whether the U.S. should accept a Qatari plane warranted further inquiry. \"There'll be some questions about that, and this issue, I expect, will be vetted by the time a decision needs to be made,\" he said.\n\n## Will the new plane be secure?\n\nThe Qatari plane has been described as a \"palace in the sky,\" complete with luxurious accommodations and top-of-the-line finishes.\n\nBut security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.\n\nA former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.\n\nThe official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive program, said it would be a risk for presidents to fly on such a jet.\n\nOne of the most important features of Air Force One is the communications capabilities. Presidents can use the plane as a flying Situation Room, allowing them to respond to crises anywhere on the globe.\n\nHowever, on Sept. 11, 2001, Republican President George W. Bush was frustrated by communications issues and ordered up massive technology upgrades over subsequent years to improve the president's ability to monitor events and communicate with people around the world.\n\nThe new ones under development by Boeing are being stripped down so workers can replace the standard wiring with shielded cabling. They're also modifying the jet with an array of classified security measures and communications capabilities.\n\nBecause of the high standards for ensuring a president can communicate clearly and securely, there are fears that Trump would be compromising safety by rushing to modify the Qatari jet.\n\n\"Disassembling and evaluating the plane for collection/spy devices will take years,\" William Evanina, who served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center during Trump's first term, wrote on social media.\n\nHe said the plane should be considered nothing more than \"a gracious presidential museum piece.\"\n\n## Is any of this legal or ethical?\n\nEven for a president who has blurred traditional lines around public service and personal gain, Trump's plans to receive a jumbo jet as a gift has rattled Washington.\n\nThe Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting things of value, or \"emoluments,\" from foreign governments without congressional approval.\n\n\"This is a classic example of what the founders worried about,\" said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. \"But I don't think the founders anticipated it would get this bad.\"\n\nWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that the details of the donation are \"still being worked out\" but would be done \"in full compliance with the law.\"\n\nShe dismissed idea the idea that Qatar wanted to influence Trump.\n\n\"They know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind,\" she said.\n\nTrump faced a legal fight over emoluments during his first term, when he opened the doors of his D.C. hotel to lobbyists, business executives and diplomats. His lawyers argued that the founders didn't intend to ban transactions representing an exchange of a service like hotel space for money, only outright gifts. But some ethics lawyers disagreed, and it's not clear if Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other countries were paying full price or more for when they used the hotel.\n\nIn his second term, Trump's family business has been very busy overseas. In December, it struck a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi firm that two years earlier it had partnered with for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced last month another Trump branded resort along the coast.\n\nFour Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee \u2014 Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut \u2014 issued a statement saying Trump's plan \"creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government.\"\n\n\"No one \u2014 not even the president \u2014 is above the law,\" they said.\n\n___\n\nCondon reported from New York. Associated Press writers Matt Brown, Lolita Baldor and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump's plan to accept free jet from Qatar raises questions\n\nBy Chris Megerian, Zeke Miller, and Bernard Condon  \nMay 12th, 2025, 09:06 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 For President Donald Trump, accepting a free Air Force One replacement from Qatar is a no-brainer.\n\n\"I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer,\" the Republican told reporters on Monday. \"I could be a stupid person and say, 'No, we don't want a free, very expensive airplane.'\"\n\nCritics of the plan worry that the move threatens to turn a global symbol of American power into an airborne collection of ethical, legal, security and counterintelligence concerns.\n\n\"This is unprecedented,\" said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law expert at Loyola Law School. \"We just haven't tested these boundaries before.\"\n\nTrump tried to tamp down some of the opposition by saying he wouldn't fly around in the gifted Boeing 747 when his term ends. Instead, he said, the $400 million plane would be donated to a future presidential library, similar to how the Boeing 707 used by President Ronald Reagan was decommissioned and put on display as a museum piece.\n\n\"It would go directly to the library after I leave office,\" Trump said. \"I wouldn't be using it.\"\n\nHowever, that did little to quell the controversy over the plane. Democrats are united in outrage, and even some of the Republican president's allies are worried. Laura Loomer, an outspoken conspiracy theorist who has tried to purge disloyal officials from the administration, wrote on social media that she would \"take a bullet for Trump\" but said she's \"so disappointed.\"\n\nCongressional Republicans have also expressed some doubts about the plan.\n\n\"My view is that it would be better if Air Force One were a big, beautiful jet made in the United States of America. That would be ideal,\" said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.\n\nAnd Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul flatly said he was a \"No\" on whether Trump should accept the plane. When asked to elaborate on his reasoning, Paul replied: \"I don't think it looks good or smells good.\" The Republican shrugged when asked by a reporter if there were \"constitutional questions.\"\n\nTrump will likely face persistent questions about the plane in the coming days as he travels to the Middle East, including a stop in Qatar.\n\n## Why does Trump want the Qatari plane?\n\nThe two planes currently used as Air Force One have been flying for nearly four decades, and Trump is eager to replace them. During his first term, he displayed a model of a new jumbo jet in the Oval Office, complete with a revised paint scheme that echoed the red, white and dark blue design of his personal plane.\n\nBoeing has been working on retrofitting 747s that were originally built for a now-defunct Russian airliner. But the program has faced nearly a decade of delays \u2014 with perhaps more on the way \u2014 from a series of issues, including a critical subcontractor's bankruptcy and the difficulty of finding and retaining qualified staff who could be awarded high-level security clearances.\n\nThe new planes aren't due to be finished until near the end of Trump's term, and he's out of patience. He has described the situation as \"a total mess,\" and he has complained that Air Force One isn't as nice as the planes flown by some Arab leaders.\n\n\"It's not even the same ballgame,\" he said.\n\nTrump said Qatar, which hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East, offered a replacement plane that could be used while the government was waiting for Boeing to finish.\n\n\"We give free things out,\" he said. \"We'll take one, too.\"\n\nHe bristled at suggestions that he should turn down the plane, comparing the potential gift to favors on the golf course.\n\n\"When they give you a putt, you pick it up and you walk to the next hole and you say, 'Thank you very much,'\" he said.\n\nSenate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota expressed skepticism.\n\n\"I understand his frustration. They're way behind schedule on delivering the next Air Force One,\" the Republican told reporters. \"Whether or not this is the right solution or not, I don't know.\"\n\nMississippi GOP Sen. Roger Wicker said that any plane \"needs to be gifted to the United States of America.\"\n\nHe added that whether the U.S. should accept a Qatari plane warranted further inquiry. \"There'll be some questions about that, and this issue, I expect, will be vetted by the time a decision needs to be made,\" he said.\n\n## Will the new plane be secure?\n\nThe Qatari plane has been described as a \"palace in the sky,\" complete with luxurious accommodations and top-of-the-line finishes.\n\nBut security is the primary concern when it comes to presidential travel. The current Air Force One planes were built from scratch near the end of the Cold War. They are hardened against the effects of a nuclear blast and include a range of security features, such as anti-missile countermeasures and an onboard operating room. They are also equipped with air-to-air refueling capabilities for contingencies, though it has never been utilized with a president on board.\n\nA former U.S. official briefed on the Air Force One replacement project said that while it would be possible to add some features to the Qatari jet, there was no way to add the full suite of capabilities to the plane on a tight timetable.\n\nThe official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive program, said it would be a risk for presidents to fly on such a jet.\n\nOne of the most important features of Air Force One is the communications capabilities. Presidents can use the plane as a flying Situation Room, allowing them to respond to crises anywhere on the globe.\n\nHowever, on Sept. 11, 2001, Republican President George W. Bush was frustrated by communications issues and ordered up massive technology upgrades over subsequent years to improve the president's ability to monitor events and communicate with people around the world.\n\nThe new ones under development by Boeing are being stripped down so workers can replace the standard wiring with shielded cabling. They're also modifying the jet with an array of classified security measures and communications capabilities.\n\nBecause of the high standards for ensuring a president can communicate clearly and securely, there are fears that Trump would be compromising safety by rushing to modify the Qatari jet.\n\n\"Disassembling and evaluating the plane for collection/spy devices will take years,\" William Evanina, who served as director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center during Trump's first term, wrote on social media.\n\nHe said the plane should be considered nothing more than \"a gracious presidential museum piece.\"\n\n## Is any of this legal or ethical?\n\nEven for a president who has blurred traditional lines around public service and personal gain, Trump's plans to receive a jumbo jet as a gift has rattled Washington.\n\nThe Constitution prohibits federal officials from accepting things of value, or \"emoluments,\" from foreign governments without congressional approval.\n\n\"This is a classic example of what the founders worried about,\" said Richard Painter, a law professor at the University of Minnesota and former White House ethics chief under Bush. \"But I don't think the founders anticipated it would get this bad.\"\n\nWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that the details of the donation are \"still being worked out\" but would be done \"in full compliance with the law.\"\n\nShe dismissed idea the idea that Qatar wanted to influence Trump.\n\n\"They know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind,\" she said.\n\nTrump faced a legal fight over emoluments during his first term, when he opened the doors of his D.C. hotel to lobbyists, business executives and diplomats. His lawyers argued that the founders didn't intend to ban transactions representing an exchange of a service like hotel space for money, only outright gifts. But some ethics lawyers disagreed, and it's not clear if Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines and other countries were paying full price or more for when they used the hotel.\n\nIn his second term, Trump's family business has been very busy overseas. In December, it struck a deal for two Trump-branded real estate projects in Riyadh with a Saudi firm that two years earlier it had partnered with for a Trump golf resort and villas in Oman. And in Qatar, the Trump Organization announced last month another Trump branded resort along the coast.\n\nFour Democratic senators on the Foreign Relations Committee \u2014 Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Chris Murphy of Connecticut \u2014 issued a statement saying Trump's plan \"creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government.\"\n\n\"No one \u2014 not even the president \u2014 is above the law,\" they said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "88d0bb950a8883de6e5ee6a0fc4984ba096911197351a6aa3ac693c07057b731", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 8 new varieties of rose plants to choose from as a Mother's Day gift\n\nBy Jessica Damiano  \nMay 6th, 2025, 12:18 PM\n\n---\n\nMother's Day is coming, and the flower and candy ads are everywhere. There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but both are fleeting.\n\nInstead of gifting your mom a bouquet of roses this year, why not give her a plant that will provide blossoms -- and joy -- for years to come?\n\nAnd if you really want to be her favorite, offer to plant it for her, too (a box of that fleeting candy wouldn't hurt, either.)\n\nHere are eight newly developed rose varieties introduced to the market for the first time this spring, and the brands that grow them for our gardens:\n\n## Loves Me, Loves Me Not (Star Roses)\n\nThis hybrid tea rose puts forth large, 5-inch blooms with up to 250 deep-pink petals apiece. Highly fragrant with a scent reminiscent of lilacs, pineapples and gardenias, the upright, shrubby plant grows to 5 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide in zones 5-11.\n\n## Winning Streak (Star Roses)\n\nYellow-striped, cherry-red and fuchsia petals are strikingly set against dark green leaves on this rounded, bushy and compact floribunda. Expect it to grow 2 feet tall and wide in zones 6-11.\n\n## True Devotion (True Bloom Roses)\n\nGrow this disease-resistant climbing hybrid tea rose against a wall or up an arbor or trellis. Each of its 3 \u00bd-inch, strongly scented flowers is packed with more than 50 light pink petals set against light green foliage. Reaches 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 5-10.\n\n## Candy Cream (Altman Plants)\n\nPink-and-white striped, self-cleaning, double-blossomed roses will bloom all season long on this compact groundcover rose. Suited for smaller spaces (even containers) and offering excellent disease resistance, the vigorous bloomer grows to 2 feet tall and wide in zones 5-10.\n\n## Flavorette Pear'd (Proven Winners Color Choice)\n\nThis fragrant, edible rose is as much a culinary herb as it is a garden specimen. Its pear-flavored, pale pink, semi-double petaled blossoms are held upright on sturdy, disease-resistant plants that reach 3-4 feet tall and wide in zones 4-8.\n\n## Oso Easy En Fuego (Proven Winners Color Choice)\n\nLarge, eye-catching roses emerge yellow and red, then open to reveal a burst of electric orange. Glossy green leaves create a lovely backdrop on the disease-resistant, heat-tolerant plant that blooms from summer to frost. Expect it to grow to 3-4 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 4-9.\n\n## Campfire Floribunda Rose (Jackson & Perkins)\n\nPart of the Canadian Artist Series, this cold-hardy floribunda provides a multicolor display. Red and yellow buds open into deep, rose-edged, golden yellow flowers that mature to pink and ultimately cream. The low-maintenance, 6-foot-tall by 3-foot-wide plant is suitable for beds, borders and containers in zones 3 to 9.\n\n## Lemon Burst Floribunda Rose (Jackson & Perkins)\n\nCupped, ruffled, yellow roses with up to 100 petals each exude a light, fruity fragrance and provide long-lasting color to beds, borders and containers. Set against glossy green foliage, its old-fashioned, 3-inch flowers rise from bushy, upright plants with a slightly spreading habit. The disease-resistant plants grow to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 5-9.\n\n___\n\nJessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice.\n\n___\n\nFor more AP gardening stories, go to https://apnews.com/hub/gardening."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 8 new varieties of rose plants to choose from as a Mother's Day gift\n\nBy Jessica Damiano  \nMay 6th, 2025, 12:18 PM\n\n---\n\nMother's Day is coming, and the flower and candy ads are everywhere. There's nothing wrong with either, of course, but both are fleeting.\n\nInstead of gifting your mom a bouquet of roses this year, why not give her a plant that will provide blossoms -- and joy -- for years to come?\n\nAnd if you really want to be her favorite, offer to plant it for her, too (a box of that fleeting candy wouldn't hurt, either.)\n\nHere are eight newly developed rose varieties introduced to the market for the first time this spring, and the brands that grow them for our gardens:\n\n## Loves Me, Loves Me Not (Star Roses)\n\nThis hybrid tea rose puts forth large, 5-inch blooms with up to 250 deep-pink petals apiece. Highly fragrant with a scent reminiscent of lilacs, pineapples and gardenias, the upright, shrubby plant grows to 5 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide in zones 5-11.\n\n## Winning Streak (Star Roses)\n\nYellow-striped, cherry-red and fuchsia petals are strikingly set against dark green leaves on this rounded, bushy and compact floribunda. Expect it to grow 2 feet tall and wide in zones 6-11.\n\n## True Devotion (True Bloom Roses)\n\nGrow this disease-resistant climbing hybrid tea rose against a wall or up an arbor or trellis. Each of its 3 \u00bd-inch, strongly scented flowers is packed with more than 50 light pink petals set against light green foliage. Reaches 7 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 5-10.\n\n## Candy Cream (Altman Plants)\n\nPink-and-white striped, self-cleaning, double-blossomed roses will bloom all season long on this compact groundcover rose. Suited for smaller spaces (even containers) and offering excellent disease resistance, the vigorous bloomer grows to 2 feet tall and wide in zones 5-10.\n\n## Flavorette Pear'd (Proven Winners Color Choice)\n\nThis fragrant, edible rose is as much a culinary herb as it is a garden specimen. Its pear-flavored, pale pink, semi-double petaled blossoms are held upright on sturdy, disease-resistant plants that reach 3-4 feet tall and wide in zones 4-8.\n\n## Oso Easy En Fuego (Proven Winners Color Choice)\n\nLarge, eye-catching roses emerge yellow and red, then open to reveal a burst of electric orange. Glossy green leaves create a lovely backdrop on the disease-resistant, heat-tolerant plant that blooms from summer to frost. Expect it to grow to 3-4 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 4-9.\n\n## Campfire Floribunda Rose (Jackson & Perkins)\n\nPart of the Canadian Artist Series, this cold-hardy floribunda provides a multicolor display. Red and yellow buds open into deep, rose-edged, golden yellow flowers that mature to pink and ultimately cream. The low-maintenance, 6-foot-tall by 3-foot-wide plant is suitable for beds, borders and containers in zones 3 to 9.\n\n## Lemon Burst Floribunda Rose (Jackson & Perkins)\n\nCupped, ruffled, yellow roses with up to 100 petals each exude a light, fruity fragrance and provide long-lasting color to beds, borders and containers. Set against glossy green foliage, its old-fashioned, 3-inch flowers rise from bushy, upright plants with a slightly spreading habit. The disease-resistant plants grow to 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide in zones 5-9."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "45a51c82507f8d0b1c7c89913bb523e75dd0443bb9bd5462a822d0da7337d856", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Weinstein accuser insists in tearful outburst: 'He did that to me'\n\nBy Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 04:15 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 One of Harvey Weinstein 's accusers broke down in tears and cursed on the witness stand Friday as a defense lawyer questioned her account of the former Hollywood mogul forcing oral sex on her nearly two decades ago.\n\n\"He was the one who raped me, not the other way around,\" Miriam Haley told jurors.\n\n\"That is for the jury to decide,\" Weinstein lawyer Jennifer Bonjean responded.\n\n\"No, it's not for the jury to decide. It's my experience. And he did that to me,\" Haley said, using expletives as tears began streaming down her face.\n\nJudge Curtis Farber halted questioning and sent jurors on a break. Haley, her eyes red and face glistening, did not look at Weinstein as she left the witness stand.\n\nHaley, 48, was testifying for a fourth day at Weinstein's rape trial. Questioning resumed after the break, with Haley composed but frustration sometimes flickering in her voice.\n\nBy midafternoon, the judge grew impatient with contentious cross-talk and extraneous comments from Haley and the attorney. Farber pounded his fist on the bench at one point and banged his gavel at another, telling them: \"Let's behave, both of you.\"\n\nFarber later said it was the first time in 13 years that he'd used the gavel.\n\nWeinstein is charged with sexually assaulting Haley and another woman, Kaja Sokola, and raping a third, Jessica Mann. Mann and Sokola also are expected to testify.\n\nWeinstein denies the allegations. His lawyers argue that his accusers had consensual encounters with a then-powerful movie producer who could advance their careers.\n\nHaley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first accuser to testify at the retrial, which is happening after an appeals court overturned Weinstein's conviction at an earlier trial. Haley's testimony at that 2020 trial took just one day.\n\nHaley alleges that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to stop by his apartment. She had worked briefly as a production assistant on the Weinstein-produced TV show \"Project Runway,\" and his company had booked her a flight to Los Angeles the next day to attend a movie premiere.\n\nShe testified earlier in the week that Weinstein backed her into a bedroom and pushed her onto a bed, holding her down as she tried to get up and pleaded: \"No, no \u2014 it's not going to happen.\"\n\nHaley and two of her friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her. She maintains she was never interested in any sexual or romantic relationship with Weinstein but still wanted his help professionally.\n\nWeinstein, 73, listened with his hands clasped against his chin as Haley reiterated she never had romantic feelings for him and never wanted any sexual contact with him.\n\nBonjean questioned why Haley would agree to go to Weinstein's apartment after being put off by some of his prior behavior, including what she described as him barging into her home as he sought to persuade her to go to Paris with him.\n\nHaley said she thought it would be \"weird\" to refuse the invitation to his Manhattan loft, since his company had paid for the L.A. flight she was taking the next day.\n\nHaley and grew emotional when asked just how her clothes came off before Weinstein allegedly yanked out a tampon and performed oral sex on her. Haley said Weinstein took off her clothing, but she didn't recall the details: \"I was, you know, busy struggling,\" she explained.\n\n\"You removed your clothes, right?\" Bonjean soon asked, leading to Haley's tearful and cutting response.\n\nLater, Bonjean continued to press her about the alleged July 2006 assault and its aftermath, including a time a couple of weeks later when Haley has said she had sex with Weinstein that she didn't want but didn't fight.\n\n\"You didn't say, 'Like, hey, what you did to me the other night wasn't cool?'\" Bonjean asked.\n\n\"No,\" said Haley, reiterating that she \"went numb\" during the hotel encounter.\n\nHaley stayed in continued, sporadic contact with Weinstein for about three years afterward, according to testimony and documents. At times, she asked him for work, premiere tickets and financial backing for an online TV show she was trying to launch.\n\n\"The other stuff is neither here nor there. It doesn't mean that I wasn't sexually assaulted,\" Haley said.\n\nBonjean also queried her about her continued interactions with Weinstein and his assistants, about her frequent travels and famous acquaintances at the time, and about her 2020 lawsuit against Weinstein. It ended in a $475,000 settlement.\n\nThe Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission to be identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Weinstein accuser insists in tearful outburst: 'He did that to me'\n\nBy Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 04:15 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 One of Harvey Weinstein 's accusers broke down in tears and cursed on the witness stand Friday as a defense lawyer questioned her account of the former Hollywood mogul forcing oral sex on her nearly two decades ago.\n\n\"He was the one who raped me, not the other way around,\" Miriam Haley told jurors.\n\n\"That is for the jury to decide,\" Weinstein lawyer Jennifer Bonjean responded.\n\n\"No, it's not for the jury to decide. It's my experience. And he did that to me,\" Haley said, using expletives as tears began streaming down her face.\n\nJudge Curtis Farber halted questioning and sent jurors on a break. Haley, her eyes red and face glistening, did not look at Weinstein as she left the witness stand.\n\nHaley, 48, was testifying for a fourth day at Weinstein's rape trial. Questioning resumed after the break, with Haley composed but frustration sometimes flickering in her voice.\n\nBy midafternoon, the judge grew impatient with contentious cross-talk and extraneous comments from Haley and the attorney. Farber pounded his fist on the bench at one point and banged his gavel at another, telling them: \"Let's behave, both of you.\"\n\nFarber later said it was the first time in 13 years that he'd used the gavel.\n\nWeinstein is charged with sexually assaulting Haley and another woman, Kaja Sokola, and raping a third, Jessica Mann. Mann and Sokola also are expected to testify.\n\nWeinstein denies the allegations. His lawyers argue that his accusers had consensual encounters with a then-powerful movie producer who could advance their careers.\n\nHaley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first accuser to testify at the retrial, which is happening after an appeals court overturned Weinstein's conviction at an earlier trial. Haley's testimony at that 2020 trial took just one day.\n\nHaley alleges that Weinstein assaulted her after inviting her to stop by his apartment. She had worked briefly as a production assistant on the Weinstein-produced TV show \"Project Runway,\" and his company had booked her a flight to Los Angeles the next day to attend a movie premiere.\n\nShe testified earlier in the week that Weinstein backed her into a bedroom and pushed her onto a bed, holding her down as she tried to get up and pleaded: \"No, no \u2014 it's not going to happen.\"\n\nHaley and two of her friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her. She maintains she was never interested in any sexual or romantic relationship with Weinstein but still wanted his help professionally.\n\nWeinstein, 73, listened with his hands clasped against his chin as Haley reiterated she never had romantic feelings for him and never wanted any sexual contact with him.\n\nBonjean questioned why Haley would agree to go to Weinstein's apartment after being put off by some of his prior behavior, including what she described as him barging into her home as he sought to persuade her to go to Paris with him.\n\nHaley said she thought it would be \"weird\" to refuse the invitation to his Manhattan loft, since his company had paid for the L.A. flight she was taking the next day.\n\nHaley and grew emotional when asked just how her clothes came off before Weinstein allegedly yanked out a tampon and performed oral sex on her. Haley said Weinstein took off her clothing, but she didn't recall the details: \"I was, you know, busy struggling,\" she explained.\n\n\"You removed your clothes, right?\" Bonjean soon asked, leading to Haley's tearful and cutting response.\n\nLater, Bonjean continued to press her about the alleged July 2006 assault and its aftermath, including a time a couple of weeks later when Haley has said she had sex with Weinstein that she didn't want but didn't fight.\n\n\"You didn't say, 'Like, hey, what you did to me the other night wasn't cool?'\" Bonjean asked.\n\n\"No,\" said Haley, reiterating that she \"went numb\" during the hotel encounter.\n\nHaley stayed in continued, sporadic contact with Weinstein for about three years afterward, according to testimony and documents. At times, she asked him for work, premiere tickets and financial backing for an online TV show she was trying to launch.\n\n\"The other stuff is neither here nor there. It doesn't mean that I wasn't sexually assaulted,\" Haley said.\n\nBonjean also queried her about her continued interactions with Weinstein and his assistants, about her frequent travels and famous acquaintances at the time, and about her 2020 lawsuit against Weinstein. It ended in a $475,000 settlement.\n\nThe Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission to be identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "d1684da435af791857a5250bdda78186d3232c296536f0d30d0b94693c22fae5", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# What you do before and during a tornado could mean the difference between life and death\n\nBy Jeff Martin  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:31 PM\n\n---\n\nATLANTA (AP) \u2014 With new innovations and technology, scientists have learned from major tornado outbreaks over the years how to improve safety guidance. During tornado season, forecasters try to get the word out about staying safe during a storm \u2014 but also planning for it ahead of time.\n\nTornado seasons typically begin at different times in different parts of the United States.\n\nIn what has historically been known as Tornado Alley \u2014 a designation that typically includes Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas \u2014 the peak of tornado season is May into early June. But the season starts earlier in what's often called Dixie Alley, made up of southern states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.\n\nThe idea of a tornado alley can be misleading, since tornadoes have been reported in all 50 states. About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. every year, and each year violent twisters happen outside these traditional \"alleys\" of tornado outbreaks, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Recent twisters have even struck in places unaccustomed to them, such as one near Los Angeles in 2023 that tore apart rooftops and injured one person.\n\nWhen a tornado takes aim at your house, and the sirens are sounding, the dogs are barking and the children are screaming, there are some last-minute precautions that could save the lives of you and your loved ones.\n\nExperts also recommend a few simple steps to prepare well before the twister is on your doorstep. Here's a look at some tornado safety tips:\n\n## How do I get emergency updates?\n\nWeather radios, specialized receivers that get alerts and can sound an alarm in an emergency, are something that every home and business should have, said Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma.\n\n\"It does feel like old-school technology, but they are lifesaving devices,\" Smith said.\n\nRadios can be particularly valuable in the South, where many tornadoes strike at night when people are sleeping. \"This can wake you up in the middle of the night with the alarm,\" Smith said.\n\nThe National Weather Service encourages people to have multiple ways of being warned, which can include weather radios, a cellphone app or other method in case power is lost. Redundancy is key, Smith said.\n\n## Where should I take shelter?\n\nThe ideal places to take shelter are enclosed, underground shelters and basements, or a safe room above ground that's designed to withstand tornadic winds.\n\nBut many people don't have that option \u2014 in Oklahoma, for example, the clay soil makes building basements expensive, so lots of homes don't have them.\n\nIf you have to be above ground in a tornado, \"your goal is to put as many walls and barriers between you and the outside as you possibly can,\" Smith said.\n\nSmith recommends using mattresses, couch cushions or other sturdy items to protect yourself from deadly flying or falling debris. Bicycle or sports helmets can provide crucial head protection. It's important that they are stored in a convenient place so they can be retrieved quickly, when you have only minutes or seconds before the storm strikes.\n\nA car seat can help protect a small child, Smith says, and can be brought inside ahead of time.\n\n## How can I keep my home safe?\n\nRecent research has shown that closing your home's garage door and all interior doors could ease the high winds inside somewhat by compartmentalizing them, according to Smith. Doing so is recommended during thunderstorms and tornadoes by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.\n\nThat's the opposite of a commonly held misconception: \"There's still a chunk of people out there who think you're supposed to open the doors and windows to equalize the pressure,\" Smith said.\n\nIt's also important to prepare for the tornado's aftermath, when you might emerge from a home or shelter to find downed trees and power lines and shredded buildings. Dress for disaster, such as wearing long pants and sturdy shoes, to make it easier to safely navigate treacherous terrain.\n\nAn emergency kit of essentials like drinking water and nonperishable food items is also a good idea.\n\n## What should I do if I'm driving?\n\nDon't look to Hollywood for sound tornado safety practices. The recent Hollywood film \"Twisters\" shows the characters sprinting toward a highway underpass as a tornado approaches.\n\nIf you are in a car or truck, \"you really don't have a lot of good options at that point,\" Smith said. \"Try not to get caught in that situation.\"\n\nThe best thing to do is get off the road and try to find a building. If there's nowhere to go, there are no guaranteed safe options.\n\nWhen it comes to ditches, overpasses or staying inside a car, \"people have survived doing all of those, people have died doing all of those,\" Smith said. \"I've seen cars rolled up into unrecognizable balls of metal.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# What you do before and during a tornado could mean the difference between life and death\n\nBy Jeff Martin  \nMay 19th, 2025, 04:31 PM\n\n---\n\nATLANTA (AP) \u2014 With new innovations and technology, scientists have learned from major tornado outbreaks over the years how to improve safety guidance. During tornado season, forecasters try to get the word out about staying safe during a storm \u2014 but also planning for it ahead of time.\n\nTornado seasons typically begin at different times in different parts of the United States.\n\nIn what has historically been known as Tornado Alley \u2014 a designation that typically includes Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas \u2014 the peak of tornado season is May into early June. But the season starts earlier in what's often called Dixie Alley, made up of southern states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.\n\nThe idea of a tornado alley can be misleading, since tornadoes have been reported in all 50 states. About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. every year, and each year violent twisters happen outside these traditional \"alleys\" of tornado outbreaks, according to the National Severe Storms Laboratory. Recent twisters have even struck in places unaccustomed to them, such as one near Los Angeles in 2023 that tore apart rooftops and injured one person.\n\nWhen a tornado takes aim at your house, and the sirens are sounding, the dogs are barking and the children are screaming, there are some last-minute precautions that could save the lives of you and your loved ones.\n\nExperts also recommend a few simple steps to prepare well before the twister is on your doorstep. Here's a look at some tornado safety tips:\n\n## How do I get emergency updates?\n\nWeather radios, specialized receivers that get alerts and can sound an alarm in an emergency, are something that every home and business should have, said Rick Smith, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service's forecast office in Norman, Oklahoma.\n\n\"It does feel like old-school technology, but they are lifesaving devices,\" Smith said.\n\nRadios can be particularly valuable in the South, where many tornadoes strike at night when people are sleeping. \"This can wake you up in the middle of the night with the alarm,\" Smith said.\n\nThe National Weather Service encourages people to have multiple ways of being warned, which can include weather radios, a cellphone app or other method in case power is lost. Redundancy is key, Smith said.\n\n## Where should I take shelter?\n\nThe ideal places to take shelter are enclosed, underground shelters and basements, or a safe room above ground that's designed to withstand tornadic winds.\n\nBut many people don't have that option \u2014 in Oklahoma, for example, the clay soil makes building basements expensive, so lots of homes don't have them.\n\nIf you have to be above ground in a tornado, \"your goal is to put as many walls and barriers between you and the outside as you possibly can,\" Smith said.\n\nSmith recommends using mattresses, couch cushions or other sturdy items to protect yourself from deadly flying or falling debris. Bicycle or sports helmets can provide crucial head protection. It's important that they are stored in a convenient place so they can be retrieved quickly, when you have only minutes or seconds before the storm strikes.\n\nA car seat can help protect a small child, Smith says, and can be brought inside ahead of time.\n\n## How can I keep my home safe?\n\nRecent research has shown that closing your home's garage door and all interior doors could ease the high winds inside somewhat by compartmentalizing them, according to Smith. Doing so is recommended during thunderstorms and tornadoes by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.\n\nThat's the opposite of a commonly held misconception: \"There's still a chunk of people out there who think you're supposed to open the doors and windows to equalize the pressure,\" Smith said.\n\nIt's also important to prepare for the tornado's aftermath, when you might emerge from a home or shelter to find downed trees and power lines and shredded buildings. Dress for disaster, such as wearing long pants and sturdy shoes, to make it easier to safely navigate treacherous terrain.\n\nAn emergency kit of essentials like drinking water and nonperishable food items is also a good idea.\n\n## What should I do if I'm driving?\n\nDon't look to Hollywood for sound tornado safety practices. The recent Hollywood film \"Twisters\" shows the characters sprinting toward a highway underpass as a tornado approaches.\n\nIf you are in a car or truck, \"you really don't have a lot of good options at that point,\" Smith said. \"Try not to get caught in that situation.\"\n\nThe best thing to do is get off the road and try to find a building. If there's nowhere to go, there are no guaranteed safe options.\n\nWhen it comes to ditches, overpasses or staying inside a car, \"people have survived doing all of those, people have died doing all of those,\" Smith said. \"I've seen cars rolled up into unrecognizable balls of metal.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "fa9d951181a145dbdd30bed2b36b1a549ff5dce1b97bac64fec653a4f0752128", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Richard Linklater's ode to the French New Wave enchants Cannes\n\nBy Jake Coyle  \nMay 18th, 2025, 03:18 PM\n\n---\n\nCANNES, France (AP) \u2014 When Richard Linklater first started thinking about making a film about the French New Wave, he figured he'd show it all everywhere except one place.\n\n\"I thought: They'll hate that an American director did this,\" Linklater said Sunday. \"We'll show this film all over the world, but never in France.\"\n\nBut Linklater nevertheless unveiled \"Nouvelle Vague\" on Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's \"Breathless\" to the very heart of the French film industry. It was, Linklater granted, an audacious thing to do.\n\nAnd \"Nouvelle Vague\" went down as one of the biggest successes of the festival. At a Cannes that's been largely characterized by darker, more portentous dramas, \"Nouvelle Vague\" was cheered as an enchanting ode to moviemaking.\n\n\"Nouvelle Vague\" is an uncanny kind of recreation. In black-and-white and in the style of the French New Wave, it chronicles the making of one of the most celebrated French films of all time. With sunglasses that never come off his face, Guillaume Marbeck plays 29-year-old Godard as he's making his first feature, trying to launch himself as a film director and upend filmmaking convention.\n\nLinklater's movie, which is for sale at Cannes and competing for the Palme d'Or, is in French. It not only goes day-by-day through the making of \"Breathless,\" it endeavors to capture the entire movement of one of the most fabled eras of moviemaking. Truffaut, Varda, Chabrol, Melville, Rohmer, Rossellini and Rivette are just some of the famous filmmakers who drift in and out of the movie.\n\nLinklater told reporters Sunday that he wanted audiences to feel \"like they were hanging out with Nouvelle Vague in 1959.\"\n\n\"It was an old idea of some colleagues of mine,\" said Linklater. \"Thirteen years ago we started talking about it. We're just cinephiles Austin, Texas, who love this era and it's meant so much to me in my filmmaking. It represented freedom and the notion of the personal film. I've made a lot of films and I've always felt if you do it long enough, maybe you should make one film about making films.\"\n\nThe stars of \"Breathless\" \u2014 Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg \u2014 are played by Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch, respectively, in \"Nouvelle Vague.\" With precision, Linklater captures them making some of the most famous shots from \"Breathless\" with a visual style and camera movements typical of that time.\n\n\"We couldn't work quite as fast. We had sound and things,\" said Linklater, chuckling. (Godard dubbed sound after shooting.)\n\n\"It was a crazy idea and I haven't really ever seen a film exactly like this. I said: We're making a film from 1959 but it's not a Godard film,\" said Linklater. \"You can't imitate Godard. You fail. But we could imitate the style of the time.\"\n\nIn \"Nouvelle Vague,\" Godard is surrounded by doubts \u2014 Seberg is notably unsure of the project \u2014 but he stubbornly sticks to his instance on spontaneity. There's no real script, some shooting days just last a few hours and lines are improvised on the spot. In one fittingly moment where Godard tells his actors just to quote Humphry Bogart movie lines, he explains: \"Not plagiarism. Homage.\"\n\nLinklater's own homage in \"Nouvelle Vague\" brought him back to his early days as a filmmaker. His first films \u2014 \"Slacker,\" \"Dazed and Confused,\" \"Before Sunrise\" \u2014 have much of the independent spirit of the New Wave, he said.\n\n\"Making this film all these later, I felt like I erased my own history,\" said Linklater. \"I was going back to being in my late 20s making my first film. I told a friend last night: I felt like was 28 years old making this film.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Richard Linklater's ode to the French New Wave enchants Cannes\n\nBy Jake Coyle  \nMay 18th, 2025, 03:18 PM\n\n---\n\nCANNES, France (AP) \u2014 When Richard Linklater first started thinking about making a film about the French New Wave, he figured he'd show it all everywhere except one place.\n\n\"I thought: They'll hate that an American director did this,\" Linklater said Sunday. \"We'll show this film all over the world, but never in France.\"\n\nBut Linklater nevertheless unveiled \"Nouvelle Vague\" on Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing film about the making of Jean-Luc Godard's \"Breathless\" to the very heart of the French film industry. It was, Linklater granted, an audacious thing to do.\n\nAnd \"Nouvelle Vague\" went down as one of the biggest successes of the festival. At a Cannes that's been largely characterized by darker, more portentous dramas, \"Nouvelle Vague\" was cheered as an enchanting ode to moviemaking.\n\n\"Nouvelle Vague\" is an uncanny kind of recreation. In black-and-white and in the style of the French New Wave, it chronicles the making of one of the most celebrated French films of all time. With sunglasses that never come off his face, Guillaume Marbeck plays 29-year-old Godard as he's making his first feature, trying to launch himself as a film director and upend filmmaking convention.\n\nLinklater's movie, which is for sale at Cannes and competing for the Palme d'Or, is in French. It not only goes day-by-day through the making of \"Breathless,\" it endeavors to capture the entire movement of one of the most fabled eras of moviemaking. Truffaut, Varda, Chabrol, Melville, Rohmer, Rossellini and Rivette are just some of the famous filmmakers who drift in and out of the movie.\n\nLinklater told reporters Sunday that he wanted audiences to feel \"like they were hanging out with Nouvelle Vague in 1959.\"\n\n\"It was an old idea of some colleagues of mine,\" said Linklater. \"Thirteen years ago we started talking about it. We're just cinephiles Austin, Texas, who love this era and it's meant so much to me in my filmmaking. It represented freedom and the notion of the personal film. I've made a lot of films and I've always felt if you do it long enough, maybe you should make one film about making films.\"\n\nThe stars of \"Breathless\" \u2014 Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg \u2014 are played by Aubry Dullin and Zoey Deutch, respectively, in \"Nouvelle Vague.\" With precision, Linklater captures them making some of the most famous shots from \"Breathless\" with a visual style and camera movements typical of that time.\n\n\"We couldn't work quite as fast. We had sound and things,\" said Linklater, chuckling. (Godard dubbed sound after shooting.)\n\n\"It was a crazy idea and I haven't really ever seen a film exactly like this. I said: We're making a film from 1959 but it's not a Godard film,\" said Linklater. \"You can't imitate Godard. You fail. But we could imitate the style of the time.\"\n\nIn \"Nouvelle Vague,\" Godard is surrounded by doubts \u2014 Seberg is notably unsure of the project \u2014 but he stubbornly sticks to his instance on spontaneity. There's no real script, some shooting days just last a few hours and lines are improvised on the spot. In one fittingly moment where Godard tells his actors just to quote Humphry Bogart movie lines, he explains: \"Not plagiarism. Homage.\"\n\nLinklater's own homage in \"Nouvelle Vague\" brought him back to his early days as a filmmaker. His first films \u2014 \"Slacker,\" \"Dazed and Confused,\" \"Before Sunrise\" \u2014 have much of the independent spirit of the New Wave, he said.\n\n\"Making this film all these later, I felt like I erased my own history,\" said Linklater. \"I was going back to being in my late 20s making my first film. I told a friend last night: I felt like was 28 years old making this film.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "25830de673583ee03ca190a746c3994eb1ea1e6aede662c99b091ed92e2526b2", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Hungary targets critics with bill that would blacklist critical media and NGOs\n\nBy Justin Spike  \nMay 14th, 2025, 08:49 AM\n\n---\n\nBUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 The nationalist party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n introduced a bill late Tuesday that would allow the government to monitor, restrict, penalize and potentially ban organizations it deems a threat to national sovereignty, marking a significant escalation of the government's long-running crackdown on critical media and non-governmental organizations.\n\nThe bill, submitted by a lawmaker in Orb\u00e1n's Fidesz party, would expand the authority of Hungary 's controversial Sovereignty Protection Office, allowing it to identify organizations that influence public debate or voter sentiment in ways it considers detrimental to Hungary's interests.\n\nUnder the proposed legislation, such organizations could be placed on a list by governmental decree, stripped of key funding and subjected to severe financial penalties if they are found to \"endanger the sovereignty of Hungary by carrying out activities aimed at influencing public life with foreign support.\"\n\nThe bill would also allow the bank accounts of affected organizations to be monitored, and access to the accounts and transactions deemed to violate the new provisions could be blocked.\n\nThe measure is the latest in an escalating effort by Orb\u00e1n's government to tighten its control over political expression and civic engagement in Hungary as the European Union's longest-serving leader faces a major challenge to his 15-year grip on power in elections scheduled for next year.\n\nParliament will likely vote on the bill in the coming days and it is expected to pass since Fidesz has a two-thirds majority.\n\nFacing mounting legal and financial pressure from the government, many of Hungary's independent media outlets and NGOs have increasingly depended on international grants and assistance to sustain their operations.\n\nBut in a February speech laced with conspiracy rhetoric, Orb\u00e1n said that organizations that receive any funding from outside Hungary's borders \"have to be taken down, they have to be swept away ... It is necessary to make their existence legally impossible.\"\n\nOrb\u00e1n has for years enacted crackdowns on NGOs and independent media, passing laws that critics say seek to stigmatize and obstruct groups that provide protection for women and minorities, offer legal and human rights assistance and expose official corruption.\n\nThose efforts ramped up in 2023 when Orb\u00e1n's right-wing populist government launched the Sovereignty Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating organizations and media outlets it deems to be exerting foreign influence.\n\nThe office has the power to gather information on any groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding and influence public debate, and Hungary's secret services can assist in its investigations. Violations can result in prison terms of up to three years.\n\nOpponents of the government's policies have compared the Sovereignty Protection Office to Russia's \"foreign agent\" law, and said it can be used to arbitrarily target government critics, including NGOs and journalists.\n\nThe bill introduced Tuesday outlines a broad definition of what constitutes a threat to sovereignty. Organizations may be targeted if they oppose or portray in a negative light values such as Hungary's democratic character, national unity, traditional family structures, or Christian culture \u2014 suggesting that even legitimate criticism of government policy could be treated as a national security threat.\n\nGroups placed on the list would be barred from receiving donations through Hungary's 1% personal income tax program \u2014 a vital funding stream for many non-profits \u2014 and would be required to obtain special authorization from the national tax authority to accept any foreign donations.\n\nIn addition, Hungarian citizens donating to listed organizations would need to submit a formal declaration affirming that their contributions were not sourced from abroad. Organizations found to have received prohibited support would be subject to fines amounting to 25 times the value of the offending donation."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Hungary targets critics with bill that would blacklist critical media and NGOs\n\nBy Justin Spike  \nMay 14th, 2025, 08:49 AM\n\n---\n\nBUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 The nationalist party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n introduced a bill late Tuesday that would allow the government to monitor, restrict, penalize and potentially ban organizations it deems a threat to national sovereignty, marking a significant escalation of the government's long-running crackdown on critical media and non-governmental organizations.\n\nThe bill, submitted by a lawmaker in Orb\u00e1n's Fidesz party, would expand the authority of Hungary 's controversial Sovereignty Protection Office, allowing it to identify organizations that influence public debate or voter sentiment in ways it considers detrimental to Hungary's interests.\n\nUnder the proposed legislation, such organizations could be placed on a list by governmental decree, stripped of key funding and subjected to severe financial penalties if they are found to \"endanger the sovereignty of Hungary by carrying out activities aimed at influencing public life with foreign support.\"\n\nThe bill would also allow the bank accounts of affected organizations to be monitored, and access to the accounts and transactions deemed to violate the new provisions could be blocked.\n\nThe measure is the latest in an escalating effort by Orb\u00e1n's government to tighten its control over political expression and civic engagement in Hungary as the European Union's longest-serving leader faces a major challenge to his 15-year grip on power in elections scheduled for next year.\n\nParliament will likely vote on the bill in the coming days and it is expected to pass since Fidesz has a two-thirds majority.\n\nFacing mounting legal and financial pressure from the government, many of Hungary's independent media outlets and NGOs have increasingly depended on international grants and assistance to sustain their operations.\n\nBut in a February speech laced with conspiracy rhetoric, Orb\u00e1n said that organizations that receive any funding from outside Hungary's borders \"have to be taken down, they have to be swept away ... It is necessary to make their existence legally impossible.\"\n\nOrb\u00e1n has for years enacted crackdowns on NGOs and independent media, passing laws that critics say seek to stigmatize and obstruct groups that provide protection for women and minorities, offer legal and human rights assistance and expose official corruption.\n\nThose efforts ramped up in 2023 when Orb\u00e1n's right-wing populist government launched the Sovereignty Protection Office, an authority tasked with investigating organizations and media outlets it deems to be exerting foreign influence.\n\nThe office has the power to gather information on any groups or individuals that benefit from foreign funding and influence public debate, and Hungary's secret services can assist in its investigations. Violations can result in prison terms of up to three years.\n\nOpponents of the government's policies have compared the Sovereignty Protection Office to Russia's \"foreign agent\" law, and said it can be used to arbitrarily target government critics, including NGOs and journalists.\n\nThe bill introduced Tuesday outlines a broad definition of what constitutes a threat to sovereignty. Organizations may be targeted if they oppose or portray in a negative light values such as Hungary's democratic character, national unity, traditional family structures, or Christian culture \u2014 suggesting that even legitimate criticism of government policy could be treated as a national security threat.\n\nGroups placed on the list would be barred from receiving donations through Hungary's 1% personal income tax program \u2014 a vital funding stream for many non-profits \u2014 and would be required to obtain special authorization from the national tax authority to accept any foreign donations.\n\nIn addition, Hungarian citizens donating to listed organizations would need to submit a formal declaration affirming that their contributions were not sourced from abroad. Organizations found to have received prohibited support would be subject to fines amounting to 25 times the value of the offending donation."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "8e3002289aa1113e6337fc8b7a5a0eba66a5f20230dbcbdbdb3fbc355c112702", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Former FBI director James Comey calls controversy over Instagram post 'a bit of a distraction'\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 20th, 2025, 02:05 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former FBI director James Comey says that he's still a bit bewildered over how a seemingly innocent Instagram shot of shells arranged in the sand led to allegations by Donald Trump among others that he was calling for the president's assassination and to an interview with the Secret Service.\n\n\"It's been a bit of a distraction, honestly,\" Comey said with a weary laugh Monday night during an appearance at a Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper West Side.\n\nComey was promoting \"FDR Drive,\" a crime novel coming out this week. One of the book's themes, ironically, is weighing the potential of speech to incite others to violence.\n\nComey, whom Trump fired in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's first presidential campaign, explained Monday that he and his wife, Patrice, had been returning from a walk on the beach last Thursday when they came upon some shells organized in a way that resembled numbers, including \"86.\"\n\nThey speculated over whether it was a home address, or a political message. His wife noted that \"86\" in some restaurants means they had run out of an ingredient. Comey remembered it was slang for saying something was boring and should be \"ditched.\"\n\n\"And she said, 'You should take a picture of it.' So I took a picture of it, and then we walk home and she said, 'You should really put that on Instagram. It's kind of a cool thing.' I said, 'You're right. It's a cool thing,'\" he explained.\n\nTo many viewers, the numbers seemed to spell out 86 and 47. Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning \"to throw out,\" \"to get rid of\" or \"to refuse service to.\" It notes: \"Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of 'to kill.'\"\n\nTrump is the country's 47th president.\n\n\"Some hours later she (Patrice) said to me, 'You know, people on the internet are saying you're calling for the assassination of Donald Trump,\" Comey explained. \"And I said, 'Well, if they're saying that, I'm taking it down because I don't want any part of violence.'\"\n\nComey quickly pulled the image, but it had already reached the attention of Trump and other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump himself, interviewed on Friday on Fox News, said that Comey \"knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.\"\n\nComey confirmed Monday that he received a call from the Secret Service later Thursday, spoke to them on the phone and agreed to meet with them in person.\n\n\"And so they gave me a ride to their headquarters, the Washington field office interviewed me,\" he said. \"It seems like a year ago, but it was Friday, right? I told them what I just told you. And so I, it seems like a thing that I don't fully understand and maybe it'll go away now.\"\n\nComey has written several books since Trump fired him, including the million-selling memoir \"A Higher Loyalty.\" More recently, he has taken up fiction, his previous novels including \"Central Park Drive\" and \"Westport.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Former FBI director James Comey calls controversy over Instagram post 'a bit of a distraction'\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 20th, 2025, 02:05 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former FBI director James Comey says that he's still a bit bewildered over how a seemingly innocent Instagram shot of shells arranged in the sand led to allegations by Donald Trump among others that he was calling for the president's assassination and to an interview with the Secret Service.\n\n\"It's been a bit of a distraction, honestly,\" Comey said with a weary laugh Monday night during an appearance at a Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper West Side.\n\nComey was promoting \"FDR Drive,\" a crime novel coming out this week. One of the book's themes, ironically, is weighing the potential of speech to incite others to violence.\n\nComey, whom Trump fired in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's first presidential campaign, explained Monday that he and his wife, Patrice, had been returning from a walk on the beach last Thursday when they came upon some shells organized in a way that resembled numbers, including \"86.\"\n\nThey speculated over whether it was a home address, or a political message. His wife noted that \"86\" in some restaurants means they had run out of an ingredient. Comey remembered it was slang for saying something was boring and should be \"ditched.\"\n\n\"And she said, 'You should take a picture of it.' So I took a picture of it, and then we walk home and she said, 'You should really put that on Instagram. It's kind of a cool thing.' I said, 'You're right. It's a cool thing,'\" he explained.\n\nTo many viewers, the numbers seemed to spell out 86 and 47. Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says 86 is slang meaning \"to throw out,\" \"to get rid of\" or \"to refuse service to.\" It notes: \"Among the most recent senses adopted is a logical extension of the previous ones, with the meaning of 'to kill.'\"\n\nTrump is the country's 47th president.\n\n\"Some hours later she (Patrice) said to me, 'You know, people on the internet are saying you're calling for the assassination of Donald Trump,\" Comey explained. \"And I said, 'Well, if they're saying that, I'm taking it down because I don't want any part of violence.'\"\n\nComey quickly pulled the image, but it had already reached the attention of Trump and other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump himself, interviewed on Friday on Fox News, said that Comey \"knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you're the FBI director and you don't know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear.\"\n\nComey confirmed Monday that he received a call from the Secret Service later Thursday, spoke to them on the phone and agreed to meet with them in person.\n\n\"And so they gave me a ride to their headquarters, the Washington field office interviewed me,\" he said. \"It seems like a year ago, but it was Friday, right? I told them what I just told you. And so I, it seems like a thing that I don't fully understand and maybe it'll go away now.\"\n\nComey has written several books since Trump fired him, including the million-selling memoir \"A Higher Loyalty.\" More recently, he has taken up fiction, his previous novels including \"Central Park Drive\" and \"Westport.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "bb4546471822e5132a49095e96be3a3f3740d23d9ed1363b8346a3002b4ad957", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 2 US aircraft carriers stay in Middle East for battle with Yemen's Houthis\n\nBy Lolita C. Baldor  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:35 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for a second time, keeping it there another week so the U.S. can maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi rebels, according to a U.S. official.\n\nIn late March, Hegseth extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis. The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it is expected the Truman and its strike group warships will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.\n\nGen. Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, requested that the Truman be extended again, according to officials. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group arrived in the region a few weeks ago and are operating in the Gulf of Aden. The Truman, along with two destroyers and a cruiser in its strike group, is in the Red Sea.\n\nThe officials spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.\n\nThe U.S. has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign. He promised to use \"overwhelming lethal force\" until the Houthis stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade corridor.\n\nAccording to Central Command, the U.S. has been waging an \"intense and sustained campaign\" against the Houthis. In a statement over the weekend, the command said the U.S. has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since Operation Rough Rider began. It hasn't provided details on the targets or how the data is compiled.\n\nIt has been rare in recent years for the U.S. to have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time. Navy leaders have generally been opposed to the idea because it disrupts ship maintenance schedules and delays time at home for sailors strained by the unusually high combat tempo.\n\nIf there are no additional extensions and the Truman and its warships leave the region next week, those sailors could be back home by next month.\n\nLast year, the Biden administration ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier to remain in the Red Sea for an extended time as U.S. warships waged the most intense running sea battle since World War II. Prior to that, it had been years since the U.S. had committed that much warship power to the Middle East.\n\nThe Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.\n\nFrom 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.\n\nThe group paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.\n\nIn another action, Hegseth on Friday ordered the Defense Department to produce a new national defense strategy and gave leaders until the end of August to have a final draft. The strategy is the main blueprint that lays out the department's priorities as it moves to confront national security threats around the world.\n\nIt will be Hegseth's opportunity to highlight what he wants the U.S. military to focus on for the next several years and how the Pentagon will shift toward Trump's \"America First\" doctrine.\n\nThe draft also will have to reflect the impact of Hegseth's sweeping personnel cuts and decisions to merge a number of military commands."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 2 US aircraft carriers stay in Middle East for battle with Yemen's Houthis\n\nBy Lolita C. Baldor  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:35 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to remain in the Middle East for a second time, keeping it there another week so the U.S. can maintain two carrier strike groups in the region to battle Yemen-based Houthi rebels, according to a U.S. official.\n\nIn late March, Hegseth extended the deployment of the Truman and the warships in its group for a month as part of a campaign to increase strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis. The official said Hegseth signed the latest order Thursday and it is expected the Truman and its strike group warships will head home to Norfolk, Virginia, after the week is up.\n\nGen. Erik Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, requested that the Truman be extended again, according to officials. The San Diego-based USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and its strike group arrived in the region a few weeks ago and are operating in the Gulf of Aden. The Truman, along with two destroyers and a cruiser in its strike group, is in the Red Sea.\n\nThe officials spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.\n\nThe U.S. has increased its attacks on the Houthis, launching daily strikes since March 15, when President Donald Trump ordered a new, expanded campaign. He promised to use \"overwhelming lethal force\" until the Houthis stop their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade corridor.\n\nAccording to Central Command, the U.S. has been waging an \"intense and sustained campaign\" against the Houthis. In a statement over the weekend, the command said the U.S. has struck more than 1,000 targets in Yemen since Operation Rough Rider began. It hasn't provided details on the targets or how the data is compiled.\n\nIt has been rare in recent years for the U.S. to have two aircraft carriers in the Middle East at the same time. Navy leaders have generally been opposed to the idea because it disrupts ship maintenance schedules and delays time at home for sailors strained by the unusually high combat tempo.\n\nIf there are no additional extensions and the Truman and its warships leave the region next week, those sailors could be back home by next month.\n\nLast year, the Biden administration ordered the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier to remain in the Red Sea for an extended time as U.S. warships waged the most intense running sea battle since World War II. Prior to that, it had been years since the U.S. had committed that much warship power to the Middle East.\n\nThe Houthis had been waging persistent missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the region in what the group's leadership has described as an effort to end Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.\n\nFrom 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.\n\nThe group paused attacks in a self-imposed ceasefire until the U.S. launched a broad assault against the rebels in mid-March.\n\nIn another action, Hegseth on Friday ordered the Defense Department to produce a new national defense strategy and gave leaders until the end of August to have a final draft. The strategy is the main blueprint that lays out the department's priorities as it moves to confront national security threats around the world.\n\nIt will be Hegseth's opportunity to highlight what he wants the U.S. military to focus on for the next several years and how the Pentagon will shift toward Trump's \"America First\" doctrine.\n\nThe draft also will have to reflect the impact of Hegseth's sweeping personnel cuts and decisions to merge a number of military commands."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e9c3c7d2716220110bc73301c8f5d95dc5de4b414da893fa2df66cabc0348077", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Photos: Cardinals elect a new pope on second day of voting\n\nMay 8th, 2025, 08:11 AM\n\n---\n\nVATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Cardinals returned to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday to resume voting for a new pope after the first conclave ballot failed to find a winner, sending billowing black smoke through the chapel chimney.\n\nThis is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Photos: Cardinals elect a new pope on second day of voting\n\nMay 8th, 2025, 08:11 AM\n\n---\n\nVATICAN CITY (AP) \u2014 Cardinals returned to the Sistine Chapel on Thursday to resume voting for a new pope after the first conclave ballot failed to find a winner, sending billowing black smoke through the chapel chimney."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "5266ad29f6369bb0e84630cc5c5110c82c9b9afc12f95f2887709a12debee5aa", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Rwanda says it's talking with the US about taking in third-country deportees. Here's why\n\nBy Cara Anna  \nMay 6th, 2025, 05:33 PM\n\n---\n\nRwanda drew international attention, and some outrage, by agreeing to take in Britain's rejected asylum-seekers in a plan that collapsed last year. Now Rwanda says it is talking with the Trump administration about a similar idea \u2013 and it might find more success.\n\nThe negotiations mark an expansion in U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own. It has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama but has yet to announce any major deals with governments in Africa, Asia or Europe.\n\nRwanda has long stood out on the continent for its recovery from the genocide that killed over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, as it has promoted itself under longtime President Paul Kagame as an oasis of stability. But human rights groups allege that the veneer of order has a painful price, with sometimes deadly crackdowns on perceived dissent.\n\nRwanda has argued that despite being one of Africa's most densely populated countries, it has space to help alleviate what many countries in Europe \u2013 and the United States \u2013 consider to be a growing problem with unwanted migrants.\n\n## What's been said so far\n\nRwanda's foreign minister confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that talks were under way with the U.S. about a potential agreement to host deported migrants, after telling state media the talks were in the \"early stage.\" Olivier Nduhungirehe did not give details but said it was consistent with Rwanda's long-standing commitment to the pursuit of migration solutions.\n\nThe U.S. State Department declined to comment on a potential deal, but said engagement with foreign governments is an important part of the U.S. government's policy to deter illegal migration.\n\nLocal media reports in Rwanda have suggested the U.S. likely would fund a program to have migrants integrated into society through stipends and job assistance initiatives.\n\n## The failed Rwanda-Britain deal\n\nThe U.K. struck a deal with Rwanda in 2022 to send migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in boats to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay.\n\nThe plan was stalled by legal challenges and criticized by human rights groups, who called it unethical to deport migrants to a country 4,000 miles (6,400 miles) away that they don't want to live in.\n\nThe plan collapsed last year after the new Labour government took charge. The U.K.'s new home secretary called the plan the \"most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen\" and estimated the cost at 700 million pounds ($904 million) in public funds.\n\nNo flights to Rwanda took off under the plan, but the U.K. government said the failed plan's costs included 290 million pounds in payments to Rwanda. Rwanda has said it was not obligated to refund the money.\n\n## Human rights concerns\n\nHuman rights advocates have long raised concerns over the deaths in Rwandan custody of some perceived government critics, as well as the alleged killings of others who sought exile in places like South Africa. Rwanda at times has responded with angry denials to reports documenting human rights abuses \u2013 including the abduction and imprisonment of a U.S. resident who was tricked onto a Kigali-bound aircraft while visiting Dubai. He was later freed after Biden administration pressure.\n\nRwanda is also criticized over its aggressive military actions in the region. United Nations experts have documented Rwandan support for the rebel uprising that this year seized two cities in neighboring eastern Congo, an area rich in mineral wealth. The unrest led to fears of a resurgence of regional war, and a number of Western countries cut relations or restricted aid. Rwanda has said it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo.\n\nThe Trump administration, which sanctioned a Rwandan government minister and cited links to the rebels, is trying to broker a peace deal. Agreeing to take in deportees from the U.S. could improve Rwanda's standing with Washington and others.\n\n## Rwanda's history with migrants\n\nRwanda in 2019 struck a deal with the U.N. refugee agency to help take in migrants removed from Libya, where many people trying to reach Europe have reported abuses in detention. The U.N. says the transit center in Rwanda has capacity for 700 evacuees. Late last year, it said over 2,400 people had been assisted in what is meant to be a temporary stay during efforts to find \"long-term solutions\" including resettlement elsewhere.\n\nBefore its deal with Britain collapsed, Rwanda showed off another transit center, a refurbished hostel in Kigali, that could host 100 people, with more accommodations made available as needed.\n\nRwanda said migrants would have their papers processed within three months. People could stay or authorities would assist those who wished to return to their home countries. Rwanda said it would bear full financial responsibilities for five years.\n\nIt is not clear whether such terms would be part of a deal with the United States."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Rwanda says it's talking with the US about taking in third-country deportees. Here's why\n\nBy Cara Anna  \nMay 6th, 2025, 05:33 PM\n\n---\n\nRwanda drew international attention, and some outrage, by agreeing to take in Britain's rejected asylum-seekers in a plan that collapsed last year. Now Rwanda says it is talking with the Trump administration about a similar idea \u2013 and it might find more success.\n\nThe negotiations mark an expansion in U.S. efforts to deport people to countries other than their own. It has sent hundreds of Venezuelans and others to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama but has yet to announce any major deals with governments in Africa, Asia or Europe.\n\nRwanda has long stood out on the continent for its recovery from the genocide that killed over 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994, as it has promoted itself under longtime President Paul Kagame as an oasis of stability. But human rights groups allege that the veneer of order has a painful price, with sometimes deadly crackdowns on perceived dissent.\n\nRwanda has argued that despite being one of Africa's most densely populated countries, it has space to help alleviate what many countries in Europe \u2013 and the United States \u2013 consider to be a growing problem with unwanted migrants.\n\n## What's been said so far\n\nRwanda's foreign minister confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday that talks were under way with the U.S. about a potential agreement to host deported migrants, after telling state media the talks were in the \"early stage.\" Olivier Nduhungirehe did not give details but said it was consistent with Rwanda's long-standing commitment to the pursuit of migration solutions.\n\nThe U.S. State Department declined to comment on a potential deal, but said engagement with foreign governments is an important part of the U.S. government's policy to deter illegal migration.\n\nLocal media reports in Rwanda have suggested the U.S. likely would fund a program to have migrants integrated into society through stipends and job assistance initiatives.\n\n## The failed Rwanda-Britain deal\n\nThe U.K. struck a deal with Rwanda in 2022 to send migrants who arrive in the U.K. as stowaways or in boats to the East African country, where their asylum claims would be processed and, if successful, they would stay.\n\nThe plan was stalled by legal challenges and criticized by human rights groups, who called it unethical to deport migrants to a country 4,000 miles (6,400 miles) away that they don't want to live in.\n\nThe plan collapsed last year after the new Labour government took charge. The U.K.'s new home secretary called the plan the \"most shocking waste of taxpayer money I have ever seen\" and estimated the cost at 700 million pounds ($904 million) in public funds.\n\nNo flights to Rwanda took off under the plan, but the U.K. government said the failed plan's costs included 290 million pounds in payments to Rwanda. Rwanda has said it was not obligated to refund the money.\n\n## Human rights concerns\n\nHuman rights advocates have long raised concerns over the deaths in Rwandan custody of some perceived government critics, as well as the alleged killings of others who sought exile in places like South Africa. Rwanda at times has responded with angry denials to reports documenting human rights abuses \u2013 including the abduction and imprisonment of a U.S. resident who was tricked onto a Kigali-bound aircraft while visiting Dubai. He was later freed after Biden administration pressure.\n\nRwanda is also criticized over its aggressive military actions in the region. United Nations experts have documented Rwandan support for the rebel uprising that this year seized two cities in neighboring eastern Congo, an area rich in mineral wealth. The unrest led to fears of a resurgence of regional war, and a number of Western countries cut relations or restricted aid. Rwanda has said it is defending ethnic Tutsis in Congo.\n\nThe Trump administration, which sanctioned a Rwandan government minister and cited links to the rebels, is trying to broker a peace deal. Agreeing to take in deportees from the U.S. could improve Rwanda's standing with Washington and others.\n\n## Rwanda's history with migrants\n\nRwanda in 2019 struck a deal with the U.N. refugee agency to help take in migrants removed from Libya, where many people trying to reach Europe have reported abuses in detention. The U.N. says the transit center in Rwanda has capacity for 700 evacuees. Late last year, it said over 2,400 people had been assisted in what is meant to be a temporary stay during efforts to find \"long-term solutions\" including resettlement elsewhere.\n\nBefore its deal with Britain collapsed, Rwanda showed off another transit center, a refurbished hostel in Kigali, that could host 100 people, with more accommodations made available as needed.\n\nRwanda said migrants would have their papers processed within three months. People could stay or authorities would assist those who wished to return to their home countries. Rwanda said it would bear full financial responsibilities for five years.\n\nIt is not clear whether such terms would be part of a deal with the United States."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "865fcf0f91d370ba3ced9f257336bbea8a9487b814870699e9febda29db8c59f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# North Korean leader urges increased artillery shell production amid alignment with Russia\n\nBy Kim Tong-Hyung  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:37 AM\n\n---\n\nSEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his munitions industry to boost the production of artillery shells, state media said Wednesday, as the country continues to supply arms and troops to support Russia's war on Ukraine.\n\nNorth Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim, during recent visits to unspecified munitions and machinery factories, praised modernization efforts that the agency claimed enabled the facilities to double their annual shell production capacity.\n\nKim urged workers to further accelerate artillery shell production, calling it crucial to \"strengthening the fighting efficiency\" of his armed forces, and also called for the development of more advanced machinery to boost munitions output. KCNA did not mention any comments from Kim regarding his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nRecent South Korean intelligence assessments suggest that North Korea has sent about 15,000 soldiers to Russia, and that nearly 5,000 of them have been killed or injured while fighting against Ukrainian forces. Washington and Seoul have also accused North Korea of supplying Russia with various types of military equipment, including artillery systems and shells and ballistic missiles.\n\nAfter denying its war involvement for months, North Korea last month confirmed for the first time that it had sent combat troops to help Russia in recapturing parts of the Kursk region, which had fallen to a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year. Moscow also acknowledged the North Korean involvement, with Putin issuing a statement thanking the North for sending troops to support his forces and promising not to forget their sacrifices.\n\nAnalysts say North Korea's official acknowledgment of its military support for Russia is likely aimed at cementing a deeper, long-term partnership with Moscow and securing greater compensation, potentially including advanced military technology that could enhance the threat posed by Kim's nuclear-armed forces.\n\nBy formalizing its role as a participant in the war, North Korea may also be positioning itself to seek compensation in future negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, according to a recent report by the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's intelligence agency.\n\nIn a closed-door briefing to lawmakers last month, South Korea's National Intelligence Service also said it believes that North Korea has sent about 15,000 workers to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs.\n\nWhile the value of North Korean artillery and missiles supplied to Russia likely amounts to billions of dollars, there are no immediate signs that Russia has provided direct cash payments in return, the agency said. Instead, Russia has likely compensated North Korea with air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and technology for spy satellite launches, according to the assessment."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# North Korean leader urges increased artillery shell production amid alignment with Russia\n\nBy Kim Tong-Hyung  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:37 AM\n\n---\n\nSEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for his munitions industry to boost the production of artillery shells, state media said Wednesday, as the country continues to supply arms and troops to support Russia's war on Ukraine.\n\nNorth Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said that Kim, during recent visits to unspecified munitions and machinery factories, praised modernization efforts that the agency claimed enabled the facilities to double their annual shell production capacity.\n\nKim urged workers to further accelerate artillery shell production, calling it crucial to \"strengthening the fighting efficiency\" of his armed forces, and also called for the development of more advanced machinery to boost munitions output. KCNA did not mention any comments from Kim regarding his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.\n\nRecent South Korean intelligence assessments suggest that North Korea has sent about 15,000 soldiers to Russia, and that nearly 5,000 of them have been killed or injured while fighting against Ukrainian forces. Washington and Seoul have also accused North Korea of supplying Russia with various types of military equipment, including artillery systems and shells and ballistic missiles.\n\nAfter denying its war involvement for months, North Korea last month confirmed for the first time that it had sent combat troops to help Russia in recapturing parts of the Kursk region, which had fallen to a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year. Moscow also acknowledged the North Korean involvement, with Putin issuing a statement thanking the North for sending troops to support his forces and promising not to forget their sacrifices.\n\nAnalysts say North Korea's official acknowledgment of its military support for Russia is likely aimed at cementing a deeper, long-term partnership with Moscow and securing greater compensation, potentially including advanced military technology that could enhance the threat posed by Kim's nuclear-armed forces.\n\nBy formalizing its role as a participant in the war, North Korea may also be positioning itself to seek compensation in future negotiations to end the conflict in Ukraine, according to a recent report by the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with South Korea's intelligence agency.\n\nIn a closed-door briefing to lawmakers last month, South Korea's National Intelligence Service also said it believes that North Korea has sent about 15,000 workers to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs.\n\nWhile the value of North Korean artillery and missiles supplied to Russia likely amounts to billions of dollars, there are no immediate signs that Russia has provided direct cash payments in return, the agency said. Instead, Russia has likely compensated North Korea with air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and technology for spy satellite launches, according to the assessment."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "982e68ef8dec850dd8e9ec4f1fdf9ceaecd2d95d8f8616ee3414d3515cf33792", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Civil rights agency moves to fire judge fighting Trump directives\n\nBy Claire Savage  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:11 PM\n\n---\n\nThe federal agency tasked with protecting workers' civil rights has moved to terminate a New York administrative judge who has resisted compliance with directives from the White House, including President Donald Trump's executive order decreeing male and female as two \"immutable\" sexes.\n\nThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to Trump's order has moved to drop at least seven of its own pending cases representing transgender workers alleging discrimination, and is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, signaling a major departure from its prior interpretation of civil rights law.\n\nEEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz, who in February criticized the agency's Trump-appointed head, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, in an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, on Wednesday was placed on administrative leave. She also received notice that the EEOC leadership sought to fire her, accusing her of \"profoundly unprofessional\" conduct.\n\n\"Of particular concern, your February email was ultimately circulated to multiple press outlets, potentially resulting in significant reputational harm to the agency,\" according to the notice, which included a PDF of a March 10 article by The Associated Press about Ortiz, along with other materials.\n\nAn EEOC spokesperson said on Monday that the agency had no comment on Ortiz's termination proceedings. But in its notice to Ortiz, the agency said its action \"does not pertain to the content of your disagreement with the Agency policy, but rather the disrespectful and disparaging manner in which you have conveyed your message.\"\n\nIn her February mass-email criticizing the agency's efforts to comply with Trump's order, Ortiz wrote to Lucas that \"You are not fit to be our chair much less hold a license to practice law,\" adding: \"I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law.\" The letter was leaked on Reddit, where it gained more than 10,000 \"upvotes.\" Many users cheered its author.\n\nThe EEOC subsequently revoked her email privileges for about a week and issued her a written reprimand for \"discourteous conduct.\"\n\nOrtiz's actions were cited in an April 18 White House proposal aimed to make it easier to fire some federal workers. It listed Ortiz as an example of bureaucrats who \"use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences.\"\n\nOrtiz said she was unfazed after being called out by the nation's highest office. Trump \"just gave me an even bigger platform,\" she said in an April 19 message to The AP.\n\nThe EEOC has undergone tumultuous change since Trump took office. He fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency in an unprecedented move that swept away what would have been a key barrier to his campaign to dismantle diversity and inclusion programs, end protections for transgender and nonbinary workers and other priorities. One of the dismissed commissioners, Jocelyn Samuels, filed a lawsuit challenging her termination, arguing her removal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act that created the agency to be an independent and bipartisan protector of the rights of workers. The move also left the agency without the quorum needed to make key decisions. But last week, Trump tapped an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, Brittany Panuccio, to fill one of the vacancies. If Panuccio is confirmed by the Senate, the EEOC would regain a quorum and establish a Republican majority 2-1, clearing the path to make major policy changes, including revising agency guidance on how to implement existing civil rights laws.\n\nSince February, Ortiz said she has continued to \"raise the alarm\" and convey her opposition to the agency's actions, including in an April 24 email to Lucas and several other internal email groups with the subject line, \"If You're Seeking Power, Here's Power\" and a link to Tears for Fears' 1985 hit \"Everybody Wants to Rule the World.\"\n\n\"Take in the lyrics,\" Ortiz wrote to Lucas. \"Ponder what you're allowing yourself to be a part of.\"\n\nHer ability to send emails was again promptly revoked.\n\nOrtiz said she plans to fight the termination, and is strategizing with her attorneys and union on how best to respond. She may reply to the dismissal notice within 15 days, and has the right to request a time extension, an attorney, a union representative, or another representative of her choosing, according to the document, which was acquired by The AP. A final decision will be issued after the reply period has passed.\n\n\"I've been quite the thorn in the agency's side,\" Ortiz said Monday in a phone interview with The AP. \"But, you know, it's warranted.\"\n\n________\n\nThe Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Civil rights agency moves to fire judge fighting Trump directives\n\nBy Claire Savage  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:11 PM\n\n---\n\nThe federal agency tasked with protecting workers' civil rights has moved to terminate a New York administrative judge who has resisted compliance with directives from the White House, including President Donald Trump's executive order decreeing male and female as two \"immutable\" sexes.\n\nThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to Trump's order has moved to drop at least seven of its own pending cases representing transgender workers alleging discrimination, and is classifying all new gender identity-related discrimination cases as its lowest priority, signaling a major departure from its prior interpretation of civil rights law.\n\nEEOC Administrative Judge Karen Ortiz, who in February criticized the agency's Trump-appointed head, Acting Chair Andrea Lucas, in an email copied to more than 1,000 colleagues, on Wednesday was placed on administrative leave. She also received notice that the EEOC leadership sought to fire her, accusing her of \"profoundly unprofessional\" conduct.\n\n\"Of particular concern, your February email was ultimately circulated to multiple press outlets, potentially resulting in significant reputational harm to the agency,\" according to the notice, which included a PDF of a March 10 article by The Associated Press about Ortiz, along with other materials.\n\nAn EEOC spokesperson said on Monday that the agency had no comment on Ortiz's termination proceedings. But in its notice to Ortiz, the agency said its action \"does not pertain to the content of your disagreement with the Agency policy, but rather the disrespectful and disparaging manner in which you have conveyed your message.\"\n\nIn her February mass-email criticizing the agency's efforts to comply with Trump's order, Ortiz wrote to Lucas that \"You are not fit to be our chair much less hold a license to practice law,\" adding: \"I will not compromise my ethics and my duty to uphold the law.\" The letter was leaked on Reddit, where it gained more than 10,000 \"upvotes.\" Many users cheered its author.\n\nThe EEOC subsequently revoked her email privileges for about a week and issued her a written reprimand for \"discourteous conduct.\"\n\nOrtiz's actions were cited in an April 18 White House proposal aimed to make it easier to fire some federal workers. It listed Ortiz as an example of bureaucrats who \"use the protections the system gives them to oppose presidential policies and impose their own preferences.\"\n\nOrtiz said she was unfazed after being called out by the nation's highest office. Trump \"just gave me an even bigger platform,\" she said in an April 19 message to The AP.\n\nThe EEOC has undergone tumultuous change since Trump took office. He fired two of the three Democratic commissioners of the federal agency in an unprecedented move that swept away what would have been a key barrier to his campaign to dismantle diversity and inclusion programs, end protections for transgender and nonbinary workers and other priorities. One of the dismissed commissioners, Jocelyn Samuels, filed a lawsuit challenging her termination, arguing her removal was a violation of the Civil Rights Act that created the agency to be an independent and bipartisan protector of the rights of workers. The move also left the agency without the quorum needed to make key decisions. But last week, Trump tapped an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, Brittany Panuccio, to fill one of the vacancies. If Panuccio is confirmed by the Senate, the EEOC would regain a quorum and establish a Republican majority 2-1, clearing the path to make major policy changes, including revising agency guidance on how to implement existing civil rights laws.\n\nSince February, Ortiz said she has continued to \"raise the alarm\" and convey her opposition to the agency's actions, including in an April 24 email to Lucas and several other internal email groups with the subject line, \"If You're Seeking Power, Here's Power\" and a link to Tears for Fears' 1985 hit \"Everybody Wants to Rule the World.\"\n\n\"Take in the lyrics,\" Ortiz wrote to Lucas. \"Ponder what you're allowing yourself to be a part of.\"\n\nHer ability to send emails was again promptly revoked.\n\nOrtiz said she plans to fight the termination, and is strategizing with her attorneys and union on how best to respond. She may reply to the dismissal notice within 15 days, and has the right to request a time extension, an attorney, a union representative, or another representative of her choosing, according to the document, which was acquired by The AP. A final decision will be issued after the reply period has passed.\n\n\"I've been quite the thorn in the agency's side,\" Ortiz said Monday in a phone interview with The AP. \"But, you know, it's warranted.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "2272ff637c2558c3d1bf29b655b11fd9ddd851ffd3255f0f5a3ee641300ced16", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Georgetown University student released from immigration detention after federal judge's ruling\n\nBy Olivia Diaz, Kendria Lafleur, and Ben Finley  \nMay 14th, 2025, 05:20 PM\n\n---\n\nALVARADO, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Georgetown University scholar from India who was arrested in the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign college students was released from immigration detention Wednesday after a federal judge's ruling.\n\nBadar Khan Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. He is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.\n\n\"Justice delayed is justice denied,\" Khan Suri told reporters after his release from a detention facility in Alvarado, near Dallas. \"It took two months, but I'm extremely thankful that finally I'm free.\"\n\nImmigration authorities have detained college students from across the country \u2014 many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war \u2014 since the first days of the Trump administration. Khan Suri is the latest to win release from custody, along with Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University.\n\nU.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said she was releasing Khan Suri because she felt he had substantial constitutional claims against the Trump administration. She also considered the needs of his family and said she didn't believe he was a danger to the community.\n\n\"Speech regarding the conflict there and opposing Israel's military campaign is likely protected political speech,\" Giles said. \"And thus he was likely engaging in protected speech.\"\n\nThe judge added: \"The First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens.\"\n\n## March arrest in Virginia\n\nKhan Suri was arrested by masked, plain-clothed officers on the evening of March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. He was then put on a plane to Louisiana and later to a detention center in Texas.\n\nThe Trump administration has said that it revoked Khan Suri's visa because of his social media posts and his wife's connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.\n\nKhan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh's father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade, but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri's attorneys say.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which he \"euphemistically refers to as 'the government of Gaza.'\" But the American Civil Liberties Union has said that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.\n\nGiles acknowledged the Trump administration's need to prioritize national security but said that \"whatever deference may be appropriate, concerns of national security\" do not supersede the judiciary.\n\nDavid Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, had argued against Khan Suri's release. He told the judge that Khan Suri's First Amendment case is inextricably intertwined with the deportation case in Texas, so he should stay there.\n\nAfter the court hearing, Khan Suri's lawyers declared victory and criticized the Trump administration for \"disappearing\" people over their ideas.\n\n\"He should have never had his First Amendment rights, which protect all of us regardless of citizenship, trampled on because ideas are not illegal,\" said Sophia Gregg, an ACLU attorney. \"Americans don't want to live in a country where the federal government disappears people whose views it doesn't like. If they can do this to Dr. Suri, they can do this to anyone.\"\n\n## 'Extremely happy' to be released\n\nKhan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and his wife have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.\n\nBefore his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.\n\nAfter his release, Khan Suri told reporters that he has studied conflict around the world and has sympathies for Jews and Arabs. He also thanked Jewish people and rabbis who came out in support of him.\n\nHe described his arrest as \"Kafkaesque.\"\n\n\"They said, 'Hey, are you, Badar? You're under arrest.' I said, 'For what?' They said, 'We will tell you later,' \" he recalled. \"And that thing never happened. They never said what wrong I did. My only wrong maybe is that I married a Palestinian girl, who is an American citizen, by the way.\"\n\n\"They made a subhuman out of me,\" he added. \"They took me from one center to another, not letting my family know, not letting me know that I have attorneys.\"\n\nHe said he's \"extremely happy\" to be out, but \"I feel bad for the students who are still inside.\"\n\n___\n\nOlivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.\n\n\u2014\u2014\n\nDiaz reported from Alexandria, Virginia. Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Georgetown University student released from immigration detention after federal judge's ruling\n\nBy Olivia Diaz, Kendria Lafleur, and Ben Finley  \nMay 14th, 2025, 05:20 PM\n\n---\n\nALVARADO, Texas (AP) \u2014 A Georgetown University scholar from India who was arrested in the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign college students was released from immigration detention Wednesday after a federal judge's ruling.\n\nBadar Khan Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. He is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.\n\n\"Justice delayed is justice denied,\" Khan Suri told reporters after his release from a detention facility in Alvarado, near Dallas. \"It took two months, but I'm extremely thankful that finally I'm free.\"\n\nImmigration authorities have detained college students from across the country \u2014 many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war \u2014 since the first days of the Trump administration. Khan Suri is the latest to win release from custody, along with Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University.\n\nU.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said she was releasing Khan Suri because she felt he had substantial constitutional claims against the Trump administration. She also considered the needs of his family and said she didn't believe he was a danger to the community.\n\n\"Speech regarding the conflict there and opposing Israel's military campaign is likely protected political speech,\" Giles said. \"And thus he was likely engaging in protected speech.\"\n\nThe judge added: \"The First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens.\"\n\n## March arrest in Virginia\n\nKhan Suri was arrested by masked, plain-clothed officers on the evening of March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. He was then put on a plane to Louisiana and later to a detention center in Texas.\n\nThe Trump administration has said that it revoked Khan Suri's visa because of his social media posts and his wife's connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.\n\nKhan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh's father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade, but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri's attorneys say.\n\nAccording to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which he \"euphemistically refers to as 'the government of Gaza.'\" But the American Civil Liberties Union has said that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.\n\nGiles acknowledged the Trump administration's need to prioritize national security but said that \"whatever deference may be appropriate, concerns of national security\" do not supersede the judiciary.\n\nDavid Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, had argued against Khan Suri's release. He told the judge that Khan Suri's First Amendment case is inextricably intertwined with the deportation case in Texas, so he should stay there.\n\nAfter the court hearing, Khan Suri's lawyers declared victory and criticized the Trump administration for \"disappearing\" people over their ideas.\n\n\"He should have never had his First Amendment rights, which protect all of us regardless of citizenship, trampled on because ideas are not illegal,\" said Sophia Gregg, an ACLU attorney. \"Americans don't want to live in a country where the federal government disappears people whose views it doesn't like. If they can do this to Dr. Suri, they can do this to anyone.\"\n\n## 'Extremely happy' to be released\n\nKhan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and his wife have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.\n\nBefore his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.\n\nAfter his release, Khan Suri told reporters that he has studied conflict around the world and has sympathies for Jews and Arabs. He also thanked Jewish people and rabbis who came out in support of him.\n\nHe described his arrest as \"Kafkaesque.\"\n\n\"They said, 'Hey, are you, Badar? You're under arrest.' I said, 'For what?' They said, 'We will tell you later,' \" he recalled. \"And that thing never happened. They never said what wrong I did. My only wrong maybe is that I married a Palestinian girl, who is an American citizen, by the way.\"\n\n\"They made a subhuman out of me,\" he added. \"They took me from one center to another, not letting my family know, not letting me know that I have attorneys.\"\n\nHe said he's \"extremely happy\" to be out, but \"I feel bad for the students who are still inside.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "79722866b850a79c6250096ec459efca535390532ad733407a4a7fb69d7ab46e", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Who's Shri Thanedar? The man on a doomed mission to impeach Donald Trump\n\nBy Isabella Volmert  \nMay 14th, 2025, 07:37 PM\n\n---\n\nLANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 A Michigan congressman is charging ahead \u2014 largely without support from his own party \u2014 in his attempt to impeach President Donald Trump, a move that comes as the congressman faces political trouble at home.\n\nSecond-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar has introduced seven articles of impeachment against the Republican president. Thanedar, who represents a safely Democratic Detroit-area district, is facing multiple primary challengers for a second time as some Democrats seek to shake up the party following the 2024 election.\n\nHere's the background.\n\n## Who is Shri Thanedar?\n\nThanedar, 70, represents Michigan's 13th Congressional District, a solidly Democratic district in Detroit. He easily won reelection in the November general election.\n\nPreviously, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2018 and then served one term in the state House of Representatives.\n\nAn immigrant from India, Thanedar has said he is pushing an impeachment resolution because he feels compelled to defend the Constitution. He has put up advertisements in Michigan demanding that Congress impeach Trump.\n\nThanedar was poised to force a vote on the resolution Wednesday, but backed down in the face of criticism from fellow Democrats. Still, Thanedar insisted he was not abandoning the effort and would seek to build more support.\n\n## When was he first elected?\n\nThanedar beat eight other Democratic candidates for the party nomination in 2022 before he went on to win his first term in Congress in November of that year. The win, however, left the city of Detroit without Black representation in Congress for the first time since the 1950s \u2014 a notable omission for a city that is nearly 80% Black.\n\nMany prominent Black leaders of Wayne County and Michigan Democrats \u2014 including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan \u2014 threw their support behind other primary candidates in 2024. One of his most viable competitors, state Sen. Adam Hollier, was kept off the ballot after election officials found that he had not submitted enough valid signatures.\n\nA businessman who made his career in the pharmaceutical and chemical world, Thanedar has poured millions of dollars of his own money into his political races, including $10 million on his unsuccessful run for governor.\n\n## Who is challenging Thanedar in the 2026 Democratic primary?\n\nTwo young Black Democrats, including Hollier, recently announced campaigns to unseat Thanedar in 2026. A spokesperson for Thanedar's campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the incumbent's challengers.\n\nMichigan Rep. Donovan McKinney launched his campaign for the position about two weeks ago. He has the backing of Justice Democrats, a group known for helping to elect progressive members to Congress, and he earned the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents the neighboring 12th Congressional district.\n\nThanedar's district features part of one of the largest Arab American populations in the U.S. Since the Israel-Hamas war, many of his constituents have decried his support for Israel. Tlaib, who represents the city of Dearborn, is the only Palestinian American in Congress and opposed the Biden and Trump administrations' unwavering support for Israel over the Gaza war.\n\n\"You all know I need a real partner in Washington, D.C. who will fight to represent and deliver for our Wayne County families,\" Tlaib said in a video endorsing McKinney posted on social media Monday.\n\n## Why is Thanedar pressing for impeachment now?\n\nAdrian Hemond, a Michigan-based political strategist, said the impeachment effort is likely to drive fundraising and mobilize support for Thanedar's primary race, even as it is destined to fail. The move may also be an attempt to \"box out\" Thanedar's primary challengers from media attention early in the race, he said.\n\n\"So it's smart politics for him,\" Hemond said.\n\nHollier called the impeachment resolution a \"publicity stunt\" in an interview with the Associated Press. He accused Thanedar of ignoring real needs of his district, such as veteran benefits and childcare.\n\n\"This is the kind of thing that Donald Trump wants Democrats to be doing,\" Hollier said.\n\nThanedar is expected to force a floor vote on the matter before the end of the day, but Republicans and possibly some Democrats will likely vote to table it.\n\n## Can Trump be impeached?\n\nGiven the Republican majority in Congress, almost certainly not. Thanedar's resolution is expected to fail in the House chamber if he calls it up for a vote.\n\nIf impeachment gained traction \u2014 more likely if Democrats gained a majority in next year's midterm elections \u2014 it would represent a historic third time that Trump has faced efforts to impeach him after he was twice impeached during his first term as president \u2014 first in 2019 on charges related to withholding military aid to Ukraine as it confronted Russia and later on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.\n\nTrump was acquitted both times by the Senate."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Who's Shri Thanedar? The man on a doomed mission to impeach Donald Trump\n\nBy Isabella Volmert  \nMay 14th, 2025, 07:37 PM\n\n---\n\nLANSING, Mich. (AP) \u2014 A Michigan congressman is charging ahead \u2014 largely without support from his own party \u2014 in his attempt to impeach President Donald Trump, a move that comes as the congressman faces political trouble at home.\n\nSecond-term U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar has introduced seven articles of impeachment against the Republican president. Thanedar, who represents a safely Democratic Detroit-area district, is facing multiple primary challengers for a second time as some Democrats seek to shake up the party following the 2024 election.\n\nHere's the background.\n\n## Who is Shri Thanedar?\n\nThanedar, 70, represents Michigan's 13th Congressional District, a solidly Democratic district in Detroit. He easily won reelection in the November general election.\n\nPreviously, he lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary to current Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2018 and then served one term in the state House of Representatives.\n\nAn immigrant from India, Thanedar has said he is pushing an impeachment resolution because he feels compelled to defend the Constitution. He has put up advertisements in Michigan demanding that Congress impeach Trump.\n\nThanedar was poised to force a vote on the resolution Wednesday, but backed down in the face of criticism from fellow Democrats. Still, Thanedar insisted he was not abandoning the effort and would seek to build more support.\n\n## When was he first elected?\n\nThanedar beat eight other Democratic candidates for the party nomination in 2022 before he went on to win his first term in Congress in November of that year. The win, however, left the city of Detroit without Black representation in Congress for the first time since the 1950s \u2014 a notable omission for a city that is nearly 80% Black.\n\nMany prominent Black leaders of Wayne County and Michigan Democrats \u2014 including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan \u2014 threw their support behind other primary candidates in 2024. One of his most viable competitors, state Sen. Adam Hollier, was kept off the ballot after election officials found that he had not submitted enough valid signatures.\n\nA businessman who made his career in the pharmaceutical and chemical world, Thanedar has poured millions of dollars of his own money into his political races, including $10 million on his unsuccessful run for governor.\n\n## Who is challenging Thanedar in the 2026 Democratic primary?\n\nTwo young Black Democrats, including Hollier, recently announced campaigns to unseat Thanedar in 2026. A spokesperson for Thanedar's campaign did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment about the incumbent's challengers.\n\nMichigan Rep. Donovan McKinney launched his campaign for the position about two weeks ago. He has the backing of Justice Democrats, a group known for helping to elect progressive members to Congress, and he earned the endorsement of U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who represents the neighboring 12th Congressional district.\n\nThanedar's district features part of one of the largest Arab American populations in the U.S. Since the Israel-Hamas war, many of his constituents have decried his support for Israel. Tlaib, who represents the city of Dearborn, is the only Palestinian American in Congress and opposed the Biden and Trump administrations' unwavering support for Israel over the Gaza war.\n\n\"You all know I need a real partner in Washington, D.C. who will fight to represent and deliver for our Wayne County families,\" Tlaib said in a video endorsing McKinney posted on social media Monday.\n\n## Why is Thanedar pressing for impeachment now?\n\nAdrian Hemond, a Michigan-based political strategist, said the impeachment effort is likely to drive fundraising and mobilize support for Thanedar's primary race, even as it is destined to fail. The move may also be an attempt to \"box out\" Thanedar's primary challengers from media attention early in the race, he said.\n\n\"So it's smart politics for him,\" Hemond said.\n\nHollier called the impeachment resolution a \"publicity stunt\" in an interview with the Associated Press. He accused Thanedar of ignoring real needs of his district, such as veteran benefits and childcare.\n\n\"This is the kind of thing that Donald Trump wants Democrats to be doing,\" Hollier said.\n\nThanedar is expected to force a floor vote on the matter before the end of the day, but Republicans and possibly some Democrats will likely vote to table it.\n\n## Can Trump be impeached?\n\nGiven the Republican majority in Congress, almost certainly not. Thanedar's resolution is expected to fail in the House chamber if he calls it up for a vote.\n\nIf impeachment gained traction \u2014 more likely if Democrats gained a majority in next year's midterm elections \u2014 it would represent a historic third time that Trump has faced efforts to impeach him after he was twice impeached during his first term as president \u2014 first in 2019 on charges related to withholding military aid to Ukraine as it confronted Russia and later on a charge of inciting insurrection over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.\n\nTrump was acquitted both times by the Senate."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e6c9af625187748c6f32216001cb698fc2b420cd1a8caecaa45e45370a78333c", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# China's seafood market clams up on US geoducks in boost to Canada's harvests\n\nBy Sally Ho and Manuel Valdes  \nMay 8th, 2025, 04:06 AM\n\n---\n\nSUQUAMISH, Wash. (AP) \u2014 For over two decades, Suquamish tribal member Joshua George has dived into the emerald waters of the Salish Sea looking for an unusually phallic clam that's coveted thousands of miles away.\n\nGeorge is a geoduck diver. Pronounced \"gooey-duck,\" the world's largest burrowing clam has been harvested in tidelands by George's Indigenous ancestors in the Pacific Northwest since before Europeans arrived.\n\nIn recent years it has also become a delicacy in China, with Washington state sending 90% of its geoducks there, creating a niche yet lucrative American seafood export.\n\nBut the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is now crippling an entire industry that hand-harvests geoducks, leaving Washington state divers without work, Seattle exporters without business and Chinese aficionados with fewer of these prized clams.\n\n\"It's the first time in 24 years where I don't know when or if we'll be going back to work or if I have to find another job or what we're going to do,\" George said.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's tariff-driven economic feud with China, which dates back to his first term in office, swiftly resumed in February within weeks of taking back the White House. By April, Trump had placed tariffs of at least 145% on China, which led China to retaliate with tariffs of 125% on the U.S.\n\nTop U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since the latest tariffs were imposed, but it is unclear where those talks will lead.\n\nEnter the geoduck, weighing about 2 pounds and so entrenched in local culture that it is the mascot for Evergreen State College in Olympia. The meaty mollusk is best described as sweet and briny, and it's often sliced raw for crisp sashimi out west while China consumers prefer it chewy in stir-fries or hot pot soups. Pre-tariff costs were as high as $100 per pound in restaurants, so it's a dish generally reserved for special occasions like Chinese New Year, or to celebrate a business gathering.\n\nUnlike other products with long-lasting shelf life and standing inventory, the trade war has had an immediate, direct effect on the delicate geoducks, which are shipped alive the same day of harvest.\n\n\"The whole market, everybody just had to stop,\" said Jim Boure, general manager of Suquamish Seafoods, an enterprise of the Suquamish Tribe. \"We started getting phone calls from buyers saying orders are canceled.\"\n\n## Fewer geoducks are being harvested\n\nThe millions of pounds of geoducks shipped annually to China come from two main sources: wild harvests on tracts of seafloor that are split between the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and Puget Sound Treaty Indian Tribes, and tideland farms. The state's share is auctioned to private exporters that often hire contract divers to harvest them.\n\nAs of late April, Washington state divers had only pulled about half of the expected harvest from the state tracts, said Blain Reeves, an aquatic resources division manager for the state's Department of Natural Resources. Last year, the state and tribes collectively harvested about 3.4 million pounds of wild Washington geoduck for sale. The state generated $22.4 million in revenue for their half of the clams, which went toward paying for aquatic restoration projects locally. The state doesn't track how much is harvested by private farmers.\n\n\"If only half the pounds that were contracted are harvested, then our revenue is halved,\" Reeves said.\n\nThe Suquamish operation has no orders to harvest for at the moment, but it still must keep up with the maintenance to stay ready for business if and when China comes calling.\n\nOn a recent April day, George's team made a quick trip to collect a handful of the clams for state lab testing.\n\n\"When we're doing the job, and it's not all this other political stuff behind the scenes and everything else, we love this,\" said George, adding that diving, which takes place early in the day so that the geoducks are on an airplane by evening, has allowed him to watch his kids grow up.\n\nFellow diver Kyle Purser said he cherishes his underwater job, but now fears it's being taken away.\n\n\"When you're watching your money disappear and you've got families to feed and not knowing when you're going to get your next paycheck, (it's) very stressful,\" he said.\n\n## America's loss is Canada's gain\n\nThe geoduck import market was already facing weaker demand in recent years due to the Chinese economy's struggle to regain post-pandemic momentum. While the tariffs have only exacerbated troubles for geoduck sellers in Washington, there's also been an unintended consequence: The American trade war has inadvertently boosted the Canadian geoduck business, which is facing a mere 25% tariff from China in comparison to the 125% for the U.S.\n\nWashington state in the U.S. and Canada's British Columbia province are the two primary places where the wild geoducks grow naturally for commercial harvest. The two countries did healthy business primarily serving Chinese appetites for decades, in part because quantities are limited. It's a labor-intensive and heavily-regulated harvest, as divers must go several feet below the surface to dig for them.\n\n\"They love the fact that it tastes like the sea,\" said James Austin, president of Canada's Underwater Harvesters Association. \"It's a product that's really a hit with the Chinese. It's all about the wild coastline. It's really prestigious.\"\n\nAustin said he expects there will be 2.75 million pounds of Canadian geoducks harvested in 2025, worth approximately $60 million Canadian dollars ($43.4 million USD) in revenue.\n\nWhile demand has been relatively low but still steady for Canadian's geoducks, Austin said they're now the leading exporters for China, which has helped them negotiate higher prices as a result. For example, after Canada got hit with a 25% tariff in March, export sale prices dropped to $12 per pound, and after the U.S. got hit with a 125% tariff in April, Canadian geoducks are now being sold for $17 a pound.\n\n\"We have no competitors right now,\" Austin said.\n\nYang Bin at Beihai Huaxiashougang Health Industry Company in Beihai city of Guangxi province in China said their seafood wholesale important business no longer gets geoduck from the U.S.\n\n\"We don't care about U.S. tariffs because we can get geoduck from other countries with stable prices,\" Yang said.\n\n## Waiting for geoducks\n\nOn their first week back to work since the tariff fight brought business to a standstill in Washington state, Derrick McRae and his brother pulled up about 800 pounds of wild geoducks in just one April day.\n\nHe donned a full-body diving outfit with an oxygen line tethered to his boat to dive under the cold waters of an inland sea channel west of Seattle. Kneeled on the seafloor, McRae used a water spray gun to move the sand covering the geoducks. In the cloud of sediment, he felt for the neck with his hand, pulling the clam and stuffing it in a net attached to him.\n\n\"We're just kind of waiting on the edge of our seats to see what happens next,\" McRae said.\n\nAt one of the southernmost inlets, farmer Ian Child said the tariff disruption is not just hurting his bottom line but the entire farming process. He usually places young geoducks in the sand in the summer, but he can't mix new crops with any existing unharvested clams.\n\n\"I think that the demand is still over there for the product,\" he said of China. \"I think they still want it. It's just a matter of where the tariffs will land.\"\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press researcher Yu Bing contributed from Beijing."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# China's seafood market clams up on US geoducks in boost to Canada's harvests\n\nBy Sally Ho and Manuel Valdes  \nMay 8th, 2025, 04:06 AM\n\n---\n\nSUQUAMISH, Wash. (AP) \u2014 For over two decades, Suquamish tribal member Joshua George has dived into the emerald waters of the Salish Sea looking for an unusually phallic clam that's coveted thousands of miles away.\n\nGeorge is a geoduck diver. Pronounced \"gooey-duck,\" the world's largest burrowing clam has been harvested in tidelands by George's Indigenous ancestors in the Pacific Northwest since before Europeans arrived.\n\nIn recent years it has also become a delicacy in China, with Washington state sending 90% of its geoducks there, creating a niche yet lucrative American seafood export.\n\nBut the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is now crippling an entire industry that hand-harvests geoducks, leaving Washington state divers without work, Seattle exporters without business and Chinese aficionados with fewer of these prized clams.\n\n\"It's the first time in 24 years where I don't know when or if we'll be going back to work or if I have to find another job or what we're going to do,\" George said.\n\nU.S. President Donald Trump's tariff-driven economic feud with China, which dates back to his first term in office, swiftly resumed in February within weeks of taking back the White House. By April, Trump had placed tariffs of at least 145% on China, which led China to retaliate with tariffs of 125% on the U.S.\n\nTop U.S. officials are set to meet with a high-level Chinese delegation this weekend in Switzerland in the first major talks between the two nations since the latest tariffs were imposed, but it is unclear where those talks will lead.\n\nEnter the geoduck, weighing about 2 pounds and so entrenched in local culture that it is the mascot for Evergreen State College in Olympia. The meaty mollusk is best described as sweet and briny, and it's often sliced raw for crisp sashimi out west while China consumers prefer it chewy in stir-fries or hot pot soups. Pre-tariff costs were as high as $100 per pound in restaurants, so it's a dish generally reserved for special occasions like Chinese New Year, or to celebrate a business gathering.\n\nUnlike other products with long-lasting shelf life and standing inventory, the trade war has had an immediate, direct effect on the delicate geoducks, which are shipped alive the same day of harvest.\n\n\"The whole market, everybody just had to stop,\" said Jim Boure, general manager of Suquamish Seafoods, an enterprise of the Suquamish Tribe. \"We started getting phone calls from buyers saying orders are canceled.\"\n\n## Fewer geoducks are being harvested\n\nThe millions of pounds of geoducks shipped annually to China come from two main sources: wild harvests on tracts of seafloor that are split between the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and Puget Sound Treaty Indian Tribes, and tideland farms. The state's share is auctioned to private exporters that often hire contract divers to harvest them.\n\nAs of late April, Washington state divers had only pulled about half of the expected harvest from the state tracts, said Blain Reeves, an aquatic resources division manager for the state's Department of Natural Resources. Last year, the state and tribes collectively harvested about 3.4 million pounds of wild Washington geoduck for sale. The state generated $22.4 million in revenue for their half of the clams, which went toward paying for aquatic restoration projects locally. The state doesn't track how much is harvested by private farmers.\n\n\"If only half the pounds that were contracted are harvested, then our revenue is halved,\" Reeves said.\n\nThe Suquamish operation has no orders to harvest for at the moment, but it still must keep up with the maintenance to stay ready for business if and when China comes calling.\n\nOn a recent April day, George's team made a quick trip to collect a handful of the clams for state lab testing.\n\n\"When we're doing the job, and it's not all this other political stuff behind the scenes and everything else, we love this,\" said George, adding that diving, which takes place early in the day so that the geoducks are on an airplane by evening, has allowed him to watch his kids grow up.\n\nFellow diver Kyle Purser said he cherishes his underwater job, but now fears it's being taken away.\n\n\"When you're watching your money disappear and you've got families to feed and not knowing when you're going to get your next paycheck, (it's) very stressful,\" he said.\n\n## America's loss is Canada's gain\n\nThe geoduck import market was already facing weaker demand in recent years due to the Chinese economy's struggle to regain post-pandemic momentum. While the tariffs have only exacerbated troubles for geoduck sellers in Washington, there's also been an unintended consequence: The American trade war has inadvertently boosted the Canadian geoduck business, which is facing a mere 25% tariff from China in comparison to the 125% for the U.S.\n\nWashington state in the U.S. and Canada's British Columbia province are the two primary places where the wild geoducks grow naturally for commercial harvest. The two countries did healthy business primarily serving Chinese appetites for decades, in part because quantities are limited. It's a labor-intensive and heavily-regulated harvest, as divers must go several feet below the surface to dig for them.\n\n\"They love the fact that it tastes like the sea,\" said James Austin, president of Canada's Underwater Harvesters Association. \"It's a product that's really a hit with the Chinese. It's all about the wild coastline. It's really prestigious.\"\n\nAustin said he expects there will be 2.75 million pounds of Canadian geoducks harvested in 2025, worth approximately $60 million Canadian dollars ($43.4 million USD) in revenue.\n\nWhile demand has been relatively low but still steady for Canadian's geoducks, Austin said they're now the leading exporters for China, which has helped them negotiate higher prices as a result. For example, after Canada got hit with a 25% tariff in March, export sale prices dropped to $12 per pound, and after the U.S. got hit with a 125% tariff in April, Canadian geoducks are now being sold for $17 a pound.\n\n\"We have no competitors right now,\" Austin said.\n\nYang Bin at Beihai Huaxiashougang Health Industry Company in Beihai city of Guangxi province in China said their seafood wholesale important business no longer gets geoduck from the U.S.\n\n\"We don't care about U.S. tariffs because we can get geoduck from other countries with stable prices,\" Yang said.\n\n## Waiting for geoducks\n\nOn their first week back to work since the tariff fight brought business to a standstill in Washington state, Derrick McRae and his brother pulled up about 800 pounds of wild geoducks in just one April day.\n\nHe donned a full-body diving outfit with an oxygen line tethered to his boat to dive under the cold waters of an inland sea channel west of Seattle. Kneeled on the seafloor, McRae used a water spray gun to move the sand covering the geoducks. In the cloud of sediment, he felt for the neck with his hand, pulling the clam and stuffing it in a net attached to him.\n\n\"We're just kind of waiting on the edge of our seats to see what happens next,\" McRae said.\n\nAt one of the southernmost inlets, farmer Ian Child said the tariff disruption is not just hurting his bottom line but the entire farming process. He usually places young geoducks in the sand in the summer, but he can't mix new crops with any existing unharvested clams.\n\n\"I think that the demand is still over there for the product,\" he said of China. \"I think they still want it. It's just a matter of where the tariffs will land.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "07f153c86493bdf783d026647b97a17ae6443567a3a4417aec7461746bc5d1b1", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Brazil's social security minister steps down amid pension fraud investigation\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:09 PM\n\n---\n\nSAO PAULO (AP) \u2014 Brazil 's social security minister resigned Friday amid a police probe into a billion-dollar fraud scheme involving pension payments by the National Social Security Institute.\n\nPresident Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva's administration said in a statement he accepted Carlos Lupi's resignation Friday during a meeting in the president's office.\n\nThe president invited former lawmaker Wolney Queiroz, the current Social Security executive secretary, to take over as minister.\n\nOn April 23, police said they were investigating a scheme that diverted over 6 billion reais ($1.05 billion) from pensions paid by the National Social Security Institute. Police said they seized 1 billion reais ($175.8 million) in assets and also issued arrest warrants for six people.\n\nThe probe targets 11 organizations that operated between 2019 and 2024. The scheme had retirees listed as members of associations that collected part of their monthly pensions as fees for the organizations. However, the retirees had never joined the associations and did not authorize the deductions.\n\nAs part of the probe, the president of the National Social Security Institute, Alessandro Stefanutto, and other directors were removed from their positions.\n\nIf the probe finds enough evidence, those investigated could face corruption charges, as well as charges of breaching secrecy, forging documents, setting up a criminal organization and money laundering.\n\nLupi said in a statement that he was stepping down but certain that his name has not been mentioned in the ongoing investigations, which he added were supported by his office and the federal government from the beginning.\n\n\"I hope the investigations continue naturally, identify those responsible, and punish, with full rigor, those who used their positions to harm the working people,\" he said. \"I will continue to follow the matter closely and collaborate with the government to ensure that, in the end, any and all funds that were diverted from our beneficiaries are fully recovered.\"\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Brazil's social security minister steps down amid pension fraud investigation\n\nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:09 PM\n\n---\n\nSAO PAULO (AP) \u2014 Brazil 's social security minister resigned Friday amid a police probe into a billion-dollar fraud scheme involving pension payments by the National Social Security Institute.\n\nPresident Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva's administration said in a statement he accepted Carlos Lupi's resignation Friday during a meeting in the president's office.\n\nThe president invited former lawmaker Wolney Queiroz, the current Social Security executive secretary, to take over as minister.\n\nOn April 23, police said they were investigating a scheme that diverted over 6 billion reais ($1.05 billion) from pensions paid by the National Social Security Institute. Police said they seized 1 billion reais ($175.8 million) in assets and also issued arrest warrants for six people.\n\nThe probe targets 11 organizations that operated between 2019 and 2024. The scheme had retirees listed as members of associations that collected part of their monthly pensions as fees for the organizations. However, the retirees had never joined the associations and did not authorize the deductions.\n\nAs part of the probe, the president of the National Social Security Institute, Alessandro Stefanutto, and other directors were removed from their positions.\n\nIf the probe finds enough evidence, those investigated could face corruption charges, as well as charges of breaching secrecy, forging documents, setting up a criminal organization and money laundering.\n\nLupi said in a statement that he was stepping down but certain that his name has not been mentioned in the ongoing investigations, which he added were supported by his office and the federal government from the beginning.\n\n\"I hope the investigations continue naturally, identify those responsible, and punish, with full rigor, those who used their positions to harm the working people,\" he said. \"I will continue to follow the matter closely and collaborate with the government to ensure that, in the end, any and all funds that were diverted from our beneficiaries are fully recovered.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "255b7631b0ceac047d0f07edbec7eb93d802f67a3a6f90f988cea8d0acaa2297", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Feds ask Musk's car company how its driverless taxis will avoid causing accidents in Texas rollout\n\nBy Bernard Condon  \nMay 13th, 2025, 07:35 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal safety regulators have asked Elon Musk's car company to explain how its driverless taxis will avoid causing accidents when they hit the road in Texas next month before a national \"robotaxi\" launch that is key to keeping its stock price aloft.\n\nTesla has been told to provide information on how its taxis will operate safely in Austin, Texas, when there is fog, sun glare, rain and other low-visibility conditions that have been tied to accidents involving the company's driver-assistance software. Those accidents, including one that killed a pedestrian, triggered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to launch an investigation in October of 2.4 million of Musk's vehicles.\n\nThe billionaire reassured investors on an earnings call last month that the robotaxi service would launch in Austin as planned and would quickly lead to millions of robotaxis and other autonomous self-driving Teslas operating around the country by the end of the year.\n\n\"We expect a green light after Tesla's response but the big focus is on more widespread launches in the U.S. after the Austin pilot kicks off,\" said Wedbush Securities stock analyst Dan Ives. \"It's a pivotal time for Musk.\"\n\nOn that same call, Musk said he was stepping back from his work as President Donald Trump's government cost-cutting czar. Tesla's shares have risen 45% since but they're still down about 17% year to date.\n\nRegulators routinely request safety information from automakers and NHTSA's order itself is not alarming, though it could lead to delays of the Austin launch if Tesla's answers to the nine-page letter made public by the agency on Monday are not satisfactory. The agency gave Tesla until June 19 to provide a response.\n\nFederal regulators have limited powers over new Tesla taxis that operate without a steering wheel or brake pedals because there are no national regulations on self-driving technology. One fall back is that the vehicles themselves still must past longstanding safety checks.\n\n\"NHTSA can force a recall, either 'voluntarily,' by Tesla, or by ordering a recall,\" said Ann Carlson, the former acting NHTSA chief. \"The agency cannot, however, require some sort of pre-approval before Tesla can launch.\"\n\nIn the letter, regulators posed several questions to Tesla in addition to those about low-visibility conditions. They asked for the number and models of the taxis, when and where the taxis will be deployed in the next several months, how they will be monitored remotely by Tesla in real time, the cameras and other sensors being used to guide the vehicles, the specific measures used to judge whether they are navigating the streets in a safe way, and the names of people at Tesla making those evaluations.\n\nIn his investor conference call last month, Musk spoke of an effortless driving future coming within months.\n\n\"Can you go to sleep in our cars and wake up at your destination?\" the billionaire asked, then answered, \"I'm confident that will be available in many cities in the U.S. by the end of this year.\"\n\nIf such a future doesn't come soon, the company could struggle to justify the stock's still-high price.\n\nTesla reported a 71% drop in profits in the first quarter as it faced angry protests over Musk's embrace of extreme right-wing politicians in Europe and his role in cutting government jobs that has divided the country."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Feds ask Musk's car company how its driverless taxis will avoid causing accidents in Texas rollout\n\nBy Bernard Condon  \nMay 13th, 2025, 07:35 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Federal safety regulators have asked Elon Musk's car company to explain how its driverless taxis will avoid causing accidents when they hit the road in Texas next month before a national \"robotaxi\" launch that is key to keeping its stock price aloft.\n\nTesla has been told to provide information on how its taxis will operate safely in Austin, Texas, when there is fog, sun glare, rain and other low-visibility conditions that have been tied to accidents involving the company's driver-assistance software. Those accidents, including one that killed a pedestrian, triggered the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to launch an investigation in October of 2.4 million of Musk's vehicles.\n\nThe billionaire reassured investors on an earnings call last month that the robotaxi service would launch in Austin as planned and would quickly lead to millions of robotaxis and other autonomous self-driving Teslas operating around the country by the end of the year.\n\n\"We expect a green light after Tesla's response but the big focus is on more widespread launches in the U.S. after the Austin pilot kicks off,\" said Wedbush Securities stock analyst Dan Ives. \"It's a pivotal time for Musk.\"\n\nOn that same call, Musk said he was stepping back from his work as President Donald Trump's government cost-cutting czar. Tesla's shares have risen 45% since but they're still down about 17% year to date.\n\nRegulators routinely request safety information from automakers and NHTSA's order itself is not alarming, though it could lead to delays of the Austin launch if Tesla's answers to the nine-page letter made public by the agency on Monday are not satisfactory. The agency gave Tesla until June 19 to provide a response.\n\nFederal regulators have limited powers over new Tesla taxis that operate without a steering wheel or brake pedals because there are no national regulations on self-driving technology. One fall back is that the vehicles themselves still must past longstanding safety checks.\n\n\"NHTSA can force a recall, either 'voluntarily,' by Tesla, or by ordering a recall,\" said Ann Carlson, the former acting NHTSA chief. \"The agency cannot, however, require some sort of pre-approval before Tesla can launch.\"\n\nIn the letter, regulators posed several questions to Tesla in addition to those about low-visibility conditions. They asked for the number and models of the taxis, when and where the taxis will be deployed in the next several months, how they will be monitored remotely by Tesla in real time, the cameras and other sensors being used to guide the vehicles, the specific measures used to judge whether they are navigating the streets in a safe way, and the names of people at Tesla making those evaluations.\n\nIn his investor conference call last month, Musk spoke of an effortless driving future coming within months.\n\n\"Can you go to sleep in our cars and wake up at your destination?\" the billionaire asked, then answered, \"I'm confident that will be available in many cities in the U.S. by the end of this year.\"\n\nIf such a future doesn't come soon, the company could struggle to justify the stock's still-high price.\n\nTesla reported a 71% drop in profits in the first quarter as it faced angry protests over Musk's embrace of extreme right-wing politicians in Europe and his role in cutting government jobs that has divided the country."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "4181f7bce45423c4de5dc038901bc0ff3dd1abc6fdf36ad2b9f5f50967711fb8", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# In coffee-producing Uganda, an emerging sisterhood wants more women involved\n\nBy Rodney Muhumuza  \nMay 10th, 2025, 04:12 AM\n\n---\n\nSIRONKO, Uganda (AP) \u2014 Meridah Nandudu envisioned a coffee sisterhood in Uganda, and the strategy for expanding it was simple: Pay a higher price per kilogram when a female grower took the beans to a collection point.\n\nIt worked. More and more men who typically made the deliveries allowed their wives to go instead.\n\nNandudu's business group now includes more than 600 women, up from dozens in 2022. That's about 75% of her Bayaaya Specialty Coffee's pool of registered farmers in this mountainous area of eastern Uganda that produces prized arabica beans and sells to exporters.\n\n\"Women have been so discouraged by coffee in a way that, when you look at (the) coffee value chain, women do the donkey work,\" Nandudu said. But when the coffee is ready for selling, men step in to claim the proceeds.\n\nHer goal is to reverse that trend in a community where coffee production is not possible without women's labor.\n\nUganda is one of Africa's top two coffee producers, and the crop is its leading export. The east African country exported more than 6 million bags of coffee between September 2023 and August 2024, accounting for $1.3 billion in earnings, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.\n\nThe earnings have been rising as production dwindles in Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, which faces unfavorable drought conditions.\n\nIn Sironko district, where Nandudu grew up in a remote village near the Kenya border, coffee is the community's lifeblood. As a girl, when she was not at school, she helped her mother and other women look after acres of coffee plants. They usually planted, weeded and toiled with the post-harvest routine that includes pulping, fermenting, washing and drying the coffee.\n\nThe harvest season was known to coincide with a surge in cases of domestic violence, she said. Couples fought over how much of the earnings that men brought home from sales \u2014 and how much they didn't.\n\n\"When (men) go and sell, they are not accountable. Our mothers cannot ask, 'We don't have food at home. You sold coffee. Can you pay school fees for this child?'\" she said.\n\nYears later, Nandudu earned her degree in the social sciences from Uganda's top public university in 2015, with her father funding her education from coffee earnings. She had the idea to launch a company that would prioritize the needs of coffee-producing women in the country's conservative society.\n\nShe thought of her project as a kind of sisterhood and chose \"bayaaya\" \u2014 a translation in the Lumasaba language \u2014 for her company's name.\n\nIt launched in 2018, operating like others that buy coffee directly from farmers and process it for export.\n\nBut Bayaaya is unique in Mbale, the largest city in eastern Uganda, for focusing on women and for initiatives such as a cooperative saving society that members can contribute to and borrow from.\n\nFor small-holder Ugandan farmers in remote areas, a small movement in the price of a kilogram of coffee is a major event. The decision to sell to one or another middleman often hinges on small price differences.\n\nA decade ago, the price of coffee bought by a middleman from a Ugandan farmer was roughly 8,000 Uganda shillings, or just over $2 at today's exchange rate. Now the price is roughly $5.\n\nNandudu adds an extra 200 shillings to the price of every kilogram she buys from a woman. It's enough of an incentive that more women are joining. Another benefit is a small bonus payment during the off-season from February to August.\n\nThat motivates many local men \"to trust their women to sell coffee,\" Nandudu said. \"When a woman sells coffee, she has a hand in it.\"\n\nNandudu's group has many collection points across eastern Uganda, and women trek to them at least twice a week. Men are not turned away.\n\nSelling as a Bayaaya member has fostered teamwork as her family collectively decides how to spend coffee earnings, said Linet Gimono, who joined the group in 2022.\n\nAnd with assured earnings, she's able to afford the \"small things\" she often needs as a woman. \"I can buy soap (and) I can buy sugar without pulling ropes with my husband over it,\" she said.\n\nAnother member, Juliet Kwaga, said her mother never would have thought of collecting coffee earnings because her father was very much in charge.\n\nNow, Kwaga's husband, with a bit of encouragement, is comfortable sending her. \"At the end of the day I go home with something to feed my family, to support my children,\" she said.\n\nIn Sironko district, home to more than 200,000 people, coffee trees dot the hilly terrain. Much of the farming is on plots of one or two acres, although some families have larger tracts.\n\nMany farmers don't usually drink coffee, and some have never tasted it. Some women smiled in embarrassment when asked what it tasted like.\n\nBut things are slowly changing. Routine coffee drinkers are emerging among younger women in the coffee business in urban areas, including at a roasting place in Mbale where most employees are women.\n\nPhoebe Nabutale, who helps oversee quality assurance for Darling Coffee, was raised in a family of coffee growers. She bent over the roaster, smelling the beans until she got the aroma she wanted.\n\nMany of her girlfriends, she said, regularly ask how they can break into the coffee business, as roasters or otherwise.\n\nFor Nandudu, who aims to start exporting beans, that's progress.\n\nNow there are more women in \"coffee as a business,\" she said.\n\n___\n\nFor more on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse\n\nThe Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# In coffee-producing Uganda, an emerging sisterhood wants more women involved\n\nBy Rodney Muhumuza  \nMay 10th, 2025, 04:12 AM\n\n---\n\nSIRONKO, Uganda (AP) \u2014 Meridah Nandudu envisioned a coffee sisterhood in Uganda, and the strategy for expanding it was simple: Pay a higher price per kilogram when a female grower took the beans to a collection point.\n\nIt worked. More and more men who typically made the deliveries allowed their wives to go instead.\n\nNandudu's business group now includes more than 600 women, up from dozens in 2022. That's about 75% of her Bayaaya Specialty Coffee's pool of registered farmers in this mountainous area of eastern Uganda that produces prized arabica beans and sells to exporters.\n\n\"Women have been so discouraged by coffee in a way that, when you look at (the) coffee value chain, women do the donkey work,\" Nandudu said. But when the coffee is ready for selling, men step in to claim the proceeds.\n\nHer goal is to reverse that trend in a community where coffee production is not possible without women's labor.\n\nUganda is one of Africa's top two coffee producers, and the crop is its leading export. The east African country exported more than 6 million bags of coffee between September 2023 and August 2024, accounting for $1.3 billion in earnings, according to the Uganda Coffee Development Authority.\n\nThe earnings have been rising as production dwindles in Brazil, the world's top coffee producer, which faces unfavorable drought conditions.\n\nIn Sironko district, where Nandudu grew up in a remote village near the Kenya border, coffee is the community's lifeblood. As a girl, when she was not at school, she helped her mother and other women look after acres of coffee plants. They usually planted, weeded and toiled with the post-harvest routine that includes pulping, fermenting, washing and drying the coffee.\n\nThe harvest season was known to coincide with a surge in cases of domestic violence, she said. Couples fought over how much of the earnings that men brought home from sales \u2014 and how much they didn't.\n\n\"When (men) go and sell, they are not accountable. Our mothers cannot ask, 'We don't have food at home. You sold coffee. Can you pay school fees for this child?'\" she said.\n\nYears later, Nandudu earned her degree in the social sciences from Uganda's top public university in 2015, with her father funding her education from coffee earnings. She had the idea to launch a company that would prioritize the needs of coffee-producing women in the country's conservative society.\n\nShe thought of her project as a kind of sisterhood and chose \"bayaaya\" \u2014 a translation in the Lumasaba language \u2014 for her company's name.\n\nIt launched in 2018, operating like others that buy coffee directly from farmers and process it for export.\n\nBut Bayaaya is unique in Mbale, the largest city in eastern Uganda, for focusing on women and for initiatives such as a cooperative saving society that members can contribute to and borrow from.\n\nFor small-holder Ugandan farmers in remote areas, a small movement in the price of a kilogram of coffee is a major event. The decision to sell to one or another middleman often hinges on small price differences.\n\nA decade ago, the price of coffee bought by a middleman from a Ugandan farmer was roughly 8,000 Uganda shillings, or just over $2 at today's exchange rate. Now the price is roughly $5.\n\nNandudu adds an extra 200 shillings to the price of every kilogram she buys from a woman. It's enough of an incentive that more women are joining. Another benefit is a small bonus payment during the off-season from February to August.\n\nThat motivates many local men \"to trust their women to sell coffee,\" Nandudu said. \"When a woman sells coffee, she has a hand in it.\"\n\nNandudu's group has many collection points across eastern Uganda, and women trek to them at least twice a week. Men are not turned away.\n\nSelling as a Bayaaya member has fostered teamwork as her family collectively decides how to spend coffee earnings, said Linet Gimono, who joined the group in 2022.\n\nAnd with assured earnings, she's able to afford the \"small things\" she often needs as a woman. \"I can buy soap (and) I can buy sugar without pulling ropes with my husband over it,\" she said.\n\nAnother member, Juliet Kwaga, said her mother never would have thought of collecting coffee earnings because her father was very much in charge.\n\nNow, Kwaga's husband, with a bit of encouragement, is comfortable sending her. \"At the end of the day I go home with something to feed my family, to support my children,\" she said.\n\nIn Sironko district, home to more than 200,000 people, coffee trees dot the hilly terrain. Much of the farming is on plots of one or two acres, although some families have larger tracts.\n\nMany farmers don't usually drink coffee, and some have never tasted it. Some women smiled in embarrassment when asked what it tasted like.\n\nBut things are slowly changing. Routine coffee drinkers are emerging among younger women in the coffee business in urban areas, including at a roasting place in Mbale where most employees are women.\n\nPhoebe Nabutale, who helps oversee quality assurance for Darling Coffee, was raised in a family of coffee growers. She bent over the roaster, smelling the beans until she got the aroma she wanted.\n\nMany of her girlfriends, she said, regularly ask how they can break into the coffee business, as roasters or otherwise.\n\nFor Nandudu, who aims to start exporting beans, that's progress.\n\nNow there are more women in \"coffee as a business,\" she said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "34a9871c5456fb7231fee5b03fe11dd2822a55ce6f52a4db3b7e783518707969", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Ex-NYC Mayor de Blasio agrees to pay $330K for misusing public funds on failed White House bid\n\nBy Jake Offenhartz  \nMay 14th, 2025, 05:44 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay a $329,794 fine to settle an ethics board's complaint that he misspent public funds on his security detail during his brief, failed run for U.S. president.\n\nThe deal, announced Wednesday by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board, is the costliest repayment order in the ethics board's history. But it allows de Blasio to avoid an even steeper penalty of $475,000 that was previously imposed, a reduction the board said came in light of the former mayor's \"financial situation.\"\n\nIn exchange, de Blasio agreed to drop his appeal of the board's finding. And for the first time, he admitted that he received written warning that his out-of-state security expenses could not legally be covered by city taxpayers.\n\n\"In contradiction of the written guidance I received from the Board, I did not reimburse the City for these expenses,\" de Blasio wrote in the settlement, adding: \"I made a mistake and I deeply regret it.\"\n\nThe payments concern the $319,794.20 in travel-related expenses \u2014 including airfare, lodging, meals \u2014 that de Blasio's security detail incurred while accompanying him on trips across the country during his presidential campaign in 2019. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.\n\nThe campaign elicited a mix of mockery and grousing by city residents, who accused the Democrat of abandoning his duties as second-term mayor for the national spotlight. It was suspended within four months.\n\nUnder the agreement, de Blasio must pay $100,000 immediately, followed by quarterly installments of nearly $15,000 for the next four years. If he misses a payment, he will be deemed in default and ordered to pay the full $475,000.\n\nThe funds will eventually make their way back into the city treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Conflicts of Interest Board.\n\nAn attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment on the settlement.\n\nDe Blasio had previously argued that forcing him to cover the cost of his security detail's travel violated his First Amendment rights by creating an \"unequal burden\" between wealthy candidates and career public servants.\n\nSince leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a lecturer at multiple universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and delivered paid speeches in Italy."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Ex-NYC Mayor de Blasio agrees to pay $330K for misusing public funds on failed White House bid\n\nBy Jake Offenhartz  \nMay 14th, 2025, 05:44 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has agreed to pay a $329,794 fine to settle an ethics board's complaint that he misspent public funds on his security detail during his brief, failed run for U.S. president.\n\nThe deal, announced Wednesday by the city's Conflicts of Interest Board, is the costliest repayment order in the ethics board's history. But it allows de Blasio to avoid an even steeper penalty of $475,000 that was previously imposed, a reduction the board said came in light of the former mayor's \"financial situation.\"\n\nIn exchange, de Blasio agreed to drop his appeal of the board's finding. And for the first time, he admitted that he received written warning that his out-of-state security expenses could not legally be covered by city taxpayers.\n\n\"In contradiction of the written guidance I received from the Board, I did not reimburse the City for these expenses,\" de Blasio wrote in the settlement, adding: \"I made a mistake and I deeply regret it.\"\n\nThe payments concern the $319,794.20 in travel-related expenses \u2014 including airfare, lodging, meals \u2014 that de Blasio's security detail incurred while accompanying him on trips across the country during his presidential campaign in 2019. He will also pay a $10,000 fine.\n\nThe campaign elicited a mix of mockery and grousing by city residents, who accused the Democrat of abandoning his duties as second-term mayor for the national spotlight. It was suspended within four months.\n\nUnder the agreement, de Blasio must pay $100,000 immediately, followed by quarterly installments of nearly $15,000 for the next four years. If he misses a payment, he will be deemed in default and ordered to pay the full $475,000.\n\nThe funds will eventually make their way back into the city treasury, according to a spokesperson for the Conflicts of Interest Board.\n\nAn attorney for de Blasio, Andrew G. Celli Jr., declined to comment on the settlement.\n\nDe Blasio had previously argued that forcing him to cover the cost of his security detail's travel violated his First Amendment rights by creating an \"unequal burden\" between wealthy candidates and career public servants.\n\nSince leaving office in 2021, de Blasio has worked as a lecturer at multiple universities, most recently the University of Michigan, and delivered paid speeches in Italy."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "f3e1d9533d0a1edf9e5f194dab5602ea14eb37ed0f8b11714a3ef9716ae58fa7", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signs bill to tap unused ACA insurance funds for abortion grant program\n\nBy Brian Witte  \nMay 13th, 2025, 06:35 PM\n\n---\n\nANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) \u2014 Maryland will become the first state to use money collected from a surcharge on insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act to fund a program to pay for abortions, regardless of a patient's insurance coverage, under a measure signed into law Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.\n\nThe law will make about $25 million available when it takes effect July 1, because a $1 surcharge has been unused and growing over the last 15 years since the ACA took effect in 2010. It's estimated to make about $3 million available annually in future years.\n\n\"The lieutenant governor and I were very clear from Day 1 \u2014 that Maryland will always be a safe haven for abortion access,\" Moore said, highlighting the measure among some 170 bills signed at a ceremony.\n\nThe program will be paid for through the transfer of certain insurance premium funds collected by carriers that can only be used for abortion coverage in accordance with the ACA. Supporters say other states have access to a similar surplus of funds through their state exchange insurance systems.\n\n\"If programs like ours are duplicated across the country, we could help millions of Americans access essential abortion care \u2014 without relying on taxpayer dollars,\" said Del. Lesley Lopez, a Democrat from Maryland's Montgomery County, in the suburbs of the nation's capital.\n\nOfficials in New York and Illinois already have reached out to Maryland officials to learn more about the program, said Lopez, who sponsored the bill.\n\nA dozen states require abortion coverage in ACA marketplace plans, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues. They are California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.\n\n\"This money exists in every state that has abortion as a required type of care under their state's benefit exchanges,\" Lopez said. \"It's basically all the blue states that mandated abortion be covered when the Affordable Care Act was starting to be implemented.\"\n\nThe law creates a grant program fund in the state's health department to improve access to abortion clinical services. It requires the department to award grants to nonprofit organizations to support equitable access.\n\nLynn McCann-Yeh, co-executive director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund, which helps pay costs associated with abortion for people who live in Maryland or who travel there, said it's hard to keep up with an annual budget of about $2 million.\n\n\"We would need many, many more times over that to fully be able to meet the full logistic and medical support for each caller,\" she said.\n\nShe said the $3 million that would be made available annually under the new law could make a major difference. The fund could apply to administer a share of that money.\n\n\"The $3 million is a great start, but it will take more than that and it will take sustained funding,\" she said.\n\nMaryland's legislature is controlled by Democrats, who hold a 2-1 advantage over Republicans in voter registration statewide. Last year, Maryland voters approved a constitutional amendment with 76% support to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution, in response to the 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. The court's decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization gave control over abortion to the states.\n\n\"I think before the Dobbs decision, there just wasn't quite the same type of urgency as there is now,\" Lopez said. \"We've seen abortion bans in some form or another in double digits in states across the country, so we've got to make sure that we shore up all the support we can in a state like Maryland that has it as a constitutionally protected right.\"\n\nTwelve states currently enforce abortion bans with limited exceptions at all stages of pregnancy. Four more have bans that kick in after about six weeks, which is before many women know they're pregnant.\n\nThe Dobb decision and an influx of people from other states seeking abortions in Maryland has made the financial need more urgent, supporters of the law say.\n\nMaryland has been seeing an increase in patients from other states where abortion has been banned. Last year, 15% of abortions in Maryland were obtained by patients from other states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. That's a decrease from 20% in 2023.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press journalist Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signs bill to tap unused ACA insurance funds for abortion grant program\n\nBy Brian Witte  \nMay 13th, 2025, 06:35 PM\n\n---\n\nANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) \u2014 Maryland will become the first state to use money collected from a surcharge on insurance plans sold under the Affordable Care Act to fund a program to pay for abortions, regardless of a patient's insurance coverage, under a measure signed into law Tuesday by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.\n\nThe law will make about $25 million available when it takes effect July 1, because a $1 surcharge has been unused and growing over the last 15 years since the ACA took effect in 2010. It's estimated to make about $3 million available annually in future years.\n\n\"The lieutenant governor and I were very clear from Day 1 \u2014 that Maryland will always be a safe haven for abortion access,\" Moore said, highlighting the measure among some 170 bills signed at a ceremony.\n\nThe program will be paid for through the transfer of certain insurance premium funds collected by carriers that can only be used for abortion coverage in accordance with the ACA. Supporters say other states have access to a similar surplus of funds through their state exchange insurance systems.\n\n\"If programs like ours are duplicated across the country, we could help millions of Americans access essential abortion care \u2014 without relying on taxpayer dollars,\" said Del. Lesley Lopez, a Democrat from Maryland's Montgomery County, in the suburbs of the nation's capital.\n\nOfficials in New York and Illinois already have reached out to Maryland officials to learn more about the program, said Lopez, who sponsored the bill.\n\nA dozen states require abortion coverage in ACA marketplace plans, according to KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues. They are California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.\n\n\"This money exists in every state that has abortion as a required type of care under their state's benefit exchanges,\" Lopez said. \"It's basically all the blue states that mandated abortion be covered when the Affordable Care Act was starting to be implemented.\"\n\nThe law creates a grant program fund in the state's health department to improve access to abortion clinical services. It requires the department to award grants to nonprofit organizations to support equitable access.\n\nLynn McCann-Yeh, co-executive director of the Baltimore Abortion Fund, which helps pay costs associated with abortion for people who live in Maryland or who travel there, said it's hard to keep up with an annual budget of about $2 million.\n\n\"We would need many, many more times over that to fully be able to meet the full logistic and medical support for each caller,\" she said.\n\nShe said the $3 million that would be made available annually under the new law could make a major difference. The fund could apply to administer a share of that money.\n\n\"The $3 million is a great start, but it will take more than that and it will take sustained funding,\" she said.\n\nMaryland's legislature is controlled by Democrats, who hold a 2-1 advantage over Republicans in voter registration statewide. Last year, Maryland voters approved a constitutional amendment with 76% support to enshrine abortion rights in the state's constitution, in response to the 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. The court's decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization gave control over abortion to the states.\n\n\"I think before the Dobbs decision, there just wasn't quite the same type of urgency as there is now,\" Lopez said. \"We've seen abortion bans in some form or another in double digits in states across the country, so we've got to make sure that we shore up all the support we can in a state like Maryland that has it as a constitutionally protected right.\"\n\nTwelve states currently enforce abortion bans with limited exceptions at all stages of pregnancy. Four more have bans that kick in after about six weeks, which is before many women know they're pregnant.\n\nThe Dobb decision and an influx of people from other states seeking abortions in Maryland has made the financial need more urgent, supporters of the law say.\n\nMaryland has been seeing an increase in patients from other states where abortion has been banned. Last year, 15% of abortions in Maryland were obtained by patients from other states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. That's a decrease from 20% in 2023."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "88561ca43f7596a67135cf0be37ae222830ec511d8d42d96adcfd0b3339c27d2", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# First aid trucks enter Gaza after nearly 3 months of Israel's blockade\n\nBy Tia Goldenberg, Samy Magdy, and Wafaa Shurafa  \nMay 19th, 2025, 08:27 AM\n\n---\n\nTEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 The first few aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday following nearly three months of Israel's blockade of food, medicine and other supplies, Israel and the United Nations said, as Israel acknowledged growing pressure from allies including the United States.\n\nFive trucks carrying baby food and other desperately needed aid entered the territory of over 2 million Palestinians via the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, COGAT.\n\nThe U.N. humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, called it a \"welcome development\" but described the trucks as a \"drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.\" Food security experts last week warned of famine in Gaza. During the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March, some 600 aid trucks entered Gaza each day.\n\nFletcher said an additional four U.N. trucks were cleared to enter Gaza. Those trucks may enter Tuesday, COGAT said. Fletcher added that given the chaotic situation on the ground, the U.N. expects the aid could be looted or stolen, a growing problem as resources became increasingly scarce.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his decision to resume \"minimal\" aid to Gaza came after allies said they couldn't support Israel's new military offensive if there are \"images of hunger\" coming from the Palestinian territory.\n\nShortly after Israel announced the first trucks entered Gaza, the U.K., France and Canada issued a sharply worded joint statement calling the aid \"wholly inadequate.\" They threatened \"concrete actions\" against Israel, including sanctions, for its activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to stop its \"egregious\" new military actions in Gaza.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the joint statement and called it \"a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7.\"\n\nIsrael over the weekend launched a new wave of air and ground operations across Gaza, and the army ordered the evacuation of its second-largest city, Khan Younis, where a massive operation earlier in the 19-month war left much of the area in ruins.\n\nIsrael says it is pressuring Hamas to release the remaining hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. Hamas has said it will only release them in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.\n\nNetanyahu repeated Monday that Israel plans on \"taking control of all of Gaza.\" He has said Israel will encourage what he describes as the voluntary emigration of much of Gaza's population to other countries \u2014 something that Palestinians have rejected.\n\n## Allies pressure Israel\n\nIn a video statement, Netanyahu said Israel's \"greatest friends in the world\" had told him, \"We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.\"\n\nThe Trump administration, which has voiced full support for Israel's actions and blames Hamas for deaths in Gaza, has expressed growing concern over the hunger crisis. President Donald Trump \u2014 who skipped Israel on his trip to the region last week \u2014 voiced concern, as did Secretary of State Marco Rubio.\n\nNetanyahu's video statement appeared aimed at pacifying anger in his nationalist base at the decision to resume aid. Two far-right governing partners have pressed Netanyahu not to allow aid into Gaza.\n\nAid into Gaza would be \"minimal,\" Netanyahu said, and would act as a bridge toward the launch of a new aid system in Gaza. A U.S.-backed organization will distribute assistance in hubs that will be secured by the Israeli military.\n\nIsrael says the plan is meant to prevent Hamas from accessing aid, which Israel says it uses to bolster its rule in Gaza.\n\nU.N. agencies and aid groups have rejected the plan, saying it won't reach enough people and would weaponize aid in contravention of humanitarian principles. They have refused to take part.\n\nAccording to aid officials familiar with the plan, it will involve setting up distribution points mostly in southern Gaza, forcing many Palestinians to move south once again. The recent ceasefire saw hundreds of thousands return to homes in the north.\n\n## Threat of sanctions\n\nThe statement by France, Canada and the U.K. marked one of their most significant criticisms of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank.\n\n\"We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank,\" the three countries said, calling them illegal.\n\nThe countries said they have always supported Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism but called the military escalation in Gaza disproportionate. The countries earlier criticized the new U.S.-backed proposal for aid delivery in Gaza, saying it would not align with humanitarian law.\n\nCanada has already imposed a series of sanctions against Israel over the last two years regarding settler violence in the West Bank. It was unclear how much France can act unilaterally given that it is a member of the European Union.\n\nIn a separate, letter Monday, the foreign ministers of Germany, Italy, Japan and 18 other countries \u2014 not including the United States \u2014 called for Israel to fully reopen humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza by the U.N. and non-governmental organizations.\n\nThe war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.\n\nIsrael's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.\n\nThe war has displaced around 90% of its population, most of them multiple times.\n\n___\n\nMagdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip. Associated Press writers Farmoush Amiri in New York, Sam Mednick in Jerusalem, Sarah El Deeb in Beirut, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed.\n\n___\n\nFollow AP's war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# First aid trucks enter Gaza after nearly 3 months of Israel's blockade\n\nBy Tia Goldenberg, Samy Magdy, and Wafaa Shurafa  \nMay 19th, 2025, 08:27 AM\n\n---\n\nTEL AVIV, Israel (AP) \u2014 The first few aid trucks entered Gaza on Monday following nearly three months of Israel's blockade of food, medicine and other supplies, Israel and the United Nations said, as Israel acknowledged growing pressure from allies including the United States.\n\nFive trucks carrying baby food and other desperately needed aid entered the territory of over 2 million Palestinians via the Kerem Shalom crossing, according to the Israeli defense body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, COGAT.\n\nThe U.N. humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, called it a \"welcome development\" but described the trucks as a \"drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.\" Food security experts last week warned of famine in Gaza. During the latest ceasefire that Israel ended in March, some 600 aid trucks entered Gaza each day.\n\nFletcher said an additional four U.N. trucks were cleared to enter Gaza. Those trucks may enter Tuesday, COGAT said. Fletcher added that given the chaotic situation on the ground, the U.N. expects the aid could be looted or stolen, a growing problem as resources became increasingly scarce.\n\nIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his decision to resume \"minimal\" aid to Gaza came after allies said they couldn't support Israel's new military offensive if there are \"images of hunger\" coming from the Palestinian territory.\n\nShortly after Israel announced the first trucks entered Gaza, the U.K., France and Canada issued a sharply worded joint statement calling the aid \"wholly inadequate.\" They threatened \"concrete actions\" against Israel, including sanctions, for its activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and called on Israel to stop its \"egregious\" new military actions in Gaza.\n\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the joint statement and called it \"a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7.\"\n\nIsrael over the weekend launched a new wave of air and ground operations across Gaza, and the army ordered the evacuation of its second-largest city, Khan Younis, where a massive operation earlier in the 19-month war left much of the area in ruins.\n\nIsrael says it is pressuring Hamas to release the remaining hostages abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. Hamas has said it will only release them in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.\n\nNetanyahu repeated Monday that Israel plans on \"taking control of all of Gaza.\" He has said Israel will encourage what he describes as the voluntary emigration of much of Gaza's population to other countries \u2014 something that Palestinians have rejected.\n\n## Allies pressure Israel\n\nIn a video statement, Netanyahu said Israel's \"greatest friends in the world\" had told him, \"We cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger. We cannot stand that. We will not be able to support you.\"\n\nThe Trump administration, which has voiced full support for Israel's actions and blames Hamas for deaths in Gaza, has expressed growing concern over the hunger crisis. President Donald Trump \u2014 who skipped Israel on his trip to the region last week \u2014 voiced concern, as did Secretary of State Marco Rubio.\n\nNetanyahu's video statement appeared aimed at pacifying anger in his nationalist base at the decision to resume aid. Two far-right governing partners have pressed Netanyahu not to allow aid into Gaza.\n\nAid into Gaza would be \"minimal,\" Netanyahu said, and would act as a bridge toward the launch of a new aid system in Gaza. A U.S.-backed organization will distribute assistance in hubs that will be secured by the Israeli military.\n\nIsrael says the plan is meant to prevent Hamas from accessing aid, which Israel says it uses to bolster its rule in Gaza.\n\nU.N. agencies and aid groups have rejected the plan, saying it won't reach enough people and would weaponize aid in contravention of humanitarian principles. They have refused to take part.\n\nAccording to aid officials familiar with the plan, it will involve setting up distribution points mostly in southern Gaza, forcing many Palestinians to move south once again. The recent ceasefire saw hundreds of thousands return to homes in the north.\n\n## Threat of sanctions\n\nThe statement by France, Canada and the U.K. marked one of their most significant criticisms of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and Israel's actions in the occupied West Bank.\n\n\"We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank,\" the three countries said, calling them illegal.\n\nThe countries said they have always supported Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism but called the military escalation in Gaza disproportionate. The countries earlier criticized the new U.S.-backed proposal for aid delivery in Gaza, saying it would not align with humanitarian law.\n\nCanada has already imposed a series of sanctions against Israel over the last two years regarding settler violence in the West Bank. It was unclear how much France can act unilaterally given that it is a member of the European Union.\n\nIn a separate, letter Monday, the foreign ministers of Germany, Italy, Japan and 18 other countries \u2014 not including the United States \u2014 called for Israel to fully reopen humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza by the U.N. and non-governmental organizations.\n\nThe war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 others. The militants are still holding 58 captives, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were returned in ceasefire agreements or other deals.\n\nIsrael's retaliatory offensive, which has destroyed large swaths of Gaza, has killed more than 53,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count.\n\nThe war has displaced around 90% of its population, most of them multiple times."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ef4541657ce934e5ce84548c9c19dde67f1394ed68e35c311c873d4d622d863b", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Ford recalls nearly 274,000 Navigator and Expedition SUVs\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 04:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Ford is recalling nearly 274,000 of its Expedition and Lincoln-branded Navigator SUVs across the U.S. due to an issue that may cause a loss of brake function while driving, increasing crash risks.\n\nAccording to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the front brake lines in these now-recalled cars \"may be in contact\" with their engine air cleaner outlet pipe due to a potential installation defect. That can result in a brake fluid leak and/or a loss of brake function.\n\nThe recall covers 223,315 Expeditions and 50,474 Navigators between model years 2022 and 2024. Ford expects that just 1% of these vehicles have the defect, per a recall report dated Friday.\n\nFord is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this recall \u2014 but the Michigan-based auto giant had received 45 warranty reports of front brake line leaks as of April 17, NHSTA documents note.\n\nAs a remedy, Ford and Lincoln dealers will inspect the front brake line of impacted vehicles and replace it or the air cleaner outlet pipe if necessary, free of charge. Dealer notifications were planned to begin Wednesday, the recall report notes, with owner letters set to be mailed out between May 26 and May 30.\n\nIn the meantime, drivers can also confirm if their specific vehicle is included in this recall and find more information using the NHTSA site or Ford's recall lookup. The company's number for this recall is 25S47.\n\nImpacted drivers may experience an increase in pedal travel, NHSTA documents warn, meaning the pedal would need to be pressed harder to apply the brakes. And if there's a leaking brake line, the fluid level will decrease over time \u2014 potentially causing the red brake warning indicator to light up.\n\nA spokesperson for Ford had no additional comments when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Ford recalls nearly 274,000 Navigator and Expedition SUVs\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 04:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Ford is recalling nearly 274,000 of its Expedition and Lincoln-branded Navigator SUVs across the U.S. due to an issue that may cause a loss of brake function while driving, increasing crash risks.\n\nAccording to documents published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the front brake lines in these now-recalled cars \"may be in contact\" with their engine air cleaner outlet pipe due to a potential installation defect. That can result in a brake fluid leak and/or a loss of brake function.\n\nThe recall covers 223,315 Expeditions and 50,474 Navigators between model years 2022 and 2024. Ford expects that just 1% of these vehicles have the defect, per a recall report dated Friday.\n\nFord is not aware of any accidents or injuries related to this recall \u2014 but the Michigan-based auto giant had received 45 warranty reports of front brake line leaks as of April 17, NHSTA documents note.\n\nAs a remedy, Ford and Lincoln dealers will inspect the front brake line of impacted vehicles and replace it or the air cleaner outlet pipe if necessary, free of charge. Dealer notifications were planned to begin Wednesday, the recall report notes, with owner letters set to be mailed out between May 26 and May 30.\n\nIn the meantime, drivers can also confirm if their specific vehicle is included in this recall and find more information using the NHTSA site or Ford's recall lookup. The company's number for this recall is 25S47.\n\nImpacted drivers may experience an increase in pedal travel, NHSTA documents warn, meaning the pedal would need to be pressed harder to apply the brakes. And if there's a leaking brake line, the fluid level will decrease over time \u2014 potentially causing the red brake warning indicator to light up.\n\nA spokesperson for Ford had no additional comments when reached by The Associated Press on Wednesday."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ec8394f103963d53f37b198c03dd3e9f6298771b4d6aa80b9925713c9fca4187", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Aid group calls for pulling funding from richer nations to respond to cuts\n\nBy Ellen Knickmeyer  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:53 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 As the world's humanitarian organizations are triaging their shrinking amount of funding, the head of the International Rescue Committee stresses that the choice is stark: Keeping millions alive in the most vulnerable countries will require pulling some assistance for programs in better-off countries that target everything from climate change to refugee resettlement.\n\nLife-saving food, water and health programs already are shutting down in countries including Sudan, where the closing of 80% of communal kitchens has ended the only access to food for millions. That comes after the Trump administration dissolved the lead U.S. aid agency and terminated thousands of foreign assistance programs.\n\n\"There are lives on the line,\" David Miliband, president of the IRC, told The Associated Press in an interview this week in Washington, where he also was speaking to lawmakers and Trump administration officials.\n\n\"Our point is there's no way you can keep the aid system as it was,\" said Miliband, a former U.K. foreign secretary. As it was, he notes, only 14% of total aid was going to humanitarian efforts, while middle-income countries got more funding than low-income ones.\n\nThe triage underway shows the impact of the Trump administration decision to pull the U.S. back from being the world's single largest aid donor. The United States previously provided about a third of the more than $200 billion in foreign assistance given annually by governments worldwide. The White House last week proposed a budget for next year with an 84% cut to such funding.\n\nOther important European donors, including Britain, say they also are cutting aid as they work to free up more money for defense spending, fearing U.S. changes in European defense commitments.\n\nMiliband and his International Rescue Committee are more explicit than some aid groups in offering their ideas for change in leaner funding times. Countries that are doing OK or are downright wealthy should have some of their donor funding redirected, so it can go to the range of needs of poor countries most affected by war and climate change.\n\n\"If you're looking for a guideline, I would say at least half the global aid budget needs to go to conflict states,\" Miliband said. That's up from about a quarter of total aid now.\n\nMiliband points to climate mitigation in wealthier countries and help for newly arrived refugees to settle in wealthier countries as programs that should be lower priorities for donors in the current harsh aid environment.\n\nWith the dust settling from the Trump cuts, aid organizations are looking at how to reorganize to focus on the most vital and strategic aid, said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, a vice president of Mercy Corps, another top humanitarian organization.\n\n\"My fear is that we're going to end up in a world\" where donors split their efforts between two poles: arranging financing for infrastructure and economic development in middle-income countries or paying for only the most basic aid \"helping people not die\" in poor countries, Phillips-Barrasso said.\n\n\"I worry about pretty much everything in the middle disappearing,\" she said. That would leave the very poorest and most fragile countries never getting the help they need to get ahead of climate change and other threats.\n\nFor Miliband and the IRC, donors should focus on getting humanitarian aid, climate help and other vital assistance to 13 poor countries struggling the most with conflicts and environmental damage. That includes Afghanistan, where the Trump administration has cut aid on the grounds that it could benefit the Taliban, and Yemen, where the U.S. recently reached a ceasefire with Houthi militants, who have been targeting global shipping.\n\nThe other countries that the IRC identifies as priorities for the shrinking pool of aid funding are Haiti, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.\n\nThe Trump administration's cuts already have forced top aid organizations to pull out of entire countries. Groups say that endangers the progress many countries in Africa and elsewhere have made and threatens further destabilization and extremist gains in volatile regions, including the southern edge of the Sahara."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Aid group calls for pulling funding from richer nations to respond to cuts\n\nBy Ellen Knickmeyer  \nMay 9th, 2025, 04:53 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 As the world's humanitarian organizations are triaging their shrinking amount of funding, the head of the International Rescue Committee stresses that the choice is stark: Keeping millions alive in the most vulnerable countries will require pulling some assistance for programs in better-off countries that target everything from climate change to refugee resettlement.\n\nLife-saving food, water and health programs already are shutting down in countries including Sudan, where the closing of 80% of communal kitchens has ended the only access to food for millions. That comes after the Trump administration dissolved the lead U.S. aid agency and terminated thousands of foreign assistance programs.\n\n\"There are lives on the line,\" David Miliband, president of the IRC, told The Associated Press in an interview this week in Washington, where he also was speaking to lawmakers and Trump administration officials.\n\n\"Our point is there's no way you can keep the aid system as it was,\" said Miliband, a former U.K. foreign secretary. As it was, he notes, only 14% of total aid was going to humanitarian efforts, while middle-income countries got more funding than low-income ones.\n\nThe triage underway shows the impact of the Trump administration decision to pull the U.S. back from being the world's single largest aid donor. The United States previously provided about a third of the more than $200 billion in foreign assistance given annually by governments worldwide. The White House last week proposed a budget for next year with an 84% cut to such funding.\n\nOther important European donors, including Britain, say they also are cutting aid as they work to free up more money for defense spending, fearing U.S. changes in European defense commitments.\n\nMiliband and his International Rescue Committee are more explicit than some aid groups in offering their ideas for change in leaner funding times. Countries that are doing OK or are downright wealthy should have some of their donor funding redirected, so it can go to the range of needs of poor countries most affected by war and climate change.\n\n\"If you're looking for a guideline, I would say at least half the global aid budget needs to go to conflict states,\" Miliband said. That's up from about a quarter of total aid now.\n\nMiliband points to climate mitigation in wealthier countries and help for newly arrived refugees to settle in wealthier countries as programs that should be lower priorities for donors in the current harsh aid environment.\n\nWith the dust settling from the Trump cuts, aid organizations are looking at how to reorganize to focus on the most vital and strategic aid, said Kate Phillips-Barrasso, a vice president of Mercy Corps, another top humanitarian organization.\n\n\"My fear is that we're going to end up in a world\" where donors split their efforts between two poles: arranging financing for infrastructure and economic development in middle-income countries or paying for only the most basic aid \"helping people not die\" in poor countries, Phillips-Barrasso said.\n\n\"I worry about pretty much everything in the middle disappearing,\" she said. That would leave the very poorest and most fragile countries never getting the help they need to get ahead of climate change and other threats.\n\nFor Miliband and the IRC, donors should focus on getting humanitarian aid, climate help and other vital assistance to 13 poor countries struggling the most with conflicts and environmental damage. That includes Afghanistan, where the Trump administration has cut aid on the grounds that it could benefit the Taliban, and Yemen, where the U.S. recently reached a ceasefire with Houthi militants, who have been targeting global shipping.\n\nThe other countries that the IRC identifies as priorities for the shrinking pool of aid funding are Haiti, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.\n\nThe Trump administration's cuts already have forced top aid organizations to pull out of entire countries. Groups say that endangers the progress many countries in Africa and elsewhere have made and threatens further destabilization and extremist gains in volatile regions, including the southern edge of the Sahara."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7da3a4f77a98b22edd3a2507d559f7a48010eda25ce06229cc11e45733e6b116", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Army pauses helicopter flights near Washington airport\n\nBy Tara Copp  \nMay 5th, 2025, 07:20 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Army is pausing helicopter flights near a Washington airport after two commercial planes had to abort landings last week because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying to the Pentagon.\n\nThe commander of the 12th Aviation Battalion directed the unit to pause helicopter flight operations around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following Thursday's close calls, two Army officials confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday. One official said the flights have been paused since Friday.\n\nThe pause comes after 67 people died in January when a passenger jet collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan airport.\n\nThe officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not publicly announced. The unit is continuing to fly in the greater Washington, D.C., region.\n\nThe unit had begun a return to flight within the last week, with plans to gradually increase the number of flights over the next four weeks, according to an Army document viewed by the AP.\n\nThursday's close call involved a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.\n\nThey were instructed by air traffic control to \"perform go-arounds\" because of a \"priority air transport\" helicopter, according to an emailed statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.\n\nThe priority air transport helicopters of the 12th battalion provide transport service to top Pentagon officials. It was a Black Hawk priority air transport known as PAT25 that collided with the passenger jet in midair in January.\n\nThat crash was the worst U.S. midair disaster in more than two decades. In March, the FAA announced that helicopters would be prohibited from flying in the same airspace as planes near Reagan airport.\n\nThe NTSB and FAA are both investigating the latest close call with an Army helicopter.\n\nThe Army said after the latest incident that the UH-60 Blackhawk was following published FAA flight routes and air traffic control from Reagan airport when it was \"directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to conduct a 'go-around,' overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures.\"\n\nBut helicopter traffic remains a concern around that busy airport. The FAA said that three flights that had been cleared for landing Sunday at Reagan were ordered to go around because a police helicopter was on an urgent mission in the area. All three flights landed safely on their second approaches.\n\nThe NTSB said after the January crash that there had been an alarming number of close calls near Reagan in recent years, and the FAA should have acted sooner.\n\nInvestigators have highlighted 85 close calls around Reagan airport in the three years before the crash that should have signaled a growing safety problem. FAA officials said they did analyze every close call but missed the alarming trend.\n\nSince then, the FAA launched a review of data at airports nationwide with heavy helicopter traffic that identified safety concerns at the Las Vegas airport related to all the helicopter tours there. That review is ongoing.\n\nReuters first reported the pause in Army helicopter flights.\n\nIn New Jersey on Monday, flight delays and cancellations persisted at Newark Liberty International Airport. The FAA attributed arriving flight delays of nearly four hours to a combination of an air traffic controller shortage, thick cloud cover and antiquated air traffic control equipment that needs to be upgraded.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Nebraska."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Army pauses helicopter flights near Washington airport\n\nBy Tara Copp  \nMay 5th, 2025, 07:20 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Army is pausing helicopter flights near a Washington airport after two commercial planes had to abort landings last week because of an Army Black Hawk helicopter that was flying to the Pentagon.\n\nThe commander of the 12th Aviation Battalion directed the unit to pause helicopter flight operations around Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following Thursday's close calls, two Army officials confirmed to The Associated Press on Monday. One official said the flights have been paused since Friday.\n\nThe pause comes after 67 people died in January when a passenger jet collided in midair with a Black Hawk helicopter at Reagan airport.\n\nThe officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that were not publicly announced. The unit is continuing to fly in the greater Washington, D.C., region.\n\nThe unit had begun a return to flight within the last week, with plans to gradually increase the number of flights over the next four weeks, according to an Army document viewed by the AP.\n\nThursday's close call involved a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 and a Republic Airways Embraer E170, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.\n\nThey were instructed by air traffic control to \"perform go-arounds\" because of a \"priority air transport\" helicopter, according to an emailed statement from the Federal Aviation Administration.\n\nThe priority air transport helicopters of the 12th battalion provide transport service to top Pentagon officials. It was a Black Hawk priority air transport known as PAT25 that collided with the passenger jet in midair in January.\n\nThat crash was the worst U.S. midair disaster in more than two decades. In March, the FAA announced that helicopters would be prohibited from flying in the same airspace as planes near Reagan airport.\n\nThe NTSB and FAA are both investigating the latest close call with an Army helicopter.\n\nThe Army said after the latest incident that the UH-60 Blackhawk was following published FAA flight routes and air traffic control from Reagan airport when it was \"directed by Pentagon Air Traffic Control to conduct a 'go-around,' overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures.\"\n\nBut helicopter traffic remains a concern around that busy airport. The FAA said that three flights that had been cleared for landing Sunday at Reagan were ordered to go around because a police helicopter was on an urgent mission in the area. All three flights landed safely on their second approaches.\n\nThe NTSB said after the January crash that there had been an alarming number of close calls near Reagan in recent years, and the FAA should have acted sooner.\n\nInvestigators have highlighted 85 close calls around Reagan airport in the three years before the crash that should have signaled a growing safety problem. FAA officials said they did analyze every close call but missed the alarming trend.\n\nSince then, the FAA launched a review of data at airports nationwide with heavy helicopter traffic that identified safety concerns at the Las Vegas airport related to all the helicopter tours there. That review is ongoing.\n\nReuters first reported the pause in Army helicopter flights.\n\nIn New Jersey on Monday, flight delays and cancellations persisted at Newark Liberty International Airport. The FAA attributed arriving flight delays of nearly four hours to a combination of an air traffic controller shortage, thick cloud cover and antiquated air traffic control equipment that needs to be upgraded."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "69481d526f38c0f08ff836d68159a200e677d227a0e199a8f2ca34ff158e5253", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# UK suspends free trade talks with Israel and announces sanctions over West Bank settlers\n\nBy Brian Melley and Sylvie Corbet  \nMay 20th, 2025, 12:58 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 The U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and hit West Bank settlers with sanctions, less than a day after vowing \"concrete actions\" if Israel didn't stop its new military offensive in Gaza.\n\nPressure from close allies is mounting on Israel following a nearly three-month blockade of supplies into Gaza that led to famine warnings. Even the United States, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis.\n\nBritish Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the government couldn't continue talks on upgrading its existing trade agreement with an Israeli government pursuing what he called egregious policies in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.\n\n\"History will judge them,\" Lammy said. \"Blocking aid. Expanding the war. Dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible. And it must stop.\"\n\nIsraeli's ambassador to the U.K., Tzipi Hotovely, was summoned to the Foreign Office, where Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he would call the 11-week blockade of aid to Gaza \"cruel and indefensible.\"\n\nSeparately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza. She said \"a huge majority\" of member nations are \"very keen on sending this message that the suffering of these people is untenable.\" She did not provide clear details on timing and mechanisms for review.\n\n## 'Utterly intolerable'\n\nLammy said the U.K. was imposing sanctions on a further \"three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organizations supporting violence against the Palestinian community.\"\n\nHe said the illegal Israeli settlements were spreading across the West Bank \"with the explicit support of this Israeli government.\"\n\nIsrael's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, called the sanctions against West Bank settlers \"unjustified and regrettable\" and said the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced by the U.K. anyway.\n\nWhile Lammy's words were welcomed by some in the House of Commons, others called for stronger action, suggesting economic sanctions against Israel and recognizing the state of Palestine.\n\nA handful of members shouted for him to call Israel's actions \"genocide,\" though Lammy labeled it \"extremism\" and \"monstrous.\"\n\nStill others criticized the joint statement, saying it favored Hamas.\n\n\"Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas,\" Lammy said.\n\nThe U.K. announcement followed comments by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called children's suffering in Gaza \"utterly intolerable\" and repeated his call for a ceasefire.\n\n\"I want to put on record today that we're horrified by the escalation from Israel,\" Starmer said.\n\n## Starmer calls for ceasefire\n\nOn Monday, Starmer joined French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in issuing one of the most significant criticisms by close allies of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank.\n\nThe three leaders threatened to take \"concrete actions\" if the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not cease its renewed military offensive and significantly lift restrictions on humanitarian aid.\n\nNetanyahu called the statement \"a huge prize\" for Hamas.\n\nStarmer said a ceasefire was the only way to free the dozens of hostages Hamas still holds. He also called for increased shipments of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying the basic quantity allowed by Israel is \"utterly inadequate.\"\n\n\"This war has gone on for far too long,\" Starmer said. \"We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.\"\n\nWhile Israel allowed a first few trucks with baby food and desperately needed supplies to begin rolling into Gaza on Monday, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described it as a \"drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.\" Israel said dozens more trucks entered Tuesday.\n\n## Tensions between France and Israel\n\nIsrael initially received widespread international support to root out Hamas militants following the group's surprise attack that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023, and took 251 captives.\n\nBut patience with Israel is wearing thin after more than 53,000 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. Israel's latest onslaught has killed more than 300 people in recent days, local health officials said.\n\nIn recent weeks, Macron intensified diplomatic efforts to put pressure on Israel, urging a ceasefire and calling for lifting the blockade of humanitarian aid.\n\nLast month, Macron said France should move toward recognizing a Palestinian state, possibly in June when France and Saudi Arabia co-host an international conference about implementing a two-state solution.\n\nMacron, who has said that recognizing Palestine is not a \u2033taboo\u2033 for France, last week suggested that revisiting the EU's cooperation agreements with Israel is on the table.\n\nTensions between France and Israel have escalated after Macron called for stopping arms deliveries for use in Gaza in an October radio interview, prompting Netanyahu's criticism. France also sought to impose a ban on Israeli defense companies to prevent them from exhibiting weapons at the Euronaval trade exhibition.\n\n## Settler violence\n\nThe U.S., France, the EU, the U.K. and Canada previously hit Israeli settlers and settler groups with sanctions for their involvement in violence against Palestinians and in illegal development in the West Bank.\n\nThe measures expose the sanctioned people and groups to asset freezes and travel and visa bans. The Associated Press previously reported that these measures have had minimal impact as a deterrent.\n\nSettler attacks causing injury or death to Palestinians have surged since the Hamas attack in 2023. Israel says it opposes settler violence and blames it on an extremist fringe.\n\nPalestinians say the Israeli army does little to protect them and that the attacks are part of a systematic attempt to expel them from their land.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writers Natalie Melzer in Nahriya, Israel, and Melanie Lidman in Jerusalem contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# UK suspends free trade talks with Israel and announces sanctions over West Bank settlers\n\nBy Brian Melley and Sylvie Corbet  \nMay 20th, 2025, 12:58 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 The U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and hit West Bank settlers with sanctions, less than a day after vowing \"concrete actions\" if Israel didn't stop its new military offensive in Gaza.\n\nPressure from close allies is mounting on Israel following a nearly three-month blockade of supplies into Gaza that led to famine warnings. Even the United States, a staunch ally, has voiced concerns over the hunger crisis.\n\nBritish Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the government couldn't continue talks on upgrading its existing trade agreement with an Israeli government pursuing what he called egregious policies in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.\n\n\"History will judge them,\" Lammy said. \"Blocking aid. Expanding the war. Dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible. And it must stop.\"\n\nIsraeli's ambassador to the U.K., Tzipi Hotovely, was summoned to the Foreign Office, where Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said he would call the 11-week blockade of aid to Gaza \"cruel and indefensible.\"\n\nSeparately, European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc was reviewing an EU pact governing trade ties with Israel over its conduct of the war in Gaza. She said \"a huge majority\" of member nations are \"very keen on sending this message that the suffering of these people is untenable.\" She did not provide clear details on timing and mechanisms for review.\n\n## 'Utterly intolerable'\n\nLammy said the U.K. was imposing sanctions on a further \"three individuals, two illegal settler outposts and two organizations supporting violence against the Palestinian community.\"\n\nHe said the illegal Israeli settlements were spreading across the West Bank \"with the explicit support of this Israeli government.\"\n\nIsrael's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Oren Marmorstein, called the sanctions against West Bank settlers \"unjustified and regrettable\" and said the free trade agreement negotiations were not being advanced by the U.K. anyway.\n\nWhile Lammy's words were welcomed by some in the House of Commons, others called for stronger action, suggesting economic sanctions against Israel and recognizing the state of Palestine.\n\nA handful of members shouted for him to call Israel's actions \"genocide,\" though Lammy labeled it \"extremism\" and \"monstrous.\"\n\nStill others criticized the joint statement, saying it favored Hamas.\n\n\"Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas,\" Lammy said.\n\nThe U.K. announcement followed comments by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who called children's suffering in Gaza \"utterly intolerable\" and repeated his call for a ceasefire.\n\n\"I want to put on record today that we're horrified by the escalation from Israel,\" Starmer said.\n\n## Starmer calls for ceasefire\n\nOn Monday, Starmer joined French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in issuing one of the most significant criticisms by close allies of Israel's handling of the war in Gaza and its actions in the West Bank.\n\nThe three leaders threatened to take \"concrete actions\" if the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not cease its renewed military offensive and significantly lift restrictions on humanitarian aid.\n\nNetanyahu called the statement \"a huge prize\" for Hamas.\n\nStarmer said a ceasefire was the only way to free the dozens of hostages Hamas still holds. He also called for increased shipments of humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying the basic quantity allowed by Israel is \"utterly inadequate.\"\n\n\"This war has gone on for far too long,\" Starmer said. \"We cannot allow the people of Gaza to starve.\"\n\nWhile Israel allowed a first few trucks with baby food and desperately needed supplies to begin rolling into Gaza on Monday, U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher described it as a \"drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.\" Israel said dozens more trucks entered Tuesday.\n\n## Tensions between France and Israel\n\nIsrael initially received widespread international support to root out Hamas militants following the group's surprise attack that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, on Oct. 7, 2023, and took 251 captives.\n\nBut patience with Israel is wearing thin after more than 53,000 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count. Israel's latest onslaught has killed more than 300 people in recent days, local health officials said.\n\nIn recent weeks, Macron intensified diplomatic efforts to put pressure on Israel, urging a ceasefire and calling for lifting the blockade of humanitarian aid.\n\nLast month, Macron said France should move toward recognizing a Palestinian state, possibly in June when France and Saudi Arabia co-host an international conference about implementing a two-state solution.\n\nMacron, who has said that recognizing Palestine is not a \u2033taboo\u2033 for France, last week suggested that revisiting the EU's cooperation agreements with Israel is on the table.\n\nTensions between France and Israel have escalated after Macron called for stopping arms deliveries for use in Gaza in an October radio interview, prompting Netanyahu's criticism. France also sought to impose a ban on Israeli defense companies to prevent them from exhibiting weapons at the Euronaval trade exhibition.\n\n## Settler violence\n\nThe U.S., France, the EU, the U.K. and Canada previously hit Israeli settlers and settler groups with sanctions for their involvement in violence against Palestinians and in illegal development in the West Bank.\n\nThe measures expose the sanctioned people and groups to asset freezes and travel and visa bans. The Associated Press previously reported that these measures have had minimal impact as a deterrent.\n\nSettler attacks causing injury or death to Palestinians have surged since the Hamas attack in 2023. Israel says it opposes settler violence and blames it on an extremist fringe.\n\nPalestinians say the Israeli army does little to protect them and that the attacks are part of a systematic attempt to expel them from their land."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "0054c3ef08c821a37cd1d02cc00e482bcd8693cb85a4642459caf737f4810a2f", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Top UN court wraps a week of hearings on humanitarian aid to Gaza\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 07:49 AM\n\n---\n\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The top United Nations court on Friday wraps a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.\n\nLast year, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on Israel's legal obligations after the country effectively banned the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid to Gaza, from operating.\n\nExperts say the case could have broader ramifications for the United Nations and its missions worldwide.\n\nThe hearings are taking place as the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is nearing collapse and ceasefire efforts remain deadlocked. Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian supplies since March 2. It renewed its bombardment on March 18, breaking a ceasefire, and seized large parts of the territory, saying it aims to push Hamas to release more hostages.\n\nIsrael denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and did not attend the hearing. The country did provide a 38-page written submission for the court to consider.\n\n## What is at stake?\n\nThe hearings focused on provision of aid to the Palestinians, but the U.N. court's 15 judges could use their advisory opinion to give legal guidance on the powers of the world body.\n\n\"The court has the opportunity to clarify and address questions about the legal immunities of the United Nations,\" Mike Becker, an expert on international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin, told The Associated Press.\n\nAdvisory opinions issued by the U.N. court are described as \"nonbinding\" as there are no direct penalties attached to ignoring them. However, the treaty that covers the protections that countries must give to United Nations personnel says that disputes should be resolved through an advisory opinion at the ICJ and the opinion \"shall be accepted as decisive by the parties.\"\n\n\"The oddity of this particular process,\" Becker said, \"is a clear response to any argument that the opinion is nonbinding.\"\n\n## What has the ICJ been tasked with answering?\n\nThe resolution, sponsored by Norway, seeks the ICJ's guidance on \"obligations of Israel \u2026 in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations \u2026 to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.\" The United States, Israel's closest ally, voted against it.\n\nIsrael's ban on the agency, known as UNRWA, which provides aid to Gaza, came into effect in January. The organization has faced increased criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who claim the group is deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that claim.\n\n\"We cannot let states pick and choose where the U.N. is going to do its work. This advisory opinion is a very important opportunity to reinforce that,\" Becker said.\n\n## Do these proceedings matter for countries other than Israel?\n\nWhatever the judges decide will have an impact beyond the current situation in Gaza, according to Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia. \"Are these immunities absolute or is there wiggle room? This is useful for where United Nations personnel are working in other places,\" McIntyre told AP.\n\nAn authoritative answer from the World Court can have influence beyond judicial proceedings as well. \"Every time a norm is breached, the norm gets weaker. The advisory opinion in this case could push the norm back,\" said McIntyre.\n\nIn separate proceedings last year, the court issued an unprecedented and sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule over the occupied Palestinian territories, finding Israel's presence unlawful and calling for it to end. The ICJ said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians' right to self-determination.\n\nAccording to McIntyre, the arguments presented this week reflect the opinion handed down just nine months ago. \"Now the starting premise is that Israel is illegally occupying all of Palestine,\" McIntyre said.\n\n## What did the Palestinians and Israelis say?\n\nOn Monday, the Palestinian delegation accused Israel of breaching international law in the occupied territories and applauded the move to bring more proceedings to the court. \"Our journey with the international institutions, be it Security Council, the General Assembly or the ICJ, is we are building things block on top of another block while we are marching towards the accomplishment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including our right to self-determination, statehood, and the right of the refugees,\" Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters.\n\nIsrael has denied it is in violation of international law and said the proceedings are biased. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hit back at the case during a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday. \"I accuse UNRWA, I accuse the U.N., I accuse the secretary-general and I accuse all those that weaponized international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself,\" he said.\n\nThe court is expected to take months to deliver its opinion.\n\n\u2014\u2014 Associated Press writer Mike Corder in The Hague contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Top UN court wraps a week of hearings on humanitarian aid to Gaza\n\nBy Molly Quell  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 07:49 AM\n\n---\n\nTHE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The top United Nations court on Friday wraps a week of hearings on what Israel must do to ensure desperately needed humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.\n\nLast year, the U.N. General Assembly asked the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on Israel's legal obligations after the country effectively banned the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid to Gaza, from operating.\n\nExperts say the case could have broader ramifications for the United Nations and its missions worldwide.\n\nThe hearings are taking place as the humanitarian aid system in Gaza is nearing collapse and ceasefire efforts remain deadlocked. Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other humanitarian supplies since March 2. It renewed its bombardment on March 18, breaking a ceasefire, and seized large parts of the territory, saying it aims to push Hamas to release more hostages.\n\nIsrael denies deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and did not attend the hearing. The country did provide a 38-page written submission for the court to consider.\n\n## What is at stake?\n\nThe hearings focused on provision of aid to the Palestinians, but the U.N. court's 15 judges could use their advisory opinion to give legal guidance on the powers of the world body.\n\n\"The court has the opportunity to clarify and address questions about the legal immunities of the United Nations,\" Mike Becker, an expert on international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin, told The Associated Press.\n\nAdvisory opinions issued by the U.N. court are described as \"nonbinding\" as there are no direct penalties attached to ignoring them. However, the treaty that covers the protections that countries must give to United Nations personnel says that disputes should be resolved through an advisory opinion at the ICJ and the opinion \"shall be accepted as decisive by the parties.\"\n\n\"The oddity of this particular process,\" Becker said, \"is a clear response to any argument that the opinion is nonbinding.\"\n\n## What has the ICJ been tasked with answering?\n\nThe resolution, sponsored by Norway, seeks the ICJ's guidance on \"obligations of Israel \u2026 in relation to the presence and activities of the United Nations \u2026 to ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.\" The United States, Israel's closest ally, voted against it.\n\nIsrael's ban on the agency, known as UNRWA, which provides aid to Gaza, came into effect in January. The organization has faced increased criticism from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right allies, who claim the group is deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that claim.\n\n\"We cannot let states pick and choose where the U.N. is going to do its work. This advisory opinion is a very important opportunity to reinforce that,\" Becker said.\n\n## Do these proceedings matter for countries other than Israel?\n\nWhatever the judges decide will have an impact beyond the current situation in Gaza, according to Juliette McIntyre, an expert on international law at the University of South Australia. \"Are these immunities absolute or is there wiggle room? This is useful for where United Nations personnel are working in other places,\" McIntyre told AP.\n\nAn authoritative answer from the World Court can have influence beyond judicial proceedings as well. \"Every time a norm is breached, the norm gets weaker. The advisory opinion in this case could push the norm back,\" said McIntyre.\n\nIn separate proceedings last year, the court issued an unprecedented and sweeping condemnation of Israel's rule over the occupied Palestinian territories, finding Israel's presence unlawful and calling for it to end. The ICJ said Israel had no right to sovereignty in the territories, was violating international laws against acquiring territory by force and was impeding Palestinians' right to self-determination.\n\nAccording to McIntyre, the arguments presented this week reflect the opinion handed down just nine months ago. \"Now the starting premise is that Israel is illegally occupying all of Palestine,\" McIntyre said.\n\n## What did the Palestinians and Israelis say?\n\nOn Monday, the Palestinian delegation accused Israel of breaching international law in the occupied territories and applauded the move to bring more proceedings to the court. \"Our journey with the international institutions, be it Security Council, the General Assembly or the ICJ, is we are building things block on top of another block while we are marching towards the accomplishment of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including our right to self-determination, statehood, and the right of the refugees,\" Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters.\n\nIsrael has denied it is in violation of international law and said the proceedings are biased. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar hit back at the case during a news conference in Jerusalem on Monday. \"I accuse UNRWA, I accuse the U.N., I accuse the secretary-general and I accuse all those that weaponized international law and its institutions in order to deprive the most attacked country in the world, Israel, of its most basic right to defend itself,\" he said.\n\nThe court is expected to take months to deliver its opinion."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "4a335c84d58c82855951df2ca87a49f19173f15f1af992e03de05fad2c856e80", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Police identify victim and gunman in Las Vegas gym shooting\n\nMay 20th, 2025, 02:20 AM\n\n---\n\nLAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 The person killed in a shooting at a Las Vegas fitness center last week was a longtime employee who had no known connection to the shooter, police said Monday.\n\nEdgar Quinonez, 31, of Las Vegas, was shot and killed Friday at the Las Vegas Athletic Club, police said.\n\nArriving officers fired at the suspected shooter, 34-year-old Daniel Ortega, as he exited the gym after firing 24 rounds, police said. Ortega, a gym member, died of gunshot wounds, according to police.\n\nThree other people were injured at the gym on the city's west side as gunfire erupted. They were transported to local hospitals, with one in critical condition. Their conditions weren't released on Monday.\n\nOfficials are still investigating a motive, saying they have found no connection between the two men.\n\nJamie Prosser, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department assistant sheriff, said at a media briefing on Monday that Ortega entered the gym with a rifle on Friday afternoon.\n\nShe said he approached an employee at the front desk and paced around before briefly exchanging words with another employee. Then he lifted the rifle and shot the employee as he fled into the gym, she said.\n\nOrtega followed and continued firing, Prosser said, and at some point Ortega returned to the lobby and fired until the weapon malfunctioned. An arriving officer fired at Ortega when he opened the entrance door and he was shot by officers as he left the building with the rifle. He died at a nearby hospital, police said.\n\nShe said Ortega worked out at the gym but at this time there was no known connection to the victim."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Police identify victim and gunman in Las Vegas gym shooting\n\nMay 20th, 2025, 02:20 AM\n\n---\n\nLAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 The person killed in a shooting at a Las Vegas fitness center last week was a longtime employee who had no known connection to the shooter, police said Monday.\n\nEdgar Quinonez, 31, of Las Vegas, was shot and killed Friday at the Las Vegas Athletic Club, police said.\n\nArriving officers fired at the suspected shooter, 34-year-old Daniel Ortega, as he exited the gym after firing 24 rounds, police said. Ortega, a gym member, died of gunshot wounds, according to police.\n\nThree other people were injured at the gym on the city's west side as gunfire erupted. They were transported to local hospitals, with one in critical condition. Their conditions weren't released on Monday.\n\nOfficials are still investigating a motive, saying they have found no connection between the two men.\n\nJamie Prosser, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department assistant sheriff, said at a media briefing on Monday that Ortega entered the gym with a rifle on Friday afternoon.\n\nShe said he approached an employee at the front desk and paced around before briefly exchanging words with another employee. Then he lifted the rifle and shot the employee as he fled into the gym, she said.\n\nOrtega followed and continued firing, Prosser said, and at some point Ortega returned to the lobby and fired until the weapon malfunctioned. An arriving officer fired at Ortega when he opened the entrance door and he was shot by officers as he left the building with the rifle. He died at a nearby hospital, police said.\n\nShe said Ortega worked out at the gym but at this time there was no known connection to the victim."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "2cf29350e16b897936308f281d88030b1323ec4240b741e6c5680098b64f81d0", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Moderna study shows immune response in older adults for a combo flu and COVID-19 shot\n\nBy Carla K. Johnson  \nMay 7th, 2025, 03:00 PM\n\n---\n\nA combination shot for flu and COVID-19 using messenger RNA generated antibodies in a study, but U.S. government regulators want to see data on whether the new vaccine protects people from getting sick.\n\nResearchers from vaccine-maker Moderna reported in a study published Wednesday that the new combo shot generated a stronger immune response against COVID-19 and most strains of flu than existing standalone shots in people 50 and older. Side effects were injection site pain, fatigue and headaches. Moderna previously reported a summary of the results from the company-sponsored trial in 8,000 people.\n\nThe mRNA technology is used in approved COVID-19 and RSV shots, but has not yet been approved for a flu shot. Moderna believes mRNA could speed up production of flu shots compared with traditional processes that use chicken eggs or giant vats of cells. A combo shot also might improve vaccination rates, the researchers wrote in the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.\n\nDr. Greg Poland, who studies vaccine response at Mayo Clinic and was not involved in the new study, said he's not convinced that a combo shot would be popular. And while flu comes in seasonal waves, COVID-19 has been spreading throughout the year, Poland said, posing challenges for how to time the shots to keep protection strong.\n\nHe'd also like to see data on how well the new shot protected people from infection and hospitalization.\n\nThe findings are based on measuring antibodies in participants' blood after 29 days, an indication of short-term disease protection.\n\nLast week, Moderna pushed its target date for the vaccine's approval to 2026 after the Food and Drug Administration requested a more direct measure: how much the shot lowered the risk of disease.\n\n\"I agree in this case with FDA that efficacy data are important to see,\" Poland said.\n\nHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cast doubt on the safety of mRNA vaccines, but Moderna President Stephen Hoge told investors in an earnings call last week that talks with the FDA were productive and \"business as usual.\"\n\nAlso last week, Novavax said the FDA was asking the company to run a new clinical trial of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine after the agency grants full approval, sowing uncertainty about other vaccine updates.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Moderna study shows immune response in older adults for a combo flu and COVID-19 shot\n\nBy Carla K. Johnson  \nMay 7th, 2025, 03:00 PM\n\n---\n\nA combination shot for flu and COVID-19 using messenger RNA generated antibodies in a study, but U.S. government regulators want to see data on whether the new vaccine protects people from getting sick.\n\nResearchers from vaccine-maker Moderna reported in a study published Wednesday that the new combo shot generated a stronger immune response against COVID-19 and most strains of flu than existing standalone shots in people 50 and older. Side effects were injection site pain, fatigue and headaches. Moderna previously reported a summary of the results from the company-sponsored trial in 8,000 people.\n\nThe mRNA technology is used in approved COVID-19 and RSV shots, but has not yet been approved for a flu shot. Moderna believes mRNA could speed up production of flu shots compared with traditional processes that use chicken eggs or giant vats of cells. A combo shot also might improve vaccination rates, the researchers wrote in the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.\n\nDr. Greg Poland, who studies vaccine response at Mayo Clinic and was not involved in the new study, said he's not convinced that a combo shot would be popular. And while flu comes in seasonal waves, COVID-19 has been spreading throughout the year, Poland said, posing challenges for how to time the shots to keep protection strong.\n\nHe'd also like to see data on how well the new shot protected people from infection and hospitalization.\n\nThe findings are based on measuring antibodies in participants' blood after 29 days, an indication of short-term disease protection.\n\nLast week, Moderna pushed its target date for the vaccine's approval to 2026 after the Food and Drug Administration requested a more direct measure: how much the shot lowered the risk of disease.\n\n\"I agree in this case with FDA that efficacy data are important to see,\" Poland said.\n\nHealth Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has cast doubt on the safety of mRNA vaccines, but Moderna President Stephen Hoge told investors in an earnings call last week that talks with the FDA were productive and \"business as usual.\"\n\nAlso last week, Novavax said the FDA was asking the company to run a new clinical trial of its protein-based COVID-19 vaccine after the agency grants full approval, sowing uncertainty about other vaccine updates."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "fbce0b9e8f85f2d345a80ca438bc25f9eab40f747813bf0891c587ce63d42c1f", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# '60 Minutes' report that prompted Trump lawsuit nominated for Emmy\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 1st, 2025, 08:12 PM\n\n---\n\nIt got \"60 Minutes\" sued by the man who became president of the United States. Now it's up for a major award \u2014 for precisely the same aspect of it that so enraged Donald Trump.\n\nLast fall's \"60 Minutes\" story on Kamala Harris \u2014 the subject of Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS \u2014 was nominated for an Emmy Award Thursday for \"outstanding edited interview.\" Trump, in his lawsuit, complained that the interview was deceptively edited to make his Democratic election opponent look good.\n\nThe annual News & Documentary Emmys will be awarded in late June. \"60 Minutes\" is competing against interviews with singer Celine Dion, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Pope Francis and WNBA star Brittney Griner.\n\nThe fallout over the Harris interview still hangs over CBS News. The news division claims to have done nothing wrong, but its parent company, Paramount Global, is reportedly negotiating a settlement with Trump.\n\nMany CBS News journalists oppose a settlement. Former \"60 Minutes\" executive producer Bill Owens, who has fought against such a deal, resigned last month. Owens cited in his resignation the corporate restrictions placed on him in the wake of the Harris story, which is also the subject of an investigation by President Trump's FCC chairman.\n\nTrump complained about the interview again on Wednesday in a Truth Social post. This time, his anger spread to The New York Times, which in a story on Tuesday said that \"legal experts have called the suit baseless and an easy victory for CBS.\"\n\n\"They don't mean that, they just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,\" the president wrote, saying he's looking into potential legal action against the newspaper.\n\n\"The New York Times will not be deterred by the administration's intimidation tactics,\" the newspaper said in response.\n\n___\n\nDavid Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# '60 Minutes' report that prompted Trump lawsuit nominated for Emmy\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 1st, 2025, 08:12 PM\n\n---\n\nIt got \"60 Minutes\" sued by the man who became president of the United States. Now it's up for a major award \u2014 for precisely the same aspect of it that so enraged Donald Trump.\n\nLast fall's \"60 Minutes\" story on Kamala Harris \u2014 the subject of Trump's $20 billion lawsuit against CBS \u2014 was nominated for an Emmy Award Thursday for \"outstanding edited interview.\" Trump, in his lawsuit, complained that the interview was deceptively edited to make his Democratic election opponent look good.\n\nThe annual News & Documentary Emmys will be awarded in late June. \"60 Minutes\" is competing against interviews with singer Celine Dion, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Pope Francis and WNBA star Brittney Griner.\n\nThe fallout over the Harris interview still hangs over CBS News. The news division claims to have done nothing wrong, but its parent company, Paramount Global, is reportedly negotiating a settlement with Trump.\n\nMany CBS News journalists oppose a settlement. Former \"60 Minutes\" executive producer Bill Owens, who has fought against such a deal, resigned last month. Owens cited in his resignation the corporate restrictions placed on him in the wake of the Harris story, which is also the subject of an investigation by President Trump's FCC chairman.\n\nTrump complained about the interview again on Wednesday in a Truth Social post. This time, his anger spread to The New York Times, which in a story on Tuesday said that \"legal experts have called the suit baseless and an easy victory for CBS.\"\n\n\"They don't mean that, they just have a non curable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,\" the president wrote, saying he's looking into potential legal action against the newspaper.\n\n\"The New York Times will not be deterred by the administration's intimidation tactics,\" the newspaper said in response."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "955367997dec6b11306d60da5e3c9c85f25d54ac9c000bcc7f0c7224415d74b0", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Nicolas Cage sells his soul for a house in 'The Surfer'\n\nBy Krysta Fauria  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:24 PM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks his followers a rhetorical question: \"What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?\" This is asked of Nicolas Cage's titular character in \"The Surfer.\"\n\nFor the unnamed protagonist, his heart's desire \u2014 and the thing he thinks will solve his ever-mounting problems \u2014 is to purchase his late father's home, which sits atop an idyllic cliffside along the coast of Australia.\n\nThe film's setting is decidedly modern \u2014 Cage pulls up in a Lexus, pays for a coffee with his phone and tries repeatedly to secure funds for the $1.7 million house \u2014 which stands in stark contrast to the age-old questions about tribalism, revenge and familial trauma probed in Lorcan Finnegan's claustrophobic thriller.\n\nAhead of the Roadside Attractions release on Friday, Cage and Finnegan spoke with The Associated Press about the film's surrealism, why violence is \"one of the backbones of cinema\" and how Humphrey Bogart inspired a scene where Cage shoves a rat in someone's face. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.\n\n## AP: Nicolas, last time we spoke, you talked about how Hollywood thinks naturalism is the arbiter of great acting but that you appreciate when you can explore other forms. Where does that impulse stem from?\n\nCAGE: It was a feeling of not wanting to get trapped or calcified in the realm of artwork and thinking that the art that I admired in painters like Francis Bacon or in music, a lot of it was surrealistic. And so in my view, if there's such a thing as art synthesis, why can't you do it with acting? You can do it with acting, but it still has to land with the director and with the script in such a way where it moves the story forward and doesn't become self-indulgent. It has to be a twist and a unique point of expression that evolves the story.\n\nSo how do you do that? Well, if the guy's losing his mind, that's one way. Then you can get a bit more abstract with facial expressions or voice. Or if the guy is on drugs, that's one way, like \"Bad Lieutenant.\" In this case, the surfer is having a bit of a breakdown. It only stands to reason in a natural, authentic way that he would shriek-eat the rat and shove it into some guy's mouth because it's been earned. But that's not to say that the naturalism of the '70s isn't great. It is great. And that's something I enjoy doing as well.\n\n## AP: Talk about the film's exploration of masculinity and tribalism.\n\nFINNEGAN: To me, it wasn't a film about toxic masculinity. I mean, there was elements of masculinity in crisis, and that's something that does exist. But to me it was serving the story in a way because Nick's character had to have this counter in this Scally character (Julian McMahon). Nick's character lost his father when he was young and he was searching for some sort of belonging and that's why he was thinking if he buys back this house and this materialistic goal will fix his relationship problems and stuff. So Julian's character offers up something different. He's kind of seductive. If you want to be in our gang and you want to be part of this culture, you have to do all of these things.\n\nI think a lot of those figures in the world of toxic masculinity are a bit like that. They're charming. A lot of the time they have these philosophical ideas and they're well-read, so they seem very attractive to these guys who are kind of lost. So, I didn't want the film though to be about that, but it kind of is baked into the whole story.\n\n## AP: Nicolas, you've done your share of films with violence in them. Is that something you are interested in?\n\nCAGE: As someone who doesn't like violence and actively tries to avoid violence in my life, I would say that it seems to be something that lends itself to cinema. Whatever gets a person to that point of violence is usually fascinating and compelling drama, and that's one of the backbones of cinema.\n\n## AP: Any scenes stand out as particularly challenging or fun?\n\nFINNEGAN: We discovered some of the humor in the film while making it. When did you think about keeping that rat? I don't know if you knew exactly what you were planning yet, but it was a mischievous kind of percolation going on in your mind.\n\nCAGE: I went on a Billy Wilder tear before I went to \"The Surfer.\" I was kind of in bed for a few days, and I was watching movies I wanted to catch up on and I saw \"Sabrina.\" And in the movie, Bogart pulls an olive out of a martini glass, and he shoves it in his uncle's mouth and says, \"Eat it.\" And I couldn't stop laughing. I thought it was the funniest thing. And I was just tickled pink by myself late at night watching it.\n\nAnd then it came back to me in Australia. I said, \"Well, I can use this rat for something.\" And I tucked it in my pocket. Everyone's looking at me like, what's Nick doing with the prop rat? I said, \"Well, I think it's funny because the tail is wobbling around. Let's hold onto it. It's a good prop. Maybe we can use it.\" And sure enough, Bogart and Billy Wilder and \"Sabrina\" came back and it was like \"Eat the rat!\" It's a punk rock version of it, but it's still inspired by Billy Wilder and Humphrey Bogart."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Nicolas Cage sells his soul for a house in 'The Surfer'\n\nBy Krysta Fauria  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 03:24 PM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks his followers a rhetorical question: \"What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?\" This is asked of Nicolas Cage's titular character in \"The Surfer.\"\n\nFor the unnamed protagonist, his heart's desire \u2014 and the thing he thinks will solve his ever-mounting problems \u2014 is to purchase his late father's home, which sits atop an idyllic cliffside along the coast of Australia.\n\nThe film's setting is decidedly modern \u2014 Cage pulls up in a Lexus, pays for a coffee with his phone and tries repeatedly to secure funds for the $1.7 million house \u2014 which stands in stark contrast to the age-old questions about tribalism, revenge and familial trauma probed in Lorcan Finnegan's claustrophobic thriller.\n\nAhead of the Roadside Attractions release on Friday, Cage and Finnegan spoke with The Associated Press about the film's surrealism, why violence is \"one of the backbones of cinema\" and how Humphrey Bogart inspired a scene where Cage shoves a rat in someone's face. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.\n\n## AP: Nicolas, last time we spoke, you talked about how Hollywood thinks naturalism is the arbiter of great acting but that you appreciate when you can explore other forms. Where does that impulse stem from?\n\nCAGE: It was a feeling of not wanting to get trapped or calcified in the realm of artwork and thinking that the art that I admired in painters like Francis Bacon or in music, a lot of it was surrealistic. And so in my view, if there's such a thing as art synthesis, why can't you do it with acting? You can do it with acting, but it still has to land with the director and with the script in such a way where it moves the story forward and doesn't become self-indulgent. It has to be a twist and a unique point of expression that evolves the story.\n\nSo how do you do that? Well, if the guy's losing his mind, that's one way. Then you can get a bit more abstract with facial expressions or voice. Or if the guy is on drugs, that's one way, like \"Bad Lieutenant.\" In this case, the surfer is having a bit of a breakdown. It only stands to reason in a natural, authentic way that he would shriek-eat the rat and shove it into some guy's mouth because it's been earned. But that's not to say that the naturalism of the '70s isn't great. It is great. And that's something I enjoy doing as well.\n\n## AP: Talk about the film's exploration of masculinity and tribalism.\n\nFINNEGAN: To me, it wasn't a film about toxic masculinity. I mean, there was elements of masculinity in crisis, and that's something that does exist. But to me it was serving the story in a way because Nick's character had to have this counter in this Scally character (Julian McMahon). Nick's character lost his father when he was young and he was searching for some sort of belonging and that's why he was thinking if he buys back this house and this materialistic goal will fix his relationship problems and stuff. So Julian's character offers up something different. He's kind of seductive. If you want to be in our gang and you want to be part of this culture, you have to do all of these things.\n\nI think a lot of those figures in the world of toxic masculinity are a bit like that. They're charming. A lot of the time they have these philosophical ideas and they're well-read, so they seem very attractive to these guys who are kind of lost. So, I didn't want the film though to be about that, but it kind of is baked into the whole story.\n\n## AP: Nicolas, you've done your share of films with violence in them. Is that something you are interested in?\n\nCAGE: As someone who doesn't like violence and actively tries to avoid violence in my life, I would say that it seems to be something that lends itself to cinema. Whatever gets a person to that point of violence is usually fascinating and compelling drama, and that's one of the backbones of cinema.\n\n## AP: Any scenes stand out as particularly challenging or fun?\n\nFINNEGAN: We discovered some of the humor in the film while making it. When did you think about keeping that rat? I don't know if you knew exactly what you were planning yet, but it was a mischievous kind of percolation going on in your mind.\n\nCAGE: I went on a Billy Wilder tear before I went to \"The Surfer.\" I was kind of in bed for a few days, and I was watching movies I wanted to catch up on and I saw \"Sabrina.\" And in the movie, Bogart pulls an olive out of a martini glass, and he shoves it in his uncle's mouth and says, \"Eat it.\" And I couldn't stop laughing. I thought it was the funniest thing. And I was just tickled pink by myself late at night watching it.\n\nAnd then it came back to me in Australia. I said, \"Well, I can use this rat for something.\" And I tucked it in my pocket. Everyone's looking at me like, what's Nick doing with the prop rat? I said, \"Well, I think it's funny because the tail is wobbling around. Let's hold onto it. It's a good prop. Maybe we can use it.\" And sure enough, Bogart and Billy Wilder and \"Sabrina\" came back and it was like \"Eat the rat!\" It's a punk rock version of it, but it's still inspired by Billy Wilder and Humphrey Bogart."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "dbdf1f3eac6f3caa6a48e7413a327b89420e62b9fbcaee14a9b8c6c022d8a20a", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# How AI helps push Candy Crush players through its most difficult puzzles\n\nBy Sarah Parvini  \nMay 11th, 2025, 11:25 AM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence.\n\nThe app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush, also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game.\n\nTodd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be \"extremely difficult,\" he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass.\n\nWithin the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods \u2014 be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July.\n\n\"We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,\" Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. \"Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.\"\n\nIn the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says.\n\nCandy Crush \u2014 first launched on Facebook in 2012 \u2014 is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion.\n\nThe free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of \"One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games.\" Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a \"ravenous set of players,\" he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added.\n\n\"To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,\" he said. \"The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.\"\n\nKing uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun \"on first contact.\"\n\n\"That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,\" he said. \"There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new.\"\n\nGreen said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design \"loop\" of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players.\n\n\"Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,\" he said. \"So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.\"\n\nFor most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the \"up and down.\" Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels \u2014 or vice versa \u2014 to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added.\n\n\"We talk to players all the time,\" he said. \"We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?\"\n\nTo determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate \u2014 how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts \u2014 and how often a board is \"reshuffled,\" or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun.\n\n\"It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective,\" Green said. \"It's different for different people.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# How AI helps push Candy Crush players through its most difficult puzzles\n\nBy Sarah Parvini  \nMay 11th, 2025, 11:25 AM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Players swiping their way through more than 18,700 levels of Candy Crush Saga might be surprised to learn they're solving puzzles designed with an assist from artificial intelligence.\n\nThe app that helped make gamers out of anyone with a smartphone uses AI to help developers create levels to serve a captive audience constantly looking for more sweets to squash. King, the Swedish video game developer behind Candy Crush, also uses AI to update older levels to help ensure players don't feel bored, stuck or frustrated as they spend time with the game.\n\nTodd Green, general manager of the Candy Crush franchise, said using AI in that way helps free up developers' time to create new puzzle boards. It would be \"extremely difficult,\" he said, for designers to update and reconfigure more than 18,000 levels without AI taking a first pass.\n\nWithin the video game industry, discussions around the use of AI in game development run the gamut. Some game makers see AI as a tool that can assist with menial tasks, allowing designers and artists to focus on bigger projects. AI, they say, can help build richer worlds by creating more interactive non-player characters, for example. But there are also those who strongly oppose the use of AI, or who see the tech as a threat to their livelihoods \u2014 be it as video game actors and performers, or as workers who help make games. Concerns over AI led game performers with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July.\n\n\"We're not putting chatbots into the game. We're not putting AI-powered design experiences into the game for players directly to play with,\" Green said, adding that the tech is not being used to replace game workers. \"Instead, we're trying to deploy AI on existing problems that we have in order to make the work of the teams faster or more accurate, and more accurate more quickly.\"\n\nIn the United States, consumer spending on video game content increased to $51.3 billion in 2024, up from $49.8 billion in 2023, with mobile games accounting for about half of all video game content spending, according to data from the Entertainment Software Association trade group. Mobile is now the leading game platform among players aged 8 and older, the ESA says.\n\nCandy Crush \u2014 first launched on Facebook in 2012 \u2014 is constantly updating. King recently released its 300th client version of the game. Gaming giant Activision Blizzard acquired King in 2016 for $5.9 billion.\n\nThe free-to-play game is in a unique position, said Joost Van Dreunen, author of \"One Up: Creativity, Competition, and the Global Business of Video Games.\" Candy Crush is more than a decade old, boasts millions of users and caters to a \"ravenous set of players,\" he said. Demand is so high for new content that it makes sense to use AI to offset the work it takes to create so many levels, Van Dreunen added.\n\n\"To supply that at scale, you absolutely can rely on a sort of artificial intelligence or generative AI to create the next set of forms,\" he said. \"The thing about Candy Crush is that every level is technically a single board that you have to solve or clear before you can advance. With AI and the existing library of human-made boards, it makes total sense to then accelerate and expand the efforts to just create more inventory. People play more levels.\"\n\nKing uses AI to target two separate areas: developing new levels and going back to older levels, in some cases, puzzles that are several years old, and reworking them to ensure they're still worth playing. On new levels designed for people who have played the game for a long time, the company wants to ensure the puzzles are fun \"on first contact.\"\n\n\"That's hard for us to do, because we don't get the benefit of having many players test or play through the levels and give us feedback. We have to sort of try and pitch it right at first,\" he said. \"There's a really important group for us in between people who maybe played before and perhaps took a break for a while, and then coming back because they saw or heard of or were curious about what might be new.\"\n\nGreen said King uses AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant in the design \"loop\" of the game, rather than as a tool that immediately puts something new in front of players.\n\n\"Doing that for 1,000 levels all at once is very difficult by hand,\" he said. \"So the most important thing to understand here is that we are using AI as like a custom design.\"\n\nFor most players, Green said, the fun in solving the puzzles lies in the \"up and down.\" Levels aren't designed in order of difficulty. An easy level can follow a few difficult levels \u2014 or vice versa \u2014 to give the game a sense of variety. Leveraging AI means that instead of the team working on several hundred levels each week, they could potentially improve thousands of levels per week because they're able to automate the drafting of the improved levels, he added.\n\n\"We talk to players all the time,\" he said. \"We also get the quantitative feedback. We can see how players respond to the levels... How easy are the levels? Do they get sort of stuck, or are they progressing in the way that we hope?\"\n\nTo determine whether gamers and playing through the way the designers intended, King looks at several factors, including pass rate \u2014 how many times a player passes a level out of every 100 attempts \u2014 and how often a board is \"reshuffled,\" or refreshed with all candies rearranged. Some metrics are also intangible, like whether a level is simply fun.\n\n\"It's also, to some extent, obviously subjective,\" Green said. \"It's different for different people.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c915b461d843576d1df459d241c72464cd60e01cd33c4a1b8192d4234947738c", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 14 people die from drinking toxic liquor in India\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 07:17 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 At least 14 people died and six were hospitalized in critical condition after consuming toxic liquor overnight in northern India, police said Tuesday.\n\nSeven people were arrested on allegations they supplied the toxic liquor in five villages around 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the city of Amritsar in northern Punjab, senior police officer Maninder Singh said.\n\nThe police have launched a crackdown to destroy the network of spurious liquor supplies in the area following the incident, Singh said.\n\nThe local administration deployed medics to the villages to check on people who drank the contaminated liquor, said Sakshi Sawhney, a senior government official in Amritsar.\n\nThose showing symptoms are being shifted to hospitals to ensure the death toll doesn't rise, said Sawhney.\n\nInvestigators have not said what ingredients were suspected of causing the deaths and sickness.\n\nIn India, deaths from consumption of contaminated liquor manufactured locally is rampant, mainly in rural areas."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 14 people die from drinking toxic liquor in India\n\nMay 13th, 2025, 07:17 AM\n\n---\n\nNEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 At least 14 people died and six were hospitalized in critical condition after consuming toxic liquor overnight in northern India, police said Tuesday.\n\nSeven people were arrested on allegations they supplied the toxic liquor in five villages around 19 kilometers (12 miles) from the city of Amritsar in northern Punjab, senior police officer Maninder Singh said.\n\nThe police have launched a crackdown to destroy the network of spurious liquor supplies in the area following the incident, Singh said.\n\nThe local administration deployed medics to the villages to check on people who drank the contaminated liquor, said Sakshi Sawhney, a senior government official in Amritsar.\n\nThose showing symptoms are being shifted to hospitals to ensure the death toll doesn't rise, said Sawhney.\n\nInvestigators have not said what ingredients were suspected of causing the deaths and sickness.\n\nIn India, deaths from consumption of contaminated liquor manufactured locally is rampant, mainly in rural areas."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e9b394d64aca86037fee35145d554d920e8701f0f6db8029e3c30365a5c35381", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting\n\nBy Kathy Mccormack and Leah Willingham  \nMay 20th, 2025, 01:58 PM\n\n---\n\nCONCORD, N.H. (AP) \u2014 A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute.\n\nThe town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February.\n\nHe ordered the town to stop any efforts at enforcing its sign code regarding the mural painted by high school students atop Leavitt's Country Bakery, mentioning a \"complete disconnect between what the ordinance purports to regulate and the town's enforcement, as well as the illogical way it applied and explained that enforcement\" to Leavitt's.\n\n\"I'm thrilled that the students' artwork can remain up, I'm thrilled that my First Amendment rights have been vindicated, and I'm thrilled that the community can continue to enjoy the beautiful piece of art,\" Young said in a statement. \"I think our mural is a wonderful depiction of everything that makes the Mount Washington Valley such a great place to live.\"\n\nYoung asked for $1 in damages. A lawyer representing Conway said they were disappointed by the outcome, but agreed with Laplante that the town and its officials \"conducted themselves conscientiously and in good faith in managing town business.\"\n\nThe community of more than 10,000 people in the White Mountains draws skiers, nature lovers and shoppers. Some residents want regulations enforced as they worry about overdevelopment in the tourist town.\n\nWhen the mural went up in June 2022, it attracted a lot of compliments and visitors, including one from a town zoning officer.\n\nThe zoning board decided that the painting was not so much art as advertising. The board determined it was a sign, and so it could not remain as is because of its size. At about 90 square feet (8.4 square meters), it's four times bigger than the local sign code allows.\n\nIf the painting didn't show what's sold inside \u2014 baked goods \u2014 it wouldn't be considered a sign and could stay, board members said.\n\nGay Moceri, a former English teacher living in nearby Freedom, New Hampshire, said the town's efforts to remove the sign were sending a \"horrible\" message to students \"who had worked hard to do something so beautiful to contribute to the community.\"\n\n\"I've had a grin on my face ever since I got the news because you stick to your guns and you fight for what you know is right, and sometimes the little guy does win,\" she said. \"I'm happy for him, and I'm happy for the community that we get to keep this beautiful piece of art.\"\n\nJames Lewkowicz, who stopped by the donut shop with his golden retriever Tehya to offer congratulations Tuesday, called the town's approach to the situation \"illogical.\"\n\n\"We're really happy \u2014 at least I am,\" said Lewkowicz, who has a house in Jackson and has been spending time in the area for 40 years. \"I thought the town was mean. It's little kids' paintings. I just hope the kids who painted it are still around to come back and have a donut party.\"\n\nThe town has shown that \"restricting the size of signs serves the significant government interest of preserving the town's aesthetics, promoting safety, and ensuring equal enforcement,\" lawyers for Conway said in a court document.\n\nLaplante said Conway's interests \"are undermined if the only regulated displays are those that depict products or services sold on the premises where the display is, and no others.\"\n\nYoung sued in 2023 after he was told to modify or remove the painting, which he said was never intended to be a sign. He was faced with possible misdemeanor criminal charges and fines after his appeals were rejected.\n\nBoth sides agreed in court that the town's definition of a sign is very broad. Even the judge said it seemed to include \"everything.\"\n\nA sign in Conway is \"any device, fixture, placard, structure or attachment thereto that uses color, form, graphic, illumination, symbol, or writing to advertise, announce the purpose of, or identify the purpose of any person or entity, or to communicate information of any kind to the public, whether commercial or noncommercial.\"\n\nThe town \"will continue to work conscientiously and in good faith to ensure that the constitutional rights of all are not infringed, while maintaining public safety and Conway's natural beauty,\" Brooke Lovett Shilo, one of the lawyers representing Conway, said in a statement Monday."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Bakery in New Hampshire wins in free speech case over a pastry shop painting\n\nBy Kathy Mccormack and Leah Willingham  \nMay 20th, 2025, 01:58 PM\n\n---\n\nCONCORD, N.H. (AP) \u2014 A New Hampshire town's attempt to force a bakery to remove or alter its painting that shows sunbeams shining down on a mountain range of doughnuts, a muffin, a cinnamon roll and other pastries is unconstitutional, a judge ruled in a First Amendment dispute.\n\nThe town of Conway infringed on the free speech rights of bakery owner Sean Young, U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante ruled Monday, following a one-day trial in February.\n\nHe ordered the town to stop any efforts at enforcing its sign code regarding the mural painted by high school students atop Leavitt's Country Bakery, mentioning a \"complete disconnect between what the ordinance purports to regulate and the town's enforcement, as well as the illogical way it applied and explained that enforcement\" to Leavitt's.\n\n\"I'm thrilled that the students' artwork can remain up, I'm thrilled that my First Amendment rights have been vindicated, and I'm thrilled that the community can continue to enjoy the beautiful piece of art,\" Young said in a statement. \"I think our mural is a wonderful depiction of everything that makes the Mount Washington Valley such a great place to live.\"\n\nYoung asked for $1 in damages. A lawyer representing Conway said they were disappointed by the outcome, but agreed with Laplante that the town and its officials \"conducted themselves conscientiously and in good faith in managing town business.\"\n\nThe community of more than 10,000 people in the White Mountains draws skiers, nature lovers and shoppers. Some residents want regulations enforced as they worry about overdevelopment in the tourist town.\n\nWhen the mural went up in June 2022, it attracted a lot of compliments and visitors, including one from a town zoning officer.\n\nThe zoning board decided that the painting was not so much art as advertising. The board determined it was a sign, and so it could not remain as is because of its size. At about 90 square feet (8.4 square meters), it's four times bigger than the local sign code allows.\n\nIf the painting didn't show what's sold inside \u2014 baked goods \u2014 it wouldn't be considered a sign and could stay, board members said.\n\nGay Moceri, a former English teacher living in nearby Freedom, New Hampshire, said the town's efforts to remove the sign were sending a \"horrible\" message to students \"who had worked hard to do something so beautiful to contribute to the community.\"\n\n\"I've had a grin on my face ever since I got the news because you stick to your guns and you fight for what you know is right, and sometimes the little guy does win,\" she said. \"I'm happy for him, and I'm happy for the community that we get to keep this beautiful piece of art.\"\n\nJames Lewkowicz, who stopped by the donut shop with his golden retriever Tehya to offer congratulations Tuesday, called the town's approach to the situation \"illogical.\"\n\n\"We're really happy \u2014 at least I am,\" said Lewkowicz, who has a house in Jackson and has been spending time in the area for 40 years. \"I thought the town was mean. It's little kids' paintings. I just hope the kids who painted it are still around to come back and have a donut party.\"\n\nThe town has shown that \"restricting the size of signs serves the significant government interest of preserving the town's aesthetics, promoting safety, and ensuring equal enforcement,\" lawyers for Conway said in a court document.\n\nLaplante said Conway's interests \"are undermined if the only regulated displays are those that depict products or services sold on the premises where the display is, and no others.\"\n\nYoung sued in 2023 after he was told to modify or remove the painting, which he said was never intended to be a sign. He was faced with possible misdemeanor criminal charges and fines after his appeals were rejected.\n\nBoth sides agreed in court that the town's definition of a sign is very broad. Even the judge said it seemed to include \"everything.\"\n\nA sign in Conway is \"any device, fixture, placard, structure or attachment thereto that uses color, form, graphic, illumination, symbol, or writing to advertise, announce the purpose of, or identify the purpose of any person or entity, or to communicate information of any kind to the public, whether commercial or noncommercial.\"\n\nThe town \"will continue to work conscientiously and in good faith to ensure that the constitutional rights of all are not infringed, while maintaining public safety and Conway's natural beauty,\" Brooke Lovett Shilo, one of the lawyers representing Conway, said in a statement Monday."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "15036df2c6e1a551883a1235c4c1ec18c001f220b756c05ebae3ec48635790dc", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Alberta's premier would allow a citizen-led referendum on separation from Canada\n\nBy Jim Morris  \nMay 6th, 2025, 12:20 AM\n\n---\n\nVANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 The premier of Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta said Monday she will hold a referendum on separation from Canada next year if a citizen-led petition reaches the required number of signatures.\n\nSpeaking on a livestream address, Danielle Smith said she personally does not support the province leaving Canada and expressed hope of a \"path forward\" for a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.\n\n\"Should Ottawa, for whatever reason, continue to attack our province as they have done over the last decade, ultimately that will be for Albertans to decide,\" she said. \"I will accept their judgement.\"\n\nSmith's announcement comes just one week after Prime Minister Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive federal government. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten Canada with tariffs and talk of the country becoming the 51st state.\n\nCarney and Trump are scheduled to meet in the White House Tuesday.\n\nSmith's United Conservative government recently introduced legislation that, if passed, would reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum.\n\nThe bill would change citizen-initiated referendum rules to require a petition signed by 10 percent of eligible voters in a previous general election \u2014 down from 20 percent of total registered voters. Applicants would also get 120 days, rather than 90, to collect the required 177,000 signatures.\n\nSmith accused previous federal Liberal governments of introducing different legislations that hamstring Alberta's ability to produce and export oil, which she said has cost the province billions of dollars. She also said she doesn't want the federal government meddling in provincial issues.\n\n\"We don't ask for special treatment or handouts,\" she said. \"We just want to be free to develop and export that incredible wealth of resources we have. Freedom to choose how we provide health care, education and other needed social services to our people, even if it's done differently than what Ottawa has in mind.\"\n\nSmith has met with Carney and said he \"had some promising things to say about changing the direction of his government's anti-resources policies.\"\n\nSmith said her government will appoint a negotiation team to try to bring an end to federal policies that have long irritated the province. She also will chair an \"Alberta Next\" panel hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans.\n\nJohn Soroski, a political scientist at MacEwan University in Edmonton, said while there is anger in the province, he isn't sure if it will lead to voting to separate.\n\n\"These grievances are serious,\" he said. \"I think the prospects of separation are highly unlikely.\n\nThe largely French-speaking province of Quebec held referendums in 1980 and 1995 over separation. Both failed.\n\nSoroski said Smith may be following the lead of Quebec politicians who have used the threat of separation when dealing with the federal government.\n\n\"I don't see Smith wants separation, but I think it's very useful for the province to have in its back pocket the idea that there's this large number of discontented Albertans,\" he said.\n\nSmith said she will work with Carney \"in good faith\" but wants \"tangible proof of real change.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Alberta's premier would allow a citizen-led referendum on separation from Canada\n\nBy Jim Morris  \nMay 6th, 2025, 12:20 AM\n\n---\n\nVANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) \u2014 The premier of Canada's oil-rich province of Alberta said Monday she will hold a referendum on separation from Canada next year if a citizen-led petition reaches the required number of signatures.\n\nSpeaking on a livestream address, Danielle Smith said she personally does not support the province leaving Canada and expressed hope of a \"path forward\" for a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada.\n\n\"Should Ottawa, for whatever reason, continue to attack our province as they have done over the last decade, ultimately that will be for Albertans to decide,\" she said. \"I will accept their judgement.\"\n\nSmith's announcement comes just one week after Prime Minister Mark Carney led the Liberal Party to a fourth consecutive federal government. It also comes as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to threaten Canada with tariffs and talk of the country becoming the 51st state.\n\nCarney and Trump are scheduled to meet in the White House Tuesday.\n\nSmith's United Conservative government recently introduced legislation that, if passed, would reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum.\n\nThe bill would change citizen-initiated referendum rules to require a petition signed by 10 percent of eligible voters in a previous general election \u2014 down from 20 percent of total registered voters. Applicants would also get 120 days, rather than 90, to collect the required 177,000 signatures.\n\nSmith accused previous federal Liberal governments of introducing different legislations that hamstring Alberta's ability to produce and export oil, which she said has cost the province billions of dollars. She also said she doesn't want the federal government meddling in provincial issues.\n\n\"We don't ask for special treatment or handouts,\" she said. \"We just want to be free to develop and export that incredible wealth of resources we have. Freedom to choose how we provide health care, education and other needed social services to our people, even if it's done differently than what Ottawa has in mind.\"\n\nSmith has met with Carney and said he \"had some promising things to say about changing the direction of his government's anti-resources policies.\"\n\nSmith said her government will appoint a negotiation team to try to bring an end to federal policies that have long irritated the province. She also will chair an \"Alberta Next\" panel hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans.\n\nJohn Soroski, a political scientist at MacEwan University in Edmonton, said while there is anger in the province, he isn't sure if it will lead to voting to separate.\n\n\"These grievances are serious,\" he said. \"I think the prospects of separation are highly unlikely.\n\nThe largely French-speaking province of Quebec held referendums in 1980 and 1995 over separation. Both failed.\n\nSoroski said Smith may be following the lead of Quebec politicians who have used the threat of separation when dealing with the federal government.\n\n\"I don't see Smith wants separation, but I think it's very useful for the province to have in its back pocket the idea that there's this large number of discontented Albertans,\" he said.\n\nSmith said she will work with Carney \"in good faith\" but wants \"tangible proof of real change.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "85e5b82b9024ffb47c24f50751c6adb8c0dd1c735f602dc1850569dfc0a788bc", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Kali Uchis pours her heart into new album 'Sincerely'\n\nBy Leslie Ambriz  \nMay 8th, 2025, 02:34 PM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Kali Uchis wrote the album she knew her future self would need to listen to. The Grammy-winning artist unknowingly was crafting her own audible remedy.\n\n\"I really did make the music that I needed for my grieving process, for just the place that I'm at in my life right now,\" she says of the album out Friday.\n\n\"Sincerely,\" (yes, the title includes the comma) began as a collection of letters to herself, friends and loved ones but took on a deeper meaning as the Colombian American songwriter gave birth to her first child and processed her mother's recent death. The first single, \"Sunshine & Rain...,\" includes a clip of Uchis' mother saying, \"Good morning, sunshine.\"\n\n\"I wanted to immortalize her in the project,\" said Uchis. \"I thought it was just a beautiful way to open the album.\"\n\nThe 14-track album finds Uchis proudly wearing her heart on her sleeve with songs like \"Daggers!,\" where Uchis encourages a close friend to lean into self-love, or \"ILYSMIH,\" which includes baby coos at the beginning and was written as she lay in her hospital bed with her newborn.\n\nUchis hopes that after listening to her fifth full album, fans will feel more connected to themselves and more in touch with their emotions: \"I hope it will give them some type of solace.\"\n\nThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.\n\n## AP: When you decided to step into this album and encompass that world of tenderness and strength, what was your thought process of the themes that you wanted to follow?\n\nUCHIS: I'm a very deep feeler. I'm very empathetic. I feel a lot. And I wanted to make a body of work that fully showed that vulnerability and that actually really dug deep into my heart in a way that none of my other albums ever had.\n\nI felt like I was ready to do that because I've been making music long enough that I felt that it was that time for me, and then it just so happened that, shortly after working on the album, I became pregnant, which was such a big part of being able to feel even deeper than I ever have.\n\n## AP: How was working on this album healing for you?\n\nUCHIS: It's crazy because a lot of times I feel, and especially with this album in particular, I felt that I really made music that my future self would need, that I didn't realize I was going to need at that time.\n\nThe album is actually dedicated to my mom. My mom later ended up getting diagnosed, and she's no longer here. ... And so pretty much all of the songs ended up taking on a deeper meaning to me because of that and because of it being dedicated to her. ... At the time, I might not have even realized subconsciously that I was making all of this to heal myself.\n\n## AP: Is that how you got to the title \"Sincerely,\"?\n\nUCHIS: At one point, I was like, \"I'm gonna make sure each of these songs is like, this is my letter to the world, this is my letter to this person, this my letter to that, this one to myself.\" I tried to really conceptualize in a different way that I never have when making any other album. And then ... when my mom passed, a lot of what I had left from her is letters that she wrote to me, and so it ended up, like I said, just more and more reasons for me to realize that it was the correct title for the project.\n\n## AP: When you are in that studio space by yourself, what comes first? Is it the melody? Is it the lyrics? How did you specifically craft this album?\n\nUCHIS: I never stick to one process, but one particular process that stuck out to me on a lot of the songs was that most of them were written with no music, just songs that came to me.\n\nFor instance, \"ILYSMIH\" \u2014 that one literally I was just recovering from labor, my son was sleeping next to me; I was still in my hospital bed when I got this idea for this song and started it, started recording it on my phone, started writing some lyrics down. ... There's one called \"All I Can Say.\" I wrote that whole song in the car on the way to the studio. ... I try to just make beauty out of all of my experiences.\n\n## AP: Fans online were saying \"Sunshine and Rain\" is the answer to \"After the Storm.\" Do you agree with that and if so how does it feel to now, five albums later, do you agree with the correlation?\n\nUCHIS: Thematically, nature is kind of a reoccurring theme in my music because I am so inspired by nature and I feel nature is where God exists and nature is where a lot of my creativity just thrives.\n\nI feel like it just happened. Afterwards, I even thought, \"Is this too similar to what I've already done?\" But \u2026 I just love the things that I love, and I just returned back to those nostalgic elements. I may branch out and try what people think is different sounds. Like on \"Orqu\u00eddeas,\" I did a lot of different genre-bending on \"Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)\" as well, but to me, that's still nostalgic because it's still music I grew up listening to.\n\nI return a lot to things that are core memories for me. It's soothing to my nervous system. I'm the person who watches the same episodes of my favorite TV shows over and over again, ... I think that's what makes it beautiful too, is to see the evolution and know that it's still true to me. It's still true to my roots in music and where I started, but an evolved version.\n\n## AP: What does that mean to you to have your mother's voice be a part of the album?\n\nUCHIS: After she passed, one of the first things I did was go through all of the audio messages that she had ever sent me and I was just listening to all her messages over and over, wanting to hear her voice. When I heard that one I just thought of, \"Oh how perfect is this that the song is called 'Sunshine &Rain...,' and she had said, \"Good morning, sunshine.\" It was for my son that she sent that message. I thought it was just a beautiful way to open the album, considering that it's dedicated to her.\n\nI struggled a lot with whether or not I wanted to share because I'm a very, very private person. So I struggled a lot with if I even wanted to share that my mom was no longer here, but I felt I just had to not be afraid of that vulnerability and not pretend like it didn't affect me or didn't have some type of impact on me when it had such a big impact on me and still does. And I wanted to also honor her and honor her life in a way through art that I know that she would have loved and that she would have been proud of."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Kali Uchis pours her heart into new album 'Sincerely'\n\nBy Leslie Ambriz  \nMay 8th, 2025, 02:34 PM\n\n---\n\nLOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Kali Uchis wrote the album she knew her future self would need to listen to. The Grammy-winning artist unknowingly was crafting her own audible remedy.\n\n\"I really did make the music that I needed for my grieving process, for just the place that I'm at in my life right now,\" she says of the album out Friday.\n\n\"Sincerely,\" (yes, the title includes the comma) began as a collection of letters to herself, friends and loved ones but took on a deeper meaning as the Colombian American songwriter gave birth to her first child and processed her mother's recent death. The first single, \"Sunshine & Rain...,\" includes a clip of Uchis' mother saying, \"Good morning, sunshine.\"\n\n\"I wanted to immortalize her in the project,\" said Uchis. \"I thought it was just a beautiful way to open the album.\"\n\nThe 14-track album finds Uchis proudly wearing her heart on her sleeve with songs like \"Daggers!,\" where Uchis encourages a close friend to lean into self-love, or \"ILYSMIH,\" which includes baby coos at the beginning and was written as she lay in her hospital bed with her newborn.\n\nUchis hopes that after listening to her fifth full album, fans will feel more connected to themselves and more in touch with their emotions: \"I hope it will give them some type of solace.\"\n\nThis interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.\n\n## AP: When you decided to step into this album and encompass that world of tenderness and strength, what was your thought process of the themes that you wanted to follow?\n\nUCHIS: I'm a very deep feeler. I'm very empathetic. I feel a lot. And I wanted to make a body of work that fully showed that vulnerability and that actually really dug deep into my heart in a way that none of my other albums ever had.\n\nI felt like I was ready to do that because I've been making music long enough that I felt that it was that time for me, and then it just so happened that, shortly after working on the album, I became pregnant, which was such a big part of being able to feel even deeper than I ever have.\n\n## AP: How was working on this album healing for you?\n\nUCHIS: It's crazy because a lot of times I feel, and especially with this album in particular, I felt that I really made music that my future self would need, that I didn't realize I was going to need at that time.\n\nThe album is actually dedicated to my mom. My mom later ended up getting diagnosed, and she's no longer here. ... And so pretty much all of the songs ended up taking on a deeper meaning to me because of that and because of it being dedicated to her. ... At the time, I might not have even realized subconsciously that I was making all of this to heal myself.\n\n## AP: Is that how you got to the title \"Sincerely,\"?\n\nUCHIS: At one point, I was like, \"I'm gonna make sure each of these songs is like, this is my letter to the world, this is my letter to this person, this my letter to that, this one to myself.\" I tried to really conceptualize in a different way that I never have when making any other album. And then ... when my mom passed, a lot of what I had left from her is letters that she wrote to me, and so it ended up, like I said, just more and more reasons for me to realize that it was the correct title for the project.\n\n## AP: When you are in that studio space by yourself, what comes first? Is it the melody? Is it the lyrics? How did you specifically craft this album?\n\nUCHIS: I never stick to one process, but one particular process that stuck out to me on a lot of the songs was that most of them were written with no music, just songs that came to me.\n\nFor instance, \"ILYSMIH\" \u2014 that one literally I was just recovering from labor, my son was sleeping next to me; I was still in my hospital bed when I got this idea for this song and started it, started recording it on my phone, started writing some lyrics down. ... There's one called \"All I Can Say.\" I wrote that whole song in the car on the way to the studio. ... I try to just make beauty out of all of my experiences.\n\n## AP: Fans online were saying \"Sunshine and Rain\" is the answer to \"After the Storm.\" Do you agree with that and if so how does it feel to now, five albums later, do you agree with the correlation?\n\nUCHIS: Thematically, nature is kind of a reoccurring theme in my music because I am so inspired by nature and I feel nature is where God exists and nature is where a lot of my creativity just thrives.\n\nI feel like it just happened. Afterwards, I even thought, \"Is this too similar to what I've already done?\" But \u2026 I just love the things that I love, and I just returned back to those nostalgic elements. I may branch out and try what people think is different sounds. Like on \"Orqu\u00eddeas,\" I did a lot of different genre-bending on \"Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)\" as well, but to me, that's still nostalgic because it's still music I grew up listening to.\n\nI return a lot to things that are core memories for me. It's soothing to my nervous system. I'm the person who watches the same episodes of my favorite TV shows over and over again, ... I think that's what makes it beautiful too, is to see the evolution and know that it's still true to me. It's still true to my roots in music and where I started, but an evolved version.\n\n## AP: What does that mean to you to have your mother's voice be a part of the album?\n\nUCHIS: After she passed, one of the first things I did was go through all of the audio messages that she had ever sent me and I was just listening to all her messages over and over, wanting to hear her voice. When I heard that one I just thought of, \"Oh how perfect is this that the song is called 'Sunshine &Rain...,' and she had said, \"Good morning, sunshine.\" It was for my son that she sent that message. I thought it was just a beautiful way to open the album, considering that it's dedicated to her.\n\nI struggled a lot with whether or not I wanted to share because I'm a very, very private person. So I struggled a lot with if I even wanted to share that my mom was no longer here, but I felt I just had to not be afraid of that vulnerability and not pretend like it didn't affect me or didn't have some type of impact on me when it had such a big impact on me and still does. And I wanted to also honor her and honor her life in a way through art that I know that she would have loved and that she would have been proud of."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "53a4fbda3700351b1107ecf30b95a982b41a7afd0b7ae0f8def8322a3f7b3cd4", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Brazilian judge orders arrest of man over alleged plot targeting Lady Gaga concert in Rio\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 09:43 PM\n\n---\n\nRIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 A Brazilian judge on Monday ordered the arrest of a man suspected of being involved in an alleged plot to place explosives at a concert by singer Lady Gaga in Rio de Janeiro.\n\nJudge Fabiana Pagel of the Rio Grande do Sul state court did not name the suspect in her ruling, but said he is a man investigated by Rio de Janeiro police as the alleged mastermind of the plot.\n\nPolice in Rio Grande do Sul state, which borders Argentina and Uruguay, said Sunday they had released a man under investigation for the alleged plot after he paid his bail.\n\nBrazilian media reported that is the same man jailed on Monday by Judge Pagel.\n\nRio police did not reveal names of either of its two suspects or show images of the explosives that the alleged plotters intended to use. Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, said authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil's LGBTQ community.\n\nThe Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star's career, attracting an estimated 2.5 million fans to Copacabana Beach. Security was tight at Saturday's concert, with 5,200 military and police officers deployed to the beach where fans were reveling."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Brazilian judge orders arrest of man over alleged plot targeting Lady Gaga concert in Rio\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 09:43 PM\n\n---\n\nRIO DE JANEIRO (AP) \u2014 A Brazilian judge on Monday ordered the arrest of a man suspected of being involved in an alleged plot to place explosives at a concert by singer Lady Gaga in Rio de Janeiro.\n\nJudge Fabiana Pagel of the Rio Grande do Sul state court did not name the suspect in her ruling, but said he is a man investigated by Rio de Janeiro police as the alleged mastermind of the plot.\n\nPolice in Rio Grande do Sul state, which borders Argentina and Uruguay, said Sunday they had released a man under investigation for the alleged plot after he paid his bail.\n\nBrazilian media reported that is the same man jailed on Monday by Judge Pagel.\n\nRio police did not reveal names of either of its two suspects or show images of the explosives that the alleged plotters intended to use. Felipe Cury, secretary of the Rio police, said authorities believed the suspects sought to target Brazil's LGBTQ community.\n\nThe Rio event on Saturday was the biggest show of the pop star's career, attracting an estimated 2.5 million fans to Copacabana Beach. Security was tight at Saturday's concert, with 5,200 military and police officers deployed to the beach where fans were reveling."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "498f09caf33ebed28666d7e66f7c927a71fa7237f4913a0f8e2d56ccea1e83fe", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Hegseth directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions\n\nBy Tara Copp  \nMay 5th, 2025, 08:45 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration moves forward with deep cuts that it says will promote efficiency but that critics worry could result in a more politicized force.\n\nHegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions and directed the military to cut an additional 10% of its general and flag officers across the force, which could include any one-star or above or officer of equivalent Navy rank.\n\nThe cuts are on top of more than a half-dozen top general officers that President Donald Trump or Hegseth have fired since January, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown Jr. They also have fired the only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other senior female officers.\n\nIn the earlier rounds of firing, Hegseth said the eliminations were \"a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.\"\n\nAs Pentagon chief, Hegseth has touted his efforts to root out any programming or leadership that endorses diversity in the ranks, tried to terminate transgender service members and begun sweeping changes to enforce a uniform fitness standard for combat positions.\n\nIn a memo announcing the cuts Monday, Hegseth said they would remove \"redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.\" He said the aim was to free the military from \"unnecessary bureaucratic layers.\"\n\nRep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine who served in Iraq and is now on the House Armed Services Committee, said he sees Hegseth's actions as trying to politicize the military.\n\n\"He's creating a formal framework to fire all the generals who disagree with him \u2014 and the president,\" Moulton told AP at the Capitol.\n\nHe said certainly any organization can look for efficiencies but Hegseth has long been explicit about his agenda. \"He wrote a book about it. He wants to politicize the military,\" Moulton said. \"So it's hard to see these cuts in any other context.\"\n\nMoulton warned of fallout for the troops. \"It is essential that our troops understand they are getting constitutional orders, not political orders,\" he said, \"because otherwise you don't have a democracy, otherwise you have a military that just works well for one political party or another.\"\n\nAdding to the turmoil in the Pentagon, Hegseth in recent weeks has dismissed or transferred multiple close advisers, tightly narrowing his inner circle. He also has been facing questions from both Democrats and Republicans about his handling of sensitive information and use of the Signal messaging app.\n\nThere are about 800 general officers in the military, but only 44 of those are four-star general or flag officers. The Army has the largest number of general officers, with 219, including eight four-star generals.\n\nThe number of general officer positions in the military is set by law. Members of Congress were not provided with the advance notification they normally would receive on the cuts but were given a \"very brief alert\" this afternoon, according to a congressional staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not made public.\n\nThe cuts were first reported by CNN.\n\nThe Pentagon is under pressure to slash spending and personnel as part of the broader federal government cuts pushed by Trump and ally Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.\n\nHegseth last week ordered a sweeping transformation of the Army to \"build a leaner, more lethal force,\" including merging or closing headquarters, dumping outdated vehicles and aircraft, slashing as many as 1,000 headquarters staff in the Pentagon and shifting personnel to units in the field.\n\nAlso last week the Army confirmed that there will be a military parade on Trump's birthday in June, as part of the celebration around the service's 250th birthday. Officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars.\n\n\u2014-\n\nAssociated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Hegseth directs 20% cut to top military leadership positions\n\nBy Tara Copp  \nMay 5th, 2025, 08:45 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday directed the active duty military to shed 20% of its four-star general officers as the Trump administration moves forward with deep cuts that it says will promote efficiency but that critics worry could result in a more politicized force.\n\nHegseth also told the National Guard to shed 20% of its top positions and directed the military to cut an additional 10% of its general and flag officers across the force, which could include any one-star or above or officer of equivalent Navy rank.\n\nThe cuts are on top of more than a half-dozen top general officers that President Donald Trump or Hegseth have fired since January, including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ Brown Jr. They also have fired the only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other senior female officers.\n\nIn the earlier rounds of firing, Hegseth said the eliminations were \"a reflection of the president wanting the right people around him to execute the national security approach we want to take.\"\n\nAs Pentagon chief, Hegseth has touted his efforts to root out any programming or leadership that endorses diversity in the ranks, tried to terminate transgender service members and begun sweeping changes to enforce a uniform fitness standard for combat positions.\n\nIn a memo announcing the cuts Monday, Hegseth said they would remove \"redundant force structure to optimize and streamline leadership.\" He said the aim was to free the military from \"unnecessary bureaucratic layers.\"\n\nRep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., a Marine who served in Iraq and is now on the House Armed Services Committee, said he sees Hegseth's actions as trying to politicize the military.\n\n\"He's creating a formal framework to fire all the generals who disagree with him \u2014 and the president,\" Moulton told AP at the Capitol.\n\nHe said certainly any organization can look for efficiencies but Hegseth has long been explicit about his agenda. \"He wrote a book about it. He wants to politicize the military,\" Moulton said. \"So it's hard to see these cuts in any other context.\"\n\nMoulton warned of fallout for the troops. \"It is essential that our troops understand they are getting constitutional orders, not political orders,\" he said, \"because otherwise you don't have a democracy, otherwise you have a military that just works well for one political party or another.\"\n\nAdding to the turmoil in the Pentagon, Hegseth in recent weeks has dismissed or transferred multiple close advisers, tightly narrowing his inner circle. He also has been facing questions from both Democrats and Republicans about his handling of sensitive information and use of the Signal messaging app.\n\nThere are about 800 general officers in the military, but only 44 of those are four-star general or flag officers. The Army has the largest number of general officers, with 219, including eight four-star generals.\n\nThe number of general officer positions in the military is set by law. Members of Congress were not provided with the advance notification they normally would receive on the cuts but were given a \"very brief alert\" this afternoon, according to a congressional staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not made public.\n\nThe cuts were first reported by CNN.\n\nThe Pentagon is under pressure to slash spending and personnel as part of the broader federal government cuts pushed by Trump and ally Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.\n\nHegseth last week ordered a sweeping transformation of the Army to \"build a leaner, more lethal force,\" including merging or closing headquarters, dumping outdated vehicles and aircraft, slashing as many as 1,000 headquarters staff in the Pentagon and shifting personnel to units in the field.\n\nAlso last week the Army confirmed that there will be a military parade on Trump's birthday in June, as part of the celebration around the service's 250th birthday. Officials say it will cost tens of millions of dollars."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "517a6921e2dee6b94872da7d4027540a3f9af828c511fff83f537f01958bd197", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Four-legged investigators sniff out spotted lanternfly eggs to slow the spread of invasive pest\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 09:11 PM\n\n---\n\nCLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the U.S. a decade ago, has steadily spread across the East Coast and into the Midwest with little getting in its way.\n\nBut now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow it's advance \u2014 specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect's eggs before they hatch.\n\nSince late last year, four of the dogs have been scouring parks in the Cleveland area in search of egg masses hidden around trees, shrubs, park benches, landscape rocks and bridge pillars. Each egg mass can produce 30 to 50 spotted lanternflies.\n\nSo far, the dogs have uncovered more than 4,000 of the masses, meaning they've helped eradicate as many as 200,000 of the sap-sucking bugs that damage grapes, fruit trees, hops and hardwoods, said Connie Hausman, senior conservation science manager at Cleveland Metroparks.\n\nIn just a few hours in April, the dogs found about 1,100 egg masses at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Hausman said.\n\nNot just any dog can go out searching, she said.\n\n\"They all have wonderful noses, but they're not all eligible,\" she said. \"They had to pass tests to prove their service.\"\n\nThe dogs were trained through a research project led by a group at Virginia Tech University, which is setting out to slow the spread of the insects that are native to eastern Asia and recognizable for their distinctive black spots and bright red wing markings.\n\nThe four working in Cleveland owned by local residents already had scent training before they worked with Virginia Tech to hone their noses to detect the spotted lanternflies.\n\nOnce they spot a new mass of eggs, the dogs get a treat from their handlers who scrape away the mud-like masses."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Four-legged investigators sniff out spotted lanternfly eggs to slow the spread of invasive pest\n\nMay 19th, 2025, 09:11 PM\n\n---\n\nCLEVELAND (AP) \u2014 The spotted lanternfly, a leaf-hopping invasive pest first detected in the U.S. a decade ago, has steadily spread across the East Coast and into the Midwest with little getting in its way.\n\nBut now researchers are deploying a new weapon to slow it's advance \u2014 specially trained dogs with the ability to sniff out the winged insect's eggs before they hatch.\n\nSince late last year, four of the dogs have been scouring parks in the Cleveland area in search of egg masses hidden around trees, shrubs, park benches, landscape rocks and bridge pillars. Each egg mass can produce 30 to 50 spotted lanternflies.\n\nSo far, the dogs have uncovered more than 4,000 of the masses, meaning they've helped eradicate as many as 200,000 of the sap-sucking bugs that damage grapes, fruit trees, hops and hardwoods, said Connie Hausman, senior conservation science manager at Cleveland Metroparks.\n\nIn just a few hours in April, the dogs found about 1,100 egg masses at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, Hausman said.\n\nNot just any dog can go out searching, she said.\n\n\"They all have wonderful noses, but they're not all eligible,\" she said. \"They had to pass tests to prove their service.\"\n\nThe dogs were trained through a research project led by a group at Virginia Tech University, which is setting out to slow the spread of the insects that are native to eastern Asia and recognizable for their distinctive black spots and bright red wing markings.\n\nThe four working in Cleveland owned by local residents already had scent training before they worked with Virginia Tech to hone their noses to detect the spotted lanternflies.\n\nOnce they spot a new mass of eggs, the dogs get a treat from their handlers who scrape away the mud-like masses."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "8cd9d7f29330955c016baf9e45963f17369eddb4298b7255e029a4e3c70824f6", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Venezuelan opposition members leave Argentine diplomatic compound after over a year and are in US\n\nBy Regina Garcia Cano and Andry Rincon  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:27 AM\n\n---\n\nCARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 Five members of Venezuela's political opposition left the Argentine diplomatic compound in their country's capital, Caracas, where they had sheltered for more than a year to avoid arrest and were in the United States on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.\n\nRubio did not provide details of the group's movements to reach the U.S., but he described the event as a rescue operation.\n\nThe government of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro did not immediately comment on the situation.\n\n\"The U.S. welcomes the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas,\" Rubio said on X. \"Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S. soil.\"\n\nThe government of Argentine President Javier Milei allowed the five people into the ambassador's residence in March 2024, when authorities loyal to Venezuela's ruling party issued warrants for their arrest, accusing them of promoting acts of violence to destabilize the country. The group included the campaign manager and communications director of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.\n\nMachado, also on X, thanked people involved in what she called an \"impeccable and epic operation for the Freedom of five heroes of Venezuela.\"\n\nSince late November, the group had denounced the constant presence of intelligence service agents and police outside the residence. It had also accused the government of cutting electricity and water services to the compound. The government had denied the allegations.\n\nA sixth person, Fernando Martinez, a cabinet minister in the 1990s, sheltered with the group for nine months. Martinez abandoned the compound in mid-December and, according to Venezuelan authorities, appeared before prosecutors. He passed away in February.\n\nMaduro's government routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents ahead of last year's presidential election, and its crackdown on dissent only increased after the country's National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.\n\nThe election results announced by the Electoral Council sparked protests across the country to which the government responded with force and ended with more than 20 people dead. They also prompted an end to diplomatic relations between Venezuela and various foreign countries, including Argentina.\n\nIn August, Brazil accepted Argentina's request to guard the diplomatic compound in Caracas after Maduro's government expelled its diplomats when Milei said that he would not recognize \"another fraud.\" But a month later, Venezuela revoked Brazil's authorization to guard the facility, alleging it had evidence of the use of the premises \"for the planning of terrorist activities and assassination attempts.\"\n\nBrazil and Argentina have rejected those accusations.\n\nMilei said in a statement on Tuesday that the operation \"represents an important step in defending freedom in the region.\"\n\n___\n\nGarcia Cano reported from Mexico City."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Venezuelan opposition members leave Argentine diplomatic compound after over a year and are in US\n\nBy Regina Garcia Cano and Andry Rincon  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:27 AM\n\n---\n\nCARACAS, Venezuela (AP) \u2014 Five members of Venezuela's political opposition left the Argentine diplomatic compound in their country's capital, Caracas, where they had sheltered for more than a year to avoid arrest and were in the United States on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.\n\nRubio did not provide details of the group's movements to reach the U.S., but he described the event as a rescue operation.\n\nThe government of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro did not immediately comment on the situation.\n\n\"The U.S. welcomes the successful rescue of all hostages held by the Maduro regime at the Argentinian Embassy in Caracas,\" Rubio said on X. \"Following a precise operation, all hostages are now safely on U.S. soil.\"\n\nThe government of Argentine President Javier Milei allowed the five people into the ambassador's residence in March 2024, when authorities loyal to Venezuela's ruling party issued warrants for their arrest, accusing them of promoting acts of violence to destabilize the country. The group included the campaign manager and communications director of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.\n\nMachado, also on X, thanked people involved in what she called an \"impeccable and epic operation for the Freedom of five heroes of Venezuela.\"\n\nSince late November, the group had denounced the constant presence of intelligence service agents and police outside the residence. It had also accused the government of cutting electricity and water services to the compound. The government had denied the allegations.\n\nA sixth person, Fernando Martinez, a cabinet minister in the 1990s, sheltered with the group for nine months. Martinez abandoned the compound in mid-December and, according to Venezuelan authorities, appeared before prosecutors. He passed away in February.\n\nMaduro's government routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents ahead of last year's presidential election, and its crackdown on dissent only increased after the country's National Electoral Council, which is stacked with Maduro loyalists, declared him the winner despite credible evidence to the contrary.\n\nThe election results announced by the Electoral Council sparked protests across the country to which the government responded with force and ended with more than 20 people dead. They also prompted an end to diplomatic relations between Venezuela and various foreign countries, including Argentina.\n\nIn August, Brazil accepted Argentina's request to guard the diplomatic compound in Caracas after Maduro's government expelled its diplomats when Milei said that he would not recognize \"another fraud.\" But a month later, Venezuela revoked Brazil's authorization to guard the facility, alleging it had evidence of the use of the premises \"for the planning of terrorist activities and assassination attempts.\"\n\nBrazil and Argentina have rejected those accusations.\n\nMilei said in a statement on Tuesday that the operation \"represents an important step in defending freedom in the region.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6397e698180395a8121af2ef5bab115fb2ca341c2b7ef1bbe12b4782cd68cd79", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Merz vows to keep the US on board on Ukraine and strengthen Germany's military and economy\n\nBy Geir Moulson  \nMay 14th, 2025, 01:13 PM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday he will work to bring Europe and the U.S. together in their approach to Ukraine, enable his country to build Europe's strongest conventional army and make Europe's biggest economy a \"locomotive of growth\" again.\n\nThe conservative leader took office a week ago after winning election in February, ending a six-month period in which the European Union's most populous member lacked a government with a parliamentary majority. He has already made a flurry of trips to EU allies and visited Kyiv with his French, Polish and British counterparts.\n\n\"Europe expects something from us,\" Merz said in his first policy speech to parliament, and promised that \"we will offer our partners and friends reliability and predictability.\"\n\nThe new chancellor said that \"the times in which Germany simply abstained on significant questions of European policy should be over,\" an apparent reference to internal divisions that bedeviled predecessor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition before it collapsed in November.\n\nThe new government brings together Merz's center-right Union bloc with Scholz's center-left Social Democrats.\n\nMerz emphasized his desire to keep the Trump administration on board with support for Ukraine, adding that he spoke with President Donald Trump twice recently and was grateful for his support for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.\n\n\"Anyone who believes Russia would be content with a victory over Ukraine or parts of Ukraine, or the annexation of parts of the country, is wrong,\" Merz said. He pointed to various Russian destabilization efforts and rejected the idea of a \"dictated peace\" or the \"subjugation\" of Ukraine.\n\n\"We hope, and we all are working hard for this, that this clear position will not just be held everywhere in Europe but also by our American partners,\" Merz said, adding: \"It is of paramount importance that the political West not let itself be divided, so I will continue to make every effort to produce the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.\"\n\nEven before taking office, the new governing coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt, and to set up a huge infrastructure fund that's aimed at boosting the stagnant economy.\n\n\"The government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe,\" Merz said. \"Our friends and partners expect this of us; more than that, they are really demanding it of us.\"\n\nThe German military suffered from years of neglect before Scholz, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, pledged to increase Germany's defense spending to the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product and announced the creation of a 100 billion-euro special fund to modernize the military.\n\nGermany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027.\n\nMerz said that \"we will fulfill our commitments\" in Germany's interest and that of NATO, but didn't address U.S. demands for allies to raise their defense investments to 5% of GDP.\n\nMerz acknowledged that Germany's security and influence in the world \"stand and fall with our economic strength.\" He pledged to roll back bureaucracy, advance digitization, provide tax breaks for companies and promote more EU trade agreements.\n\n\"We will do everything to get Germany's economy back on the course of growth,\" he said. \"We want to invest and reform ... through our own efforts, we can once again become a locomotive of growth that the world looks at with admiration.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Merz vows to keep the US on board on Ukraine and strengthen Germany's military and economy\n\nBy Geir Moulson  \nMay 14th, 2025, 01:13 PM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Wednesday he will work to bring Europe and the U.S. together in their approach to Ukraine, enable his country to build Europe's strongest conventional army and make Europe's biggest economy a \"locomotive of growth\" again.\n\nThe conservative leader took office a week ago after winning election in February, ending a six-month period in which the European Union's most populous member lacked a government with a parliamentary majority. He has already made a flurry of trips to EU allies and visited Kyiv with his French, Polish and British counterparts.\n\n\"Europe expects something from us,\" Merz said in his first policy speech to parliament, and promised that \"we will offer our partners and friends reliability and predictability.\"\n\nThe new chancellor said that \"the times in which Germany simply abstained on significant questions of European policy should be over,\" an apparent reference to internal divisions that bedeviled predecessor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition before it collapsed in November.\n\nThe new government brings together Merz's center-right Union bloc with Scholz's center-left Social Democrats.\n\nMerz emphasized his desire to keep the Trump administration on board with support for Ukraine, adding that he spoke with President Donald Trump twice recently and was grateful for his support for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.\n\n\"Anyone who believes Russia would be content with a victory over Ukraine or parts of Ukraine, or the annexation of parts of the country, is wrong,\" Merz said. He pointed to various Russian destabilization efforts and rejected the idea of a \"dictated peace\" or the \"subjugation\" of Ukraine.\n\n\"We hope, and we all are working hard for this, that this clear position will not just be held everywhere in Europe but also by our American partners,\" Merz said, adding: \"It is of paramount importance that the political West not let itself be divided, so I will continue to make every effort to produce the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.\"\n\nEven before taking office, the new governing coalition pushed plans through parliament to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict rules on incurring debt, and to set up a huge infrastructure fund that's aimed at boosting the stagnant economy.\n\n\"The government will in the future provide all the financing the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest conventional army in Europe,\" Merz said. \"Our friends and partners expect this of us; more than that, they are really demanding it of us.\"\n\nThe German military suffered from years of neglect before Scholz, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, pledged to increase Germany's defense spending to the current NATO target of 2% of gross domestic product and announced the creation of a 100 billion-euro special fund to modernize the military.\n\nGermany met that target thanks to the fund, but it will be used up in 2027.\n\nMerz said that \"we will fulfill our commitments\" in Germany's interest and that of NATO, but didn't address U.S. demands for allies to raise their defense investments to 5% of GDP.\n\nMerz acknowledged that Germany's security and influence in the world \"stand and fall with our economic strength.\" He pledged to roll back bureaucracy, advance digitization, provide tax breaks for companies and promote more EU trade agreements.\n\n\"We will do everything to get Germany's economy back on the course of growth,\" he said. \"We want to invest and reform ... through our own efforts, we can once again become a locomotive of growth that the world looks at with admiration.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "6b5bd71a39d7e915e83894f1618d0f11c29f233e869bc28014250bc0ff52bb91", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Eggs are less likely to crack when dropped on their side, according to science\n\nBy Adithi Ramakrishnan  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.\n\nWhat does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.\n\nBut scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.\n\nIt's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends \u2014 after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.\n\nBut when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.\n\n\"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another,\" said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.\n\nThe researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).\n\nThe egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less .\n\n\"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case,\" said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.\n\nScientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.\n\nEggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.\n\nIt's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.\n\nCountless broken eggs show \"the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions,\" Cohen said.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Eggs are less likely to crack when dropped on their side, according to science\n\nBy Adithi Ramakrishnan  \nMay 8th, 2025, 03:00 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.\n\nWhat does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.\n\nBut scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.\n\nIt's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends \u2014 after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.\n\nBut when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.\n\n\"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another,\" said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.\n\nThe researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).\n\nThe egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less .\n\n\"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case,\" said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.\n\nScientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.\n\nEggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.\n\nIt's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.\n\nCountless broken eggs show \"the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions,\" Cohen said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1d80cf6eec89c5ed54545bc765236964c5be0935a6b02d915200faeac4328250", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# TikTok fined $600 million for China data transfers that broke EU privacy rules\n\nBy Kelvin Chan  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:03 AM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 A European Union privacy watchdog fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China put users at risk of spying, in breach of strict EU data privacy rules.\n\nIreland's Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months.\n\nThe Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok's lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company's European headquarters is based in Dublin.\n\n\"TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,\" Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.\n\nTikTok said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal.\n\nThe company said in a blog post that the decision focuses on a \"select period\" ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centers in Europe.\n\n\"The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm,\" said Christine Grahn, TikTok's European head of public policy and government relations. \"The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures.\"\n\nTikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal information of its users amid concerns from Western officials that it poses a security risk over user data sent to China. In 2023, the Irish watchdog also fined the company hundreds of millions of euros in a separate child privacy investigation.\n\nThe Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address \"potential access by Chinese authorities\" to European users' personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counterespionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as \"materially diverging\" from EU standards.\n\nGrahn said TikTok has \"has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.\"\n\nUnder the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, European user data can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection.\n\nGrahn said TikTok strongly disagreed with the Irish regulator's argument that it didn't carry out \"necessary assessments\" for data transfers, saying it sought advice from law firms and experts. She said TikTok was being \"singled out\" even though it uses the \"same legal mechanisms\" that thousands of other companies in Europe does and its approach is \"in line\" with EU rules.\n\nThe investigation, which opened in September 2021, also found that TikTok's privacy policy at the time did not name third countries, including China, where user data was transferred. The watchdog said the policy, which has since been updated, failed to explain that data processing involved \"remote access to personal data stored in Singapore and the United States by personnel based in China.\"\n\nTikTok faces further scrutiny from the Irish regulator, which said that the company had provided inaccurate information throughout the inquiry by saying that it didn't store European user data on Chinese servers. It wasn't until April that it informed the regulator that it discovered in February that some data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers.\n\nDoyle said that the watchdog is taking the recent developments \"very seriously\" and \"considering what further regulatory action may be warranted.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# TikTok fined $600 million for China data transfers that broke EU privacy rules\n\nBy Kelvin Chan  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:03 AM\n\n---\n\nLONDON (AP) \u2014 A European Union privacy watchdog fined TikTok 530 million euros ($600 million) on Friday after a four-year investigation found that the video sharing app's data transfers to China put users at risk of spying, in breach of strict EU data privacy rules.\n\nIreland's Data Protection Commission also sanctioned TikTok for not being transparent with users about where their personal data was being sent and ordered the company to comply with the rules within six months.\n\nThe Irish national watchdog serves as TikTok's lead data privacy regulator in the 27-nation EU because the company's European headquarters is based in Dublin.\n\n\"TikTok failed to verify, guarantee and demonstrate that the personal data of (European) users, remotely accessed by staff in China, was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU,\" Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a statement.\n\nTikTok said it disagreed with the decision and plans to appeal.\n\nThe company said in a blog post that the decision focuses on a \"select period\" ending in May 2023, before it embarked on a data localization project called Project Clover that involved building three data centers in Europe.\n\n\"The facts are that Project Clover has some of the most stringent data protections anywhere in the industry, including unprecedented independent oversight by NCC Group, a leading European cybersecurity firm,\" said Christine Grahn, TikTok's European head of public policy and government relations. \"The decision fails to fully consider these considerable data security measures.\"\n\nTikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China, has been under scrutiny in Europe over how it handles personal information of its users amid concerns from Western officials that it poses a security risk over user data sent to China. In 2023, the Irish watchdog also fined the company hundreds of millions of euros in a separate child privacy investigation.\n\nThe Irish watchdog said its investigation found that TikTok failed to address \"potential access by Chinese authorities\" to European users' personal data under Chinese laws on anti-terrorism, counterespionage, cybersecurity and national intelligence that were identified as \"materially diverging\" from EU standards.\n\nGrahn said TikTok has \"has never received a request for European user data from the Chinese authorities, and has never provided European user data to them.\"\n\nUnder the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, European user data can only be transferred outside of the bloc if there are safeguards in place to ensure the same level of protection.\n\nGrahn said TikTok strongly disagreed with the Irish regulator's argument that it didn't carry out \"necessary assessments\" for data transfers, saying it sought advice from law firms and experts. She said TikTok was being \"singled out\" even though it uses the \"same legal mechanisms\" that thousands of other companies in Europe does and its approach is \"in line\" with EU rules.\n\nThe investigation, which opened in September 2021, also found that TikTok's privacy policy at the time did not name third countries, including China, where user data was transferred. The watchdog said the policy, which has since been updated, failed to explain that data processing involved \"remote access to personal data stored in Singapore and the United States by personnel based in China.\"\n\nTikTok faces further scrutiny from the Irish regulator, which said that the company had provided inaccurate information throughout the inquiry by saying that it didn't store European user data on Chinese servers. It wasn't until April that it informed the regulator that it discovered in February that some data had in fact been stored on Chinese servers.\n\nDoyle said that the watchdog is taking the recent developments \"very seriously\" and \"considering what further regulatory action may be warranted.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "476f6d74f62d1494d1622e1d085bd99975e42dac7930021be37330d26e861497", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon quits amid potential Trump lawsuit settlement\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 19th, 2025, 03:13 PM\n\n---\n\nCBS News CEO Wendy McMahon said Monday that she is resigning after four years, the latest fallout at the network as its parent company considers settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump over a \"60 Minutes\" interview with his former political opponent.\n\nMcMahon, who has led both the network news division and news for the CBS-owned stations, said in an email message to staff that \"it's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It's time to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.\"\n\nMcMahon has made clear she opposes settling with Trump \u2014 just like \"60 Minutes\" executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last month.\n\nTrump has sued CBS, alleging it edited an interview with 2024 Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall to benefit her. CBS News has denied that. CBS' parent company, Paramount Global, is in talks to potentially settle Trump's lawsuit. At the same time, Paramount Global is seeking administration approval of a merger with Skydance Media.\n\nGeorge Cheeks, co-CEO of Paramount and head of the CBS network, said McMahon's top deputies, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and CBS Stations president Jennifer Mitchell, will report directly to him.\n\nMcMahon, in her note, said that \"the past few months have been challenging.\"\n\n\"I have spent the last few months shoring up our businesses and making sure the right leaders are in place, and I have no doubt they will continue to set the standard,\" she said.\n\nIn addition to the tussle with Trump, Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has expressed unhappiness over some network coverage of Israel's war in Gaza, including a \"60 Minutes\" piece this winter. Paramount began supervising \"60 Minutes\" stories in new ways, including asking former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky to look over some of its stories before they aired.\n\nThat extra layer contributed to Owens' resignation. One of the show's correspondents, Scott Pelley, said on the air that \"none of us is happy\" about the changes.\n\nCBS News is also trying to establish the new anchor team of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois at its flagship \"CBS Evening News\" broadcast amid ratings troubles.\n\nIn his note to staff members, Cheeks praised McMahon for expanding local news at CBS stations and improving their competitive positions, along with improving the network's digital offerings.\n\nDespite the internal tensions, the \"60 Minutes\" broadcast has done several notably tough stories on the Trump administration, and it has drawn the ire of the president. He attacked the show after one episode in April. \"Almost every week, 60 Minutes ... mentions the name 'TRUMP' in a derogatory and defamatory way,\" the president said on social media.\n\nOn Sunday's season finale of \"60 Minutes,\" a story that had been scheduled and publicly announced about cutbacks at the Internal Revenue Service was not aired. A spokeswoman said it was because on Friday, CBS learned that IRS leadership had told senior staff that it had decided to call some 7,000 probationary employees back to work.\n\nCBS said it would continue to report on the details and broadcast the story some time in the future.\n\nA Trump settlement with Paramount has precedence. The Walt Disney Co. decided in December to pay $15 million to end a Trump libel lawsuit against ABC News over a statement made by the network's George Stephanopoulos regarding a sexual assault case against Trump.\n\nThe new administration has been battling with the media over several fronts, including:\n\n\u2014Engaging in a court fight with The Associated Press over curtailing access because the agency has not followed Trump's wishes to rename the Gulf of Mexico.\n\n\u2014Making efforts to shut down government-run news services like the Voice of America.\n\n\u2014Cutting funding to public broadcasting.\n\n___\n\nDavid Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# CBS News CEO Wendy McMahon quits amid potential Trump lawsuit settlement\n\nBy David Bauder  \nMay 19th, 2025, 03:13 PM\n\n---\n\nCBS News CEO Wendy McMahon said Monday that she is resigning after four years, the latest fallout at the network as its parent company considers settling a lawsuit with President Donald Trump over a \"60 Minutes\" interview with his former political opponent.\n\nMcMahon, who has led both the network news division and news for the CBS-owned stations, said in an email message to staff that \"it's become clear that the company and I do not agree on the path forward. It's time to move on and for this organization to move forward with new leadership.\"\n\nMcMahon has made clear she opposes settling with Trump \u2014 just like \"60 Minutes\" executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last month.\n\nTrump has sued CBS, alleging it edited an interview with 2024 Democratic opponent Kamala Harris last fall to benefit her. CBS News has denied that. CBS' parent company, Paramount Global, is in talks to potentially settle Trump's lawsuit. At the same time, Paramount Global is seeking administration approval of a merger with Skydance Media.\n\nGeorge Cheeks, co-CEO of Paramount and head of the CBS network, said McMahon's top deputies, CBS News president Tom Cibrowski and CBS Stations president Jennifer Mitchell, will report directly to him.\n\nMcMahon, in her note, said that \"the past few months have been challenging.\"\n\n\"I have spent the last few months shoring up our businesses and making sure the right leaders are in place, and I have no doubt they will continue to set the standard,\" she said.\n\nIn addition to the tussle with Trump, Paramount's controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, has expressed unhappiness over some network coverage of Israel's war in Gaza, including a \"60 Minutes\" piece this winter. Paramount began supervising \"60 Minutes\" stories in new ways, including asking former CBS News President Susan Zirinsky to look over some of its stories before they aired.\n\nThat extra layer contributed to Owens' resignation. One of the show's correspondents, Scott Pelley, said on the air that \"none of us is happy\" about the changes.\n\nCBS News is also trying to establish the new anchor team of John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois at its flagship \"CBS Evening News\" broadcast amid ratings troubles.\n\nIn his note to staff members, Cheeks praised McMahon for expanding local news at CBS stations and improving their competitive positions, along with improving the network's digital offerings.\n\nDespite the internal tensions, the \"60 Minutes\" broadcast has done several notably tough stories on the Trump administration, and it has drawn the ire of the president. He attacked the show after one episode in April. \"Almost every week, 60 Minutes ... mentions the name 'TRUMP' in a derogatory and defamatory way,\" the president said on social media.\n\nOn Sunday's season finale of \"60 Minutes,\" a story that had been scheduled and publicly announced about cutbacks at the Internal Revenue Service was not aired. A spokeswoman said it was because on Friday, CBS learned that IRS leadership had told senior staff that it had decided to call some 7,000 probationary employees back to work.\n\nCBS said it would continue to report on the details and broadcast the story some time in the future.\n\nA Trump settlement with Paramount has precedence. The Walt Disney Co. decided in December to pay $15 million to end a Trump libel lawsuit against ABC News over a statement made by the network's George Stephanopoulos regarding a sexual assault case against Trump.\n\nThe new administration has been battling with the media over several fronts, including:\n\n\u2014Engaging in a court fight with The Associated Press over curtailing access because the agency has not followed Trump's wishes to rename the Gulf of Mexico.\n\n\u2014Making efforts to shut down government-run news services like the Voice of America.\n\n\u2014Cutting funding to public broadcasting."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "159a3d91da68bb4a18bc963e058aa89fd0ea0adaca8d26f4bbe35121b498a90d", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown\n\nBy Marcia Dunn  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:35 AM\n\n---\n\nA private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown.\n\nTokyo-based ispace said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit.\n\n\"The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,\" the company said in a statement.\n\nSpaceX launched Resilience with U.S-based Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander in January. Firefly got there first in March, becoming the first private outfit to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Another American company, Intuitive Machines, landed a spacecraft on the moon a few days later, but it ended up sideways in a crater.\n\nNow it's ispace's turn. It's targeting the first week of June for Resilience's touchdown. The company's first lander crashed into the moon in 2023.\n\nThe lander holds a mini rover equipped with a scoop to gather lunar dirt for analysis as well as other experiments.\n\n___\n\nThe Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Private Japanese lunar lander enters orbit around moon ahead of a June touchdown\n\nBy Marcia Dunn  \nMay 7th, 2025, 12:35 AM\n\n---\n\nA private lunar lander from Japan is now circling the moon, with just another month to go before it attempts a touchdown.\n\nTokyo-based ispace said Wednesday morning its Resilience lander entered lunar orbit.\n\n\"The countdown to lunar landing has now officially begun,\" the company said in a statement.\n\nSpaceX launched Resilience with U.S-based Firefly Aerospace's lunar lander in January. Firefly got there first in March, becoming the first private outfit to successfully land a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Another American company, Intuitive Machines, landed a spacecraft on the moon a few days later, but it ended up sideways in a crater.\n\nNow it's ispace's turn. It's targeting the first week of June for Resilience's touchdown. The company's first lander crashed into the moon in 2023.\n\nThe lander holds a mini rover equipped with a scoop to gather lunar dirt for analysis as well as other experiments."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "4eb802bb5ad1422b8deefc6d4beb2f34c580f1830ab410da2eb87cb990ea1786", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Greece and Egypt reaffirm their commitment to an undersea power cable\n\nBy Derek Gatopoulos  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:15 PM\n\n---\n\nATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Greece and Egypt reaffirmed their commitment Wednesday to a proposed undersea electricity interconnection designed to transport renewable energy from North Africa to Europe.\n\nGreek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi renewed the pledge during talks in Athens, following the signing of cooperation agreements across multiple sectors.\n\nThe planned 3,000-megawatt capacity cable will stretch nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across the eastern Mediterranean and has secured backing from the European Union, making it eligible for significant EU funding.\n\n\"This will allow both Greece and Europe to import low-cost energy \u2013 primarily wind energy, which you are able to produce very competitively \u2013 and export it to Europe,\" Mitsotakis said during joint statements.\n\nThe project, estimated to cost around 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), is expected to become operational within five years, under an ambitious timeline set by both governments. It aims to transmit solar and wind-generated power developed specifically for the project in Egypt, with private sector involvement led by Greece's Copelouzos Group.\n\nEl-Sissi highlighted the project's strategic importance. \"It's not just a bilateral matter \u2013 it's a strategic regional project, as it creates a direct link that will extend to Europe via Greece,\" he said. \"We count on the European Union's support for this major initiative.\"\n\nThe EU has expressed strong interest in expanding energy partnerships with non-member countries to diversify its energy sources and reduce its historic dependence on Russian energy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.\n\nMitsotakis and el-Sissi also discussed regional security, migration challenges, and ways to deepen Egypt's relationship with the European Union.\n\n\"Greece is a steadfast ally of Egypt, including on matters concerning your country's relationship with the European Union,\" Mitsotakis said, underlining Athens' role in fostering closer EU-Egypt ties.\n\nThe talks in Athens concluded with agreements to explore additional energy cooperation, facilitate expanded seasonal employment of Egyptian workers in Greece, and enhance collaboration across financial, defense, and cultural sectors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Greece and Egypt reaffirm their commitment to an undersea power cable\n\nBy Derek Gatopoulos  \nMay 7th, 2025, 01:15 PM\n\n---\n\nATHENS, Greece (AP) \u2014 Greece and Egypt reaffirmed their commitment Wednesday to a proposed undersea electricity interconnection designed to transport renewable energy from North Africa to Europe.\n\nGreek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi renewed the pledge during talks in Athens, following the signing of cooperation agreements across multiple sectors.\n\nThe planned 3,000-megawatt capacity cable will stretch nearly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) across the eastern Mediterranean and has secured backing from the European Union, making it eligible for significant EU funding.\n\n\"This will allow both Greece and Europe to import low-cost energy \u2013 primarily wind energy, which you are able to produce very competitively \u2013 and export it to Europe,\" Mitsotakis said during joint statements.\n\nThe project, estimated to cost around 4 billion euros ($4.5 billion), is expected to become operational within five years, under an ambitious timeline set by both governments. It aims to transmit solar and wind-generated power developed specifically for the project in Egypt, with private sector involvement led by Greece's Copelouzos Group.\n\nEl-Sissi highlighted the project's strategic importance. \"It's not just a bilateral matter \u2013 it's a strategic regional project, as it creates a direct link that will extend to Europe via Greece,\" he said. \"We count on the European Union's support for this major initiative.\"\n\nThe EU has expressed strong interest in expanding energy partnerships with non-member countries to diversify its energy sources and reduce its historic dependence on Russian energy following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.\n\nMitsotakis and el-Sissi also discussed regional security, migration challenges, and ways to deepen Egypt's relationship with the European Union.\n\n\"Greece is a steadfast ally of Egypt, including on matters concerning your country's relationship with the European Union,\" Mitsotakis said, underlining Athens' role in fostering closer EU-Egypt ties.\n\nThe talks in Athens concluded with agreements to explore additional energy cooperation, facilitate expanded seasonal employment of Egyptian workers in Greece, and enhance collaboration across financial, defense, and cultural sectors."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "878165c063276f60a428ed5c116f2bc4684c432b6e602f8769b2cba8122b8194", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Australian prime minister speaks of Beijing prisoner's courage, resilience and hope\n\nBy Rod Mcguirk  \nMay 15th, 2025, 04:48 AM\n\n---\n\nMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday spoke of the courage, resilience and hope of Australian citizen Yang Hengjun, who was convicted last year in China of espionage.\n\nThe plight of the 59-year-old Chinese-born democracy blogger, who was arrested on arrival in China on a flight from New York in 2019, remains an impediment to an improving bilateral relationship between Canberra and Beijing.\n\nAlbanese said Yang had recently written to him from a Beijing prison.\n\n\"It was a message of profound courage and resilience and hope despite his difficult circumstances,\" Albanese told reporters in Jakarta, where he was making his first overseas visit since his government was reelected on May 3.\n\n\"We continue to advocate for Dr. Yang's interests and wellbeing at every opportunity and I have certainly asked our ambassador to convey that very directly to Dr. Yang,\" Albanese added.\n\n## Australian sentenced to death\n\nYang was found guilty of espionage following a closed court trial in February last year and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Such sentences are often commuted to life in prison after the two years.\n\nAlbanese has raised Yang's detention in meetings with China's leaders since the prime minister's center-left Labor Party was first elected in 2022.\n\nSince that election, Beijing has lifted a ban on minister-to-minister communications with Australia and removed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that had cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.\n\nIn Yang's letter to Albanese, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press on Thursday by a supporter of the prisoner, he wrote that the support of the government and Australian Embassy staff had \"helped me to bear what has been untold and unbearable suffering.\"\n\n## Prisoner loves both Australia and China\n\n\"I feel all of your support beside me as I stagger through the hardest and darkest chapter of my life, allowing me to immerse in the warmth of humanity,\" Yang wrote.\n\n\"I deeply love Australia,\" Yang wrote. \"I ardently love China.\"\n\nYang expected he would one day sit side by side with his readers \"sharing laughter, tears and dreams.\"\n\n\"Dear Prime Minister Albanese, words are now failing me. Tears blur my vision. I can only use a silent voice to thank you and all the people who care for and love me,\" Yang wrote."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Australian prime minister speaks of Beijing prisoner's courage, resilience and hope\n\nBy Rod Mcguirk  \nMay 15th, 2025, 04:48 AM\n\n---\n\nMELBOURNE, Australia (AP) \u2014 Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday spoke of the courage, resilience and hope of Australian citizen Yang Hengjun, who was convicted last year in China of espionage.\n\nThe plight of the 59-year-old Chinese-born democracy blogger, who was arrested on arrival in China on a flight from New York in 2019, remains an impediment to an improving bilateral relationship between Canberra and Beijing.\n\nAlbanese said Yang had recently written to him from a Beijing prison.\n\n\"It was a message of profound courage and resilience and hope despite his difficult circumstances,\" Albanese told reporters in Jakarta, where he was making his first overseas visit since his government was reelected on May 3.\n\n\"We continue to advocate for Dr. Yang's interests and wellbeing at every opportunity and I have certainly asked our ambassador to convey that very directly to Dr. Yang,\" Albanese added.\n\n## Australian sentenced to death\n\nYang was found guilty of espionage following a closed court trial in February last year and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. Such sentences are often commuted to life in prison after the two years.\n\nAlbanese has raised Yang's detention in meetings with China's leaders since the prime minister's center-left Labor Party was first elected in 2022.\n\nSince that election, Beijing has lifted a ban on minister-to-minister communications with Australia and removed a series of official and unofficial trade barriers that had cost Australian exporters up to 20 billion Australian dollars ($13 billion) a year.\n\nIn Yang's letter to Albanese, a copy of which was provided to The Associated Press on Thursday by a supporter of the prisoner, he wrote that the support of the government and Australian Embassy staff had \"helped me to bear what has been untold and unbearable suffering.\"\n\n## Prisoner loves both Australia and China\n\n\"I feel all of your support beside me as I stagger through the hardest and darkest chapter of my life, allowing me to immerse in the warmth of humanity,\" Yang wrote.\n\n\"I deeply love Australia,\" Yang wrote. \"I ardently love China.\"\n\nYang expected he would one day sit side by side with his readers \"sharing laughter, tears and dreams.\"\n\n\"Dear Prime Minister Albanese, words are now failing me. Tears blur my vision. I can only use a silent voice to thank you and all the people who care for and love me,\" Yang wrote."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e9d2b00bc644e12b1324b8ba5505e4fc0da34b3dd645383c7896bb507112541e", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump asks Supreme Court to allow government downsizing plans to proceed\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 06:10 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump's administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to resume his downsizing of the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds.\n\nThe Justice Department is challenging an order issued last week by a federal judge in San Francisco that temporarily halted Trump's efforts to shrink a federal government he calls bloated and expensive.\n\nU.S. District Judge Susan Illston's temporary restraining order questioned whether Trump's Republican administration was acting lawfully in trying to pare the federal workforce.\n\nIllston, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, directed numerous federal agencies to stop acting on Trump's workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management.\n\nSolicitor General D. John Sauer asked the court to quickly put the ruling on hold, telling the justices that Illston overstepped her authority.\n\nIllston's order expires next week, unless extended.\n\nThe case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals the Trump administration has made to the Supreme Court, including some related to firings. The administration separately has filed an emergency appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which has yet to act.\n\nTens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programs or have been placed on leave as a result of Trump's government-shrinking efforts. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go.\n\nIn her order, Illston gave several examples to show the impact of the downsizing. One union that represents federal workers who research health hazards faced by mine workers said it was poised to lose 221 of 222 workers in the Pittsburgh office; a Vermont farmer didn't receive a timely inspection on his property to receive disaster aid after flooding and missed an important planting window; a reduction in Social Security Administration workers has led to longer wait times for recipients.\n\nAmong the agencies affected by the temporary restraining order are the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, the Interior, State, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs. It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nPlaintiffs include the cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore; the labor group American Federation of Government Employees; and the nonprofit groups Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Taxpayer Rights and Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.\n\nSome of the labor unions and nonprofit groups are also plaintiffs in another lawsuit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court later blocked his order."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump asks Supreme Court to allow government downsizing plans to proceed\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 06:10 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump's administration on Friday asked the Supreme Court to allow him to resume his downsizing of the federal workforce, while a lawsuit filed by labor unions and cities proceeds.\n\nThe Justice Department is challenging an order issued last week by a federal judge in San Francisco that temporarily halted Trump's efforts to shrink a federal government he calls bloated and expensive.\n\nU.S. District Judge Susan Illston's temporary restraining order questioned whether Trump's Republican administration was acting lawfully in trying to pare the federal workforce.\n\nIllston, an appointee of Democratic President Bill Clinton, directed numerous federal agencies to stop acting on Trump's workforce executive order signed in February and a subsequent memo issued by the Department of Government Efficiency and the Office of Personnel Management.\n\nSolicitor General D. John Sauer asked the court to quickly put the ruling on hold, telling the justices that Illston overstepped her authority.\n\nIllston's order expires next week, unless extended.\n\nThe case is the latest in a string of emergency appeals the Trump administration has made to the Supreme Court, including some related to firings. The administration separately has filed an emergency appeal with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which has yet to act.\n\nTens of thousands of federal workers have been fired, have left their jobs via deferred resignation programs or have been placed on leave as a result of Trump's government-shrinking efforts. There is no official figure for the job cuts, but at least 75,000 federal employees took deferred resignation, and thousands of probationary workers have already been let go.\n\nIn her order, Illston gave several examples to show the impact of the downsizing. One union that represents federal workers who research health hazards faced by mine workers said it was poised to lose 221 of 222 workers in the Pittsburgh office; a Vermont farmer didn't receive a timely inspection on his property to receive disaster aid after flooding and missed an important planting window; a reduction in Social Security Administration workers has led to longer wait times for recipients.\n\nAmong the agencies affected by the temporary restraining order are the departments of Agriculture, Energy, Labor, the Interior, State, the Treasury and Veterans Affairs. It also applies to the National Science Foundation, Small Business Association, Social Security Administration and Environmental Protection Agency.\n\nPlaintiffs include the cities of San Francisco, Chicago and Baltimore; the labor group American Federation of Government Employees; and the nonprofit groups Alliance for Retired Americans, Center for Taxpayer Rights and Coalition to Protect America's National Parks.\n\nSome of the labor unions and nonprofit groups are also plaintiffs in another lawsuit before a San Francisco judge challenging the mass firings of probationary workers. In that case, Judge William Alsup ordered the government in March to reinstate those workers, but the U.S. Supreme Court later blocked his order."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "99a6ba97f70bcabb12a9dc67a1fea5989f93bb6c129e003295acb2da80f7ed26", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# DoorDash delivery driver pleads guilty to stealing $2.5 million in deliveries scam\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 05:27 PM\n\n---\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 A former food delivery driver pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to steal more than $2.5 million from DoorDash by getting the company to pay for deliveries that never occurred, federal prosecutors said.\n\nSayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in San Jose to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.\n\nDevagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, admitted to working with three others in 2020 and 2021 to defraud the San Francisco-based delivery company, federal prosecutors said.\n\nProsecutors said Devagiri used customer accounts to place high-value orders and then used an employee's credential to gain access to DoorDash software and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts that he and others controlled. Devagiri then caused the fraudulent driver accounts to report that the orders had been delivered when they had not, and manipulated DoorDash's computer systems to pay the fraudulent driver accounts for the nonexistent deliveries, officials said.\n\nDevagiri would then use DoorDash software to change the orders from \"delivered\" status to \"in process\" status and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts he and others controlled, beginning the process again, prosecutors said.\n\nThe now-former employee in the scam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023 and admitted to being involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.\n\nDevagiri is the third defendant to be convicted of his role in this conspiracy. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 16."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# DoorDash delivery driver pleads guilty to stealing $2.5 million in deliveries scam\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 05:27 PM\n\n---\n\nSAN FRANCISCO (AP) \u2014 A former food delivery driver pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to steal more than $2.5 million from DoorDash by getting the company to pay for deliveries that never occurred, federal prosecutors said.\n\nSayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in San Jose to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.\n\nDevagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, admitted to working with three others in 2020 and 2021 to defraud the San Francisco-based delivery company, federal prosecutors said.\n\nProsecutors said Devagiri used customer accounts to place high-value orders and then used an employee's credential to gain access to DoorDash software and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts that he and others controlled. Devagiri then caused the fraudulent driver accounts to report that the orders had been delivered when they had not, and manipulated DoorDash's computer systems to pay the fraudulent driver accounts for the nonexistent deliveries, officials said.\n\nDevagiri would then use DoorDash software to change the orders from \"delivered\" status to \"in process\" status and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts he and others controlled, beginning the process again, prosecutors said.\n\nThe now-former employee in the scam pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023 and admitted to being involved in the scheme, prosecutors said.\n\nDevagiri is the third defendant to be convicted of his role in this conspiracy. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He is scheduled to return to court on Sept. 16."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "aa5ce706271e868a447c5d73e9d367527387eba99ce1558374e4c70c68f57e4e", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump meets Syria's new leader in Saudi Arabia\n\nBy Zeke Miller, Jon Gambrell, and Aamer Madhani  \nMay 14th, 2025, 06:25 AM\n\n---\n\nRIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first encounter between the two nations' leaders in 25 years and one that could serve as a turning point for Syria as it struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.\n\nThe meeting, on the sidelines of Trump's get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family, and for its new leader, who once had a $10 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.\n\nTrump praised al-Sharaa to reporters after the meeting, saying he was a \"young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.\"\n\nUnder the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa had ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by U.S. troops there for several years.\n\n\"He's got a real shot at holding it together,\" Trump said. \"He's a real leader. He led a charge, and he's pretty amazing.\"\n\nTrump had announced the day before as he kicked off his three-nation Middle East tour in Riyadh that he would also move to lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under the deposed autocrat Bashar Assad.\n\nPeople across Syria cheered in the streets and set off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation \u2014 locked out of credit cards and global finance \u2014 might rejoin the world's economy when they need investments the most.\n\nThe meeting came even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria, again underscoring a growing discontent between the White House and the Israeli government as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages on.\n\nTrump told the Gulf Cooperation Council after his meeting with al-Sharaa that he was ending sanctions on Syria in order to give the country \"a fresh start.\"\n\n\"It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,\" Trump said.\n\nTrump said al-Sharaa had agreed to join the Abraham Accords and eventually recognize Israel, but Syria hasn't confirmed that. Trump told reporters, \"I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, 'I hope you're going to join when it's straightened out.' He said, 'Yes.' But they have a lot of work to do.\"\n\n## A historic closed-door meeting\n\nTrump said on Tuesday that he would meet al-Sharaa, who flew in to the Saudi capital for the face-to-face.\n\nEven before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror since 1979.\n\nAl-Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000. The Trump-al-Sharaa meeting took place behind closed doors, and the White House later said it ran for just over 30 minutes.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting with Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and al-Sharaa via phone. Turkey was a main backer to al-Sharaa and his rebel faction.\n\n\"I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,\" Trump said of Syria. \"It's not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And it was my honor to do so.\"\n\n## What happened in the meeting?\n\nWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, \"tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria\" and help the U.S. stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.\n\nTrump, a Republican, also asked for the Syrian government to \"assume responsibility\" for over a dozen detention centers holding some 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group, Leavitt added. The prisons are run by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces that spearheaded the military campaign against the extremists and controlled the last sliver of land they once held in March 2019.\n\nAs part of a deal reached in March between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led forces, all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the Northeast would be brought under the central government's control by the end of the year.\n\nTrump's desire for Syria to take over the prisons also signals the potential of a full American military withdrawal from Syria.\n\nSyria's Foreign Ministry said Trump and al-Sharaa discussed the Syrian-U.S. partnership in fighting terror and armed groups such as IS standing in the way of stability.\n\n## Al-Sharaa's militant past sparks Israeli concern\n\nAl-Sharaa was named interim president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that stormed Damascus, ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.\n\nMany Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and want Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran's return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Assad's government during a decadelong civil war.\n\nBut longtime U.S. ally Israel has been deeply skeptical of al-Sharaa's extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government. The request came during Netanyahu's visit to Washington last month, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the subject.\n\nIsrael was concerned a cross-border attack similar to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, assault could come from Syria. Israel also fears al-Sharaa and his Islamist past could pose a threat on its northern border.\n\n## Trump's move draws cheers from Syrians\n\nSyrians cheered the announcement by Trump that the U.S. will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.\n\nThe state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square, the largest in the country's capital, Damascus. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.\n\nPeople whistled and cheered as fireworks lit the night sky.\n\nA statement from Syria's Foreign Ministry called the announcement \"a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.\"\n\n\"The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,\" the statement added.\n\n___\n\nMadhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press photographer Alex Brandon and writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump meets Syria's new leader in Saudi Arabia\n\nBy Zeke Miller, Jon Gambrell, and Aamer Madhani  \nMay 14th, 2025, 06:25 AM\n\n---\n\nRIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump met with interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, the first encounter between the two nations' leaders in 25 years and one that could serve as a turning point for Syria as it struggles to emerge from decades of international isolation.\n\nThe meeting, on the sidelines of Trump's get-together with the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, marks a major turn of events for a Syria still adjusting to life after the over 50-year, iron-gripped rule of the Assad family, and for its new leader, who once had a $10 million U.S. bounty for his arrest.\n\nTrump praised al-Sharaa to reporters after the meeting, saying he was a \"young, attractive guy. Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.\"\n\nUnder the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, al-Sharaa had ties to al-Qaida and joined insurgents battling U.S. forces in Iraq before entering the Syrian war. He was even imprisoned by U.S. troops there for several years.\n\n\"He's got a real shot at holding it together,\" Trump said. \"He's a real leader. He led a charge, and he's pretty amazing.\"\n\nTrump had announced the day before as he kicked off his three-nation Middle East tour in Riyadh that he would also move to lift U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under the deposed autocrat Bashar Assad.\n\nPeople across Syria cheered in the streets and set off fireworks on Tuesday night to celebrate, hopeful their nation \u2014 locked out of credit cards and global finance \u2014 might rejoin the world's economy when they need investments the most.\n\nThe meeting came even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had earlier asked Trump not to lift sanctions on Syria, again underscoring a growing discontent between the White House and the Israeli government as its war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip rages on.\n\nTrump told the Gulf Cooperation Council after his meeting with al-Sharaa that he was ending sanctions on Syria in order to give the country \"a fresh start.\"\n\n\"It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful,\" Trump said.\n\nTrump said al-Sharaa had agreed to join the Abraham Accords and eventually recognize Israel, but Syria hasn't confirmed that. Trump told reporters, \"I think they have to get themselves straightened up. I told him, 'I hope you're going to join when it's straightened out.' He said, 'Yes.' But they have a lot of work to do.\"\n\n## A historic closed-door meeting\n\nTrump said on Tuesday that he would meet al-Sharaa, who flew in to the Saudi capital for the face-to-face.\n\nEven before its ruinous civil war that began in 2011, Syria struggled under a tightly controlled socialist economy and under sanctions by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terror since 1979.\n\nAl-Sharaa is the first Syrian leader to meet an American president since Hafez Assad met Bill Clinton in Geneva in 2000. The Trump-al-Sharaa meeting took place behind closed doors, and the White House later said it ran for just over 30 minutes.\n\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined the meeting with Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and al-Sharaa via phone. Turkey was a main backer to al-Sharaa and his rebel faction.\n\n\"I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance,\" Trump said of Syria. \"It's not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And it was my honor to do so.\"\n\n## What happened in the meeting?\n\nWhite House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump urged al-Sharaa to diplomatically recognize Israel, \"tell all foreign terrorists to leave Syria\" and help the U.S. stop any resurgence of the Islamic State group.\n\nTrump, a Republican, also asked for the Syrian government to \"assume responsibility\" for over a dozen detention centers holding some 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group, Leavitt added. The prisons are run by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led forces that spearheaded the military campaign against the extremists and controlled the last sliver of land they once held in March 2019.\n\nAs part of a deal reached in March between the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led forces, all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the Northeast would be brought under the central government's control by the end of the year.\n\nTrump's desire for Syria to take over the prisons also signals the potential of a full American military withdrawal from Syria.\n\nSyria's Foreign Ministry said Trump and al-Sharaa discussed the Syrian-U.S. partnership in fighting terror and armed groups such as IS standing in the way of stability.\n\n## Al-Sharaa's militant past sparks Israeli concern\n\nAl-Sharaa was named interim president of Syria in January, a month after a stunning offensive by insurgent groups led by al-Sharaa's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, that stormed Damascus, ending the 54-year rule of the Assad family.\n\nMany Gulf Arab leaders have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and want Trump to follow, believing it is a bulwark against Iran's return to influence in Syria, where it had helped prop up Assad's government during a decadelong civil war.\n\nBut longtime U.S. ally Israel has been deeply skeptical of al-Sharaa's extremist past and cautioned against swift recognition of the new government. The request came during Netanyahu's visit to Washington last month, according to an Israeli official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the subject.\n\nIsrael was concerned a cross-border attack similar to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, assault could come from Syria. Israel also fears al-Sharaa and his Islamist past could pose a threat on its northern border.\n\n## Trump's move draws cheers from Syrians\n\nSyrians cheered the announcement by Trump that the U.S. will move to lift sanctions on the beleaguered Middle Eastern nation.\n\nThe state-run SANA news agency published video and photographs of Syrians cheering in Umayyad Square, the largest in the country's capital, Damascus. Others honked their car horns or waved the new Syrian flag in celebration.\n\nPeople whistled and cheered as fireworks lit the night sky.\n\nA statement from Syria's Foreign Ministry called the announcement \"a pivotal turning point for the Syrian people as we seek to emerge from a long and painful chapter of war.\"\n\n\"The removal of these sanctions offers a vital opportunity for Syria to pursue stability, self-sufficiency and meaningful national reconstruction, led by and for the Syrian people,\" the statement added."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "584568e5ee315001beea0819c6e1ec3b9f7fc773c692460809d975b7580e880d", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 'Hamilton' author Ron Chernow's new book takes on an icon of American letters, Mark Twain\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 9th, 2025, 02:05 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Historian Ron Chernow's latest work may surprise readers who know him best for the book which inspired the musical \"Hamilton\" and for his biographies of George Washington and Ulysses Grant.\n\nThe 1,200-page \"Mark Twain\" will be published next week. It's Chernow's first release since his Grant biography came out in 2017, and the first time he has taken on a literary writer after a career defined by celebrated books about business leaders (John D. Rockefeller, the Morgan dynasty), presidents (Grant and Washington) and, most of all, Alexander Hamilton. His many honors include the Pulitzer Prize for \"Washington: A Life,\" the National Book Award for \"The House of Morgan\" and the National Book Critics Circle prize for \"Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.\"\n\nBut a book on Twain had been in his thoughts for decades, dating back to when he saw Hal Holbrook play him on stage in Philadelphia in the mid-1970s.\n\n\"And there he was, with the white suit and cigar and mustache and he was tossing out one hilarious line after another,\" the 76-year-old Chernow says, remembering such Twain quips as \"There's no distinctly Native American criminal class, except Congress.\" Chernow became fascinated by Twain as a prototype of the modern celebrity and found himself drawn less to \"Mark Twain the novelist than the pundit, the personality and the platform artist.\"\n\nChernow admittedly is more comfortable with the researchable world of facts than with the more intangible qualities of the imagination. But he found much to identify with Twain, relating to him as a fellow widower (Twain outlived his wife, Olivia, by six years; Chernow's wife, Valerie Stearn, died in 2006), as a public speaker and as an author fortunate enough to write full time.\n\nChernow also looks closely into subjects familiar to him \u2014 politics and finance, notably the various failed business ventures that left Twain short of money despite his author royalties and the inherited wealth of his wife. Toward the end of the book, the historian addresses the friendships an elderly Twain cultivated with teen and preteen girls, whom Twain called his \"angelfish.\"\n\n\"At the time Twain's behavior was regarded as the charming eccentricity of a beloved humorist with a soft spot for children. We look at that same behavior today and find it odd and disturbing. It's important to get both perspectives,\" Chernow says. \"Twain's behavior was chaste and none of the angelfish or their parents ever accused him of improper or predatory behavior. At the same time, there was such an obsessive quality about Twain's attention to these teenage girls \u2014 he devoted more time to them than to his own daughters.\"\n\nDuring a recent interview at his Upper West Side Manhattan apartment, where his glass of Diet Coke stood on a coaster illustrated with a sketch of Twain receiving an honorary college degree, Chernow also reflected on Twain's family, his politics and the sadness in his soul. Chernow's comments have been condensed for clarity and brevity.\n\n## Political egos\n\n\"I really don't know what he would say about Donald Trump. I could, yes, but I don't want to guess. But we do know what he said about political figures of his own day. And he hated Teddy Roosevelt. He saw that Teddy Roosevelt had a very large ego, very self-absorbed and a Mr. Bombastic personality. But he (Twain) has a wonderful quote where he says that Teddy Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political world of the early 20th century. He said that he was always hunting for attention. And then he has this great line. He said that in his (Roosevelt's) frenzied imagination, the great republic is one vast Barnum's circus, and he is the clown, and the whole world is his audience.\"\n\n## The great man's children\n\nTo actually read about the children of famous personalities is almost invariably sad, as it often is with Mark Twain. The one who suffered from this most acutely, I think was the middle daughter, Clara, who was kind of insanely competitive with her father and felt overshadowed by him, wanted to kind of trade on his reputation, but then didn't want him to get the attention. She said that she would be in a room with her father, and she felt she was only Mark Twain's daughter, that she was reduced to the level of a footstool. And she also had a very interesting line, one that has a very contemporary ring: He would come into the room and he would flood the room with talk.\"\n\n## Marrying up\n\n\"There's that time when he goes to the Sandwich Islands and he meets the American diplomat Anson Burlingame, who advises him to \"cultivate your betters,\" which Twain really takes to heart. I think that with Twain, if someone asks me, you know, did he marry Olivia for her money? I would say definitely not. It was a true love match. And as Twain said late in life, there was not a single day of his marriage that she didn't say, 'I worship you,' 'I idolize you.' This was just kind of pouring out of her and her letters. On the other hand, the more you know about Mark Twain, the more you know that he could never have married a poor woman.\n\n\"And the irony of Twain's life is that he spends his entire life attacking the plutocrats on the one hand, and on the other, he's doing everything in his power to become one. This man embodies in his person every tendency of the time.\"\n\n## Laughing through the tears\n\n\"There's a tremendous amount of self-loathing in him. I have a quote later in the book \u2014 he says that (poet Lord) Byron detested life because he detested himself. Twain said, 'I'm the same way.' You know, that's a really harsh, harsh thing to say. But I think that he saw all these impulses within himself that he was really powerless to stop. And then he realized he hurt other people. I think that Mark Twain did fit the stereotype of the funny man who's sad and depressed under the surface and is kind of releasing that through the humor.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 'Hamilton' author Ron Chernow's new book takes on an icon of American letters, Mark Twain\n\nBy Hillel Italie  \nMay 9th, 2025, 02:05 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Historian Ron Chernow's latest work may surprise readers who know him best for the book which inspired the musical \"Hamilton\" and for his biographies of George Washington and Ulysses Grant.\n\nThe 1,200-page \"Mark Twain\" will be published next week. It's Chernow's first release since his Grant biography came out in 2017, and the first time he has taken on a literary writer after a career defined by celebrated books about business leaders (John D. Rockefeller, the Morgan dynasty), presidents (Grant and Washington) and, most of all, Alexander Hamilton. His many honors include the Pulitzer Prize for \"Washington: A Life,\" the National Book Award for \"The House of Morgan\" and the National Book Critics Circle prize for \"Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.\"\n\nBut a book on Twain had been in his thoughts for decades, dating back to when he saw Hal Holbrook play him on stage in Philadelphia in the mid-1970s.\n\n\"And there he was, with the white suit and cigar and mustache and he was tossing out one hilarious line after another,\" the 76-year-old Chernow says, remembering such Twain quips as \"There's no distinctly Native American criminal class, except Congress.\" Chernow became fascinated by Twain as a prototype of the modern celebrity and found himself drawn less to \"Mark Twain the novelist than the pundit, the personality and the platform artist.\"\n\nChernow admittedly is more comfortable with the researchable world of facts than with the more intangible qualities of the imagination. But he found much to identify with Twain, relating to him as a fellow widower (Twain outlived his wife, Olivia, by six years; Chernow's wife, Valerie Stearn, died in 2006), as a public speaker and as an author fortunate enough to write full time.\n\nChernow also looks closely into subjects familiar to him \u2014 politics and finance, notably the various failed business ventures that left Twain short of money despite his author royalties and the inherited wealth of his wife. Toward the end of the book, the historian addresses the friendships an elderly Twain cultivated with teen and preteen girls, whom Twain called his \"angelfish.\"\n\n\"At the time Twain's behavior was regarded as the charming eccentricity of a beloved humorist with a soft spot for children. We look at that same behavior today and find it odd and disturbing. It's important to get both perspectives,\" Chernow says. \"Twain's behavior was chaste and none of the angelfish or their parents ever accused him of improper or predatory behavior. At the same time, there was such an obsessive quality about Twain's attention to these teenage girls \u2014 he devoted more time to them than to his own daughters.\"\n\nDuring a recent interview at his Upper West Side Manhattan apartment, where his glass of Diet Coke stood on a coaster illustrated with a sketch of Twain receiving an honorary college degree, Chernow also reflected on Twain's family, his politics and the sadness in his soul. Chernow's comments have been condensed for clarity and brevity.\n\n## Political egos\n\n\"I really don't know what he would say about Donald Trump. I could, yes, but I don't want to guess. But we do know what he said about political figures of his own day. And he hated Teddy Roosevelt. He saw that Teddy Roosevelt had a very large ego, very self-absorbed and a Mr. Bombastic personality. But he (Twain) has a wonderful quote where he says that Teddy Roosevelt is the Tom Sawyer of the political world of the early 20th century. He said that he was always hunting for attention. And then he has this great line. He said that in his (Roosevelt's) frenzied imagination, the great republic is one vast Barnum's circus, and he is the clown, and the whole world is his audience.\"\n\n## The great man's children\n\nTo actually read about the children of famous personalities is almost invariably sad, as it often is with Mark Twain. The one who suffered from this most acutely, I think was the middle daughter, Clara, who was kind of insanely competitive with her father and felt overshadowed by him, wanted to kind of trade on his reputation, but then didn't want him to get the attention. She said that she would be in a room with her father, and she felt she was only Mark Twain's daughter, that she was reduced to the level of a footstool. And she also had a very interesting line, one that has a very contemporary ring: He would come into the room and he would flood the room with talk.\"\n\n## Marrying up\n\n\"There's that time when he goes to the Sandwich Islands and he meets the American diplomat Anson Burlingame, who advises him to \"cultivate your betters,\" which Twain really takes to heart. I think that with Twain, if someone asks me, you know, did he marry Olivia for her money? I would say definitely not. It was a true love match. And as Twain said late in life, there was not a single day of his marriage that she didn't say, 'I worship you,' 'I idolize you.' This was just kind of pouring out of her and her letters. On the other hand, the more you know about Mark Twain, the more you know that he could never have married a poor woman.\n\n\"And the irony of Twain's life is that he spends his entire life attacking the plutocrats on the one hand, and on the other, he's doing everything in his power to become one. This man embodies in his person every tendency of the time.\"\n\n## Laughing through the tears\n\n\"There's a tremendous amount of self-loathing in him. I have a quote later in the book \u2014 he says that (poet Lord) Byron detested life because he detested himself. Twain said, 'I'm the same way.' You know, that's a really harsh, harsh thing to say. But I think that he saw all these impulses within himself that he was really powerless to stop. And then he realized he hurt other people. I think that Mark Twain did fit the stereotype of the funny man who's sad and depressed under the surface and is kind of releasing that through the humor.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "93e16606a5979243bac066afe2975c0180632703e122be7316ee3cf463263f74", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Dave Portnoy says he will send customers behind antisemitic sign to tour Auschwitz\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 05:18 PM\n\n---\n\nPHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he would send two customers to tour a former Nazi concentration camp after they allegedly engaged in antisemitic behavior at a Barstool pub in Philadelphia, then later retracted that offer for at least one of them because he said the person was denying responsibility for what happened.\n\nPortnoy said in posts on social media that in an initial conversation Sunday the customer took 100% responsibility for his actions with his friend and agreed to take a learning trip to Auschwitz in Poland. But on Monday, Portnoy posted that the customer \"did a 180\" and told him he had nothing to do with the antisemitic behavior and that he was just being a citizen journalist by sharing video of what happened.\n\n\"His trip to Poland has been revoked,\" Portnoy said in the post. \"Whatever ramifications come his way he 100% earned.\"\n\nIt wasn't clear if the trip had been revoked for the other customer.\n\nIn a video posted on social media Saturday night, a woman at the bar who appears to be a server holds a sign with an anti-Jewish message on it while a man repeats the message multiple times.\n\nThe bar said in a statement posted to social media that several employees, against their training and organization's written discrimination policies, complied with a customer's request for the sign in connection with ordering bottle service.\n\n\"We are saddened, embarrassed, and frustrated by the deplorable actions of a customer and misguided staff,\" Barstool Samson Street said in the post.\n\nPortnoy said two bar employees had been fired over the incident.\n\nPhiladelphia police said they were investigating. No charges were immediately filed.\n\nTemple University said one of the customers is believed to be one of their students. The student was put on interim suspension while an investigation continues, President John Fry said in a statement posted on the university's website.\n\nFry called antisemitism \"abhorrent\" and said he would take further action if other students were involved.\n\n\"It has no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university,\" Fry said.\n\nKappa Delta Rho said in a post on its website that it is also investigating because the customer involved was allegedly a member of their fraternity at Temple.\n\n\"To be clear, our organization firmly opposes all forms of hate, which have no place in our fraternity,\" said Xavier Romano, executive director of the national fraternity.\n\nPortnoy, who is Jewish, had said he hoped to turn the event into a teachable moment. He did not initially identify the culprits, but identified one of them on Monday when saying he would not be sending them to Auschwitz. The customer didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.\n\nPortnoy said he has experienced increased antisemitism, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.\n\nHe founded Barstool Sports in 2003, a digital platform covering sports, lifestyle and entertainment, in the Boston area. He also owns several Barstool bars in locations around the country."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Dave Portnoy says he will send customers behind antisemitic sign to tour Auschwitz\n\nMay 5th, 2025, 05:18 PM\n\n---\n\nPHILADELPHIA (AP) \u2014 Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy said he would send two customers to tour a former Nazi concentration camp after they allegedly engaged in antisemitic behavior at a Barstool pub in Philadelphia, then later retracted that offer for at least one of them because he said the person was denying responsibility for what happened.\n\nPortnoy said in posts on social media that in an initial conversation Sunday the customer took 100% responsibility for his actions with his friend and agreed to take a learning trip to Auschwitz in Poland. But on Monday, Portnoy posted that the customer \"did a 180\" and told him he had nothing to do with the antisemitic behavior and that he was just being a citizen journalist by sharing video of what happened.\n\n\"His trip to Poland has been revoked,\" Portnoy said in the post. \"Whatever ramifications come his way he 100% earned.\"\n\nIt wasn't clear if the trip had been revoked for the other customer.\n\nIn a video posted on social media Saturday night, a woman at the bar who appears to be a server holds a sign with an anti-Jewish message on it while a man repeats the message multiple times.\n\nThe bar said in a statement posted to social media that several employees, against their training and organization's written discrimination policies, complied with a customer's request for the sign in connection with ordering bottle service.\n\n\"We are saddened, embarrassed, and frustrated by the deplorable actions of a customer and misguided staff,\" Barstool Samson Street said in the post.\n\nPortnoy said two bar employees had been fired over the incident.\n\nPhiladelphia police said they were investigating. No charges were immediately filed.\n\nTemple University said one of the customers is believed to be one of their students. The student was put on interim suspension while an investigation continues, President John Fry said in a statement posted on the university's website.\n\nFry called antisemitism \"abhorrent\" and said he would take further action if other students were involved.\n\n\"It has no place at Temple and acts of hatred and discrimination against any person or persons are not tolerated at this university,\" Fry said.\n\nKappa Delta Rho said in a post on its website that it is also investigating because the customer involved was allegedly a member of their fraternity at Temple.\n\n\"To be clear, our organization firmly opposes all forms of hate, which have no place in our fraternity,\" said Xavier Romano, executive director of the national fraternity.\n\nPortnoy, who is Jewish, had said he hoped to turn the event into a teachable moment. He did not initially identify the culprits, but identified one of them on Monday when saying he would not be sending them to Auschwitz. The customer didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.\n\nPortnoy said he has experienced increased antisemitism, as the war between Israel and Hamas continues.\n\nHe founded Barstool Sports in 2003, a digital platform covering sports, lifestyle and entertainment, in the Boston area. He also owns several Barstool bars in locations around the country."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7eca1ac4600b71691aa4a6122c7bf339e9daaa459978ee64a6d8af7ef5528a1e", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Japan's economy shrinks as Trump's trade war hits exports and shakes confidence\n\nBy Yuri Kageyama  \nMay 16th, 2025, 02:34 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 The Japanese economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, according to government data released Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war hurt exports and dented consumer confidence.\n\nJapan's real gross domestic product, or the measure of a nation's goods and services, shrank at a greater-than-expected 0.2% in January-March compared to the previous quarter in the first contraction in a year, the Cabinet Office's seasonally adjusted preliminary data showed.\n\nExports declined at an annual rate of 2.3%. Consumer spending remained flat, while capital investment grew 5.8%.\n\nTrump's tariffs are likely to hurt Japan's giant exporters, especially the automakers, not only for products shipped from Japan, but from other nations, like Mexico and Canada. Officials acknowledge planning a response is a challenge because Trump keeps changing his mind.\n\n\"Regional automakers face increased operating costs and potential revenue losses because their U.S. sales depend on diverse production bases and supply chains,\" S&P Global Ratings said in a report.\n\n\"Even companies with minimal sales in the U.S. could face indirect but meaningful impacts as tariffs affect global economy and consumer demand,\" it said.\n\nThe Japanese economy has been struggling for years, plagued by weak demand as the population ages and declines, as more people stay single and have fewer children.\n\nThe Bank of Japan, which kept interest rates at zero or minus levels for years, has been gradually raising the benchmark rate, noting wages are holding up and prices are gradually rising.\n\nThe latest findings, which seem to highlight the fragility of the economy, make it more likely the central bank might hold off on further rate hikes.\n\nSome analysts are advocating lowering the 10% consumption tax, which is similar to the sales tax in other nations, to help alleviate people's hardships.\n\nBut so far Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hasn't said he supports the idea. Japan's national finances are under severe strain due to ballooning social welfare costs.\n\nThe economy grew an annual rate of 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024.\n\n___\n\nYuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama"}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Japan's economy shrinks as Trump's trade war hits exports and shakes confidence\n\nBy Yuri Kageyama  \nMay 16th, 2025, 02:34 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 The Japanese economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter, according to government data released Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war hurt exports and dented consumer confidence.\n\nJapan's real gross domestic product, or the measure of a nation's goods and services, shrank at a greater-than-expected 0.2% in January-March compared to the previous quarter in the first contraction in a year, the Cabinet Office's seasonally adjusted preliminary data showed.\n\nExports declined at an annual rate of 2.3%. Consumer spending remained flat, while capital investment grew 5.8%.\n\nTrump's tariffs are likely to hurt Japan's giant exporters, especially the automakers, not only for products shipped from Japan, but from other nations, like Mexico and Canada. Officials acknowledge planning a response is a challenge because Trump keeps changing his mind.\n\n\"Regional automakers face increased operating costs and potential revenue losses because their U.S. sales depend on diverse production bases and supply chains,\" S&P Global Ratings said in a report.\n\n\"Even companies with minimal sales in the U.S. could face indirect but meaningful impacts as tariffs affect global economy and consumer demand,\" it said.\n\nThe Japanese economy has been struggling for years, plagued by weak demand as the population ages and declines, as more people stay single and have fewer children.\n\nThe Bank of Japan, which kept interest rates at zero or minus levels for years, has been gradually raising the benchmark rate, noting wages are holding up and prices are gradually rising.\n\nThe latest findings, which seem to highlight the fragility of the economy, make it more likely the central bank might hold off on further rate hikes.\n\nSome analysts are advocating lowering the 10% consumption tax, which is similar to the sales tax in other nations, to help alleviate people's hardships.\n\nBut so far Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba hasn't said he supports the idea. Japan's national finances are under severe strain due to ballooning social welfare costs.\n\nThe economy grew an annual rate of 2.4% in the last quarter of 2024."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "4f5ee300254c5e628f0cb7791523fa409a7d3b16b2eaff0121cceff865c4250a", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump says he'll soon meet with Putin, a no-show at peace talks in Turkey\n\nBy Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani  \nMay 16th, 2025, 09:13 AM\n\n---\n\nABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday he's moving to set up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he can, after Putin opted to skip peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.\n\n\"I think it's time for us to just do it,\" Trump told reporters as he wrapped a four-day visit to the Middle East.\n\nTrump later told reporters after boarding Air Force One to begin the journey back to Washington that he may call Putin soon.\n\n\"He and I will meet, and I think we'll solve it or maybe not,\" Trump said. \"At least we'll know. And if we don't solve it, it'll be very interesting.\"\n\nTrump reiterated that he wasn't surprised that Putin skipped out on the talks set for Friday in Turkey. Putin didn't want to go because he's not there, Trump said.\n\nThe Republican president added that he would hold a meeting with Putin \"as soon as we can set it up.\"\n\n\"I would actually leave here and go,\" said Trump, who noted his daughter Tiffany just gave birth to her first child. \"I do want to see my beautiful grandson.\"\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to take part in the talks as Trump pressed for the leaders to find a solution to the war, ongoing since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But Putin spurned the call to meet face-to-face with Zelenskyy.\n\nTrump has pressed both sides to quickly come to a war-ending agreement. Zelenskyy has agreed to an American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, but Russia has not signed on and has continued to strike at targets inside Ukraine.\n\nStill, Russia and Ukraine were holding their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for negotiations. Officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year-old war.\n\n\"He didn't go, and I understand that,\" Trump said. \"We're going to get it done. We got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we're going to get it done.\"\n\nTrump on Thursday told reporters that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.\n\n\"I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,\" Trump said. \"But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump says he'll soon meet with Putin, a no-show at peace talks in Turkey\n\nBy Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani  \nMay 16th, 2025, 09:13 AM\n\n---\n\nABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday he's moving to set up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he can, after Putin opted to skip peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.\n\n\"I think it's time for us to just do it,\" Trump told reporters as he wrapped a four-day visit to the Middle East.\n\nTrump later told reporters after boarding Air Force One to begin the journey back to Washington that he may call Putin soon.\n\n\"He and I will meet, and I think we'll solve it or maybe not,\" Trump said. \"At least we'll know. And if we don't solve it, it'll be very interesting.\"\n\nTrump reiterated that he wasn't surprised that Putin skipped out on the talks set for Friday in Turkey. Putin didn't want to go because he's not there, Trump said.\n\nThe Republican president added that he would hold a meeting with Putin \"as soon as we can set it up.\"\n\n\"I would actually leave here and go,\" said Trump, who noted his daughter Tiffany just gave birth to her first child. \"I do want to see my beautiful grandson.\"\n\nUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to take part in the talks as Trump pressed for the leaders to find a solution to the war, ongoing since Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But Putin spurned the call to meet face-to-face with Zelenskyy.\n\nTrump has pressed both sides to quickly come to a war-ending agreement. Zelenskyy has agreed to an American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, but Russia has not signed on and has continued to strike at targets inside Ukraine.\n\nStill, Russia and Ukraine were holding their first direct peace talks in three years Friday, gathering in Istanbul for negotiations. Officials and observers expect them to yield little immediate progress on stopping the more than 3-year-old war.\n\n\"He didn't go, and I understand that,\" Trump said. \"We're going to get it done. We got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we're going to get it done.\"\n\nTrump on Thursday told reporters that a meeting between himself and Putin was crucial to breaking the deadlock.\n\n\"I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,\" Trump said. \"But we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "59d98311519b5d91d6f5e3145d1dbcbd84150ad0c48381053c38114078dcd27c", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Day 2 of jury selection in the Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial\n\nBy Larry Neumeister  \nMay 6th, 2025, 04:54 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A jury in the sex trafficking trial of Sean \"Diddy\" Combs is expected to be in place sometime Wednesday, lawyers told a federal judge after dozens of prospective jurors were questioned over two days to see if they can judge the music mogul fairly.\n\nThe lawyers measured the progress made over two days after Judge Arun Subramanian completed questioning dozens of prospective jurors to weed out any biases.\n\nOpening statements are scheduled for Monday, when prosecutors will cast Combs as the head of a criminal organization who exploited his fame and fortune to sexually abuse women and destroy young lives. Defense attorneys plan to counter by saying Combs was not committing crimes when he engaged in sexual activity with consenting adults.\n\nCombs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with leading a racketeering conspiracy from 2004 to 2024 that resulted in various crimes, including kidnapping, arson, bribery and sex trafficking.\n\nThe Bad Boy Records founder has been held without bail since his arrest at a Manhattan hotel last September.\n\nOn Monday and Tuesday, the judge assembled a pool of 35 potential jurors, 10 individuals short of the group of 45 would-be jurors that are one step from sitting on the jury for a trial projected to last up to two months.\n\nThe last step in the process will occur when lawyers on both sides strike a limited number of individuals off the jury for reasons they usually are not required to disclose.\n\nNumerous possible jurors were disqualified on Tuesday after answering questions in ways that left lawyers and the judge to believe they could not be fair and unbiased. One man was dismissed after expressing doubt that he could follow an order by the judge not to smoke marijuana for the duration of the trial.\n\n\"He was honest,\" Subramanian quipped, eliciting laughter throughout the courtroom where he interviewed prospective jurors one at a time.\n\nThroughout the day, Combs seemed engaged with the process. Sometimes he was the first to rise from his chair at the defense table each time a potential juror entered or left the courtroom. Near the end of the day, he stretched several times in his cushioned chair.\n\nSeveral who were eliminated from the jury pool had seen or heard media reports related to the case, including some who said they saw a video in which Combs was hitting and kicking one of his accusers in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.\n\nBut one man who had written on a questionnaire that the video left him with the \"impression of an angry hostile person who is entitled\" was not dismissed from the jury pool.\n\nAfter the video aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized, saying, \"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now.\"\n\nIn a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors complained that a prominent attorney \u2014 the father of one of the lawyers on Combs' legal team \u2014 had a long-standing relationship with Combs and seemed to be acting as an adviser to Combs and the defense team even as he spoke out about the case repeatedly on his podcast.\n\nProsecutors urged the judge to require the attorney to obey rules that require lawyers working on the case to limit their public comments."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Day 2 of jury selection in the Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial\n\nBy Larry Neumeister  \nMay 6th, 2025, 04:54 PM\n\n---\n\nNEW YORK (AP) \u2014 A jury in the sex trafficking trial of Sean \"Diddy\" Combs is expected to be in place sometime Wednesday, lawyers told a federal judge after dozens of prospective jurors were questioned over two days to see if they can judge the music mogul fairly.\n\nThe lawyers measured the progress made over two days after Judge Arun Subramanian completed questioning dozens of prospective jurors to weed out any biases.\n\nOpening statements are scheduled for Monday, when prosecutors will cast Combs as the head of a criminal organization who exploited his fame and fortune to sexually abuse women and destroy young lives. Defense attorneys plan to counter by saying Combs was not committing crimes when he engaged in sexual activity with consenting adults.\n\nCombs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment charging him with leading a racketeering conspiracy from 2004 to 2024 that resulted in various crimes, including kidnapping, arson, bribery and sex trafficking.\n\nThe Bad Boy Records founder has been held without bail since his arrest at a Manhattan hotel last September.\n\nOn Monday and Tuesday, the judge assembled a pool of 35 potential jurors, 10 individuals short of the group of 45 would-be jurors that are one step from sitting on the jury for a trial projected to last up to two months.\n\nThe last step in the process will occur when lawyers on both sides strike a limited number of individuals off the jury for reasons they usually are not required to disclose.\n\nNumerous possible jurors were disqualified on Tuesday after answering questions in ways that left lawyers and the judge to believe they could not be fair and unbiased. One man was dismissed after expressing doubt that he could follow an order by the judge not to smoke marijuana for the duration of the trial.\n\n\"He was honest,\" Subramanian quipped, eliciting laughter throughout the courtroom where he interviewed prospective jurors one at a time.\n\nThroughout the day, Combs seemed engaged with the process. Sometimes he was the first to rise from his chair at the defense table each time a potential juror entered or left the courtroom. Near the end of the day, he stretched several times in his cushioned chair.\n\nSeveral who were eliminated from the jury pool had seen or heard media reports related to the case, including some who said they saw a video in which Combs was hitting and kicking one of his accusers in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.\n\nBut one man who had written on a questionnaire that the video left him with the \"impression of an angry hostile person who is entitled\" was not dismissed from the jury pool.\n\nAfter the video aired on CNN last year, Combs apologized, saying, \"I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now.\"\n\nIn a court filing Tuesday, prosecutors complained that a prominent attorney \u2014 the father of one of the lawyers on Combs' legal team \u2014 had a long-standing relationship with Combs and seemed to be acting as an adviser to Combs and the defense team even as he spoke out about the case repeatedly on his podcast.\n\nProsecutors urged the judge to require the attorney to obey rules that require lawyers working on the case to limit their public comments."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "8ee62b41bcb7347f4b7af7723a07c37f9ba64349f774266446be0bb48eda2003", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Small plane crashes into Los Angeles-area neighborhood, killing 2\n\nMay 3rd, 2025, 11:41 PM\n\n---\n\nSIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) \u2014 A small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing two people and a dog aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said.\n\nFire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.\n\nWreckage could be seen between the two homes. The Ventura County Fire Department confirmed that residents were inside at the time but said they evacuated with no reported injuries. Both homes sustained structural damage and were impacted by the fire, authorities said.\n\nAbout 40 firefighters were on scene. With the flames out, they began working on salvage.\n\nOfficials initially reported one death. Later Saturday, the Simi Valley Police Department said the pilot, a passenger and a dog in the airplane died.\n\nAs of Sunday, authorities had not released any information about the occupants of the single-engine Van's RV-10, which is a popular home-built plane sold in kit form. They also did not say what might have caused the crash.\n\nThe plane crashed into the backyard and dining room of Arman Hovakemian's home. Hovakemian told the Los Angeles Times that he was doing yard work when he noticed the plane above, circling lower and lower in the hillside neighborhood.\n\nHe ran inside to get his wife, Armineh, and their Pomeranian dog, Koko, and they fled the property. A loud bang followed and the fuselage landed where he had been standing in the yard just moments before, he said.\n\n\"I'm numb. It hasn't sunk in yet,\" Hovakemian said Saturday as dozens of firefighters and police officers surrounded his home. \"We're fortunate we were able to get out.\"\n\nIn security video recorded by a neighbor that was viewed by the Times, the plane can be heard circling the neighborhood for nearly three minutes and flying close to homes at points. In another video, the plane can be seen shooting straight up into the clouds then dropping down again.\n\nAn investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board also was on the scene Saturday. NTSB spokesperson Peter Knudson said once the wreckage of the plane is documented, it will be moved to a secure facility for further evaluation.\n\nInvestigators also will be combing through the plane's maintenance records, weather forecasts, recordings of any air traffic control communications, witness statements, the pilot's background and any surveillance video that might have captured the aircraft.\n\nIn January another Van's RV-10 crashed into a warehouse in Fullerton, which is southeast of Los Angeles, while trying to make an emergency landing, killing the pilot and his teen daughter and injuring 19 people in the building. A preliminary report issued by the NTSB said that plane appeared to have had a door ajar during flight.\n\nIt will likely be weeks before the NTSB releases preliminary findings on the Simi Valley crash. A final report comes months later."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Small plane crashes into Los Angeles-area neighborhood, killing 2\n\nMay 3rd, 2025, 11:41 PM\n\n---\n\nSIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) \u2014 A small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing two people and a dog aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said.\n\nFire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles.\n\nWreckage could be seen between the two homes. The Ventura County Fire Department confirmed that residents were inside at the time but said they evacuated with no reported injuries. Both homes sustained structural damage and were impacted by the fire, authorities said.\n\nAbout 40 firefighters were on scene. With the flames out, they began working on salvage.\n\nOfficials initially reported one death. Later Saturday, the Simi Valley Police Department said the pilot, a passenger and a dog in the airplane died.\n\nAs of Sunday, authorities had not released any information about the occupants of the single-engine Van's RV-10, which is a popular home-built plane sold in kit form. They also did not say what might have caused the crash.\n\nThe plane crashed into the backyard and dining room of Arman Hovakemian's home. Hovakemian told the Los Angeles Times that he was doing yard work when he noticed the plane above, circling lower and lower in the hillside neighborhood.\n\nHe ran inside to get his wife, Armineh, and their Pomeranian dog, Koko, and they fled the property. A loud bang followed and the fuselage landed where he had been standing in the yard just moments before, he said.\n\n\"I'm numb. It hasn't sunk in yet,\" Hovakemian said Saturday as dozens of firefighters and police officers surrounded his home. \"We're fortunate we were able to get out.\"\n\nIn security video recorded by a neighbor that was viewed by the Times, the plane can be heard circling the neighborhood for nearly three minutes and flying close to homes at points. In another video, the plane can be seen shooting straight up into the clouds then dropping down again.\n\nAn investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board also was on the scene Saturday. NTSB spokesperson Peter Knudson said once the wreckage of the plane is documented, it will be moved to a secure facility for further evaluation.\n\nInvestigators also will be combing through the plane's maintenance records, weather forecasts, recordings of any air traffic control communications, witness statements, the pilot's background and any surveillance video that might have captured the aircraft.\n\nIn January another Van's RV-10 crashed into a warehouse in Fullerton, which is southeast of Los Angeles, while trying to make an emergency landing, killing the pilot and his teen daughter and injuring 19 people in the building. A preliminary report issued by the NTSB said that plane appeared to have had a door ajar during flight.\n\nIt will likely be weeks before the NTSB releases preliminary findings on the Simi Valley crash. A final report comes months later."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "076a4460da7c025859596d35d383be10c370e0ff2b9968e5fc8b2b43a4f1d3b4", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# What's inside Trump's 'beautiful' bill that spans over 1,000 pages\n\nBy Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro  \nMay 15th, 2025, 08:13 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 House Republicans are advancing President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up border security as Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to pass the package over unified Democratic opposition by Memorial Day.\n\nHouse committees have labored on the legislation, which runs a whopping 1,116 pages and is titled the \"One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\" a nod to Trump himself.\n\nStill, GOP divisions run high. Fiscal conservatives worry the bill doesn't cut Medicaid spending enough, while Republicans from competitive swing districts warn that they can't support a bill that would jeopardize access to health coverage and food assistance for constituents.\n\nDemocrats say they will fight what House party leader Hakeem Jeffries calls \"this extreme and toxic bill.\"\n\nHere's a look at what's in and out of the legislative package so far:\n\n## Tax cuts for individuals and businesses\n\nCentral to the GOP package is more than $5 trillion in tax cuts, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation \u2014 costs that are partially offset by spending cuts elsewhere and other changes in the tax code.\n\nRepublicans look to make permanent the individual income tax cuts passed in Trump's first term, in 2017, plus enact promises he made on the 2024 campaign trail to not tax tips, overtime and interest on some auto loans.\n\nTo partially offset the lost revenue, Republicans propose repealing or phasing out more quickly the clean energy tax credits passed during Joe Biden's presidency, helping to bring down the overall cost of the tax portion to about $3.8 trillion.\n\nBut lawmakers from New York, California and other high-tax states say the boost for state and local tax deductions, called SALT, is insufficient. As proposed, it rises from $10,000 to $30,000 for joint filers making less than $400,000 per year. They are pushing for more.\n\nThe bill also includes a temporary $2,000 boost to the standard deduction, bringing it to $32,000 for joint filers. And there is a temporary $500 increase in the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500.\n\nThe estate tax exemption raises to $15 million.\n\nSeveral of the provisions Trump touted on the campaign trail would be temporary, lasting roughly through his second term in office. The tax breaks for tips, overtime and car loan interest expire at the end of 2028. That's also the case for a $4,000 increase in the standard deduction for seniors.\n\n## Parents and older Americans face work requirements for food assistance\n\nHouse Republicans are looking to shift some of the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP, to the states.\n\nStates would shoulder 5% of benefit costs, beginning in fiscal 2028, and 75% of the administrative costs. Currently, states pay none of the benefit and half of the administration costs.\n\nRepublicans also are expanding the work requirements to receive food aid. Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents must fulfill work requirements until they are 54, and that would change under the bill to age 64.\n\nAlso, some parents are currently exempt from work requirements until their children are 18; that would change so only those caring for a dependent child under the age of 7 are exempt.\n\nAt the same time, the legislation would invest $60 billion in new money for agriculture programs, sending aid to farmers.\n\n## And new work requirements for Medicaid\n\nA focal point of the package is nearly $800 billion in reduced spending in the Medicaid program.\n\nTo be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new \"community engagement requirements\" of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. The new requirement would not kick in until Jan. 1, 2029, after Trump leaves office. People would also have to verify their eligibility for the program twice a year, rather than just once.\n\nRepublicans are looking to generate savings with new work requirements. But Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage.\n\nAn estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by at least 7.6 million from the Medicaid changes, and possibly more with other changes to the Affordable Care Act.\n\nApplicants could not qualify for Medicaid if they have a home that is valued at more than $1 million.\n\n## No taxes on gun silencers, no money for Planned Parenthood and more\n\nRepublicans are also using the package to reward allies and disadvantage political foes.\n\nThe package would eliminate a $200 tax on gun silencers that has existed since Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934. The elimination of the tax is supported by the NRA.\n\nThe group Giffords, which works to reduce gun violence, said silencers make it more difficult to recognize the sound of gunfire and locate the source of gunshots, impairing the ability of law enforcement to respond to active shooters.\n\nRepublicans are also looking to prohibit Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion care. Democrats say defunding the organization would make it harder for millions of patients to get cancer screenings, pap tests and birth control.\n\nAnd the bill would allow the Trump administration to remove the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that it says support terrorism. That will create what some nonprofits say is an arbitrary standard to financially punish charities that advocate for issues that don't align with Trump's agenda.\n\n## 'MAGA' kids $1,000 savings accounts\n\n\"MAGA\" is shorthand for Trump's signature line, \"Make America Great Again.\" But in this case, it means \"Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement.\"\n\nFor parents or guardians who open new \"MAGA\" accounts for their children, the federal government will contribute $1,000 for babies born between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2028.\n\nFamilies could add $5,000 a year, with the account holders unable to take distributions before age 18. Then, they could access up to 50% of the money to pay for higher education, training and first-time home purchases. At age 30, account holders have access to the full balance of the account for any purpose.\n\n## Funding for Trump's mass deportation operation\n\nThe legislation would provide $46.5 billion to revive construction of Trump's wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and more money for the deportation agenda.\n\nThere's $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents as well as 5,000 new customs officers, and $2.1 billion for signing and retention bonuses. There's also funds for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators.\n\nIt includes major changes to immigration policy, imposing a $1,000 fee on migrants seeking asylum \u2014 something the nation has never done, putting it on par with few others, including Australia and Iran.\n\nOverall, the plan is to remove 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers.\n\n## More money for the Pentagon and Trump's 'Golden Dome'\n\nThere's also nearly with $150 billion in new money for the Defense Department and national security.\n\nIt would provide $25 billion for Trump's \"Golden Dome for America,\" a long-envisioned missile defense shield, $21 billion to restock the nation's ammunition arsenal, $34 billion to expand the naval fleet with more shipbuilding and some $5 billion for border security.\n\nIt also includes $9 billion for servicemember quality of life-related issues, including housing, health care and special pay.\n\n## Tax on university endowments and overhaul of student loans\n\nA wholesale revamping of the student loan program is key to the legislation, providing $330 billion in budget cuts and savings.\n\nThe proposal would replace all existing student loan repayment plans with just two: a standard option with monthly payments spread out over 10 to 25 years and a \"repayment assistance\" plan that is generally less generous than those it would replace.\n\nAmong other changes, the bill would repeal Biden-era regulations that made it easier for borrowers to get loans canceled if their colleges defrauded them or closed suddenly.\n\nThere would be a tax increase, up to 21%, on some university endowments.\n\n## More drilling, mining on public lands\n\nTo generate revenue, one section would allow increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining and logging while clearing the path for more development by speeding up government approvals.\n\nRoyalty rates paid by companies to extract oil, gas and coal would be cut, reversing Biden's attempts to curb fossil fuels to help address climate change.\n\nIn a last-minute add, Republicans also included a provision authorizing sales of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmentalists.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writers Collin Binkley and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# What's inside Trump's 'beautiful' bill that spans over 1,000 pages\n\nBy Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro  \nMay 15th, 2025, 08:13 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 House Republicans are advancing President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up border security as Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to pass the package over unified Democratic opposition by Memorial Day.\n\nHouse committees have labored on the legislation, which runs a whopping 1,116 pages and is titled the \"One Big Beautiful Bill Act,\" a nod to Trump himself.\n\nStill, GOP divisions run high. Fiscal conservatives worry the bill doesn't cut Medicaid spending enough, while Republicans from competitive swing districts warn that they can't support a bill that would jeopardize access to health coverage and food assistance for constituents.\n\nDemocrats say they will fight what House party leader Hakeem Jeffries calls \"this extreme and toxic bill.\"\n\nHere's a look at what's in and out of the legislative package so far:\n\n## Tax cuts for individuals and businesses\n\nCentral to the GOP package is more than $5 trillion in tax cuts, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation \u2014 costs that are partially offset by spending cuts elsewhere and other changes in the tax code.\n\nRepublicans look to make permanent the individual income tax cuts passed in Trump's first term, in 2017, plus enact promises he made on the 2024 campaign trail to not tax tips, overtime and interest on some auto loans.\n\nTo partially offset the lost revenue, Republicans propose repealing or phasing out more quickly the clean energy tax credits passed during Joe Biden's presidency, helping to bring down the overall cost of the tax portion to about $3.8 trillion.\n\nBut lawmakers from New York, California and other high-tax states say the boost for state and local tax deductions, called SALT, is insufficient. As proposed, it rises from $10,000 to $30,000 for joint filers making less than $400,000 per year. They are pushing for more.\n\nThe bill also includes a temporary $2,000 boost to the standard deduction, bringing it to $32,000 for joint filers. And there is a temporary $500 increase in the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500.\n\nThe estate tax exemption raises to $15 million.\n\nSeveral of the provisions Trump touted on the campaign trail would be temporary, lasting roughly through his second term in office. The tax breaks for tips, overtime and car loan interest expire at the end of 2028. That's also the case for a $4,000 increase in the standard deduction for seniors.\n\n## Parents and older Americans face work requirements for food assistance\n\nHouse Republicans are looking to shift some of the costs of the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP, to the states.\n\nStates would shoulder 5% of benefit costs, beginning in fiscal 2028, and 75% of the administrative costs. Currently, states pay none of the benefit and half of the administration costs.\n\nRepublicans also are expanding the work requirements to receive food aid. Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents must fulfill work requirements until they are 54, and that would change under the bill to age 64.\n\nAlso, some parents are currently exempt from work requirements until their children are 18; that would change so only those caring for a dependent child under the age of 7 are exempt.\n\nAt the same time, the legislation would invest $60 billion in new money for agriculture programs, sending aid to farmers.\n\n## And new work requirements for Medicaid\n\nA focal point of the package is nearly $800 billion in reduced spending in the Medicaid program.\n\nTo be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new \"community engagement requirements\" of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. The new requirement would not kick in until Jan. 1, 2029, after Trump leaves office. People would also have to verify their eligibility for the program twice a year, rather than just once.\n\nRepublicans are looking to generate savings with new work requirements. But Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage.\n\nAn estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by at least 7.6 million from the Medicaid changes, and possibly more with other changes to the Affordable Care Act.\n\nApplicants could not qualify for Medicaid if they have a home that is valued at more than $1 million.\n\n## No taxes on gun silencers, no money for Planned Parenthood and more\n\nRepublicans are also using the package to reward allies and disadvantage political foes.\n\nThe package would eliminate a $200 tax on gun silencers that has existed since Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934. The elimination of the tax is supported by the NRA.\n\nThe group Giffords, which works to reduce gun violence, said silencers make it more difficult to recognize the sound of gunfire and locate the source of gunshots, impairing the ability of law enforcement to respond to active shooters.\n\nRepublicans are also looking to prohibit Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion care. Democrats say defunding the organization would make it harder for millions of patients to get cancer screenings, pap tests and birth control.\n\nAnd the bill would allow the Trump administration to remove the tax-exempt status of nonprofits that it says support terrorism. That will create what some nonprofits say is an arbitrary standard to financially punish charities that advocate for issues that don't align with Trump's agenda.\n\n## 'MAGA' kids $1,000 savings accounts\n\n\"MAGA\" is shorthand for Trump's signature line, \"Make America Great Again.\" But in this case, it means \"Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement.\"\n\nFor parents or guardians who open new \"MAGA\" accounts for their children, the federal government will contribute $1,000 for babies born between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2028.\n\nFamilies could add $5,000 a year, with the account holders unable to take distributions before age 18. Then, they could access up to 50% of the money to pay for higher education, training and first-time home purchases. At age 30, account holders have access to the full balance of the account for any purpose.\n\n## Funding for Trump's mass deportation operation\n\nThe legislation would provide $46.5 billion to revive construction of Trump's wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and more money for the deportation agenda.\n\nThere's $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents as well as 5,000 new customs officers, and $2.1 billion for signing and retention bonuses. There's also funds for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators.\n\nIt includes major changes to immigration policy, imposing a $1,000 fee on migrants seeking asylum \u2014 something the nation has never done, putting it on par with few others, including Australia and Iran.\n\nOverall, the plan is to remove 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers.\n\n## More money for the Pentagon and Trump's 'Golden Dome'\n\nThere's also nearly with $150 billion in new money for the Defense Department and national security.\n\nIt would provide $25 billion for Trump's \"Golden Dome for America,\" a long-envisioned missile defense shield, $21 billion to restock the nation's ammunition arsenal, $34 billion to expand the naval fleet with more shipbuilding and some $5 billion for border security.\n\nIt also includes $9 billion for servicemember quality of life-related issues, including housing, health care and special pay.\n\n## Tax on university endowments and overhaul of student loans\n\nA wholesale revamping of the student loan program is key to the legislation, providing $330 billion in budget cuts and savings.\n\nThe proposal would replace all existing student loan repayment plans with just two: a standard option with monthly payments spread out over 10 to 25 years and a \"repayment assistance\" plan that is generally less generous than those it would replace.\n\nAmong other changes, the bill would repeal Biden-era regulations that made it easier for borrowers to get loans canceled if their colleges defrauded them or closed suddenly.\n\nThere would be a tax increase, up to 21%, on some university endowments.\n\n## More drilling, mining on public lands\n\nTo generate revenue, one section would allow increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining and logging while clearing the path for more development by speeding up government approvals.\n\nRoyalty rates paid by companies to extract oil, gas and coal would be cut, reversing Biden's attempts to curb fossil fuels to help address climate change.\n\nIn a last-minute add, Republicans also included a provision authorizing sales of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from Democrats and environmentalists."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e2fbd50c1bb061a3908556db27e2c6f99cc227f0f4d321838c71e3be89ce073f", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Thai police rescue 2 baby orangutans and arrest a trafficking suspect\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 10:17 AM\n\n---\n\nBANGKOK (AP) \u2014 Two baby orangutans have been rescued from being sold in Thailand's capital Bangkok and a suspected trafficker arrested, police said.\n\nThe orangutans were seized Wednesday night and the alleged courier for the seller was arrested at a gas station, police said. The suspect was charged with illegal possession of protected wildlife and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.\n\nPolice said orangutans generally sell for 300,000 baht ($9,000) each.\n\nThe International Union for Conservation of Nature lists orangutans as critically endangered, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) prohibits cross-border trade in the animals.\n\nOrangutans are found only in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, but their habitat is shrinking due to the growth of agricultural land, making them more vulnerable to poaching. Thailand over the past two decades has repatriated dozens of orangutans to Indonesia.\n\nU.S. Immigration and Customs' Enforcement and Interpol, the international police organization, estimate the annual value of the illicit wildlife trade at $10 billion to $20 billion.\n\nPolice handed over the two orangutans to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for care and safekeeping."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Thai police rescue 2 baby orangutans and arrest a trafficking suspect\n\nMay 16th, 2025, 10:17 AM\n\n---\n\nBANGKOK (AP) \u2014 Two baby orangutans have been rescued from being sold in Thailand's capital Bangkok and a suspected trafficker arrested, police said.\n\nThe orangutans were seized Wednesday night and the alleged courier for the seller was arrested at a gas station, police said. The suspect was charged with illegal possession of protected wildlife and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.\n\nPolice said orangutans generally sell for 300,000 baht ($9,000) each.\n\nThe International Union for Conservation of Nature lists orangutans as critically endangered, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) prohibits cross-border trade in the animals.\n\nOrangutans are found only in the forests of Sumatra and Borneo, but their habitat is shrinking due to the growth of agricultural land, making them more vulnerable to poaching. Thailand over the past two decades has repatriated dozens of orangutans to Indonesia.\n\nU.S. Immigration and Customs' Enforcement and Interpol, the international police organization, estimate the annual value of the illicit wildlife trade at $10 billion to $20 billion.\n\nPolice handed over the two orangutans to the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation for care and safekeeping."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c9fd1c3400c72e9e094eedbe41e2649a00b03ab68f6b0da7876506d720d59c7b", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# James Foley, 'Glengarry Glen Ross' director, dies at 71\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 9th, 2025, 07:28 PM\n\n---\n\nJames Foley, a journeyman director best known for \"Glengarry Glen Ross,\" has died. He was 71.\n\nHe died earlier this week after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, his representative, Taylor Lomax, said Friday.\n\nIn his long and varied career, Foley directed Madonna music videos, 12 episodes of \"House of Cards\" and the two \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" sequels, but it was his 1992 adaptation of David Mamet's foulmouthed Pulitzer Prize winning play that stood above the rest. Although it wasn't a hit at the time, \"Glengarry Glen Ross\" wormed its way into the culture and grew into an oft-quoted cult favorite, especially Alec Baldwin's made-for-the-film \"always be closing\" monologue.\n\nCritic Tim Grierson wrote 20 years after its release that it remains \"one of the quintessential modern movies about masculinity.\" He added, \"while there are many fine Mamet movies, it's interesting that the best of them was this one \u2014 the one he didn't direct.\"\n\nBorn on Dec. 28, 1953, in Brooklyn, Foley studied film in graduate school at the University of Southern California. Legend has it that Hal Ashby once wandered into a film school party where his short happened to be playing at the time and he took a liking to him. Foley would later attribute his ability to make his first feature, \"Reckless,\" a 1984 romantic drama about mismatched teenagers in love starring Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Adam Baldwin, to the Ashby stamp of approval. It was also the first screenplay credited to Chris Columbus, though there were reports of creative differences.\n\nHe followed it with the Sean Penn crime drama \"At Close Range,\" the Madonna and Griffin Dunne screwball comedy \"Who's That Girl\" and the neo-noir thriller \"After Dark, My Sweet,\" with Jason Patric. Critic Roger Ebert included \"After Dark, My Sweet\" in his great movies list, calling it \"one of the purest and most uncompromising of modern film noir\" despite having been \"almost forgotten.\"\n\nHe also directed several music videos for Madonna including \"Papa Don't Preach,\" \"Live to Tell,\" and \"Who's That Girl,\" and an episode of \"Twin Peaks.\"\n\nFoley adapted John Grisham and worked with Gene Hackman on \"The Chamber\" and made the Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg teenage love-gone-scary thriller \"Fear,\" as well as the largely derided Halle Berry and Bruce Willis psychological thriller \"Perfect Stranger,\" which was released in 2007.\n\nIt would be a decade before his next film was released, when he was given the reigns to the \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" sequels, \"Fifty Shades Darker\" and \"Fifty Shades Freed.\"\n\n\"For me, what's most challenging is stuff that doesn't involve the actors, oddly enough \u2014 in three, there's a big car chase and there's different stunts and stuff and that stuff really bores me,\" he told The Associated Press at the UK premiere of \"Fifty Shades Darker.\" \"So when the actors aren't around, that's difficult because the actors give me so much energy and kind of engagement and a car driving by doesn't do the same thing.\"\n\nFoley was not an easily definable director, but that was by design. In 2017, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he had no interest in repeating himself.\n\n\"I've always just followed my nose, for better or for worse, sometimes for worse,\" Foley said. \"What's best and what's worst (about the industry) are almost the same to me. What's worst is you get pigeonholed and what's best is I haven't been. It means that I'm still making movies, despite hopping all over the place.\"\n\nFoley is survived by his brother, Kevin Foley, and sisters Eileen and Jo Ann."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# James Foley, 'Glengarry Glen Ross' director, dies at 71\n\nBy Lindsey Bahr  \nMay 9th, 2025, 07:28 PM\n\n---\n\nJames Foley, a journeyman director best known for \"Glengarry Glen Ross,\" has died. He was 71.\n\nHe died earlier this week after a yearlong battle with brain cancer, his representative, Taylor Lomax, said Friday.\n\nIn his long and varied career, Foley directed Madonna music videos, 12 episodes of \"House of Cards\" and the two \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" sequels, but it was his 1992 adaptation of David Mamet's foulmouthed Pulitzer Prize winning play that stood above the rest. Although it wasn't a hit at the time, \"Glengarry Glen Ross\" wormed its way into the culture and grew into an oft-quoted cult favorite, especially Alec Baldwin's made-for-the-film \"always be closing\" monologue.\n\nCritic Tim Grierson wrote 20 years after its release that it remains \"one of the quintessential modern movies about masculinity.\" He added, \"while there are many fine Mamet movies, it's interesting that the best of them was this one \u2014 the one he didn't direct.\"\n\nBorn on Dec. 28, 1953, in Brooklyn, Foley studied film in graduate school at the University of Southern California. Legend has it that Hal Ashby once wandered into a film school party where his short happened to be playing at the time and he took a liking to him. Foley would later attribute his ability to make his first feature, \"Reckless,\" a 1984 romantic drama about mismatched teenagers in love starring Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Adam Baldwin, to the Ashby stamp of approval. It was also the first screenplay credited to Chris Columbus, though there were reports of creative differences.\n\nHe followed it with the Sean Penn crime drama \"At Close Range,\" the Madonna and Griffin Dunne screwball comedy \"Who's That Girl\" and the neo-noir thriller \"After Dark, My Sweet,\" with Jason Patric. Critic Roger Ebert included \"After Dark, My Sweet\" in his great movies list, calling it \"one of the purest and most uncompromising of modern film noir\" despite having been \"almost forgotten.\"\n\nHe also directed several music videos for Madonna including \"Papa Don't Preach,\" \"Live to Tell,\" and \"Who's That Girl,\" and an episode of \"Twin Peaks.\"\n\nFoley adapted John Grisham and worked with Gene Hackman on \"The Chamber\" and made the Reese Witherspoon and Mark Wahlberg teenage love-gone-scary thriller \"Fear,\" as well as the largely derided Halle Berry and Bruce Willis psychological thriller \"Perfect Stranger,\" which was released in 2007.\n\nIt would be a decade before his next film was released, when he was given the reigns to the \"Fifty Shades of Grey\" sequels, \"Fifty Shades Darker\" and \"Fifty Shades Freed.\"\n\n\"For me, what's most challenging is stuff that doesn't involve the actors, oddly enough \u2014 in three, there's a big car chase and there's different stunts and stuff and that stuff really bores me,\" he told The Associated Press at the UK premiere of \"Fifty Shades Darker.\" \"So when the actors aren't around, that's difficult because the actors give me so much energy and kind of engagement and a car driving by doesn't do the same thing.\"\n\nFoley was not an easily definable director, but that was by design. In 2017, he told The Hollywood Reporter that he had no interest in repeating himself.\n\n\"I've always just followed my nose, for better or for worse, sometimes for worse,\" Foley said. \"What's best and what's worst (about the industry) are almost the same to me. What's worst is you get pigeonholed and what's best is I haven't been. It means that I'm still making movies, despite hopping all over the place.\"\n\nFoley is survived by his brother, Kevin Foley, and sisters Eileen and Jo Ann."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "1792e85491ba93d97e3305bac62267e3838443ed7fad33ec59f6b212732a68c5", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# A Czech court blocks the signing of a deal with South Korea's KHNP to build 2 nuclear reactors\n\nMay 6th, 2025, 11:19 AM\n\n---\n\nPRAGUE (AP) \u2014 A court in the Czech Republic blocked on Tuesday the government from signing a deal with South Korea's KHNP to build at least two nuclear reactors in country.\n\nKHNP won a lucrative public tender last year, beating a competing bid by France's EDF.\n\nThe two new reactors will be built at the existing Dukovany power plant in an effort for the country to wean itself off fossil fuels.\n\nThe contract between the dominant power company CEZ, where the Czech state has a majority stake, and the South Korean company was scheduled for Wednesday.\n\nEDF challenged the signing of the deal at the regional court in the second largest Czech city of Brno on Friday after the Czech anti-monopoly office dismissed its complaint about the tender.\n\nThe court said that the deal could not be signed before it rules on the EDF case, because then there would be no way to change it even if the French company won.\n\nIt is not clear when that might happen.\n\nPrime Minister Petr Fiala said he believed the tender was \"correct and in line with law.\" CEZ said the Korean bid was the better one, and the tender was transparent and fair. EDF had no immediate comment.\n\nThe two new reactors will complement Dukovany's four 510-megawatt units that were completed in the 1980s. The government estimated they would each cost about 200 billion koruna ($9.1 billion).\n\nThe first new reactor is expected to become operational for a trial by 2036, the second about two years later."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# A Czech court blocks the signing of a deal with South Korea's KHNP to build 2 nuclear reactors\n\nMay 6th, 2025, 11:19 AM\n\n---\n\nPRAGUE (AP) \u2014 A court in the Czech Republic blocked on Tuesday the government from signing a deal with South Korea's KHNP to build at least two nuclear reactors in country.\n\nKHNP won a lucrative public tender last year, beating a competing bid by France's EDF.\n\nThe two new reactors will be built at the existing Dukovany power plant in an effort for the country to wean itself off fossil fuels.\n\nThe contract between the dominant power company CEZ, where the Czech state has a majority stake, and the South Korean company was scheduled for Wednesday.\n\nEDF challenged the signing of the deal at the regional court in the second largest Czech city of Brno on Friday after the Czech anti-monopoly office dismissed its complaint about the tender.\n\nThe court said that the deal could not be signed before it rules on the EDF case, because then there would be no way to change it even if the French company won.\n\nIt is not clear when that might happen.\n\nPrime Minister Petr Fiala said he believed the tender was \"correct and in line with law.\" CEZ said the Korean bid was the better one, and the tender was transparent and fair. EDF had no immediate comment.\n\nThe two new reactors will complement Dukovany's four 510-megawatt units that were completed in the 1980s. The government estimated they would each cost about 200 billion koruna ($9.1 billion).\n\nThe first new reactor is expected to become operational for a trial by 2036, the second about two years later."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "c7771838fae2a63dcf34e397122ee5c2996f0b32fa66f793878f791f0ba49eef", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Japan and China trade accusations of airspace violation near disputed islands\n\nBy Mari Yamaguchi  \nMay 4th, 2025, 04:25 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Japan and China have accused each other of violating the airspace around the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands, which Beijing also claims.\n\nThe latest territorial flap came as both appeared to have warmer ties while seeking to mitigate damages from the U.S. tariff war.\n\nJapan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it lodged a \"very severe protest\" with Beijing after a Chinese helicopter took off from one of China's four coast guard boats, which had entered Japan's territorial waters around the Senkaku islands. The helicopter violated Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes on Saturday, the ministry said.\n\nThe statement called the incident an \"intrusion ... into Japan's territorial airspace\" and urged the Chinese government to ensure preventive measures.\n\nJapan's Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets in response, according to the Defense Ministry\n\nChina also protested to Tokyo over a Japanese civilian aircraft violating its airspace around the islands, saying it was \"strongly dissatisfied\" about Japan's \"severe violation of China's sovereignty,\" according to a statement by the Chinese embassy in Japan late Saturday.\n\nChina Coast Guard said it \"immediately took necessary control measures against it in accordance with the law\" and dispatched a ship-borne helicopter to warn and drive away the Japanese aircraft.\n\nJapanese officials are investigating a possible connection between the Chinese coast guard helicopter's airspace intrusion and the small Japanese civilian aircraft flying in the area around the same time.\n\nChina routinely sends coast guard vessels and aircraft into waters and airspace surrounding the islands, which China calls the Diaoyu, to harass Japanese vessels in the area, forcing Japan to quickly mobilize its jets.\n\nSaturday's intrusion was the first by China since a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft violated the Japanese airspace off the southern prefecture of Nagasaki in August. Chinese aircraft have also violated the Japanese airspace around the Senkaku twice in the past.\n\n___\n\nThis story corrects to say the contributor is in Bangkok, not Taipei.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writer Huizhong Wu in Bangkok contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Japan and China trade accusations of airspace violation near disputed islands\n\nBy Mari Yamaguchi  \nMay 4th, 2025, 04:25 AM\n\n---\n\nTOKYO (AP) \u2014 Japan and China have accused each other of violating the airspace around the Japanese-controlled East China Sea islands, which Beijing also claims.\n\nThe latest territorial flap came as both appeared to have warmer ties while seeking to mitigate damages from the U.S. tariff war.\n\nJapan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it lodged a \"very severe protest\" with Beijing after a Chinese helicopter took off from one of China's four coast guard boats, which had entered Japan's territorial waters around the Senkaku islands. The helicopter violated Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes on Saturday, the ministry said.\n\nThe statement called the incident an \"intrusion ... into Japan's territorial airspace\" and urged the Chinese government to ensure preventive measures.\n\nJapan's Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets in response, according to the Defense Ministry\n\nChina also protested to Tokyo over a Japanese civilian aircraft violating its airspace around the islands, saying it was \"strongly dissatisfied\" about Japan's \"severe violation of China's sovereignty,\" according to a statement by the Chinese embassy in Japan late Saturday.\n\nChina Coast Guard said it \"immediately took necessary control measures against it in accordance with the law\" and dispatched a ship-borne helicopter to warn and drive away the Japanese aircraft.\n\nJapanese officials are investigating a possible connection between the Chinese coast guard helicopter's airspace intrusion and the small Japanese civilian aircraft flying in the area around the same time.\n\nChina routinely sends coast guard vessels and aircraft into waters and airspace surrounding the islands, which China calls the Diaoyu, to harass Japanese vessels in the area, forcing Japan to quickly mobilize its jets.\n\nSaturday's intrusion was the first by China since a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft violated the Japanese airspace off the southern prefecture of Nagasaki in August. Chinese aircraft have also violated the Japanese airspace around the Senkaku twice in the past."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "ddd16b59ccdb03744a2aa8d5417f0e85e6c6d85cbe74f2a3ab26de474a7a0dd7", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 20 Democratic attorneys general sue Trump administration over conditions placed on federal funds\n\nBy Kimberlee Kruesi  \nMay 13th, 2025, 06:42 PM\n\n---\n\nPROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) \u2014 A coalition of 20 state Democratic attorneys general filed two federal lawsuits on Tuesday, claiming that the Trump administration is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation and disaster-relief funds unless states agree to certain immigration enforcement actions.\n\nAccording to the complaints, both Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have threatened to cut off funding to states that refuse to comply with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.\n\nWhile no federal funding is currently being withheld, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference on Tuesday that the threat was \"imminent.\"\n\n\"President Donald Trump can't use these funds as a bargaining chip as his way of ensuring states abide by his preferred policies,\" Bonta added.\n\nDepartment of Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the lawsuit will not stop the Trump Administration from \"restoring the rule of law.\"\n\n\"Cities and states who break the law and prevent us from arresting criminal illegal aliens should not receive federal funding. The President has been clear on that,\" she said.\n\nDuffy said in a statement that the 20 states have filed the lawsuit because \"their officials want to continue breaking federal law and putting the needs of illegal aliens above their own citizens.\"\n\nBoth lawsuits say that the Trump administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by trying to dictate federal spending when Congress has that power \u2014 not the executive branch.\n\nOn April 24, states received letters from the Department of Transportation stating that they must cooperate on immigration efforts and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs or risk losing funds.\n\nNew Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin criticized the timing of Duffy's letter when Newark's airport struggles with radar outages and other issues.\n\n\"I wish the administration would stop playing politics with people's lives,\" Platkin said. \"I wish Secretary Duffy would do his damn job, which is to make sure planes land on time, not to direct immigration enforcement.\"\n\nMeanwhile, on Feb. 24, states received letters from the Department of Homeland Security declaring that states that \"refuse to cooperate with, refuse to share information with, or even actively obstruct federal immigration enforcement reject these ideals and the history we share in common as Americans.\"\n\n\"If any government entity chooses to thumb its nose at the Department of Homeland Security's national security and public safety mission, it should not receive a single dollar of the Department's money unless Congress has specifically required it,\" Noem wrote in her letter.\n\nAttorneys general behind the lawsuits include the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.\n\nThe cases are being spearheaded by California and Illinois, but they were filed in federal court in Rhode Island, a detail that the attorneys general defended by saying they filed in \"any court that is going to be fair and objective and consider our factual presentation and legal analysis.\"\n\nThe lawsuits are the latest legal actions that Democratic-led states have taken against Trump since he took office earlier this year. Bonta noted that California has filed more than 20 lawsuits against the administration, while Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said his state has launched more than a dozen.\n\nWhile the lawsuits have challenged policies on tariffs, federal employee firings and health care research, Trump's focus on immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally have received the most attention.\n\nThis has included the president's promise to mass deport people and the start of a registry required for all those who are in the country illegally.\n\n\"What we're seeing is a creeping authoritarianism,\" Neronha said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 20 Democratic attorneys general sue Trump administration over conditions placed on federal funds\n\nBy Kimberlee Kruesi  \nMay 13th, 2025, 06:42 PM\n\n---\n\nPROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) \u2014 A coalition of 20 state Democratic attorneys general filed two federal lawsuits on Tuesday, claiming that the Trump administration is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in transportation and disaster-relief funds unless states agree to certain immigration enforcement actions.\n\nAccording to the complaints, both Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy have threatened to cut off funding to states that refuse to comply with President Donald Trump's immigration agenda.\n\nWhile no federal funding is currently being withheld, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said during a news conference on Tuesday that the threat was \"imminent.\"\n\n\"President Donald Trump can't use these funds as a bargaining chip as his way of ensuring states abide by his preferred policies,\" Bonta added.\n\nDepartment of Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that the lawsuit will not stop the Trump Administration from \"restoring the rule of law.\"\n\n\"Cities and states who break the law and prevent us from arresting criminal illegal aliens should not receive federal funding. The President has been clear on that,\" she said.\n\nDuffy said in a statement that the 20 states have filed the lawsuit because \"their officials want to continue breaking federal law and putting the needs of illegal aliens above their own citizens.\"\n\nBoth lawsuits say that the Trump administration is violating the U.S. Constitution by trying to dictate federal spending when Congress has that power \u2014 not the executive branch.\n\nOn April 24, states received letters from the Department of Transportation stating that they must cooperate on immigration efforts and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs or risk losing funds.\n\nNew Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin criticized the timing of Duffy's letter when Newark's airport struggles with radar outages and other issues.\n\n\"I wish the administration would stop playing politics with people's lives,\" Platkin said. \"I wish Secretary Duffy would do his damn job, which is to make sure planes land on time, not to direct immigration enforcement.\"\n\nMeanwhile, on Feb. 24, states received letters from the Department of Homeland Security declaring that states that \"refuse to cooperate with, refuse to share information with, or even actively obstruct federal immigration enforcement reject these ideals and the history we share in common as Americans.\"\n\n\"If any government entity chooses to thumb its nose at the Department of Homeland Security's national security and public safety mission, it should not receive a single dollar of the Department's money unless Congress has specifically required it,\" Noem wrote in her letter.\n\nAttorneys general behind the lawsuits include the following states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin and Vermont.\n\nThe cases are being spearheaded by California and Illinois, but they were filed in federal court in Rhode Island, a detail that the attorneys general defended by saying they filed in \"any court that is going to be fair and objective and consider our factual presentation and legal analysis.\"\n\nThe lawsuits are the latest legal actions that Democratic-led states have taken against Trump since he took office earlier this year. Bonta noted that California has filed more than 20 lawsuits against the administration, while Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said his state has launched more than a dozen.\n\nWhile the lawsuits have challenged policies on tariffs, federal employee firings and health care research, Trump's focus on immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally have received the most attention.\n\nThis has included the president's promise to mass deport people and the start of a registry required for all those who are in the country illegally.\n\n\"What we're seeing is a creeping authoritarianism,\" Neronha said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "866ddbae3f6d7c9ad69fb9bbda988c25d64faf1a916e33e235fa74d4f6e2ee27", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Explosion at chemical plant near Seville, Spain, triggers regional health alert\n\nBy Joseph Wilson  \nMay 14th, 2025, 02:16 PM\n\n---\n\nBARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 An explosion at a chemical plant near the Spanish city of Seville on Wednesday sent a huge column of thick black smoke into the air and prompted authorities to warn residents to stay indoors.\n\nRegional authorities for Andalusia reported two people were injured as a result of the blast. One plant worker suffered light burns and a firefighter felt ill, authorities said without giving more details.\n\nIt is the latest in a series of apparently unrelated incidents recently impacting Spain's infrastructure, including a nationwide power outage that also hit Portugal.\n\nThe fire prompted officials to send messages to the mobile phones of some 25,000 residents within a radius of three kilometers (1.8 miles) of the explosion recommending that they wear face masks or close their windows.\n\nThe explosion occurred midday in an industrial park in the municipality of Alcal\u00e1 de Guada\u00edra, about 16 kilometers east of Seville's city center. Emergency services cleared personnel from the plant site.\n\nAuthorities have not said what chemicals were involved in explosion.\n\nSpanish state broadcaster TVE and other media, including the local Diario de Sevilla newspaper, reported that the explosion occurred on the premises of Plainsur, a company that packages and distributes chemical products. The company occupies some 11,000 m2 at the industrial plant, including a large warehouse, according to its website.\n\nIt is the second fire at a chemical plant in Spain in recent days.\n\nOn Saturday, a fire at a chemical factory in northeastern Spain forced emergency services to issue health warnings to 150,000 residents and stay-indoors orders for five nearby towns.\n\nOn April 28, the massive power outage hit Spain and Portugal. Authorities are still investigating but have ruled out a cyber attack or sabotage.\n\nThat was followed by major train disruption between Madrid and Seville, caused by thieves who stole copper cabling from a trail line.\n\n___\n\nA previous version of this story included information from officials that they had issued warnings to the population of Alcal\u00e1 de Guada\u00edra, which is home to 77,000 residents, before they later specified that the alerts reached 25,000 people."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Explosion at chemical plant near Seville, Spain, triggers regional health alert\n\nBy Joseph Wilson  \nMay 14th, 2025, 02:16 PM\n\n---\n\nBARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 An explosion at a chemical plant near the Spanish city of Seville on Wednesday sent a huge column of thick black smoke into the air and prompted authorities to warn residents to stay indoors.\n\nRegional authorities for Andalusia reported two people were injured as a result of the blast. One plant worker suffered light burns and a firefighter felt ill, authorities said without giving more details.\n\nIt is the latest in a series of apparently unrelated incidents recently impacting Spain's infrastructure, including a nationwide power outage that also hit Portugal.\n\nThe fire prompted officials to send messages to the mobile phones of some 25,000 residents within a radius of three kilometers (1.8 miles) of the explosion recommending that they wear face masks or close their windows.\n\nThe explosion occurred midday in an industrial park in the municipality of Alcal\u00e1 de Guada\u00edra, about 16 kilometers east of Seville's city center. Emergency services cleared personnel from the plant site.\n\nAuthorities have not said what chemicals were involved in explosion.\n\nSpanish state broadcaster TVE and other media, including the local Diario de Sevilla newspaper, reported that the explosion occurred on the premises of Plainsur, a company that packages and distributes chemical products. The company occupies some 11,000 m2 at the industrial plant, including a large warehouse, according to its website.\n\nIt is the second fire at a chemical plant in Spain in recent days.\n\nOn Saturday, a fire at a chemical factory in northeastern Spain forced emergency services to issue health warnings to 150,000 residents and stay-indoors orders for five nearby towns.\n\nOn April 28, the massive power outage hit Spain and Portugal. Authorities are still investigating but have ruled out a cyber attack or sabotage.\n\nThat was followed by major train disruption between Madrid and Seville, caused by thieves who stole copper cabling from a trail line."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "574d3b5eb1726c1fe382c65ee3221684aec48ed781d50913732c34231b2c8076", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Indigenous people rally for missing and murdered\n\nBy Michael Warren and Susan Montoya Bryan  \nMay 5th, 2025, 05:05 AM\n\n---\n\nALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Indigenous people across North America are calling this week for sustained responses to the violence in their communities, much of it against women and girls.\n\nIn prayer walks, self-defense classes, marches and speeches at state capitols, they are pushing for better cooperation among law enforcement agencies to find missing people and solve homicides that are among about 4,300 open FBI cases this year.\n\nSome parents said they were using Monday's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day to make sure children understand what's at stake. Others \u2014 like Geraldine Toya of Jemez Pueblo, whose daughter Shawna was killed in 2021, and Lynette Pino of Tesuque Pueblo, whose son Darian Nevayaktewa disappeared in 2008 \u2014 showed up to demand answers and help other survivors.\n\n\"We'll keep pushing and I have faith we will find him and bring him home,\" said Erica Leno, Darian's cousin. \"Using any and all resources, we will find him.\"\n\nMany young women who covered their mouths with bright red handprints vowed to speak for those who have been silenced. Justice Department data show Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to be homicide victims than the national average. Among the latest: Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teen who went missing from a group home in January. Her mother wasn't told for a week. Her remains were found months later.\n\n## What 'the talk' means to Indigenous people\n\nLisa Mulligan, of the Forest County Potawatomi, carries the MMIP message when she rides her motorcycle from Wisconsin to rallies out West. She plans to give her two granddaughters \"the talk\" as they grow older, warning them that her father was killed and another relative was a victim of sex trafficking.\n\n\"That's why I ride for it,\" Milligan said. \"I don't want it to happen to anyone else.\"\n\nChristina Castro, of Taos Pueblo, has a 12-year-old daughter. Navajo Nation citizen Joylana Begay-Kroupa has a 10-year-old son. They too have shared anguished reality checks, hoping to protect their children and foster change.\n\n\"Indigenous people don't have the luxury about NOT talking to our daughters about violence against girls. I've had to talk with my daughter since birth about bodily autonomy,\" said Castro, who co-founded the advocacy organization 3 Sisters Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico.\n\nThe collective organized speeches at the New Mexico Capitol on Sunday and a showing of part of the documentary \"She Cried That Day,\" about the 2015 unresolved death of Dione Thomas, a Navajo woman.\n\nSelf-defense classes are planned at the collective and at the Phoenix Indian Center, a social services hub for Indigenous people in Arizona's capital.\n\n\"I always go into auntie mode. You automatically want to protect your nieces and your nephews and your children,\" said Begay-Kroupa, the center's chief executive. \"Unfortunately in Indigenous communities, we've seen this type of suffering occur over and over again.\"\n\nShe said she doesn't hold back information when speaking with her young son.\n\n\"We have relatives that have gone missing, and we just don't know where they're at,\" Begay-Kroupa said. \"He wants to understand why, where'd they go and what happened to them.\"\n\nYaretzi Ortega, a 15-year-old from the Gila River Indian Community who wore the red handprint Saturday, said her parents tried to shelter her, but as she asked questions, she too got \"the talk.\"\n\n\"People need to be aware at a young age because it could happen to them,\" Ortega said. \"'The talk' is an acknowledgment of how Native American women and children have often been targeted. They have to be aware of the risks.\"\n\nIndigenous men aren't immune. Donovan Paddock, who joined an awareness walk Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona, said two of his uncles were killed. His grandfather Layton Paddock Sr., a Navajo Code Talker, was found dead months after going missing in Winslow.\n\n\"My passion now is to help those that can't find their loved ones,\" Paddock said.\n\n## Years of advocacy have produced slow results\n\nFully implementing Indigenous Alerts as part of state Amber Alert systems will require more resources and coordination with the 574 federally recognized tribes, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty said.\n\nTribal alerts only recently became eligible for federal funding, and tribes had to lobby the Federal Communications Commission before Apple upgraded iPhones to accept them, Crotty said.\n\nPamela Foster, a Navajo Nation member, has advocated for better alerts since the delayed response to the 2016 kidnapping and murder of her daughter, Ashlynne Mike. Several years later, 76% of the tribes responding to a survey said they were participating, but some state alert coordinators said they still didn't even have tribal contact information.\n\nThe Trump administration in April announced a surge of FBI resources to 10 field offices to help the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Missing and Murdered Unit and tribal police prepare cases for prosecution.\n\nThe 2023 \"Not One More\" recommendations commissioned by Congress no longer appears on the Justice Department website, but still can be seen at the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. In it, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland noted over 84% of Native American men and women experience violence in their lifetimes.\n\n___\n\nWarren reported from Atlanta, Georgia. AP contributors include Matt York in Scottsdale, Arizona."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Indigenous people rally for missing and murdered\n\nBy Michael Warren and Susan Montoya Bryan  \nMay 5th, 2025, 05:05 AM\n\n---\n\nALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) \u2014 Indigenous people across North America are calling this week for sustained responses to the violence in their communities, much of it against women and girls.\n\nIn prayer walks, self-defense classes, marches and speeches at state capitols, they are pushing for better cooperation among law enforcement agencies to find missing people and solve homicides that are among about 4,300 open FBI cases this year.\n\nSome parents said they were using Monday's Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Awareness Day to make sure children understand what's at stake. Others \u2014 like Geraldine Toya of Jemez Pueblo, whose daughter Shawna was killed in 2021, and Lynette Pino of Tesuque Pueblo, whose son Darian Nevayaktewa disappeared in 2008 \u2014 showed up to demand answers and help other survivors.\n\n\"We'll keep pushing and I have faith we will find him and bring him home,\" said Erica Leno, Darian's cousin. \"Using any and all resources, we will find him.\"\n\nMany young women who covered their mouths with bright red handprints vowed to speak for those who have been silenced. Justice Department data show Indigenous women are more than twice as likely to be homicide victims than the national average. Among the latest: Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teen who went missing from a group home in January. Her mother wasn't told for a week. Her remains were found months later.\n\n## What 'the talk' means to Indigenous people\n\nLisa Mulligan, of the Forest County Potawatomi, carries the MMIP message when she rides her motorcycle from Wisconsin to rallies out West. She plans to give her two granddaughters \"the talk\" as they grow older, warning them that her father was killed and another relative was a victim of sex trafficking.\n\n\"That's why I ride for it,\" Milligan said. \"I don't want it to happen to anyone else.\"\n\nChristina Castro, of Taos Pueblo, has a 12-year-old daughter. Navajo Nation citizen Joylana Begay-Kroupa has a 10-year-old son. They too have shared anguished reality checks, hoping to protect their children and foster change.\n\n\"Indigenous people don't have the luxury about NOT talking to our daughters about violence against girls. I've had to talk with my daughter since birth about bodily autonomy,\" said Castro, who co-founded the advocacy organization 3 Sisters Collective in Santa Fe, New Mexico.\n\nThe collective organized speeches at the New Mexico Capitol on Sunday and a showing of part of the documentary \"She Cried That Day,\" about the 2015 unresolved death of Dione Thomas, a Navajo woman.\n\nSelf-defense classes are planned at the collective and at the Phoenix Indian Center, a social services hub for Indigenous people in Arizona's capital.\n\n\"I always go into auntie mode. You automatically want to protect your nieces and your nephews and your children,\" said Begay-Kroupa, the center's chief executive. \"Unfortunately in Indigenous communities, we've seen this type of suffering occur over and over again.\"\n\nShe said she doesn't hold back information when speaking with her young son.\n\n\"We have relatives that have gone missing, and we just don't know where they're at,\" Begay-Kroupa said. \"He wants to understand why, where'd they go and what happened to them.\"\n\nYaretzi Ortega, a 15-year-old from the Gila River Indian Community who wore the red handprint Saturday, said her parents tried to shelter her, but as she asked questions, she too got \"the talk.\"\n\n\"People need to be aware at a young age because it could happen to them,\" Ortega said. \"'The talk' is an acknowledgment of how Native American women and children have often been targeted. They have to be aware of the risks.\"\n\nIndigenous men aren't immune. Donovan Paddock, who joined an awareness walk Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona, said two of his uncles were killed. His grandfather Layton Paddock Sr., a Navajo Code Talker, was found dead months after going missing in Winslow.\n\n\"My passion now is to help those that can't find their loved ones,\" Paddock said.\n\n## Years of advocacy have produced slow results\n\nFully implementing Indigenous Alerts as part of state Amber Alert systems will require more resources and coordination with the 574 federally recognized tribes, Navajo Nation Council Delegate Amber Kanazbah Crotty said.\n\nTribal alerts only recently became eligible for federal funding, and tribes had to lobby the Federal Communications Commission before Apple upgraded iPhones to accept them, Crotty said.\n\nPamela Foster, a Navajo Nation member, has advocated for better alerts since the delayed response to the 2016 kidnapping and murder of her daughter, Ashlynne Mike. Several years later, 76% of the tribes responding to a survey said they were participating, but some state alert coordinators said they still didn't even have tribal contact information.\n\nThe Trump administration in April announced a surge of FBI resources to 10 field offices to help the Bureau of Indian Affairs' Missing and Murdered Unit and tribal police prepare cases for prosecution.\n\nThe 2023 \"Not One More\" recommendations commissioned by Congress no longer appears on the Justice Department website, but still can be seen at the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. In it, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland noted over 84% of Native American men and women experience violence in their lifetimes."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "26538dcd4ff2c8d3d7cff1fad7b29a8352b9cc6d8e2289c9e396e1b29cadfe9e", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# US lost business travelers in April as economic anxiety and border detentions cooled demand\n\nBy Dee-Ann Durbin  \nMay 15th, 2025, 06:22 PM\n\n---\n\nBusiness travel to the U.S. fell 9% in April as companies and workers grappled with economic uncertainty and anger over the Trump administration's tariffs and border policies.\n\nThe National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Thursday showing the number of airline and ship passengers who entered the country last month using business visas.\n\nThe Middle East was the only region that saw higher business travel to the U.S., with arrivals up 9.4% compared to April 2024. But that didn't make up for big losses from other regions; the number of business travelers from Western Europe fell 17.7%, for example.\n\nThe new government data didn't include people coming from Canada for business or who traveled by land from Mexico. Mexican arrivals by air for those holding business visas were down 11.8%, the government said.\n\nAnd overall travel from Canada also fell in April. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian residents' return trips by air from the U.S. fell 20% in April, while return trips by car were down 35%.\n\nBusiness travel to the U.S. held up better than leisure travel in the first quarter of the year. According to U.S. government data, more than 1.2 million travelers entered the U.S. using business visas in the January-March period, up 7% from the year before. The number of travelers using tourist visas fell 6%.\n\nBut that flipped in April, as the late Easter holiday likely encouraged more leisure travel. Travel to the U.S. by international travelers holding tourist visas was up 13.8% in April.\n\nIt's unclear if that trend will hold. Cirium, an aviation analytics company, said an analysis of online travel agency data indicated that advance bookings from Europe to 14 U.S. cities in June, July and August were down 12% from those same months last year.\n\nMultiple U.S. airlines have pulled their financial forecasts for the year, citing uncertainty and weaker demand from lower-fare leisure travelers. Many industry experts think business travel to the U.S. will continue to decline in the coming months.\n\nLeslie Andrews, the global travel leader for real estate company JLL and a board member at the Global Business Travel Association Foundation, said she thinks corporate travel to the U.S. will slow in the second and third quarters of the year as the full impact of economic and geopolitical volatility sets in.\n\n\"What I am hearing is, 'Things were good in the first quarter,' but in the second quarter it's a matter of, 'Must you take that trip?'\" Andrews said. \"They're pulling in the reins a bit to make sure only purposeful travel is happening as things grow and evolve.\"\n\nBT4Europe, a business travel association, said companies are increasingly wary about unpredictable procedures to enter the U.S. and the risk of detention, especially for LGBTQ+ individuals or those who have voiced political opinions on social media.\n\nKevin Haggarty usually travels to the United States from Canada several times a year to attend trade shows in Atlanta or Las Vegas or to visit suppliers in Los Angeles. But his concerns about crossing the border will keep him from making those trips this year.\n\nHaggarty, who owns a company that sells gifts and souvenirs, said Canadian retailers no longer want U.S.-made merchandise. His U.S. suppliers are struggling to stay afloat due to U.S. tariffs on products made in China. Above all, he's concerned about reports of international travelers being detained at the U.S. border.\n\n\"Honestly, my nervousness and reluctance to cross into the U.S. stems from that more than any hostility to the American market,\" said Haggarty, who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.\n\nGlobal Business Travel Association CEO Suzanne Neufang said a poll of more than 900 of the association's members last month showed nearly one-third expected a decline in global travel volumes this year.\n\nCanadian members were the most pessimistic, with 71% saying they expect a decrease in travel this year, Neufang said.\n\n\"The uncertainty is unnerving for a business travel sector that likes to be safe and likes to be efficient,\" she said.\n\nA drop-off in business trips would represent a setback for the U.S. travel industry and cities that host international conventions and trade shows. The $1.6 trillion global business travel sector was finally returning to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. business travel spending reached pre-COVID levels in 2023, Neufang said, while the rest of the world achieved that last year.\n\nBrett Sterenson, the president of Hotel Lobbyists, a Washington firm that helps groups book hotels for meetings and conferences, said he was losing international business as some countries warn travelers not to visit the U.S.\n\nU.S. government cuts are also hurting business, Sterenson said. He works with several groups that offer international exchange programs through the State Department. The programs welcome travelers from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and elsewhere and share best practices on things like energy policy and environmental stewardship, he said. But with funding cuts, that part of his business is down 75%.\n\n\"These exchanges were monumentally useful in spreading goodwill, but also in educating developing nations on good governance,\" Sterenson said.\n\nHaggarty, in Canada, said he canceled a trip to a trade show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and said several retailers he works with also pulled out. He's now looking to England, France, Spain and other markets for goods to sell.\n\n\"It's unfortunate. It's much easier to bring products to Canada from the U.S., but we're in a corner,\" he said. \"I want people to know just how much damage this administration is doing to their relationships globally.\""}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# US lost business travelers in April as economic anxiety and border detentions cooled demand\n\nBy Dee-Ann Durbin  \nMay 15th, 2025, 06:22 PM\n\n---\n\nBusiness travel to the U.S. fell 9% in April as companies and workers grappled with economic uncertainty and anger over the Trump administration's tariffs and border policies.\n\nThe National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Thursday showing the number of airline and ship passengers who entered the country last month using business visas.\n\nThe Middle East was the only region that saw higher business travel to the U.S., with arrivals up 9.4% compared to April 2024. But that didn't make up for big losses from other regions; the number of business travelers from Western Europe fell 17.7%, for example.\n\nThe new government data didn't include people coming from Canada for business or who traveled by land from Mexico. Mexican arrivals by air for those holding business visas were down 11.8%, the government said.\n\nAnd overall travel from Canada also fell in April. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian residents' return trips by air from the U.S. fell 20% in April, while return trips by car were down 35%.\n\nBusiness travel to the U.S. held up better than leisure travel in the first quarter of the year. According to U.S. government data, more than 1.2 million travelers entered the U.S. using business visas in the January-March period, up 7% from the year before. The number of travelers using tourist visas fell 6%.\n\nBut that flipped in April, as the late Easter holiday likely encouraged more leisure travel. Travel to the U.S. by international travelers holding tourist visas was up 13.8% in April.\n\nIt's unclear if that trend will hold. Cirium, an aviation analytics company, said an analysis of online travel agency data indicated that advance bookings from Europe to 14 U.S. cities in June, July and August were down 12% from those same months last year.\n\nMultiple U.S. airlines have pulled their financial forecasts for the year, citing uncertainty and weaker demand from lower-fare leisure travelers. Many industry experts think business travel to the U.S. will continue to decline in the coming months.\n\nLeslie Andrews, the global travel leader for real estate company JLL and a board member at the Global Business Travel Association Foundation, said she thinks corporate travel to the U.S. will slow in the second and third quarters of the year as the full impact of economic and geopolitical volatility sets in.\n\n\"What I am hearing is, 'Things were good in the first quarter,' but in the second quarter it's a matter of, 'Must you take that trip?'\" Andrews said. \"They're pulling in the reins a bit to make sure only purposeful travel is happening as things grow and evolve.\"\n\nBT4Europe, a business travel association, said companies are increasingly wary about unpredictable procedures to enter the U.S. and the risk of detention, especially for LGBTQ+ individuals or those who have voiced political opinions on social media.\n\nKevin Haggarty usually travels to the United States from Canada several times a year to attend trade shows in Atlanta or Las Vegas or to visit suppliers in Los Angeles. But his concerns about crossing the border will keep him from making those trips this year.\n\nHaggarty, who owns a company that sells gifts and souvenirs, said Canadian retailers no longer want U.S.-made merchandise. His U.S. suppliers are struggling to stay afloat due to U.S. tariffs on products made in China. Above all, he's concerned about reports of international travelers being detained at the U.S. border.\n\n\"Honestly, my nervousness and reluctance to cross into the U.S. stems from that more than any hostility to the American market,\" said Haggarty, who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.\n\nGlobal Business Travel Association CEO Suzanne Neufang said a poll of more than 900 of the association's members last month showed nearly one-third expected a decline in global travel volumes this year.\n\nCanadian members were the most pessimistic, with 71% saying they expect a decrease in travel this year, Neufang said.\n\n\"The uncertainty is unnerving for a business travel sector that likes to be safe and likes to be efficient,\" she said.\n\nA drop-off in business trips would represent a setback for the U.S. travel industry and cities that host international conventions and trade shows. The $1.6 trillion global business travel sector was finally returning to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. U.S. business travel spending reached pre-COVID levels in 2023, Neufang said, while the rest of the world achieved that last year.\n\nBrett Sterenson, the president of Hotel Lobbyists, a Washington firm that helps groups book hotels for meetings and conferences, said he was losing international business as some countries warn travelers not to visit the U.S.\n\nU.S. government cuts are also hurting business, Sterenson said. He works with several groups that offer international exchange programs through the State Department. The programs welcome travelers from Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and elsewhere and share best practices on things like energy policy and environmental stewardship, he said. But with funding cuts, that part of his business is down 75%.\n\n\"These exchanges were monumentally useful in spreading goodwill, but also in educating developing nations on good governance,\" Sterenson said.\n\nHaggarty, in Canada, said he canceled a trip to a trade show in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and said several retailers he works with also pulled out. He's now looking to England, France, Spain and other markets for goods to sell.\n\n\"It's unfortunate. It's much easier to bring products to Canada from the U.S., but we're in a corner,\" he said. \"I want people to know just how much damage this administration is doing to their relationships globally.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "a4198da08d9f8e9caa4dc9bc479ceeee30285ed9eae88f0237f73d8bb7cbbe14", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Alabama governor overhauls state's largest water utility amid cries of racial discrimination\n\nBy Safiyah Riddle  \nMay 7th, 2025, 11:07 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 The city of Birmingham is one step closer to losing control over Alabama's largest water utility after the governor signed a bill on Wednesday that would give more power to neighboring suburbs, despite a pending federal lawsuit alleging the move would constitute racial discrimination.\n\nThe bill redistributes power from Birmingham city officials \u2014 who currently appoint a majority of the nine-person board \u2014 to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the surrounding four counties that are also in the board's jurisdiction. It also reduces the number of board members to seven. Board members approve rate hikes and manage infrastructure projects for the utility's 770,000 customers.\n\nThe state Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill, and the House of Representatives approved it along party lines.\n\n\"No doubt, this is an important issue to all those residents served by this utility board. The Alabama Legislature overwhelmingly passed SB330, and I was pleased to sign it into law,\" Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said in a written statement.\n\nProponents of the bill point to frequent rate hikes, old infrastructure and recent scandals. The legislation said that the power transfer will prevent catastrophic events that have happened in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, or Detroit, Michigan.\n\nOpponents say that the restructured board wouldn't solve the utility's problems.\n\n\"This is a taking of power from the local rate payer by Republican politicians in Montgomery,\" Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement on Wednesday. \"We have seen this same thing happen in other cities throughout the southeast. Your water and sewer bill will keep going up.\"\n\nFive counties rely on the Birmingham Water Works Board. Over 40% of customers are concentrated in the city of Birmingham, and 91% are in Jefferson County. The new system would give more weight to Jefferson County's neighboring areas that have only a fraction of the customers, but which house some of the reservoirs that supply the system.\n\nWoodfin and city council members filed a federal lawsuit against Ivey on Tuesday, alleging that the legislation \"constitutes blatant racial discrimination\" because it gives the majority-white suburbs disproportionate influence and takes power away from Birmingham, a majority-Black city where close to half of the utility's customers live.\n\nBirmingham City Council President Darrell O'Quinn said that the decision exacerbates long-standing tensions in the region.\n\n\"Regardless of whether our efforts prevail, the worst, deep-seated fears of the citizens of the City of Birmingham about their suburban neighbors have been confirmed. Old wounds have been reopened. Years of progress have been destroyed,\" O'Quinn said.\n\nU.S. Chief District Judge Emily C. Marks declined to temporarily block the bill from going into effect on Tuesday evening without first hearing oral arguments from either side. She set a hearing for May 15.\n\n____\n\nRiddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Alabama governor overhauls state's largest water utility amid cries of racial discrimination\n\nBy Safiyah Riddle  \nMay 7th, 2025, 11:07 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 The city of Birmingham is one step closer to losing control over Alabama's largest water utility after the governor signed a bill on Wednesday that would give more power to neighboring suburbs, despite a pending federal lawsuit alleging the move would constitute racial discrimination.\n\nThe bill redistributes power from Birmingham city officials \u2014 who currently appoint a majority of the nine-person board \u2014 to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the surrounding four counties that are also in the board's jurisdiction. It also reduces the number of board members to seven. Board members approve rate hikes and manage infrastructure projects for the utility's 770,000 customers.\n\nThe state Senate voted unanimously to pass the bill, and the House of Representatives approved it along party lines.\n\n\"No doubt, this is an important issue to all those residents served by this utility board. The Alabama Legislature overwhelmingly passed SB330, and I was pleased to sign it into law,\" Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said in a written statement.\n\nProponents of the bill point to frequent rate hikes, old infrastructure and recent scandals. The legislation said that the power transfer will prevent catastrophic events that have happened in cities like Jackson, Mississippi, or Detroit, Michigan.\n\nOpponents say that the restructured board wouldn't solve the utility's problems.\n\n\"This is a taking of power from the local rate payer by Republican politicians in Montgomery,\" Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin said in a statement on Wednesday. \"We have seen this same thing happen in other cities throughout the southeast. Your water and sewer bill will keep going up.\"\n\nFive counties rely on the Birmingham Water Works Board. Over 40% of customers are concentrated in the city of Birmingham, and 91% are in Jefferson County. The new system would give more weight to Jefferson County's neighboring areas that have only a fraction of the customers, but which house some of the reservoirs that supply the system.\n\nWoodfin and city council members filed a federal lawsuit against Ivey on Tuesday, alleging that the legislation \"constitutes blatant racial discrimination\" because it gives the majority-white suburbs disproportionate influence and takes power away from Birmingham, a majority-Black city where close to half of the utility's customers live.\n\nBirmingham City Council President Darrell O'Quinn said that the decision exacerbates long-standing tensions in the region.\n\n\"Regardless of whether our efforts prevail, the worst, deep-seated fears of the citizens of the City of Birmingham about their suburban neighbors have been confirmed. Old wounds have been reopened. Years of progress have been destroyed,\" O'Quinn said.\n\nU.S. Chief District Judge Emily C. Marks declined to temporarily block the bill from going into effect on Tuesday evening without first hearing oral arguments from either side. She set a hearing for May 15."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "a30e11078b0eb270bad85ef0fd56b3447167386bae6e4bb33b03d41a78411a94", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Takeaways from AP's report on creationist beliefs\n\nBy Peter Smith  \nMay 20th, 2025, 12:06 PM\n\n---\n\nWILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) \u2014 Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism.\n\nBut a century after what was dubbed the Trial of the Century, the issue is far from settled. Many American adults still embrace creationism \u2014 a belief in the literal truth of the Genesis account of the origins of the Earth and humanity.\n\nTo be sure, Tennessee public schoolteacher John Scopes was convicted in 1925 for violating a state law against teaching human evolution. But it appeared to be a pyrrhic victory for creationists.\n\nThat's because the star of the prosecution team \u2014 populist politician William Jennings Bryan \u2014 faltered when he took the stand as an expert witness. He struggled to defend the Bible's miraculous and mysterious stories.\n\nBut creationist belief is resilient. Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked.\n\nThat belief is most evident in a region of northern Kentucky that hosts a Creation Museum and a gargantuan replica of the biblical Noah's Ark. They draw a combined 1.5 million visits per year.\n\nThis trend alarms science educators, who say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming and see creationism as part of an anti-science movement affecting responses to serious problems like climate change.\n\n## An ark in Kentucky\n\nKen Ham began speaking in support of creationism 50 years ago \u2014 halfway between the Scopes trial and today \u2014 as a young schoolteacher in Australia. He's expanded that work by founding Answers in Genesis, a vast enterprise that includes books, videos and homeschool curricula.\n\nThe organization opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, in 2007. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden \u2014 life-forms that scientists say are actually separated by tens of millions of years. The museum features an array of exhibits, some of them added in recent years, that argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative.\n\nMost dramatically, Answers in Genesis opened the Ark Encounter theme park in nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016. Its main attraction is the massive ark replica \u2014 \"the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world,\" says Ham. It's 510 feet (155 meters) long, or one and a half football fields in length; 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 51 feet (16 meters) high.\n\nLike the museum, the park includes numerous exhibits arguing for the plausibility of the ark \u2014 that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had the skill and means to sustain thousands of animals in their care. The park also includes theme-park attractions such as a zoo, zip lines and virtual-reality theater. Similar theaters are planned for tourist hubs Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.\n\n\"The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,\" Ham says. \"That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.\"\n\n## Creationist beliefs\n\nCore beliefs of Christian creationism include:\n\n\u2014 God created the heavens and the Earth by fiat in six literal days, with humans as the crown of creation.\n\n\u2014 The Earth is just a few thousand years old.\n\n\u2014 Humans sinned, and that brought death and suffering into the world (and, ultimately, the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ).\n\n\u2014 God drowned almost all people and breathing animals in a global flood because of human wickedness. God spared Noah and his family, instructing him to build a large ark and bring aboard pairs of each animal kind to preserve them from extinction.\n\n\u2014 The flood explains geological phenomena such as the Grand Canyon.\n\n## Science educators' concerns\n\nAccording to the vast, long-standing scientific consensus, the above biological and geological claims are absurd and completely lacking in evidence.\n\nThe consensus is that the Earth is billions of years old; that humans and other life forms evolved from earlier forms over millions of years; and that mountains, canyons and other geological features are due to millions of years of tectonic upheaval and erosion. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found 98% of American scientists accept evolution.\n\n\"Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula,\" says the Geological Society of America.\n\nEvolution is \"one of the most securely established of scientific facts,\" says the National Academy of Sciences. The academy urges that public schools stick to the scientific consensus and that creationism is not a viable alternative. Creationists, it said, \"reverse the scientific process\" by beginning with an inflexible conclusion, rather than building evidence toward a conclusion.\n\n## Courts of law \u2014 and public opinion\n\nCreation and evolution may not be front-burner issues today, but the Scopes trial set a template for other culture-war battles over school books and gender policies. William Jennings Bryan's words from his era would sound familiar at a modern school board meeting: \"Teachers in public schools must teach what the taxpayers desire taught.\"\n\nThe Scopes case involved the 1925 conviction of schoolteacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a state law against teaching in public schools \"any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.\"\n\nTennessee repealed that law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The high court in 1987 overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court ruling similarly forbade the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania from presenting \"intelligent design,\" as an alternative to evolution, saying it, too, was a religious teaching. Though distinct from young-Earth creationism, intelligent design argues that nature shows evidence of a designer.\n\nA 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 17% of U.S. adults agreed that humans have existed in their present form since \"the beginning of time.\"\n\nA 2024 Gallup survey found that 37% agreed that \"God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.\"\n\nThe differences may be due to the phrasing of the question and the circumstances of the survey.\n\nBoth surveys found that majorities of Americans believe humans evolved, and of that group, more believe God had a role in evolution than that it happened without divine intervention.\n\nCatholics and many Protestants and other religious groups accept all or parts of evolutionary theory.\n\nBut many conservative evangelical denominations, schools and other institutions promote young-Earth creationist beliefs.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Takeaways from AP's report on creationist beliefs\n\nBy Peter Smith  \nMay 20th, 2025, 12:06 PM\n\n---\n\nWILLIAMSTOWN, Ky. (AP) \u2014 Some people thought the 1925 Scopes monkey trial marked a cultural defeat for biblical fundamentalism.\n\nBut a century after what was dubbed the Trial of the Century, the issue is far from settled. Many American adults still embrace creationism \u2014 a belief in the literal truth of the Genesis account of the origins of the Earth and humanity.\n\nTo be sure, Tennessee public schoolteacher John Scopes was convicted in 1925 for violating a state law against teaching human evolution. But it appeared to be a pyrrhic victory for creationists.\n\nThat's because the star of the prosecution team \u2014 populist politician William Jennings Bryan \u2014 faltered when he took the stand as an expert witness. He struggled to defend the Bible's miraculous and mysterious stories.\n\nBut creationist belief is resilient. Polls generally show that somewhere between 1 in 6 and 1 in 3 Americans hold beliefs consistent with young-Earth creationism, depending on how the question is asked.\n\nThat belief is most evident in a region of northern Kentucky that hosts a Creation Museum and a gargantuan replica of the biblical Noah's Ark. They draw a combined 1.5 million visits per year.\n\nThis trend alarms science educators, who say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming and see creationism as part of an anti-science movement affecting responses to serious problems like climate change.\n\n## An ark in Kentucky\n\nKen Ham began speaking in support of creationism 50 years ago \u2014 halfway between the Scopes trial and today \u2014 as a young schoolteacher in Australia. He's expanded that work by founding Answers in Genesis, a vast enterprise that includes books, videos and homeschool curricula.\n\nThe organization opened the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, in 2007. Visitors are greeted with a diorama depicting children and dinosaurs interacting peacefully in the Garden of Eden \u2014 life-forms that scientists say are actually separated by tens of millions of years. The museum features an array of exhibits, some of them added in recent years, that argue for a literal interpretation of the biblical creation narrative.\n\nMost dramatically, Answers in Genesis opened the Ark Encounter theme park in nearby Williamstown, Kentucky, in 2016. Its main attraction is the massive ark replica \u2014 \"the biggest freestanding timber frame structure in the world,\" says Ham. It's 510 feet (155 meters) long, or one and a half football fields in length; 85 feet (26 meters) wide and 51 feet (16 meters) high.\n\nLike the museum, the park includes numerous exhibits arguing for the plausibility of the ark \u2014 that Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives had the skill and means to sustain thousands of animals in their care. The park also includes theme-park attractions such as a zoo, zip lines and virtual-reality theater. Similar theaters are planned for tourist hubs Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri.\n\n\"The main message of both attractions is basically this: The history in the Bible is true,\" Ham says. \"That's why the message of the Gospel based on that history is true.\"\n\n## Creationist beliefs\n\nCore beliefs of Christian creationism include:\n\n\u2014 God created the heavens and the Earth by fiat in six literal days, with humans as the crown of creation.\n\n\u2014 The Earth is just a few thousand years old.\n\n\u2014 Humans sinned, and that brought death and suffering into the world (and, ultimately, the necessity of salvation through Jesus Christ).\n\n\u2014 God drowned almost all people and breathing animals in a global flood because of human wickedness. God spared Noah and his family, instructing him to build a large ark and bring aboard pairs of each animal kind to preserve them from extinction.\n\n\u2014 The flood explains geological phenomena such as the Grand Canyon.\n\n## Science educators' concerns\n\nAccording to the vast, long-standing scientific consensus, the above biological and geological claims are absurd and completely lacking in evidence.\n\nThe consensus is that the Earth is billions of years old; that humans and other life forms evolved from earlier forms over millions of years; and that mountains, canyons and other geological features are due to millions of years of tectonic upheaval and erosion. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found 98% of American scientists accept evolution.\n\n\"Evolution and the directly related concept of deep time are essential parts of science curricula,\" says the Geological Society of America.\n\nEvolution is \"one of the most securely established of scientific facts,\" says the National Academy of Sciences. The academy urges that public schools stick to the scientific consensus and that creationism is not a viable alternative. Creationists, it said, \"reverse the scientific process\" by beginning with an inflexible conclusion, rather than building evidence toward a conclusion.\n\n## Courts of law \u2014 and public opinion\n\nCreation and evolution may not be front-burner issues today, but the Scopes trial set a template for other culture-war battles over school books and gender policies. William Jennings Bryan's words from his era would sound familiar at a modern school board meeting: \"Teachers in public schools must teach what the taxpayers desire taught.\"\n\nThe Scopes case involved the 1925 conviction of schoolteacher John Scopes in Dayton, Tennessee, for violating a state law against teaching in public schools \"any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.\"\n\nTennessee repealed that law in 1967, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1968 that a similar Arkansas law was an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The high court in 1987 overturned a Louisiana law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. A 2005 federal court ruling similarly forbade the Dover Area School District in Pennsylvania from presenting \"intelligent design,\" as an alternative to evolution, saying it, too, was a religious teaching. Though distinct from young-Earth creationism, intelligent design argues that nature shows evidence of a designer.\n\nA 2023-2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 17% of U.S. adults agreed that humans have existed in their present form since \"the beginning of time.\"\n\nA 2024 Gallup survey found that 37% agreed that \"God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.\"\n\nThe differences may be due to the phrasing of the question and the circumstances of the survey.\n\nBoth surveys found that majorities of Americans believe humans evolved, and of that group, more believe God had a role in evolution than that it happened without divine intervention.\n\nCatholics and many Protestants and other religious groups accept all or parts of evolutionary theory.\n\nBut many conservative evangelical denominations, schools and other institutions promote young-Earth creationist beliefs."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "36f53c286247772fbeb14ac2a500837e01d3f26f1b7a19c080094f8dcd60e43a", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Profits at American oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron fall in tandem with waning energy demand\n\nBy Michelle Chapman  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:56 AM\n\n---\n\nExxon Mobil's first quarter profit slumped to the lowest level in years, stung by weaker crude prices and higher costs.\n\nThe oil and gas giant earned $7.71 billion, or $1.76 per share, for the three months ended March 31. It earned $8.22 billion, or $2.06 per share, in the year-ago period.\n\nThe results topped Wall Street expectations, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected earnings of $1.74 per share.\n\nRevenue totaled $83.13 billion, which fell short of the $84.15 billion that analysts were calling for.\n\nChevron also reported its lowest first-quarter profits in years, with per-share adjusted profit falling to $2.18 per share on revenue of $47.61 billion. Similar to Exxon, Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts predicted earnings of $2.15 per share on revenue of $48.66 billion.\n\nThe last time first-quarter profits were this low for Exxon was in 2022 and for Chevron, in 2021.\n\nThis week, a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $60, a level at which many producers can no longer turn a profit.\n\n\"In this uncertain market, our shareholders can be confident in knowing that we're built for this,\" Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement Friday. \"The work we've done to transform our company over the past eight years positions us to excel in any environment.\"\n\nU.S. benchmark crude is down 18% this year and Brent, the international benchmark, is right about there as well. This week, BP and Shell also reported falling first quarter profits.\n\nOil prices plummeted last month, at one point sinking to a four-year low in anticipation of slowing economic growth due to a burgeoning trade war.\n\nU.S. crude and Brent fell again Friday by more than 1%. A barrel of U.S. crude now costs $58.30, down almost 30% from this time last year.\n\nTrump announced far-reaching tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners April 2 and then reversed himself a few days later after a market meltdown, suspending the import taxes for 90 days. Amid the uncertainty for both U.S. consumers and businesses, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% from January through March, the first drop in three years.\n\nTariffs on steel and other materials, used for everything from tools to drilling and storage, can have an outsized impact on oil companies and amplify the detrimental effect of falling oil and gas prices.\n\nThose falling oil prices signal pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as manufacturers cut production, businesses cut travel costs and families rethink vacation plans.\n\nAnd there appears to be little appetite for turn off the spigots by some of the world's largest producers.\n\nIn December eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries signaled they would not cut production as they compete with production from non-allied oil producing countries.\n\nThe OPEC+ members decided at the time to postpone production increases that had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The plan had been to start gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day over the course of 2025.\n\nThat process was pushed back to April 1 and production increases will gradually take place over 18 months until October 2026.\n\nShares of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP fell after the opening bell, while Shell rose."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Profits at American oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron fall in tandem with waning energy demand\n\nBy Michelle Chapman  \nMay 2nd, 2025, 10:56 AM\n\n---\n\nExxon Mobil's first quarter profit slumped to the lowest level in years, stung by weaker crude prices and higher costs.\n\nThe oil and gas giant earned $7.71 billion, or $1.76 per share, for the three months ended March 31. It earned $8.22 billion, or $2.06 per share, in the year-ago period.\n\nThe results topped Wall Street expectations, but Exxon does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research expected earnings of $1.74 per share.\n\nRevenue totaled $83.13 billion, which fell short of the $84.15 billion that analysts were calling for.\n\nChevron also reported its lowest first-quarter profits in years, with per-share adjusted profit falling to $2.18 per share on revenue of $47.61 billion. Similar to Exxon, Chevron does not adjust its reported results based on one-time events such as asset sales. Analysts predicted earnings of $2.15 per share on revenue of $48.66 billion.\n\nThe last time first-quarter profits were this low for Exxon was in 2022 and for Chevron, in 2021.\n\nThis week, a barrel of U.S. benchmark crude fell below $60, a level at which many producers can no longer turn a profit.\n\n\"In this uncertain market, our shareholders can be confident in knowing that we're built for this,\" Chairman and CEO Darren Woods said in a statement Friday. \"The work we've done to transform our company over the past eight years positions us to excel in any environment.\"\n\nU.S. benchmark crude is down 18% this year and Brent, the international benchmark, is right about there as well. This week, BP and Shell also reported falling first quarter profits.\n\nOil prices plummeted last month, at one point sinking to a four-year low in anticipation of slowing economic growth due to a burgeoning trade war.\n\nU.S. crude and Brent fell again Friday by more than 1%. A barrel of U.S. crude now costs $58.30, down almost 30% from this time last year.\n\nTrump announced far-reaching tariffs on nearly all U.S. trading partners April 2 and then reversed himself a few days later after a market meltdown, suspending the import taxes for 90 days. Amid the uncertainty for both U.S. consumers and businesses, the Commerce Department said Wednesday that the U.S. economy shrank 0.3% from January through March, the first drop in three years.\n\nTariffs on steel and other materials, used for everything from tools to drilling and storage, can have an outsized impact on oil companies and amplify the detrimental effect of falling oil and gas prices.\n\nThose falling oil prices signal pessimism about economic growth and can be a harbinger of a recession as manufacturers cut production, businesses cut travel costs and families rethink vacation plans.\n\nAnd there appears to be little appetite for turn off the spigots by some of the world's largest producers.\n\nIn December eight members of the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries signaled they would not cut production as they compete with production from non-allied oil producing countries.\n\nThe OPEC+ members decided at the time to postpone production increases that had been scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The plan had been to start gradually restoring 2.2 million barrels per day over the course of 2025.\n\nThat process was pushed back to April 1 and production increases will gradually take place over 18 months until October 2026.\n\nShares of Exxon Mobil, Chevron and BP fell after the opening bell, while Shell rose."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "e79b2f436077a7fba5b0edf4a33c1a4d55f57425e48acb461fb844adaf07f7c8", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Merz stresses European unity and defense during his first trip as German chancellor\n\nBy Stefanie Dazio, John Leicester, and Kirsten Grieshaber  \nMay 7th, 2025, 08:00 AM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 Friedrich Merz plunged straight into international crises on his first full day as Germany's new chancellor Wednesday, presenting a united front with France against U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, demanding more aid for Gaza and announcing he soon would visit Ukraine.\n\nMerz and French President Emmanuel Macron \u2014 firm believers in the European Union and leaders of the continent's largest economies \u2014 used their first meeting since the German leader's appointment Tuesday to show unity on Ukraine and other issues causing alarm in Europe. They vowed to strengthen the continent's security and increase defense spending.\n\nThe tandem of Germany and France has long underpinned the 27-nation bloc, but lost some of its vigor in recent months as leaders in both countries wrestled with domestic issues.\n\nIn a joint news conference, Merz acknowledged that Europe still needs the U.S. for peace in Ukraine. \"It is our firm conviction that we cannot end this war in Ukraine without further political and military engagement by the United States of America,\" he said. \"The Europeans cannot replace this at present.\"\n\nBoth Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been exerting pressure on the EU, forcing it to rethink its own security. It was not clear when Merz would visit Ukraine.\n\nMacron said that France and Germany will \"accelerate\" defense cooperation, including jointly developing new defense technologies \"necessary for the wars of tomorrow.\" He listed working together on tanks, long-range missiles and combat aircraft. He also said that the countries would start regular meetings of a French-German defense council.\n\nMerz also visited Poland on Wednesday and addressed his new government's plans to station more police at Germany's border to curb illegal migration and even turn away some asylum-seekers.\n\n\"If we, everybody together in the European Union, give the signal to those who are setting out for Europe without valid opportunities for entry, if we give this signal especially to the traffickers, that these routes are going to get a lot more difficult and that we are going to close them, then that is a joint and good signal,\" Merz said during a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.\n\n## Demanding aid for Gaza\n\nMerz and Macron also demanded that Israel allow humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. Israel cut off all aid to the territory over two months ago to try to pressure the Hamas militant group.\n\nIsrael is preparing to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.\n\nIsrael's offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who don't distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.\n\nMerz urged Israel to be \"more responsible\" \u2014 striking comments given Germany's past and present support for Israel.\n\nMacron said that France couldn't, on the one hand, defend Ukrainians' sovereign and territorial rights while ignoring the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, saying: \"We cannot have double standards.\"\n\nBoth men sought stability between India and Pakistan, saying they view the latest exchange of fire \"between these two nuclear powers with the utmost concern.\"\n\nIndia fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory early Wednesday, killing at least 31 people in what Pakistan's leader called an act of war. India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month's massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.\n\n## Merz's historic defeat\n\nThe German leader's trip to Paris came the day after his historic defeat in the first round of voting in the German parliament. No other postwar candidate for chancellor has failed to win on the first ballot. He won in the second.\n\nTraditionally, newly elected chancellors make a point of visiting their big neighbors in the west and east on the first day in office to stress European unity.\n\nMerz's Paris stop showed that the new chancellor was plunging into world affairs, sending a message that Germany is back after his predecessor's more timid approach. Macron touted their meeting as \"a new page\" in the French-German partnership.\n\nIn particular, France is looking for German backing for increased EU defense spending in the face of Russia's threat as well as concerns that Trump is pivoting from its post-World War II relationship with Europe to focus on countering China.\n\nThe French president also said France and Germany would \"act hand in hand\" in the face of Trump's tariffs and work for \"a united European response and a balanced outcome that respects our interests.\"\n\n## 80th anniversary of World War II\n\nThe stops in Paris and Warsaw occurred on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. The meeting with Macron was particularly loaded with symbolism for the two countries that were bitter enemies in World War I and II.\n\nThe first war ended with an armistice agreement signed in a railway car north of Paris. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler then used that railway car in accepting France's capitulation in 1940, after its defenses succumbed to the German invasion.\n\n\"German-French friendship is a gift, a gift of forgiveness and reconciliation, especially for us Germans,\" Merz said.\n\nPoland's leader re-affirmed his support for a strengthened European defense, which would include a stronger German military.\n\n\"It is not easy, considering history, to say out loud, as a Polish prime minister, that I would very much like Germany to arm itself faster and more intensively,\" Tusk said. \"Armed Germany in Poland is not a popular slogan, but fortunately today we live in times when there is a different Germany, a different Poland, different threats.\"\n\n___\n\nLeicester reported from Paris. Philipp Jenne in Vienna and Rafal Niedzielski in Warsaw, Poland, contributed."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Merz stresses European unity and defense during his first trip as German chancellor\n\nBy Stefanie Dazio, John Leicester, and Kirsten Grieshaber  \nMay 7th, 2025, 08:00 AM\n\n---\n\nBERLIN (AP) \u2014 Friedrich Merz plunged straight into international crises on his first full day as Germany's new chancellor Wednesday, presenting a united front with France against U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, demanding more aid for Gaza and announcing he soon would visit Ukraine.\n\nMerz and French President Emmanuel Macron \u2014 firm believers in the European Union and leaders of the continent's largest economies \u2014 used their first meeting since the German leader's appointment Tuesday to show unity on Ukraine and other issues causing alarm in Europe. They vowed to strengthen the continent's security and increase defense spending.\n\nThe tandem of Germany and France has long underpinned the 27-nation bloc, but lost some of its vigor in recent months as leaders in both countries wrestled with domestic issues.\n\nIn a joint news conference, Merz acknowledged that Europe still needs the U.S. for peace in Ukraine. \"It is our firm conviction that we cannot end this war in Ukraine without further political and military engagement by the United States of America,\" he said. \"The Europeans cannot replace this at present.\"\n\nBoth Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have been exerting pressure on the EU, forcing it to rethink its own security. It was not clear when Merz would visit Ukraine.\n\nMacron said that France and Germany will \"accelerate\" defense cooperation, including jointly developing new defense technologies \"necessary for the wars of tomorrow.\" He listed working together on tanks, long-range missiles and combat aircraft. He also said that the countries would start regular meetings of a French-German defense council.\n\nMerz also visited Poland on Wednesday and addressed his new government's plans to station more police at Germany's border to curb illegal migration and even turn away some asylum-seekers.\n\n\"If we, everybody together in the European Union, give the signal to those who are setting out for Europe without valid opportunities for entry, if we give this signal especially to the traffickers, that these routes are going to get a lot more difficult and that we are going to close them, then that is a joint and good signal,\" Merz said during a joint news conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.\n\n## Demanding aid for Gaza\n\nMerz and Macron also demanded that Israel allow humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza. Israel cut off all aid to the territory over two months ago to try to pressure the Hamas militant group.\n\nIsrael is preparing to ramp up its campaign against Hamas in a devastating war now entering its 20th month. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.\n\nIsrael's offensive has killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza, many of them women and children, according to Palestinian health officials, who don't distinguish between combatants and civilians in their count.\n\nMerz urged Israel to be \"more responsible\" \u2014 striking comments given Germany's past and present support for Israel.\n\nMacron said that France couldn't, on the one hand, defend Ukrainians' sovereign and territorial rights while ignoring the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, saying: \"We cannot have double standards.\"\n\nBoth men sought stability between India and Pakistan, saying they view the latest exchange of fire \"between these two nuclear powers with the utmost concern.\"\n\nIndia fired missiles into Pakistani-controlled territory early Wednesday, killing at least 31 people in what Pakistan's leader called an act of war. India said it struck infrastructure used by militants linked to last month's massacre of tourists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir.\n\n## Merz's historic defeat\n\nThe German leader's trip to Paris came the day after his historic defeat in the first round of voting in the German parliament. No other postwar candidate for chancellor has failed to win on the first ballot. He won in the second.\n\nTraditionally, newly elected chancellors make a point of visiting their big neighbors in the west and east on the first day in office to stress European unity.\n\nMerz's Paris stop showed that the new chancellor was plunging into world affairs, sending a message that Germany is back after his predecessor's more timid approach. Macron touted their meeting as \"a new page\" in the French-German partnership.\n\nIn particular, France is looking for German backing for increased EU defense spending in the face of Russia's threat as well as concerns that Trump is pivoting from its post-World War II relationship with Europe to focus on countering China.\n\nThe French president also said France and Germany would \"act hand in hand\" in the face of Trump's tariffs and work for \"a united European response and a balanced outcome that respects our interests.\"\n\n## 80th anniversary of World War II\n\nThe stops in Paris and Warsaw occurred on the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender in World War II. The meeting with Macron was particularly loaded with symbolism for the two countries that were bitter enemies in World War I and II.\n\nThe first war ended with an armistice agreement signed in a railway car north of Paris. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler then used that railway car in accepting France's capitulation in 1940, after its defenses succumbed to the German invasion.\n\n\"German-French friendship is a gift, a gift of forgiveness and reconciliation, especially for us Germans,\" Merz said.\n\nPoland's leader re-affirmed his support for a strengthened European defense, which would include a stronger German military.\n\n\"It is not easy, considering history, to say out loud, as a Polish prime minister, that I would very much like Germany to arm itself faster and more intensively,\" Tusk said. \"Armed Germany in Poland is not a popular slogan, but fortunately today we live in times when there is a different Germany, a different Poland, different threats.\""}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "f1379075eb71b2e75e8f2da5a84b63b2c95f61f7a0227b3b5aae30c486b65f5e", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Severe weather pummels central US as thousands recover from deadly tornadoes\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 19th, 2025, 03:34 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON, Ky. (AP) \u2014 More tornadoes plowed through the central U.S. on Monday, ripping apart buildings and knocking out power as people from Texas to Kentucky continued to clean up from days of severe weather that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.\n\nAt least four tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma and Nebraska on Monday evening, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.\n\nAcross Oklahoma, at least 10 homes were destroyed and multiple buildings were damaged, including a fire station that was wiped out, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. A spokesperson for the agency said they have not received any reports of injuries or deaths.\n\nAround 115,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us.\n\nParts of several highways were also closed due to flooding or storm damage.\n\nIn northwest Arkansas, severe weather caused a Halsey concert to be canceled and a municipal airport had to close temporarily Monday night so crews could remove debris from the field. And in Oklahoma, Tulsa Public Schools canceled all afterschool activities.\n\nNorthern Texas saw softball-sized hail measuring 4 1/2 inches (11.4 centimeters) in diameter, according to Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist with the service's Weather Prediction Center.\n\n## Missouri and Kentucky clean up\n\nEarlier Monday in St. Louis, where officials estimated a Friday tornado damaged 5,000 buildings and may cost well over $1 billion, the mayor warned that federal assistance could take weeks.\n\nKentucky has been hardest hit by the storms. A devastating tornado late Friday into early Saturday damaged hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles and killed at least 19 people, most of them in southeastern Laurel County.\n\nIn London, Kentucky, where the devastation was centered, the small airport became a beehive of cleanup work after it took a direct hit from a tornado. Small aircraft stored there had large dents in them and even wings ripped open. Officials were using it as a base to get water, food, diapers and other supplies out to the community.\n\n\"We have 1,001 things going on. But we're managing it. And we're going to get it all cleaned up,\" said London Mayor Randall Weddle.\n\nOfficials in Kansas and Texas also were evaluating damage from late Sunday storms.\n\nThe risk of severe storms moves into Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee on Tuesday, the weather service said.\n\n## Kentucky hit hard\n\nThe Kentucky storms that killed 19 people were part of a weather system that caused seven deaths in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said.\n\nLonnie Nantz hid in a hallway with his wife, two daughters and a grandson as the one-story brick home they bought near London in 1977 was destroyed around them. They were trapped in rubble for about 20 minutes in the midnight darkness before they were rescued unharmed.\n\n\"I don't know why this happened. I've tried to live a good life all my life. I've still got the faith,\" said the 77-year-old Nantz, who went to church as always on Sunday.\n\nLondon city worker Ashley Taylor was back on the job Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof. She was lucky \u2014 the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night.\n\nShe survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawl space of a neighbor's home.\n\n\"We prayed like never before \u2014 and just thankful for everything God did for us,\" Taylor said.\n\nIn surrounding Laurel County, first responders mourned one of their own.\n\nFellow firefighters found the body of Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman on top of a woman he was shielding from the storm's fury as he answered calls during the worst of the storm. The woman was yelling for help and they were in a field across from a destroyed subdivision.\n\nThe injured woman turned out to be Leatherman's wife and officials aren't sure if he knew who he was protecting in the darkness and chaos, the fire department said on social media.\n\n## St. Louis waits for FEMA\n\nSt. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5,000 homes were affected by an EF3 tornado with winds up to 150 mph (240 kph) that slammed areas north and west of downtown Friday. Spencer has estimated that damages will exceed $1.6 billion.\n\n\"Eight miles of pure destruction, at times a mile wide,\" Spencer said at a Monday news conference. \"We're talking about thousands of buildings, thousands of families are being displaced.\"\n\nThe city is awaiting a disaster declaration from the governor's office as a first step to getting federal assistance.\n\nU.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, expressed frustration over the federal response to a deadly March storm.\n\n\"I'm not happy about the fact we're still waiting from all of that damage two months ago,\" Hawley said.\n\nActing Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief David Richardson said last week he plans to shift responsibility for disaster recovery to states this year as part of an agencywide transformation and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance \"when deemed necessary.\"\n\nSpencer said during a news conference Monday evening that emergency protocols put in place in 2021 were not followed, possibly preventing sirens being activated to warn residents about the tornado.\n\nShe said it was not clear whose responsibility it was to let the community know about the emergency but that the fire department will do so moving forward.\n\nIn Texas, several tornadoes touched down west of Fort Worth on Sunday, including an EF1 with peak winds of 105 mph (169 kph) that caused damage in and around Gordon, the weather service said Monday.\n\n___\n\nThis story has been updated to correct that Wilburton is in Oklahoma, not Texas.\n\n___\n\nSee more photos from the severe storms in the South and Midwest here.\n\n___\n\nAssociated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; Hallie Golden in Seattle and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Severe weather pummels central US as thousands recover from deadly tornadoes\n\nBy Bruce Schreiner  \nMay 19th, 2025, 03:34 PM\n\n---\n\nLONDON, Ky. (AP) \u2014 More tornadoes plowed through the central U.S. on Monday, ripping apart buildings and knocking out power as people from Texas to Kentucky continued to clean up from days of severe weather that killed more than two dozen people and destroyed thousands of homes and buildings.\n\nAt least four tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma and Nebraska on Monday evening, according to a preliminary report from the National Weather Service.\n\nAcross Oklahoma, at least 10 homes were destroyed and multiple buildings were damaged, including a fire station that was wiped out, according to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. A spokesperson for the agency said they have not received any reports of injuries or deaths.\n\nAround 115,000 customers were without power in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri, according to PowerOutage.us.\n\nParts of several highways were also closed due to flooding or storm damage.\n\nIn northwest Arkansas, severe weather caused a Halsey concert to be canceled and a municipal airport had to close temporarily Monday night so crews could remove debris from the field. And in Oklahoma, Tulsa Public Schools canceled all afterschool activities.\n\nNorthern Texas saw softball-sized hail measuring 4 1/2 inches (11.4 centimeters) in diameter, according to Scott Kleebauer, a meteorologist with the service's Weather Prediction Center.\n\n## Missouri and Kentucky clean up\n\nEarlier Monday in St. Louis, where officials estimated a Friday tornado damaged 5,000 buildings and may cost well over $1 billion, the mayor warned that federal assistance could take weeks.\n\nKentucky has been hardest hit by the storms. A devastating tornado late Friday into early Saturday damaged hundreds of homes, tossed vehicles and killed at least 19 people, most of them in southeastern Laurel County.\n\nIn London, Kentucky, where the devastation was centered, the small airport became a beehive of cleanup work after it took a direct hit from a tornado. Small aircraft stored there had large dents in them and even wings ripped open. Officials were using it as a base to get water, food, diapers and other supplies out to the community.\n\n\"We have 1,001 things going on. But we're managing it. And we're going to get it all cleaned up,\" said London Mayor Randall Weddle.\n\nOfficials in Kansas and Texas also were evaluating damage from late Sunday storms.\n\nThe risk of severe storms moves into Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee on Tuesday, the weather service said.\n\n## Kentucky hit hard\n\nThe Kentucky storms that killed 19 people were part of a weather system that caused seven deaths in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said.\n\nLonnie Nantz hid in a hallway with his wife, two daughters and a grandson as the one-story brick home they bought near London in 1977 was destroyed around them. They were trapped in rubble for about 20 minutes in the midnight darkness before they were rescued unharmed.\n\n\"I don't know why this happened. I've tried to live a good life all my life. I've still got the faith,\" said the 77-year-old Nantz, who went to church as always on Sunday.\n\nLondon city worker Ashley Taylor was back on the job Monday loading doughnuts to take to a hospital and dispatch center even though there was a tarp on her roof. She was lucky \u2014 the houses across her street were destroyed late Friday night.\n\nShe survived the storm with nine other people and three dogs in the crawl space of a neighbor's home.\n\n\"We prayed like never before \u2014 and just thankful for everything God did for us,\" Taylor said.\n\nIn surrounding Laurel County, first responders mourned one of their own.\n\nFellow firefighters found the body of Laurel County Fire Major Leslie Leatherman on top of a woman he was shielding from the storm's fury as he answered calls during the worst of the storm. The woman was yelling for help and they were in a field across from a destroyed subdivision.\n\nThe injured woman turned out to be Leatherman's wife and officials aren't sure if he knew who he was protecting in the darkness and chaos, the fire department said on social media.\n\n## St. Louis waits for FEMA\n\nSt. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer said five people died, 38 were injured and more than 5,000 homes were affected by an EF3 tornado with winds up to 150 mph (240 kph) that slammed areas north and west of downtown Friday. Spencer has estimated that damages will exceed $1.6 billion.\n\n\"Eight miles of pure destruction, at times a mile wide,\" Spencer said at a Monday news conference. \"We're talking about thousands of buildings, thousands of families are being displaced.\"\n\nThe city is awaiting a disaster declaration from the governor's office as a first step to getting federal assistance.\n\nU.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, expressed frustration over the federal response to a deadly March storm.\n\n\"I'm not happy about the fact we're still waiting from all of that damage two months ago,\" Hawley said.\n\nActing Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief David Richardson said last week he plans to shift responsibility for disaster recovery to states this year as part of an agencywide transformation and that FEMA would coordinate federal assistance \"when deemed necessary.\"\n\nSpencer said during a news conference Monday evening that emergency protocols put in place in 2021 were not followed, possibly preventing sirens being activated to warn residents about the tornado.\n\nShe said it was not clear whose responsibility it was to let the community know about the emergency but that the fire department will do so moving forward.\n\nIn Texas, several tornadoes touched down west of Fort Worth on Sunday, including an EF1 with peak winds of 105 mph (169 kph) that caused damage in and around Gordon, the weather service said Monday."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "701fd5078fcf58a34914d558cb34617db679b18d8c5157ebb89fb027e719af63", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# funeral of Uruguay President Jose Mujica\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 05:31 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) \u2014 Mourners wept, raised their arms and marched behind the flag-draped casket of former President Jos\u00e9 Mujica on Wednesday as thousands bid a poignant farewell to the iconic leader in the Uruguayan capital.\n\nMujica, a guerrilla-turned-president who was a champion of the Latin American left, died on Tuesday.\n\nThis is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# funeral of Uruguay President Jose Mujica\n\nMay 14th, 2025, 05:31 PM\n\n---\n\nMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AP) \u2014 Mourners wept, raised their arms and marched behind the flag-draped casket of former President Jos\u00e9 Mujica on Wednesday as thousands bid a poignant farewell to the iconic leader in the Uruguayan capital.\n\nMujica, a guerrilla-turned-president who was a champion of the Latin American left, died on Tuesday."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "f9ea3e25d1faaa16b7ac816953291d7d1ce089567fa1cf35f9fc00808c6fc1b2", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 10 killed in Philippines when passenger bus slams into vehicles at a toll booth\n\nMay 1st, 2025, 12:14 PM\n\n---\n\nMANILA, Philippines (AP) \u2014 A speeding passenger bus slammed into a row of vehicles lined up at a highway toll booth Thursday in the northern Philippines, killing 10 people, including children, police said.\n\nMore than two dozen others were injured in the multiple-vehicle collision in Tarlac city, north of Manila, at a heavy travel time on May Day holiday, police said.\n\nThe bus driver, who was among the injured, was taken into custody and initially told investigators that he dozed off shortly before the crash, Tarlac police chief Lt. Col. Romel Santos told reporters.\n\nThe bus crashed into a van, which was lined up with three other vehicles at the toll booth. Eight of the dead, including children, were in the van, which was pinned between the wayward bus from behind and another car in front, police said.\n\nA couple died in a car in the collisions that happened around midday in the scorching summer heat, police said, adding that many of the injured were bus passengers.\n\nVehicular accidents are common in the Philippines because of poor enforcement of safety and traffic regulations, faulty vehicles and reckless driving.\n\n___\n\nThis story corrects the death toll according to police."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 10 killed in Philippines when passenger bus slams into vehicles at a toll booth\n\nMay 1st, 2025, 12:14 PM\n\n---\n\nMANILA, Philippines (AP) \u2014 A speeding passenger bus slammed into a row of vehicles lined up at a highway toll booth Thursday in the northern Philippines, killing 10 people, including children, police said.\n\nMore than two dozen others were injured in the multiple-vehicle collision in Tarlac city, north of Manila, at a heavy travel time on May Day holiday, police said.\n\nThe bus driver, who was among the injured, was taken into custody and initially told investigators that he dozed off shortly before the crash, Tarlac police chief Lt. Col. Romel Santos told reporters.\n\nThe bus crashed into a van, which was lined up with three other vehicles at the toll booth. Eight of the dead, including children, were in the van, which was pinned between the wayward bus from behind and another car in front, police said.\n\nA couple died in a car in the collisions that happened around midday in the scorching summer heat, police said, adding that many of the injured were bus passengers.\n\nVehicular accidents are common in the Philippines because of poor enforcement of safety and traffic regulations, faulty vehicles and reckless driving."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "5fcdba8c75da109be2a48c074cff169580362d3ce394aee5d136355a40753697", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# McDonald's plans to hire 375,000 U.S. workers this summer\n\nBy Dee-Ann Durbin  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:55 PM\n\n---\n\nMcDonald's said Monday it plans to hire up to 375,000 U.S. restaurant employees this summer, its biggest hiring push in years.\n\nThe Chicago burger giant said the beefed-up job openings at both company-owned and franchised stores are partly due to a U.S. expansion. The company, which has more than 13,500 restaurants in the U.S., plans to open 900 more by 2027.\n\nU.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined McDonald's U.S. President Joe Erlinger at a McDonald's restaurant near Columbus, Ohio, for the hiring announcement.\n\n\"McDonald's is sparking a ripple effect of prosperity for our workers, communities and the economy,\" DeRemer said. \"By expanding their workforce, the corporation will be driving investment and setting the standard for industry growth, whether as a launch pad for a different career or as a ladder for internal achievements.\"\n\nMcDonald's stressed that the new hires will be for permanent positions. But that doesn't mean the company expects its U.S. workforce to exceed 1.1 million people by the end of the summer. The hiring takes into account that there are always a lot of workers coming and going at McDonald's.\n\nMcDonald's said its last big summer hiring spree came in 2020, when it announced plans to add 260,000 workers. At the time, the company was reopening restaurants that were closed in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nIts decision to staff up for this summer signals optimism that U.S. restaurant traffic will improve as the year unfolds.\n\nIn the January-March period, McDonald's U.S. same-store sales \u2014 or sales at locations open at least a year \u2014 slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald's has seen since the pandemic shuttered stores, restaurants, schools and other public spaces in 2020.\n\nMcDonald's said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.\n\nBut other restaurant operators seem to share its optimism. U.S. restaurants and bars added more than 46,000 jobs in March and April, according to the National Restaurant Association. Chipotle said in February that it hoped to hire 20,000 workers.\n\nOverall hiring also continues to be strong. American employers added 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience despite the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump's trade wars.\n\nMcDonald's also used Monday's event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Archways to Opportunity program, which has given tuition assistance, English lessons and career services to more than 90,000 employees. McDonald's said the program has doled out $240 million in tuition assistance alone.\n\nAnamaria Monterroso, an eight-year veteran at McDonald's, said Archways to Opportunity will help her become of the first member of her family to graduate from college. Monterroso is currently working toward her degree in human resources at Colorado Technical University.\n\n\"Just because you work in fast food doesn't mean your dreams end there,\" Monterroso said."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# McDonald's plans to hire 375,000 U.S. workers this summer\n\nBy Dee-Ann Durbin  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:55 PM\n\n---\n\nMcDonald's said Monday it plans to hire up to 375,000 U.S. restaurant employees this summer, its biggest hiring push in years.\n\nThe Chicago burger giant said the beefed-up job openings at both company-owned and franchised stores are partly due to a U.S. expansion. The company, which has more than 13,500 restaurants in the U.S., plans to open 900 more by 2027.\n\nU.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer joined McDonald's U.S. President Joe Erlinger at a McDonald's restaurant near Columbus, Ohio, for the hiring announcement.\n\n\"McDonald's is sparking a ripple effect of prosperity for our workers, communities and the economy,\" DeRemer said. \"By expanding their workforce, the corporation will be driving investment and setting the standard for industry growth, whether as a launch pad for a different career or as a ladder for internal achievements.\"\n\nMcDonald's stressed that the new hires will be for permanent positions. But that doesn't mean the company expects its U.S. workforce to exceed 1.1 million people by the end of the summer. The hiring takes into account that there are always a lot of workers coming and going at McDonald's.\n\nMcDonald's said its last big summer hiring spree came in 2020, when it announced plans to add 260,000 workers. At the time, the company was reopening restaurants that were closed in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.\n\nIts decision to staff up for this summer signals optimism that U.S. restaurant traffic will improve as the year unfolds.\n\nIn the January-March period, McDonald's U.S. same-store sales \u2014 or sales at locations open at least a year \u2014 slumped 3.6%. That was the biggest U.S. decline McDonald's has seen since the pandemic shuttered stores, restaurants, schools and other public spaces in 2020.\n\nMcDonald's said lower- and middle-income consumers, worried about inflation and the economic outlook, cut back on fast food during the January-March period.\n\nBut other restaurant operators seem to share its optimism. U.S. restaurants and bars added more than 46,000 jobs in March and April, according to the National Restaurant Association. Chipotle said in February that it hoped to hire 20,000 workers.\n\nOverall hiring also continues to be strong. American employers added 177,000 jobs in April as the job market showed resilience despite the uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump's trade wars.\n\nMcDonald's also used Monday's event to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its Archways to Opportunity program, which has given tuition assistance, English lessons and career services to more than 90,000 employees. McDonald's said the program has doled out $240 million in tuition assistance alone.\n\nAnamaria Monterroso, an eight-year veteran at McDonald's, said Archways to Opportunity will help her become of the first member of her family to graduate from college. Monterroso is currently working toward her degree in human resources at Colorado Technical University.\n\n\"Just because you work in fast food doesn't mean your dreams end there,\" Monterroso said."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "025f8cf3cb745680c8bd54a38e6e78e6bd74318d58974cfb3b0534cbff642094", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump says US will pay immigrants in country illegally $1,000 to leave\n\nBy Rebecca Santana  \nMay 5th, 2025, 02:51 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Pushing forward with its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump's administration said Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who are in the United States illegally and return to their home country voluntarily.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it would also pay for travel assistance \u2014 and that people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government they plan to return home will be \"deprioritized\" for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.\n\n\"If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,\" Secretary Kristi Noem said. \"DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.\"\n\nThe department said it had already paid for a plane ticket for one migrant to return home to Honduras from Chicago and said more tickets have been booked for this week and next.\n\n## It's a major part of Trump's administration\n\nTrump made immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally a centerpiece of his campaign, and he is following through during the first months of his administration. But it is a costly, resource-intensive endeavor.\n\nWhile the Republican administration is asking Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it's also pushing people in the country illegally to \"self-deport.\"\n\nIt has coupled this self-deportation push with television ads threatening action against people in the U.S. illegally and social media images showing immigration enforcement arrests and migrants being sent to a prison in El Salvador.\n\nThe Trump administration has often portrayed self-deportation as a way for migrants to preserve their ability to return to the United States someday, and the president himself suggested it on Monday while speaking to reporters at the White House. He said immigrants who \"self-deport\" and leave the U.S. might have a chance to return legally eventually \"if they're good people\" and \"love our country.\"\n\n\"And if they aren't, they won't,\" Trump said.\n\nBut Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which advocates for immigrants, said there's a lot for migrants to be cautious about in the latest offer from Homeland Security.\n\nHe said it's often worse for people to leave the country and not fight their case in immigration court, especially if they're already in removal proceedings. He said if migrants are in removal proceedings and don't show up in court they can automatically get a deportation order and leaving the country usually counts as abandoning many applications for relief including asylum applications.\n\n## It can be an intricate process\n\nAnd Homeland Security is not indicating that it is closely coordinating with the immigration courts so that there are no repercussions for people in immigration court if they leave, he said.\n\n\"People's immigration status is not as simple as this makes it out to be,\" Reichlen-Melnick said.\n\nHe questioned where Homeland Security would get the money and the authorization to make the payments \u2014 and he suggested they are necessary because the administration can't arrest and remove as many people as it has promised so it has to encourage people to do it on their own.\n\n\"They're not getting their numbers,\" he said.\n\nAs part of its self-deportation effort, the Trump administration has transformed an app that had been used by the Biden administration to allow nearly 1 million migrants to schedule appointments to enter the country into a tool to help migrants return home. Under the Biden administration, it was called CBP One; now it's dubbed CBP Home.\n\nHomeland Security said \"thousands\" of migrants have used the app to self-deport.\n\nBut Mark Krikorian, who heads the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration, said he doesn't see the offer of paying people to go home as an admission that something in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda isn't working.\n\nConsidering the millions of people who are in the country illegally, he said, it's impossible to deport all of them so the administration has to combine its own enforcement efforts with encouraging people to go home voluntarily.\n\nKrikorian said he supports the idea of paying migrants to leave although he questioned how it would work in reality.\n\n\"How do you make sure that they've actually gone home? Do you make them sign an agreement where they agree not to challenge their removal if they were to come back?\" he questioned. \"The execution matters, but the concept is sound.\"\n\n## This has been tried before\n\nOther countries have tried various iterations of paying migrants to return home.\n\nThere's a reason it's attractive to governments wanting to encourage migrants to go. It costs less to buy someone a plane ticket and some incentive money than it does to pay to find them, detain them if necessary, wait for the courts to rule on their case and then send them home.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security said that it costs $17,121 to arrest, detain and remove someone in the U.S. illegally.\n\nVoluntary returns also don't require extensive government-to-government negotiations to get a country to take back its citizens, which can be a major benefit. There are a number of countries that either don't take back their own citizens who are being returned by U.S. immigration enforcement officials or make that process challenging.\n\nA 2011 study by the Migration Policy Institute and the European University Institute found that there were about 128 programs \u2014 often referred to as pay-to-go programs \u2014 around the world.\n\nBut the study found that, with a few exceptions such as one program to return people in the 1990s from Germany to Bosnia, these voluntary return programs generally failed at encouraging large numbers of people to go home.\n\nIt is not clear whether these programs resulted in migrants who took the payments actually staying in their home countries and not trying to emigrate again."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump says US will pay immigrants in country illegally $1,000 to leave\n\nBy Rebecca Santana  \nMay 5th, 2025, 02:51 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Pushing forward with its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump's administration said Monday that it would pay $1,000 to immigrants who are in the United States illegally and return to their home country voluntarily.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security said in a news release that it would also pay for travel assistance \u2014 and that people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government they plan to return home will be \"deprioritized\" for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.\n\n\"If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest,\" Secretary Kristi Noem said. \"DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App.\"\n\nThe department said it had already paid for a plane ticket for one migrant to return home to Honduras from Chicago and said more tickets have been booked for this week and next.\n\n## It's a major part of Trump's administration\n\nTrump made immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the United States illegally a centerpiece of his campaign, and he is following through during the first months of his administration. But it is a costly, resource-intensive endeavor.\n\nWhile the Republican administration is asking Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it's also pushing people in the country illegally to \"self-deport.\"\n\nIt has coupled this self-deportation push with television ads threatening action against people in the U.S. illegally and social media images showing immigration enforcement arrests and migrants being sent to a prison in El Salvador.\n\nThe Trump administration has often portrayed self-deportation as a way for migrants to preserve their ability to return to the United States someday, and the president himself suggested it on Monday while speaking to reporters at the White House. He said immigrants who \"self-deport\" and leave the U.S. might have a chance to return legally eventually \"if they're good people\" and \"love our country.\"\n\n\"And if they aren't, they won't,\" Trump said.\n\nBut Aaron Reichlen-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, which advocates for immigrants, said there's a lot for migrants to be cautious about in the latest offer from Homeland Security.\n\nHe said it's often worse for people to leave the country and not fight their case in immigration court, especially if they're already in removal proceedings. He said if migrants are in removal proceedings and don't show up in court they can automatically get a deportation order and leaving the country usually counts as abandoning many applications for relief including asylum applications.\n\n## It can be an intricate process\n\nAnd Homeland Security is not indicating that it is closely coordinating with the immigration courts so that there are no repercussions for people in immigration court if they leave, he said.\n\n\"People's immigration status is not as simple as this makes it out to be,\" Reichlen-Melnick said.\n\nHe questioned where Homeland Security would get the money and the authorization to make the payments \u2014 and he suggested they are necessary because the administration can't arrest and remove as many people as it has promised so it has to encourage people to do it on their own.\n\n\"They're not getting their numbers,\" he said.\n\nAs part of its self-deportation effort, the Trump administration has transformed an app that had been used by the Biden administration to allow nearly 1 million migrants to schedule appointments to enter the country into a tool to help migrants return home. Under the Biden administration, it was called CBP One; now it's dubbed CBP Home.\n\nHomeland Security said \"thousands\" of migrants have used the app to self-deport.\n\nBut Mark Krikorian, who heads the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for less immigration, said he doesn't see the offer of paying people to go home as an admission that something in the Trump administration's immigration enforcement agenda isn't working.\n\nConsidering the millions of people who are in the country illegally, he said, it's impossible to deport all of them so the administration has to combine its own enforcement efforts with encouraging people to go home voluntarily.\n\nKrikorian said he supports the idea of paying migrants to leave although he questioned how it would work in reality.\n\n\"How do you make sure that they've actually gone home? Do you make them sign an agreement where they agree not to challenge their removal if they were to come back?\" he questioned. \"The execution matters, but the concept is sound.\"\n\n## This has been tried before\n\nOther countries have tried various iterations of paying migrants to return home.\n\nThere's a reason it's attractive to governments wanting to encourage migrants to go. It costs less to buy someone a plane ticket and some incentive money than it does to pay to find them, detain them if necessary, wait for the courts to rule on their case and then send them home.\n\nThe Department of Homeland Security said that it costs $17,121 to arrest, detain and remove someone in the U.S. illegally.\n\nVoluntary returns also don't require extensive government-to-government negotiations to get a country to take back its citizens, which can be a major benefit. There are a number of countries that either don't take back their own citizens who are being returned by U.S. immigration enforcement officials or make that process challenging.\n\nA 2011 study by the Migration Policy Institute and the European University Institute found that there were about 128 programs \u2014 often referred to as pay-to-go programs \u2014 around the world.\n\nBut the study found that, with a few exceptions such as one program to return people in the 1990s from Germany to Bosnia, these voluntary return programs generally failed at encouraging large numbers of people to go home.\n\nIt is not clear whether these programs resulted in migrants who took the payments actually staying in their home countries and not trying to emigrate again."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7105df55a6172d160627d9580617a0ef19c69f5dc66bc63e61000968ca7b7eb1", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# 13 workers kidnapped from a Peruvian gold mine are found dead\n\nMay 4th, 2025, 08:52 PM\n\n---\n\nLIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 The bodies of 13 security guards kidnapped from a major Peruvian gold mine just over a week ago were found Sunday, Peru's Interior Ministry said, their deaths coming as violence escalates in the Andean nation's crucial mining industry.\n\nThe gold mine, La Poderosa, said that a search-and-rescue team recovered the staff members' remains i the mine on Sunday. The company blamed their abduction on informal miners allegedly linked to criminal gangs that ambushed the gold mine on April 26.\n\nPeru's Interior Ministry said it had deployed special police forces to \"locate and capture those responsible for these heinous crimes.\" It did not give further details about the attack or its perpetrators.\n\nLa Poderosa, a private firm based in Peru's capital of Lima, said that criminal groups fighting for control of the mine in Peru's remote northwestern city of Pataz have killed 39 of the company's workers since it began operating there in 1980, including the latest 13.\n\nIn a particularly brazen incident in December 2023, illegal miners attacked the same Poderosa mine with explosives, killing nine people and wounding 15. La Poderosa sent in more security guards in response to the string of attacks.\n\nA major gold and copper supplier for the world, Peru is unique in allowing informal miners to operate with some protections as long as they plan to legalize their operations. But illegal mining quickly boomed into a vast industry as the metals became increasingly lucrative, new mining techniques emerged and the government struggled to mount a response.\n\nWith much of Peru awash in a wave of crime that prompted the government to declare a state of emergency last month, reports of extortion from artisanal miners and entrepreneurs in the country's northern mining area have surged in recent months."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# 13 workers kidnapped from a Peruvian gold mine are found dead\n\nMay 4th, 2025, 08:52 PM\n\n---\n\nLIMA, Peru (AP) \u2014 The bodies of 13 security guards kidnapped from a major Peruvian gold mine just over a week ago were found Sunday, Peru's Interior Ministry said, their deaths coming as violence escalates in the Andean nation's crucial mining industry.\n\nThe gold mine, La Poderosa, said that a search-and-rescue team recovered the staff members' remains i the mine on Sunday. The company blamed their abduction on informal miners allegedly linked to criminal gangs that ambushed the gold mine on April 26.\n\nPeru's Interior Ministry said it had deployed special police forces to \"locate and capture those responsible for these heinous crimes.\" It did not give further details about the attack or its perpetrators.\n\nLa Poderosa, a private firm based in Peru's capital of Lima, said that criminal groups fighting for control of the mine in Peru's remote northwestern city of Pataz have killed 39 of the company's workers since it began operating there in 1980, including the latest 13.\n\nIn a particularly brazen incident in December 2023, illegal miners attacked the same Poderosa mine with explosives, killing nine people and wounding 15. La Poderosa sent in more security guards in response to the string of attacks.\n\nA major gold and copper supplier for the world, Peru is unique in allowing informal miners to operate with some protections as long as they plan to legalize their operations. But illegal mining quickly boomed into a vast industry as the metals became increasingly lucrative, new mining techniques emerged and the government struggled to mount a response.\n\nWith much of Peru awash in a wave of crime that prompted the government to declare a state of emergency last month, reports of extortion from artisanal miners and entrepreneurs in the country's northern mining area have surged in recent months."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "7b984c5bfde698334011a96989cb68a231d8e2759132e9a49c1cab6da83e2c59", "is_edited": false, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Flights reduced by 40% at Paris-Orly airport after traffic control systems break down\n\nMay 18th, 2025, 03:52 PM\n\n---\n\nPARIS (AP) \u2014 France's civil aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights by 40% at Paris-Orly airport on Sunday evening after air traffic control systems suffered a breakdown.\n\nThe authority, known as DGAC, said in a statement that some \"regulation\" was needed involving a significant reduction in the number of flights. The statement didn't provide details on the cause of the breakdown.\n\nDGAC said its teams \"are fully mobilized to restore normal operations as soon as possible.\"\n\nParis-Orly airport serves domestic and international flights, including to most European countries and the U.S.\n\nFlights to Spain, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland and several French cities were canceled on Sunday while many others were delayed.\n\nMore than 33 million passengers traveled through Paris-Orly airport last year, about half the number at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, according to figures released by the operator Aeroport de Paris."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Flights reduced by 40% at Paris-Orly airport after traffic control systems break down\n\nMay 18th, 2025, 03:52 PM\n\n---\n\nPARIS (AP) \u2014 France's civil aviation authority asked airlines to reduce flights by 40% at Paris-Orly airport on Sunday evening after air traffic control systems suffered a breakdown.\n\nThe authority, known as DGAC, said in a statement that some \"regulation\" was needed involving a significant reduction in the number of flights. The statement didn't provide details on the cause of the breakdown.\n\nDGAC said its teams \"are fully mobilized to restore normal operations as soon as possible.\"\n\nParis-Orly airport serves domestic and international flights, including to most European countries and the U.S.\n\nFlights to Spain, Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland and several French cities were canceled on Sunday while many others were delayed.\n\nMore than 33 million passengers traveled through Paris-Orly airport last year, about half the number at Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, according to figures released by the operator Aeroport de Paris."}]}
+{"prompt_hash": "fe2860450ea7685cdf25d8662f76695aac6edba892aa38328b19053fd60e85ab", "is_edited": true, "conversations": [{"from": "human", "value": "# Trump starts his foreign trip with a crush of problems \u2014 and outsized certainty he has the answers\n\nBy Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:30 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump set out on a three-nation visit to the Middle East on Monday, a trip he had originally intended to use to focus on his efforts to press wealthy Gulf nations to pour billions in new investment into the United States.\n\nBut now Trump finds himself navigating a series of geopolitical crises \u2014 and searching for glimmers of hope in the deep well of global turmoil \u2014 that are casting greater import on the first extended overseas trip of his second term.\n\n\"This world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago,\" Trump crowed to reporters as he sized up the foreign policy challenges he's facing as he heads to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. \"And a lot safer than it was six months ago.\"\n\nThe president was brimming with an overabundance of confidence about some of the world's most intractable problems, from tensions in South Asia to the future of sanctions in Syria to the war in Ukraine.\n\nBut behind closed doors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed will be looking to get a read on how Trump intends to push ahead on resolving the war in Gaza, dealing with Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program and addressing India-Pakistan tensions.\n\nAnd after weeks of threats and cajoling, it remains to be seen if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will listen to Trump, who is demanding they meet in Istanbul this week to discuss ending Russia's war on Ukraine.\n\nTrump, for his part, projected confidence that the meeting will happen and even seemed somewhat optimistic that the end to the conflict is near. He floated the idea of making a detour from his itinerary to visit Turkey if he thinks his presence would be constructive.\n\n\"I was thinking about flying over. I don't know where I am going be on Thursday,\" Trump said. \"I've got so many meetings. \u2026 There's a possibility there, I guess, if I think things can happen.\"\n\nBut Ukraine's allies remained deeply skeptical Monday about prospects for talks and whether Putin was serious about peace.\n\n\"If there is no ceasefire, there cannot be talks under fire,\" European Union commission vice president Kaja Kallas told reporters at a meeting on Ukraine in London. \"We want to see that Russia also wants peace. It takes two to want peace, it takes only one to want war, and we see that Russia clearly wants war.\"\n\n## Trump sees opening in Gaza\n\nJust as Trump was preparing to depart Washington for the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, was released.\n\nTrump and administration officials framed the moment \u2014 a goodwill gesture toward Trump by Hamas \u2014 as a chance to get foundering peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas back on track.\n\n\"This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators \u2014 Qatar and Egypt \u2014 to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved one,\" Trump posted on social media after Hamas extended the offer Sunday. \"Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.\"\n\nWhile Trump pumped up Alexander's release as a potential turning point, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was far more subdued. Israel, notably, has not stepped back from plans to expand its war in Gaza.\n\nNetanyahu's office, in a statement Monday, underscored it had \"not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists\" in exchange for Alexander.\n\n\"The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting,\" the prime minister's office statement said.\n\n## Trump takes a different tone on Syria\n\nAs he prepared to leave Washington, Trump also said he's weighing removing sanctions on the Syrian government. It's an issue that's top of mind for the three Gulf leaders, who have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and will want Trump to follow through.\n\n\"We may want to take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start,\" said Trump, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged him to do so.\n\nThe comments marked a striking change in tone from Trump, who has been deeply skeptical of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.\n\nAl-Sharaa took power after his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad in December.\n\nThe Trump administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad also remain in place.\n\n## Cajoling India and Pakistan with trade\n\nTrump also took credit for his administration keeping India and Pakistan from returning to a state of all-out war amid the deadliest fighting in six years between the nuclear-armed neighbors.\n\nThe president said he and aides were ultimately able to talk sense to India and Pakistan's leadership and guide them away from further escalation by dangling carrots, while also threatening both nations with sticks.\n\n\"I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys,'\" Trump said. \"'If you stop it, we'll do trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade.' People never use trade the way I used it.\"\n\nThe situation remains tenuous. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that his country has only \"paused\" its military action and will \"retaliate on its own terms\" if there is any future terror attack on the country.\n\n## Big differences remain in Iran nuclear talks\n\nThe president will arrive in the region after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held the fourth round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman with Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.\n\nAs the talks continue, the Trump administration has sent mixed messages about what nuclear work Iran would be allowed to do under a potential deal.\n\nSenior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said that Tehran would be required to import enriched material to run nuclear reactors for civilian purposes. Trump, however, said last week that his administration hasn't made a decision on the issue.\n\nIt's also unclear if Trump will insist that Tehran give up support of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militants in Yemen as part of any nuclear deal.\n\nWhatever his negotiating frame may be, Trump seemed confident that Iran is engaging rationally, and that he will cement a deal soon.\n\n\"You can't have a nuclear weapon,\" Trump said of his demand for Iran. \"But I think that they are talking intelligently.\"\n\nHowever, the two sides still appear a long way from any deal, even as time passes on a two-month deadline imposed by Trump.\n\n___\n\nMadhani reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. AP writer Jill Lawless contributed from London."}, {"from": "gpt", "value": "# Trump starts his foreign trip with a crush of problems \u2014 and outsized certainty he has the answers\n\nBy Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville  \nMay 12th, 2025, 08:30 PM\n\n---\n\nWASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump set out on a three-nation visit to the Middle East on Monday, a trip he had originally intended to use to focus on his efforts to press wealthy Gulf nations to pour billions in new investment into the United States.\n\nBut now Trump finds himself navigating a series of geopolitical crises \u2014 and searching for glimmers of hope in the deep well of global turmoil \u2014 that are casting greater import on the first extended overseas trip of his second term.\n\n\"This world is a lot safer today than it was a week ago,\" Trump crowed to reporters as he sized up the foreign policy challenges he's facing as he heads to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. \"And a lot safer than it was six months ago.\"\n\nThe president was brimming with an overabundance of confidence about some of the world's most intractable problems, from tensions in South Asia to the future of sanctions in Syria to the war in Ukraine.\n\nBut behind closed doors, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim al-Thani, and Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed will be looking to get a read on how Trump intends to push ahead on resolving the war in Gaza, dealing with Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program and addressing India-Pakistan tensions.\n\nAnd after weeks of threats and cajoling, it remains to be seen if Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will listen to Trump, who is demanding they meet in Istanbul this week to discuss ending Russia's war on Ukraine.\n\nTrump, for his part, projected confidence that the meeting will happen and even seemed somewhat optimistic that the end to the conflict is near. He floated the idea of making a detour from his itinerary to visit Turkey if he thinks his presence would be constructive.\n\n\"I was thinking about flying over. I don't know where I am going be on Thursday,\" Trump said. \"I've got so many meetings. \u2026 There's a possibility there, I guess, if I think things can happen.\"\n\nBut Ukraine's allies remained deeply skeptical Monday about prospects for talks and whether Putin was serious about peace.\n\n\"If there is no ceasefire, there cannot be talks under fire,\" European Union commission vice president Kaja Kallas told reporters at a meeting on Ukraine in London. \"We want to see that Russia also wants peace. It takes two to want peace, it takes only one to want war, and we see that Russia clearly wants war.\"\n\n## Trump sees opening in Gaza\n\nJust as Trump was preparing to depart Washington for the Saudi capital of Riyadh, the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, was released.\n\nTrump and administration officials framed the moment \u2014 a goodwill gesture toward Trump by Hamas \u2014 as a chance to get foundering peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas back on track.\n\n\"This was a step taken in good faith towards the United States and the efforts of the mediators \u2014 Qatar and Egypt \u2014 to put an end to this very brutal war and return ALL living hostages and remains to their loved one,\" Trump posted on social media after Hamas extended the offer Sunday. \"Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict.\"\n\nWhile Trump pumped up Alexander's release as a potential turning point, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was far more subdued. Israel, notably, has not stepped back from plans to expand its war in Gaza.\n\nNetanyahu's office, in a statement Monday, underscored it had \"not committed to a ceasefire of any kind or the release of terrorists\" in exchange for Alexander.\n\n\"The negotiations will continue under fire, during preparations for an intensification of the fighting,\" the prime minister's office statement said.\n\n## Trump takes a different tone on Syria\n\nAs he prepared to leave Washington, Trump also said he's weighing removing sanctions on the Syrian government. It's an issue that's top of mind for the three Gulf leaders, who have rallied behind the new government in Damascus and will want Trump to follow through.\n\n\"We may want to take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start,\" said Trump, adding that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has urged him to do so.\n\nThe comments marked a striking change in tone from Trump, who has been deeply skeptical of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa.\n\nAl-Sharaa took power after his Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), led an offensive that toppled former President Bashar Assad in December.\n\nThe Trump administration has yet to formally recognize the new Syrian government. Sanctions imposed on Damascus under Assad also remain in place.\n\n## Cajoling India and Pakistan with trade\n\nTrump also took credit for his administration keeping India and Pakistan from returning to a state of all-out war amid the deadliest fighting in six years between the nuclear-armed neighbors.\n\nThe president said he and aides were ultimately able to talk sense to India and Pakistan's leadership and guide them away from further escalation by dangling carrots, while also threatening both nations with sticks.\n\n\"I said, 'Come on, we're going to do a lot of trade with you guys,'\" Trump said. \"'If you stop it, we'll do trade. If you don't stop it, we're not going to do any trade.' People never use trade the way I used it.\"\n\nThe situation remains tenuous. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday that his country has only \"paused\" its military action and will \"retaliate on its own terms\" if there is any future terror attack on the country.\n\n## Big differences remain in Iran nuclear talks\n\nThe president will arrive in the region after his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, held the fourth round of nuclear talks Sunday in Oman with Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.\n\nAs the talks continue, the Trump administration has sent mixed messages about what nuclear work Iran would be allowed to do under a potential deal.\n\nSenior administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, have said that Tehran would be required to import enriched material to run nuclear reactors for civilian purposes. Trump, however, said last week that his administration hasn't made a decision on the issue.\n\nIt's also unclear if Trump will insist that Tehran give up support of Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi militants in Yemen as part of any nuclear deal.\n\nWhatever his negotiating frame may be, Trump seemed confident that Iran is engaging rationally, and that he will cement a deal soon.\n\n\"You can't have a nuclear weapon,\" Trump said of his demand for Iran. \"But I think that they are talking intelligently.\"\n\nHowever, the two sides still appear a long way from any deal, even as time passes on a two-month deadline imposed by Trump."}]}