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Seal escapes orca hunt by jumping onto photographer’s boat
Technology

Seal escapes orca hunt by jumping onto photographer’s boat

By CEDAR ATTANASIO SEATTLE (AP) — A wildlife photographer out on a whale watching trip in waters off Seattle captured dramatic video and photos of a pod of killer whales hunting a seal that survived only by clambering onto the stern of her boat. Charvet Drucker was on a rented 20-foot boat near her home on an island in the Salish Sea about 40 miles northwest of Seattle when she spotted a pod of at least eight killer whales, also known as orcas. The orcas’ coordinated movements and tail slaps suggested they were hunting. Drucker used the zoom lens on her camera to spot a harbor seal that was trying to flee from the pod. One of her shots showed the seal flying through the air above the scrum of orcas frothing the water, and she assumed she was witnessing the seal’s last moments alive. But as the orcas got closer to the boat, Drucker and her group realized the pod was still chasing the seal. In line with wildlife boating regulations, they had cut the engine to prevent any injury to the whales. The seal clambered out of the water and onto a swimming platform at the stern of the boat near the motor — claiming it as a life raft of sorts. Wildlife regulations also prohibit touching or interfering with the seal, but Drucker began filming video. “You poor thing,” Drucker can be heard saying, as the seal looks up at her. “You’re good, just stay, buddy.” The orcas did not give up immediately, but instead appeared to team up to rock the boat and make the seal fall off. Drucker’s cellphone video shows the orcas lining up and moving in on the boat with staggered dives to create waves. The “wave-washing” technique has been documented since by scientists since at least the 1980s, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The seal on Drucker’s boat slid off at least once, but managed to climb back on, and the orcas swam away after about 15 minutes. Drucker has photographed dead seals in the mouths of orcas before, and she says she’s generally happy when the whales get to eat. “I’m definitely Team Orca, all day, every day. But once that seal was on the boat, I kind of turned (into) Team Seal,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. The killer whales that hunt seals and a diverse set of marine animals in the area are known as Bigg’s or “transient” orcas. They are better fed then other more specialized species like the salmon-focused “resident” orcas who are on the endangered species list, according to NOAA.

US aircraft carrier heads toward Venezuela, raising alarms over potential conflict
Politics

US aircraft carrier heads toward Venezuela, raising alarms over potential conflict

The most advanced US aircraft carrier is expected to reach the waters off Venezuela in days, a flex of American military power not seen in Latin America for generations.Experts disagree on the possibility that American warplanes will catapult off the USS Gerald R Ford to bomb targets inside Venezuela and further pressure authoritarian President Nicols Maduro to step down. Still, whether it may serve that purpose or only patrols the Caribbean as the US blows up boats it accuses of trafficking drugs, the presence of the 100,000-ton warship alone is sending a message.“This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”The Ford’s impending arrival is a major moment in the Trump administration’s campaign in South America, which it describes as a counterdrug operation. It escalates the already massive buildup of military firepower in the region, with added pressure from bomber training runs near the Venezuelan coast, CIA operations that have been publicly authorized inside the country and boat strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that have killed over 75 people..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}The US has long used aircraft carriers as tools of deterrence to pressure and influence other nations, often without employing any force at all. They carry thousands of sailors and dozens of warplanes that can strike targets deep inside another country.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday formally named the mission Operation Southern Spear, emphasizing the growing significance and permanence of the military’s presence in the region. Once the Ford arrives, the mission will encompass nearly a dozen Navy ships as well 12,000 sailors and Marines.TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SAYS IT'S FOCUSED ON FIGHTING DRUG TRAFFICKING Secretary of State Marco Rubio insists that President Donald Trump is focused on stopping drugs from entering the US by combatting “organized criminal narcoterrorists.”“That’s what he’s authorized. That’s what the military’s doing. That’s why our assets are there,” he told reporters Wednesday after meeting his counterparts from the Group of Seven democracies in Canada.But Rubio also says the US doesn’t recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as the leader of Venezuela and called the government a “transshipment organization” that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs toward the US.Some experts say deploying the Ford appears to be geared more toward a government change in Venezuela than drug trafficking.“There’s nothing that an aircraft carrier brings that is useful for combating the drug trade,” Dickinson said. “I think it’s clearly a message that is much more geared toward pressuring Caracas.”Bryan Clark, a former Navy submariner and defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, said the Trump administration would not have deployed the Ford “if they didn’t intend to use it.”“I think this administration is very open to using military force to accomplish particular objectives,” Clark said. “I think they’re going to want to actually do some military operations unless Maduro steps down in the next month or so.”After Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed lawmakers last week, Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said they gave no indication that the strikes would be stopping but also indicated that they were targeting cocaine traffickers and not overtly intending to overthrow Maduro.Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, expects US warships to launch missiles from other ships before launching any American warplanes. He said Venezuela has relatively sophisticated missile defense systems from Russia that could put American pilots at risk.“Because they have so many systems, some are relatively new, and all are mobile, we probably wouldn’t get them all,” Cancian said. “So there’s some risk that we could lose some aircraft.”VENEZUELA MOBILIZES FOR POSSIBLE ATTACK Venezuela’s government this week touted a “massive” mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible US attacks. Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López said in a statement that “land, air, naval, riverine, and missile assets” would be part of a two-day readiness effort “to confront imperialist threats.”State television showed members of the military, police and militias standing in formations across the country. Padrino also delivered remarks, broadcast on state television, standing by a surface-to-air missile system in a military base in the capital, Caracas.Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US, has insisted the Trump administration’s intentions are to force him from power. Venezuela’s US-backed political opposition has renewed its promise of an imminent government change.David Smilde, a Tulane University professor who has studied Venezuela for more than 30 years, said the US military does not have enough manpower in the region, even with the aircraft carrier, for an invasion.“It’s consistent with this desire to demonstrate credible force, which they had already,” Smilde said of the carrier. “It doesn’t change the equation. I don’t think that the fact that it is there means that they necessarily have to strike. It just means that Trump and Hegseth have not forgotten about this, and they are still onboard in trying to generate a regime change through a show of force.”Smilde said Venezuela’s political opposition has long told US officials that “just a credible threat of force” would cause Maduro’s government to crumble. For Trump, he said, that would be the best outcome of this operation.PUSHBACK ON INTELLIGENCE The US actions have faced pushback in the region, in Congress and among rights organizations. However, Senate Republicans voted last week to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela.Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who was recently hit with US sanctions over allegations of aiding the drug trade, on Tuesday announced he was cutting off intelligence sharing with the longtime North American ally until the strikes stop. But he softened his stance the following day, saying the sharing would continue as long as agencies guarantee it won’t be used in actions that jeopardize human rights.Rubio pushed back on reports that the United Kingdom has halted some intelligence sharing in the region over concerns about the strikes, saying US assets in the region provide such information.The US is not “asking anyone to help us with what we’re doing — in any realm. And that includes the military,” he said.Mexico, however, is stepping up its cooperation with the US in targeting drug trafficking. President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that her administration made an agreement with the US for Mexico’s navy to intercept boats in international waters near Mexico that the US alleges are carrying drugs to avoid any more strikes off its coast.'A USE-IT-OR-LOSE-IT KIND OF SITUATION' The Ford, originally deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, was within the US Southern Command region but not yet in the Caribbean. The carrier was in the mid-Atlantic on Thursday, a defense official who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter said on condition of anonymity.Clark said sending the Ford to South America would have a minimal impact on costs and readiness in the short term because it still has a month or two left on its regularly scheduled deployment.Cancian, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the US can’t afford to have the Ford “dawdling around the Caribbean” for long. It’s such a powerful military asset that it may be needed elsewhere, such as the Middle East.“It’s a use-it-or-lose-it kind of situation,” he said.- EndsPublished By: Nitish SinghPublished On: Nov 14, 2025Must Watch

Fetterman hospitalized after falling on his morning walk
Politics

Fetterman hospitalized after falling on his morning walk

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — U.S. Sen. John Fetterman had what his office says was a “ventricular fibrillation flare-up” that caused him to feel light-headed and fall during an early morning walk Thursday. Fetterman was doing well and hospitalized in Pittsburgh, his office said. He sustained minor injuries to his face and was under “routine observation” at the hospital while doctors fine-tune his medication regimen, his office said. The office’s statement quoted the senator as saying, “If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!’” Fetterman, 55, suffered a stroke in 2022, during his campaign for the Senate. Afterward, he had a pacemaker with a defibrillator implanted to manage a heart condition that can cause clotting and resultant strokes. The lingering effects of his stroke include diminished auditory processing speed, which makes it hard to speak fluidly and quickly process spoken conversation into meaning. Weeks after joining the Senate in 2023, Fetterman checked himself into the hospital for six weeks of treatment for clinical depression. Post-stroke depression is common and treatable through medication and talk therapy, doctors say. Fetterman was one of eight Democratic senators who voted this week to allow the Senate to move forward on compromise legislation to reopen the government.

California revokes 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants
Sports

California revokes 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants

By JOSH FUNK California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after the Trump administration raised concerns about people in the country illegally improperly receiving licenses to drive a semitruck or a bus. But Gov. Gavin Newsom said that isn’t the reason. Newsom said the revocations are for violations of state law, but he didn’t provide specifics. Both the Democratic governor’s office and the Republican Trump Administration’s Transportation Department agreed that these licenses violated the existing standard that were in place before Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently tightened the rules following a nationwide commercial driver’s license audit launched after a driver in the country illegally made a U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people. Fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year also highlight questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash involving an illegal immigrant truck driver last month that killed three more people only added to the concerns. California state transportation officials didn’t immediately respond to questions seeking more details about why these licenses are being revoked. Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state had acted improperly even though the state had previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses the state had issued after Duffy raised concerns. Duffy previously imposed new restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for one of these commercial driver’s licenses. He said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy has taken action against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The reviews in the other states have been delayed by the government shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten up their standards. Duffy revoked $40 million in federal funding because he said California isn’t enforcing English language requirements for truckers, and he reiterated Wednesday that he will take another $160 million from the state over these improperly issued licenses if they don’t invalidate every illegal license and address all the concerns. But revoking these licenses is part of the state’s effort to comply. "After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said. ”This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.” Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose licenses are being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. “Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Newsom’s spokesman Brandon Richards said. The new rules for commercial driver’s licenses that Duffy announced in September make getting commercial driver’s licenses extremely hard for immigrants because only three specific classes of visa holders will be eligible. States will also have to verify an applicant’s immigration status in a federal database. These licenses will be valid for up to one year unless the applicant’s visa expires sooner than that. Under the new rules, only 10,000 of the 200,000 noncitizens who have commercial licenses would qualify for them, which would only be available to drivers who have an H-2a, H-2b or E-2 visa. H-2a is for temporary agricultural workers while H-2B is for temporary nonagricultural workers, and E-2 is for people who make substantial investments in a U.S. business. But the rules won’t be enforced retroactively, so those 190,000 drivers will be allowed to keep their commercial licenses at least until they come up for renewal. Those new requirements were not in place at the time these 17,000 licenses were issued. But these drivers were given notices that their licenses will expire in 60 days. Duffy said in September that investigators found that one quarter of the 145 licenses they reviewed in California shouldn’t have been issued. He cited four California licenses that remained valid after the driver’s work permit expired — sometimes years after. Newsom’s office said the state followed guidance it received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about issuing these licenses to noncitizens. Associated Press writer Sophie Austin contributed to this report from Sacramento, California.

US bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals
Health

US bishops officially ban gender-affirming care at Catholic hospitals

By TIFFANY STANLEY U.S. Catholic bishops voted Wednesday to make official a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender patients at Catholic hospitals. The step formalizes a yearslong process for the U.S. church to address transgender health care. From a Baltimore hotel ballroom, the bishops overwhelmingly approved revisions to their ethical and religious directives that guide the nation’s thousands of Catholic health care institutions and providers. More than one in seven patients in the U.S. are treated each day at Catholic hospitals, according to the Catholic Health Association. Catholic hospitals are the only medical center in some communities. Major medical groups and health organizations support gender-affirming care for transgender patients. Most Catholic health care institutions have taken a conservative approach and not offered gender-affirming care, which may involve hormonal, psychological and surgical treatments. The new directives will formalize that mandate. Bishops will have autonomy in making the directives into law for their dioceses. “With regard to the gender ideology, I think it’s very important the church makes a strong statement here,” said Bishop Robert Barron of Minnesota’s Winona-Rochester diocese during the public discussion of the revised directives. The Catholic Health Association thanked the bishops for incorporating much of the organization’s feedback into the directives. It said in a statement, “Catholic providers will continue to welcome those who seek medical care from us and identify as transgender. We will continue to treat these individuals with dignity and respect, which is consistent with Catholic social teaching and our moral obligation to serve everyone, particularly those who are marginalized.” The new guidelines incorporate earlier documents on gender identity from the Vatican in 2024 and the U.S. bishops in 2023. In the 2023 doctrinal note, titled “Moral Limits to the Technological Manipulation of the Human Body,” the bishops specified: “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex, or take part in the development of such procedures.” Progressive religious voices respond The Catholic Church is not monolithic when it comes to transgender rights. Some parishes and priests welcome trans Catholics into the fold, while others are not as accepting. “Catholic teaching upholds the invaluable dignity of every human life, and for many trans people, gender-affirming care is what makes life livable,” said Michael Sennett, a trans man who is active in his Massachusetts parish. Sennett serves on the board of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church. In 2024, the group arranged a meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the need for gender-affirming care. New Ways Ministry’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, said that for many transgender Catholics he knows, “the transition process was not just a biological necessity, but a spiritual imperative. That if they were going to be living as authentic people in the way that they believe God made them, then transition becomes a necessary thing.” On the same day that U.S. Catholic bishops were discussing gender identity, the heads of several major progressive religious denominations issued a statement in support of transgender, intersex and nonbinary people, at a time when many state legislatures and the Trump administration are curtailing their rights. The 10 signers included the heads of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “During a time when our country is placing their lives under increasingly serious threat, there is a disgraceful misconception that all people of faith do not affirm the full spectrum of gender – a great many of us do. Let it be known instead that our beloveds are created in the image of God – Holy and whole,” the religious leaders said in a statement. U.S. bishops united in their concern for immigrants The Catholic bishops, wrapping up their conference in Baltimore, overwhelmingly approved a “special message” on immigration Wednesday. Such pastoral statements are rare; the last was in 2013 in response to the Obama administration’s mandate for insurers to provide contraception coverage. Catholic leaders individually have criticized the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. Fear of immigration enforcement has suppressed Mass attendance at some parishes. Local clerics are fighting to administer sacraments to detained immigrants. “We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement,” the bishops’ statement reads. “We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.” In a show of unity, multiple bishops stood up to speak in favor of the statement during the final afternoon discussion, including Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, the newly elected president of the conference. “I’m strongly in support of it for the good of our immigrant brothers and sisters, but also to find a nice balance,” Coakley said, noting that they call “upon our lawmakers and our administration to offer us a meaningful path of reform of our immigration system.” Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich walked to the microphone to recommend stronger language around mass deportation. “That seems to be the central issue we are facing with our people at this time,” he said. His brother bishops agreed. The updated text now states that U.S. Catholic bishops “oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people.” Associated 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.

Transgender members of the Air Force sue over losing retirement pay
Politics

Transgender members of the Air Force sue over losing retirement pay

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of 17 transgender members of the Air Force are suing the U.S. government over what they say is the military’s unlawful revocation of their early retirement pensions and benefits. The lawsuit, filed in federal court Monday, comes several months after the Air Force confirmed that it would deny all transgender service members who have served between 15 and 18 years the option to retire early and would instead separate them without retirement benefits. It is just the latest in a series of legal challenges to the Trump administration’s policies that have sought to push transgender troops out of the military since the early days of his second term. The U.S. Supreme Court in May, however, allowed the ban on trans troops to be enforced while legal challenges proceed. According to GLAD Law, one of the advocacy groups that helped bring the lawsuit, service members affected by the policy will now face a loss of up to $2 million owed for their service over the course of their lifetimes in addition to the loss of health insurance benefits. Michael Haley, a staff attorney with the group, said the revocation of the early retirement benefits was part of “the general cruelty in attacking transgender people.” He noted that many of the plaintiffs had received orders allowing their retirements and that some had even begun the process of getting out of the military. Logan Ireland, a master sergeant in the Air Force with 15 years of service that includes a deployment to Afghanistan, joined the lawsuit after having his early retirement denied. He told The Associated Press that “the military taught me to lead and fight, not retreat.” “Stripping away my retirement sends the message that those values only apply on the battlefield, not when a service member needs them most,” he added. “These are folks who are going to move on with their lives, have received the OK to do so, and then have that taken away from them once again,” Haley said. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to comment but has a longstanding policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in what they say is an effort to make the military more lethal. Pentagon officials say 4,240 troops have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, which the military is using as an identifier of being transgender. The Air Force has been unique in implementing policies that have gone beyond just separating troops from military service. In addition to revoking retirement benefits, the service moved in August to deny transgender members of the Air Force the chance to argue before a board of their peers for the right to continue serving. The Pentagon rolled out a similar, military-wide version of that policy less than two weeks ago.

Judge signals hundreds of people detained in Chicago immigration crackdown could be released on bond
World

Judge signals hundreds of people detained in Chicago immigration crackdown could be released on bond

By SOPHIA TAREEN CHICAGO (AP) — Hundreds of people who have been arrested and detained in the Chicago area during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown could soon be released on bond while they await immigration hearings, a federal judge signaled Wednesday. During a hearing in Chicago, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Cummings said he would order the full release of 13 detained individuals based on a 2022 consent decree outlining how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement can make so-called warrantless arrests. He also gave government attorneys a Friday deadline to comb through a list of 615 people detained at county jails and federal facilities nationwide to see if they qualify for alternatives to detention under the decree, such as using an ankle monitor, while their immigration cases proceed. The judge said he’d issue an order for their release next week, and in the meantime would temporarily pause any deportation proceedings for people who might qualify for bond under the decree. Attorneys for the detainees hailed Cummings’ move as a win and said they plan to bring more cases. “All of the tactics of ICE have been unlawful in the vast majority of arrests,” said Mark Fleming, a lawyer with the Chicago-based National Immigrant Justice Center. Attorneys said they were racing against the clock, as many of the more than 3,300 people suspected of immigration violations who have been arrested in Chicago and its suburbs since “Operation Midway Blitz” began in September have already been deported or left of their own accord. “We’re concerned they have no access to counsel and no understanding of what their situation is,” Fleming told the judge. Will Weiland, a Justice Department attorney, told Cummings that at least 12 people on the list of 615 were “high risk” and shouldn’t be released into communities. “Nothing has been easy with this case your honor,” he said. Cummings previously determined that ICE had violated the consent decree which, among other things, requires the agency to show documentation for each arrest it makes for people besides those being specifically targeted in an operation. During Wednesday’s hearing, Cummings listed instances since the crackdown started in which immigration agents have arrested people while they were at work, out walking or pulling through the drive-thru lane at a fast-food restaurant. “It also seems highly unlikely to me that any of these foreign nationals … fall into the category of what ICE has called the ‘worst of the worst,’” he said. The Trump administration has touted its federal intervention efforts as effective at fighting crime and applauded agents’ aggressive tactics that have been challenged in court. But leaders in Illinois say violent crime had already been trending downward in the Chicago area and that federal agents only inflamed tensions. While the consent decree covers arrests by ICE, it doesn’t include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has been behind the most controversial tactics used during the immigration operation, including the liberal use of chemical agents. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both agencies, hasn’t offered details about its arrests, only highlighting a handful of people living in the country without legal permission who also had criminal histories. DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin deemed Cummings an “activist judge,” a common Trump administration label for judges who’ve down struck parts of the Republican’s agenda. In a Wednesday statement, McLaughlin claimed that an order to release the detainees put “the lives of Americans directly at risk.” The consent decree, which expired earlier this year, was extended until February. Although its policy on ICE’s warrantless arrests applies nationwide, remedies for individual cases have been focused in six states covered by the ICE field office in Chicago, where the original lawsuit over immigration sweeps was filed. Those states are Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Wisconsin.

2 Federal Reserve officials oppose an interest rate cut in December
Politics

2 Federal Reserve officials oppose an interest rate cut in December

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Federal Reserve officials expressed opposition Wednesday to another interest rate cut at the central bank’s next meeting in December, further muddying the outlook for the Fed’s next steps. The remarks by Susan Collins, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and Raphael Bostic, president of the Atlanta Fed, suggest that the central bank’s rate-setting committee could be tilting against what had been an expected third straight cut next month. The officials cited several reasons for keeping rates unchanged, after a reduction in September and in October. They argued that inflation is stubbornly elevated and has been above the Fed’s 2% target for nearly five years, while the economy is resilient and doesn’t appear to need more rate cuts. The job market is stumbling, with hiring nearly at a standstill, but layoffs still seem muted, they said. Another factor has been the government shutdown, which has cut off the economic data the Fed relies on to discern the economy’s path. On Wednesday White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said that the jobs and inflation reports for October would likely never be released. “Formulating an economic outlook is challenging — and the limited data compounds the difficulty,” Collins said in a speech in Boston. “It will likely be appropriate to keep policy rates at the current level for some time … in this highly uncertain environment,” she added. That is a shift from her previous speech in October, when she expressed support for at least one more rate cut. Earlier Wednesday, Bostic said he remains concerned inflation is too high, and added that, “I … favor keeping the funds rate steady until we see clear evidence that inflation is again moving meaningfully toward its 2% target.” Bostic said earlier Wednesday that he will retire when his current term ends on Feb. 28, 2026. Their remarks come at an unusually challenging time for the Fed, with the economy facing both weak hiring and elevated inflation. Typically, the Fed would reduce its rate to encourage borrowing, spending and job gains, while it would keep it unchanged — or even raise it — to combat inflation. The 19 officials on the Fed’s rate-setting committee narrowly supported three rate cuts this year at their September meeting, but Chair Jerome Powell said at a news conference late last month that the committee remains divided and another cut in December was not a “foregone conclusion.” David Seif, chief economist for developed markets at Nomura Securities, expects the Fed will skip a rate cut in December and won’t reduce borrowing costs again until March. “There is a large segment of the Fed that is uncomfortable with a December cut,” Seif said. Collins also said that additional reductions to the Fed’s rate could, by boosting the economy, accelerate inflation. “Absent evidence of a notable labor market deterioration, I would be hesitant to ease policy further, especially given the limited information on inflation due to the government shutdown,” she said. Bostic, meanwhile, said the Atlanta Fed’s surveys of businesses show that many companies intend to raise prices next year, a sign that inflation may not cool anytime soon. “We cannot breezily assume inflationary pressures will quickly dissipate after a one-time bump in prices from new import duties,” Bostic said, referring to President Donald Trump’s tariffs. “Across all our information sources, I see little to no evidence that we should be sanguine about the forward trajectory of inflation.” Some Fed officials, such as Fed governor Stephen Miran, have argued that the tariffs will only temporarily lift prices and outside those one-time increases, inflation is cooling.

Vatican bank rehires couple fired for violating workplace marriage rule
Technology

Vatican bank rehires couple fired for violating workplace marriage rule

A married couple who had been fired from the Vatican bank for violating an internal rule barring workplace marriages has been rehired in a negotiated settlement, the union for Vatican lay employees announced Wednesday. Silvia Carlucci and Domenico Fabiani filed a wrongful termination lawsuit in January, some four months after they were married. The union called the settlement “a victory of common sense,” though it did not say when they would resume working, or what their roles would be. The couple, who came to the marriage with three children between them, said they never considered calling off their Aug. 31, 2024, nuptials after learning of the new regulation. The bank suggested one of them quit, but the couple said they could not afford to due to financial obligations to their children, former spouses and a new mortgage. The union said the victory was not complete, since Vatican procedures do not foresee the reimbursement of legal fees for the prevailing party. “The emblematic case of Silvia and Domenico suggests that the application of labor law needs more solid foundations,’’ the union said in a statement posted on its website. It noted that there were no social nets to support the couple during the period they were fighting for reinstatement, and underlined that the regulation that led to the couple’s dismissal would be deemed unconstitutional in Italy. The couple has not commented publicly on the settlement, but they told the Associated Press when they filed the lawsuit that they had hoped for an intervention by the late Pope Francis, who was pontiff at the time, given his emphasis on family values.

Winter Olympics resist push to add cyclocross, cross-country running
Sports

Winter Olympics resist push to add cyclocross, cross-country running

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Organizers of traditional snow and ice sports said Wednesday they do not want events from summer federations added to their Winter Olympics program. Cyclocross and cross-country running — even indoors sports — have been suggested as additions to the Winter Games for the 2030 Olympics hosted in the French Alps and Nice. Those would be unwelcome “piecemeal proposals,” the Winter Olympic Federations group of governing bodies said in a statement. “The Winter Olympic Federations are firm in our belief that such an approach would dilute the brand, heritage, and identity that make the Olympic Winter Games unique — a celebration of sports practiced on snow and ice, with distinct culture, athletes, and fields of play,” said the group of sports including skiing, skating, biathlon, curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton. A review of the Winter Games program and other issues was started by International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry after she formally took office in June. The winter program with just 116 medal events has room to expand compared with the squeezed Summer Games which had 329 in Paris last year. Adding cyclocross and cross-country running, which typically are raced on mud, would mean amending the IOC’s Olympic Charter rules which require Winter Games sports to be played on snow and ice. “Innovation should focus on evolving existing winter sports to attract broader participation and audiences while enhancing the appeal of the Olympic Winter Games,” said Ivo Ferriani, who represents winter sports on the IOC executive board as president of the bobsled and skeleton federation. Ferriani noted the addition of ski mountaineering, or skimo, which makes its Olympic debut in February at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

Cleto Escobedo III, Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader and childhood friend, dies at 59
Technology

Cleto Escobedo III, Jimmy Kimmel’s bandleader and childhood friend, dies at 59

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is mourning the death of one of his oldest friends — his show’s bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III. Kimmel announced Escobedo’s death Tuesday on Instagram, saying “that we are heartbroken is an understatement.” Escobedo was 59. View this post on Instagram Escobedo and Kimmel met as children in Las Vegas, where they grew up across the street from each other. “We just met one day on the street, and there were a few kids on the street, and him and I just became really close friends, and we kind of had the same sense of humor. We just became pals, and we’ve been pals ever since,” Escobedo said in a 2022 interview for Texas Tech University’s Southwest Collection oral history archive, disclosing that he and Kimmel were huge fans of David Letterman as kids. Escobedo would grow up to become a professional musician, specializing in the saxophone, and touring with Earth, Wind and Fire’s Phillip Bailey and Paula Abdul. He recorded with Marc Anthony, Tom Scott and Take Six. When Kimmel got his own ABC late-night talk show in 2003, he lobbied for Escobedo to lead the house band on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” “Of course I wanted great musicians, but I wanted somebody I had chemistry with,” Kimmel told WABC in 2015. “And there’s nobody in my life I have better chemistry with than him.” In 2016, on Escobedo’s 50th birthday, Kimmel dedicated a segment to his friend, recalling pranks with a BB gun or mooning people from the back of his mom’s car. “Cleto had a bicycle with a sidecar attached to it. We called it the side hack. I would get in the sidecar and then Cleto would drive me directly into garbage cans and bushes,” Kimmel recalled. News of Escobedo’s death comes after Thursday’s episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” was abruptly canceled. David Duchovny, Joe Keery and Madison Beer were set as the show’s guests. The date and cause of Escobedo’s death weren’t immediately known. Escobedo’s father is also a member of the Kimmel house band and plays tenor and alto saxophones. In January 2022, the father-son duo celebrated nearly two decades of performing on-screen together. “Jimmy asked me, ‘Who are we going to get in the band?’ I said, ‘Well, my normal guys,’ and he knew my guys because he had been coming to see us and stuff before he was famous, just to come support me and whatever. I’d invite him to gigs, and if he didn’t have anything to do he’d come check it out, so he knew my guys,” Escobedo recounted in the 2022 interview. “Then he just said, ‘Hey, man, what about your dad? Wouldn’t that be kind of cool?’ I was like, ‘That would be way cool.’” In the 2022 interview, Escobedo said the bandleader job had one major benefit: family time. “Touring and all that stuff is fun, but it’s more of a young man’s game. Touring, also, too, is not really conducive for family life. I’ve learned over the years, being on the road and watching how hard it is, leaving your kids for so long. Sometimes they’re babies; you come back and then they’re talking, it’s like, ‘What?’” he said. Escobedo’s survivors also include his wife Lori and their two children. “The fact that we got to work together every day is a dream neither of us could ever have imagined would come true. Cherish your friends and please keep Cleto’s wife, children and parents in your prayers,” Kimmel wrote.

Sally Kirkland, stage and screen star who earned an Oscar nomination in 'Anna,' dies at age 84
Entertainment

Sally Kirkland, stage and screen star who earned an Oscar nomination in 'Anna,' dies at age 84

NEW YORK — Sally Kirkland, a one-time model who became a regular on stage, film and TV, best known for sharing the screen with Paul Newman and Robert Redford in “The Sting” and her Oscar-nominated title role in the 1987 movie “Anna,” has died. She was 84.Her representative, Michael Greene, said Kirkland died Tuesday morning at a hospice in Palm Springs, California.Friends established a GoFundMe account this fall for her medical care. They said she had fractured four bones in her neck, right wrist and left hip. While recovering, she also developed infections, requiring hospitalization and rehab.“She was funny, feisty, vulnerable and self deprecating,” actor Jennifer Tilly, who co-starred with Kirkland in “Sallywood,” wrote on X. “She never wanted anyone to say she was gone. ‘Don’t say Sally died, say Sally passed on into the spirits.’ Safe passage beautiful lady.”Kirkland acted in such films as “The Way We Were” with Barbra Streisand, “Revenge” with Kevin Costner, “Cold Feet” with Keith Carradine and Tom Waits, Ron Howard's “EDtv,” Oliver Stone's “JFK,” “Heatwave” with Cicely Tyson, “High Stakes” with Kathy Bates, “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carrey and the 1991 TV movie “The Haunted,” about a family dealing with paranormal activity. She had a cameo in Mel Brooks' “Blazing Saddles.”Her biggest role was in 1987's “Anna” as a fading Czech movie star remaking her life in the United States and mentoring to a younger actor, Paulina Porizkova. Kirkland won a Golden Globe and earned an Oscar nomination along with Cher in “Moonstruck,” Glenn Close in “Fatal Attraction, Holly Hunter in “Broadcast News' and Meryl Streep in “Ironweed.”“Kirkland is one of those performers whose talent has been an open secret to her fellow actors but something of a mystery to the general public,” The Los Angeles Times critic wrote in her review. “There should be no confusion about her identity after this blazing comet of a performance.”Kirkland’s small-screen acting credits include stints on “Criminal Minds,” “Roseanne,” “Head Case” and she was a series regular on the TV shows “Valley of the Dolls” and “Charlie’s Angels.”Born in New York City, Kirkland’s mother was a fashion editor at Vogue and Life magazine who encouraged her daughter to start modeling at age 5. Kirkland graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and studied with Philip Burton, Richard Burton’s mentor, and Lee Strasberg, the master of the Method school of acting. An early breakout was appearing in Andy Warhol's “13 Most Beautiful Women” in 1964. She appeared naked as a kidnapped rape victim in Terrence McNally’s off-Broadway “Sweet Eros.”Some of her early roles were Shakespeare, including the lovesick Helena in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for New York Shakespeare Festival producer Joseph Papp and Miranda in an off-Broadway production of “The Tempest.”“I don’t think any actor can really call him or herself an actor unless he or she puts in time with Shakespeare,” she told the Los Angeles Times in 1991. “It shows up, it always shows up in the work, at some point, whether it’s just not being able to have breath control, or not being able to appreciate language as poetry and music, or not having the power that Shakespeare automatically instills you with when you take on one of his characters.”Kirkland was a member of several New Age groups, taught Insight Transformational Seminars and was a longtime member of the affiliated Church of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, whose followers believe in soul transcendence.She reached a career nadir while riding nude on a pig in the 1969 film “Futz,” which a Guardian reviewer dubbed the worst film he had ever seen. “It was about a man who fell in love with a pig, and even by the dismal standards of the era, it was dismal,” he wrote.Kirkland was also known for disrobing for so many other roles and social causes that Time magazine dubbed her “the latter-day Isadora Duncan of nudothespianism.”Kirkland volunteered for people with AIDS, cancer and heart disease, fed homeless people via the American Red Cross, participated in telethons for hospices and was an advocate for prisoners, especially young people.The actors union SAG-AFTRA called her “a fearless performer whose artistry and advocacy spanned more than six decades,” adding that as “a true mentor and champion for actors, her generosity and spirit will continue to inspire.”

'Mellon Blue' diamond sells for $25.6 million at Swiss auction
Business

'Mellon Blue' diamond sells for $25.6 million at Swiss auction

GENEVA — A blue diamond weighing nearly 10 carats has sold at auction in Switzerland for 20.5 million Swiss francs ($25.6 million) including fees.The pear-shaped 9.51-carat “Mellon Blue” — named for the late American arts patron Rachel “Bunny” Mellon — had been expected to fetch $20-$30 million at the Christie's auction on Tuesday.The house said the stone came in on the estimated range. The final price includes the “buyer's premium” and other fees.“Not the dazzling moment I expected,' said Tobias Kormind, managing director of online jeweler 77 Diamonds. He said the gem was “tipped as the season’s headline act” but was weighed down by a broader market mood.“Geopolitical tensions — from the war in Ukraine to Trump’s tariffs — and a weakened Chinese economy that kept many usual buyers away, left the room distinctly cautious,' he said in a statement.Auctioneer Rahul Kadakia, chairman of the global luxury group at Christie’s, hailed a “notable moment” for his team, “evidencing the elite appetite among collectors for extraordinary and storied gems.”It was a far cry from the peak sale for a blue diamond: Christie’s says its highest price for a vivid blue diamond was set in Geneva in 2016 when the 14.62-carat Oppenheimer Blue sold for more than $57 million.The Mellon Blue was previously sold in 2014, the year that Mellon died, for $32.6 million, which was one of the highest prices ever paid for a colored diamond at auction, Christie's says.For decades, the stone was part of Mellon's private collection.Max Fawcett, Christie’s global head of jewelry, said the Mellon Blue was unlike the vast majority of other modern gems that have had facets added and been modified to enhance the color.“When you have great shape and great color, you’re looking at the gem of gems,” he said Friday, noting the stone's grade of Fancy Vivid Blue and Internally Flawless by the Gemological Institute of America. “That's what this is.”The auction was the first installment of two days of jewelry auctions in Geneva. On Wednesday, rival Sotheby's is putting up the “Glowing Rose” pink diamond that's expected to draw bids of around $20 million.

No dumbbells needed: Body-weight workouts gain popularity
Health

No dumbbells needed: Body-weight workouts gain popularity

You won’t find dumbbells or weight machines in the gym Sean Keogh runs. At Calisthenics Club Houston, it’s all about training with body weight. "That’s all we do,” Keogh said - but that’s enough to keep new members coming through the doors, excited to learn moves like handstands and pullups. Keogh and his members have plenty of company. These days, content creators, independent gyms and megachains alike are promoting calisthenics, an age-old form of fitness that uses little or no equipment and instead relies on body weight for resistance. In July, President Donald Trump even reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test, intending that youth across the country will again practice old-school exercises like situps, pushups and pullups. It’s little surprise that these no-frills moves are making a comeback in our over-scheduled society, said Anatolia Vick-Kregel, director of the Lifetime Physical Activity Program at Rice University. "We don’t always have time to go to the gym,” she said. "This is what you can do at home or in your office.” Another reason might be economic, said Michael Stack, an exercise physiologist and president of the Physical Activity Alliance, a coalition of groups that promote physical activity. With no equipment required, calisthenics-based programs are affordable for exercisers and profitable for gyms that offer them. Plus, people may have gotten used to exercising with few accoutrements during the pandemic. "This trend has been building,” Stack said. "The pandemic definitely accelerated it.” There’s plenty of research to suggest that calisthenics can improve everything from muscle strength to aerobic conditioning, Vick-Kregel said. "Body weight is phenomenal,” she said. But there are limits to its effects, said John Raglin, a professor of kinesiology at the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington. "It can be effective,” Raglin said. "But I think the idea that it can or should replace the use of even simple equipment is wrong-headed.” Sometimes, Raglin said, using equipment can actually make exercises simpler or safer to perform. Many people, for example, do pushups with improper form. "If you’re not strong enough or you have joint issues or arthritis, then lying on a bench and using small hand weights can actually be safer and more practical,” he said. Beyond safety, people looking to significantly increase their strength or muscle size will likely see more dramatic results if they use weights, Raglin said. Doing so "utilizes more of your muscle and generates more force than you could otherwise,” he explained. Lifting weights also damages muscle tissue in a way that can be productive, as muscles grow larger through the body’s repair process. Over time, though, it may take larger amounts of weight to keep seeing gains. Progress plateaus as the body gets used to exercises it’s done before. It’s not impossible to grow muscle through calisthenics, Vick-Kregel said; it’s just harder to continuously level up exercises for sustained progress without increasing external weight. "After you’ve done a couple workouts of squatting with your body weight, your body’s going to need external load to get stronger or to build muscle tissue,” Stack agreed. In other words, if you’re after bulging biceps, you may need more than calisthenics to get there. But if you’re just looking to get moving and improve your health, your body is probably enough. Particularly for the roughly 75% of Americans who aren’t meeting federal physical activity guidelines - which call for at least 75 minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, plus two strength-training sessions - calisthenics are a great option, Stack said. "Body weight is the simplest apparatus you can use,” Stack said. "I would encourage anyone who’s not exercising to start exercising with just their body.” First, assess your current fitness and mobility, Vick-Kregel said. With the help of a mirror, workout buddy or trainer, see if you can do exercises like planks, pushups and squats with correct form. If not, look for modifications, such as doing pushups from your knees. Once you feel confident with the fundamentals, aim to perform calisthenics in 10- to 30-minute chunks, two to three times a week, she suggested. (For a little more structure, you can consult the The Five Basic Exercises Plan, or 5BX, a classic calisthenics program developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s.) Progressively increase the duration and intensity of your workouts as you get fitter. "Gradual progression is critical,” Vick-Kregel emphasized. As you get more experienced, though, calisthenics can be performed at high intensity. Keogh maintains that these exercises are not just for beginners. There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty of body-weight exercises over time, making them both highly challenging and effective, he said. For doubters, Keogh has a blunt message: "Try it.”

Zuckerberg, Chan shift bulk of philanthropy to science, focusing on AI and biology to curb disease
Technology

Zuckerberg, Chan shift bulk of philanthropy to science, focusing on AI and biology to curb disease

By BARBARA ORTUTAY REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — For the past decade, Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg have focused part of their philanthropy on a lofty goal — “to cure, prevent or manage all disease” — if not in their lifetime, then in their children’s. But during that time, they also funded underprivileged schools, immigration reform and efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion. Now, the billionaire couple is shifting the bulk of their philanthropic resources to Biohub, the pair’s science organization, and focusing on using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. The idea is to develop virtual, AI-based cell models to understand how they work in the human body, study inflammation and use AI to “harness the immune system” for disease detection, prevention and treatment. “I feel like the science work that we’ve done, the Biohub model in particular, has been the most impactful thing that we have done. So we want to really double down on that. Biohub is going to be the main focus of our philanthropy going forward,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday evening at an event at the Biohub Imaging Institute in Redwood City, California. Three other Biohub institutes — in New York, San Francisco and Chicago, focus on addressing different scientific challenges. Chan and Zuckerberg have pledged 99% of their lifetime wealth — from shares of Meta Platforms, where Zuckerberg is CEO — toward these efforts. Since 2016, when Biohub launched, they have donated $4 billion to basic science research, a figure that does not include operating expenses for running a large-scale computer cluster for life science research. The organization says it is now on track to double that amount over the next decade, with an operating budget of about $1 billion a year. Last week, singer Billie Eilish told an audience that included Chan and Zuckerberg that rich people should do more to address the world’s problems. “Love you all, but there’s a few people in here who have a lot more money than me,” she said, to a smattering of applause. “And if you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? And no hate, but give your money away, shorties.” The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the couple’s charitable organization, has been faced with criticism recently for curtailing its other philanthropic work. Earlier this year, it stopped funding grants related to diversity, equity and inclusion, immigration advocacy and other issues currently in the crosshairs of the Trump administration — though the focus has been shifting to science and away from social issues for years, the couple says, long before the 2024 election. “So we basically looked at the ecosystem of science funding and decided that the place that we can make the biggest impact was on tool development,” Zuckerberg said. “And specifically working on long-term projects, 10 to 15 years, where the output of them was taking on a biological challenge that would produce a tool that scientists everywhere could use to accelerate the pace of science.” The organization earlier this year scrubbed its website’s mentions of DEI, including a statement saying “People of color and marginalized communities have experienced a long history of exploitation in the name of scientific research, and indeed science has itself been deployed as a tool of oppression.” “Going forward, Biohub will be our primary philanthropic effort and where we’ll dedicate the vast majority of our resources,” Zuckerberg and Chan said in a blog post Thursday. “We will continue our other philanthropic efforts as well, but the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative will serve as infrastructure and support for our initiatives.” Zuckerberg and Chan’s increased commitment to science research comes as the Trump administration has cut billions in scientific research and public health funding. Chan, who had worked as a pediatrician and treated children with rare diseases, says what she wanted “more than anything was a way to see what was happening inside their cells — how genetic mutations were expressed in different cell types and what, exactly, was breaking down.” “Until now, that kind of understanding has been out of reach. AI is changing that. For the first time, we have the potential to model and predict the biology of disease in ways that can reveal what’s gone wrong and how we can develop new treatments to address it,” she said. On Thursday, Chan and Zuckerberg also announced that Biohub has hired the team at EvolutionaryScale, an AI research lab that has created large-scale AI systems for the life sciences. Alex Rives, EvolutionaryScale’s co-founder, will serve as Biohub’s head of science, leading research efforts on experimental biology, data and artificial intelligence. The financial terms were not disclosed. Biohub’s ambition for the next years and decades is to create virtual cell systems that would not have been possible without recent advances in AI. Similar to how large language models learn from vast databases of digital books, online writings and other media, its researchers and scientists are working toward building virtual systems that serve as digital representations of human physiology on all levels, such as molecular, cellular or genome. As it is open source — free and publicly available — scientists can then conduct virtual experiments on a scale not possible in physical laboratories. Noting that Biohub launched when the couple had their first child, Chan listed off some of the organization’s accomplishments, ranging from building the largest single-cell data set, contributing to one of the largest human cell maps, building sensors to measure inflammation in real-time in living cells and researching rare diseases. That work continues, with a focus on using AI to advance biomedical research. “And to anchor it back onto the impact on patients, you know, why do this?” Chan said. “It’s like, why is a virtual cell important? We have cured diseases for mice and for flies and for zebrafish, many, many times. And that’s great. But we want to make sure that we are actually using biology to push the forefront of medicine for people — and that is so promising.”

South Korean power plant collapse leaves 1 dead, 6 trapped under rubble
Technology

South Korean power plant collapse leaves 1 dead, 6 trapped under rubble

A 60-meter (196-foot) tower collapsed during demolition work at a decommissioned thermal power plant in the South Korean city of Ulsan, killing at least one person and leaving six others trapped under the rubble, officials said Friday. Rescuers located one of the trapped people, who is feared dead, but have been unable to remove the person from the rubble. Two others were pulled to safety shortly after responding to the collapse on Thursday afternoon. Another worker, who was rescued later, was pronounced dead at a hospital early Friday, said Kim Jeong-shik, an official with Ulsan’s fire department. Kim said the search for the remaining people was suspended Friday morning due to concerns over unstable rubble and will resume after stabilization work. “We have deployed rescue dogs and they’re conducting searches now. We also have a lot of detection equipment on site, including thermal cameras and endoscopes,” Kim said in a briefing. Officials said earlier that the first two people rescued escaped life-threatening injuries. More than 340 rescue workers and around 90 vehicles and equipment had been deployed to the site for search and rescue efforts. Following the collapse, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung instructed officials to mobilize all available personnel and equipment for the rescue effort while ensuring the safety of rescue workers operating in the rubble. The plant was decommissioned in 2021 after 40 years of operation. Officials said the boiler tower — one of three at the site — had been weakened as it was being prepared for demolition.

Utah university where Charlie Kirk was killed is expanding its police force
Technology

Utah university where Charlie Kirk was killed is expanding its police force

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM, Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Utah university where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated is expanding its police force and adding security managers after the school received harsh criticism for its lack of key safety measures on the day of the shooting. Utah Valley University is in the process of hiring eight additional campus police officers and two new safety managers who will help coordinate security for future events on campus, spokesperson Ellen Treanor said Wednesday. Kirk was fatally shot from a campus rooftop on Sept. 10 while debating students in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by several tall buildings. An Associated Press review found that the Orem campus did not implement several public safety practices that have become standard safeguards for security at events around the country. Police staffing also fell far below recommended margins for a school of its size. Campus police did not fly a drone to monitor rooftops or coordinate with local law enforcement to secure the event attended by about 3,000 people. There were no bag checks or metal detectors, and several students who bought tickets told the AP they were never checked. Chief Jeffrey Long said just after the shooting that only six officers had staffed the event. Kirk also had an eight-person private security detail present. The university has 23 police officers, or one for every 1,400 on-campus students, according to a 2024 university report. Its planned expansion to just over 30 officers still falls short of police staffing at other large public schools nationwide. The average public university in the U.S. has around one officer for every 500 students — the ratio recommended by campus safety advocates — according to a 2024 Department of Justice study. To meet that threshold, Utah Valley would need at least 64 officers for its on-campus student body of about 32,000. The school has a policing budget of $2.1 million for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1, down slightly from its $2.2 million operating budget at the time of the shooting, according to public records obtained by the AP. Treanor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how the university was funding the planned additions to its police force. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been charged with aggravated murder and is awaiting trial.

Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden won’t seek reelection in competitive US House district
Technology

Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden won’t seek reelection in competitive US House district

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, who represents one of the most competitive U.S. House districts in the country, said Wednesday he will not seek reelection. Golden was first elected to Congress in 2018 and has carved out a space as a Democrat who is willing to work with President Donald Trump’s administration. He announced his decision not to seek a new term in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the Bangor Daily News in his home state. Golden wrote that he has “grown tired of the increasing incivility and plain nastiness that are now common from some elements of our American community.” He also said he was motivated to step down by the number of incidents of political violence in the country, including those against Trump and Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Golden, a Marine veteran, said he has also received threats against himself and his family. “These have made me reconsider the experiences of my own family, including all of us sitting in a hotel room on Thanksgiving last year after yet another threat against our home. There have been enough of those over the years to demand my attention,” Golden wrote. Democratic House leader Hakeem Jeffries said Golden “is a good man, a patriot” and will be missed. He predicted Democrats would hold the seat and win the House majority. Golden’s decision to step down sets up a possible matchup between old political rivals in the state to fill one of the most watched House districts in the country. The leading Republican candidate is former Gov. Paul LePage, who led the state from 2011 to 2019. Former Democratic Secretary of State Matt Dunlap launched a primary challenge against Golden last month and is poised to become the leading Democrat. LePage and Dunlap served at the same time and sparred occasionally over issues such as election integrity and the wording of ballot questions. LePage said in a statement that the race “has always been about fighting for rural Maine.” Brent Littlefield, a spokesperson for LePage, attributed Golden’s departure to weak numbers in recent opinion polls. “I am running for Congress to make sure that working Maine families have a voice in Washington, D.C. This fight is just beginning,” LePage said. Dunlap thanked Golden for his service in a statement. “In the days and months ahead, I intend to vigorously campaign for Congress in Maine’s second congressional district – and I intend to win,” Dunlap said. Golden was first elected to Congress using the state’s ranked choice voting system. He was reelected by wider margins in 2020 and 2022, but had to beat back a tough challenge from Republican Austin Theriault in 2024. Golden edged Theriault after a ranked recount. Golden represents the 2nd Congressional District, which is largely rural and geographically much larger than the 1st Congressional District, which is based around Portland. Golden’s district is also politically mixed, and Trump has won support there in three consecutive presidential elections. Golden has prioritized bipartisanship and the protection of traditional industries such as lobster fishing during his time in Congress. He also voted against one of the articles of impeachment against Trump in 2019 in a move that bucked party orthodoxy.

IRS Direct File won’t be available next year. Here’s what that means for taxpayers
Technology

IRS Direct File won’t be available next year. Here’s what that means for taxpayers

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — IRS Direct File, the electronic system for filing tax returns for free, will not be offered next year, the Trump administration has confirmed. An email sent Monday from IRS official Cynthia Noe to state comptrollers that participate in the Direct File program said that “IRS Direct File will not be available in Filing Season 2026. No launch date has been set for the future.” The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing easy, fast and economical. However, it faced criticism from Republican lawmakers, who called it a waste of taxpayer money because free filing programs already exist (though they are difficult to use), and from commercial tax preparation companies, which have made billions from charging people to use their software. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who is also the current IRS commissioner, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that there are “better alternatives” to Direct File. “It wasn’t used very much,” he said. “And we think that the private sector can do a better job.” The Center for Taxpayer Rights filed a Freedom of Information Act request for IRS’ latest evaluation of the program and the report says 296,531 taxpayers submitted accepted returns for the 2025 tax season through Direct File. That’s up from the 140,803 submitted accepted returns in 2024. Direct File was rolled out as a pilot program in 2024 after the IRS was tasked with looking into how to create a “direct file” system as part of the money it received from the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law by Biden in 2022. The Democratic administration spent tens of millions of dollars developing the program. Last May, the agency under Biden announced that the program would be made permanent. But the IRS has faced intense blowback to Direct File from private tax preparation companies that have spent millions lobbying Congress. The average American typically spends about $140 preparing returns each year. The program had been in limbo since the start of the Trump administration as Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency slashed their way through the federal government. But The Associated Press reported in April that the administration planned to eliminate the program, with its future becoming clear after the IRS staff assigned to it were told to stop working on its development for the 2026 tax filing season. As of Wednesday, the Direct File website states that “Direct File is closed. More information will be available at a later date.” The Washington Post and NextGov first reported on the email to state comptrollers confirming the program would not be offered next year. Adam Ruben, a vice president at the liberal-leaning Economic Security Project, said “it’s not surprising” that the program was eliminated. “Trump’s billionaire friends get favors while honest, hardworking Americans will pay more to file their taxes,” he said.

What to watch on Election Day 2025: Trump’s strength, Democrats’ message and the shutdown effect
Technology

What to watch on Election Day 2025: Trump’s strength, Democrats’ message and the shutdown effect

By STEVE PEOPLES and WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Tuesday marks the nation’s first major Election Day since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, and his leadership and policies dominated the debate in almost every race — even though the Republican was absent from the campaign trail. The biggest contests are in Virginia and New Jersey, the only states electing governors this year. Trump lost both last fall, but voters in each have a history of electing Republicans for statewide office. The GOP candidates have closely aligned themselves with the president, betting that his big win last year can still provide a path to victory this time, even if the party occupying the White House typically suffers in off-year elections. Strong Democratic showings, meanwhile, could provide the party a pathway back to national relevance — even if its top candidates have taken very different approaches, from adhering to a moderate line to wholeheartedly embracing government spending to improve voters’ lives. In New York City, a self-described democratic socialist who already has been a target of Trump’s criticism could emerge as a national star if elected mayor. And California voters will decide whether to redraw the state’s House map, as Democrats look to counter a push by Trump to reshape the balance of congressional power. Here’s what to watch: A referendum on Trump The president did not set foot in either Virginia or New Jersey to campaign with Republican gubernatorial candidates Winsome Earle-Sears or Jack Ciattarelli, but both contests will likely be viewed as a referendum on Trump’s job so far. Over the last year, his tariffs rocked the global economy, his “big, beautiful” budget bill threatened rural hospitals and health insurance coverage for millions, he enacted massive cuts to the federal workforce and he sent the National Guard to multiple American cities. The president endorsed Ciattarelli in New Jersey’s governor’s race, but held only a pair of tele-town halls on his behalf, including one Monday night. Trump also did an Election Night eve tele-town hall for Virginia Republican candidates, but he did not mention Earle-Sears, speaking mostly in favor of the GOP candidate for attorney general. Earlier in the campaign, Trump gave Earle-Sears only a half-hearted endorsement, saying he supported the GOP candidate for governor though he did not use her name. Earle-Sears was nonetheless a fierce defender of Trump and his policies, just as Ciattarelli was in New Jersey. Despite Trump’s distance, a good night for Republicans would almost certainly be viewed as a political victory for Trump and his “Make America Great Again” policies. A bad night for the GOP would give Democrats a strong — though perhaps fleeting — start heading into midterms that are still a year away. A new Democratic playbook? Tuesday offers a test of two very different Democratic philosophies on display from candidates: toeing a moderate line or fully embracing far-left progressivism. But it also presents a scenario where both, or neither, could be successful — making drawing conclusions going forward more difficult. The party’s candidates for governor, New Jersey Rep. Mikie Sherrill and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, have focused largely on the economy, public safety and health care, distancing themselves from some of the Democratic Party’s far-left policies. A growing collection of Democratic leaders believe the moderate approach holds the key to the party’s revival after the GOP won the White House and both congressional chambers last year. Tuesday could be a key indicator of whether they’re right. Both Sherrill and Spanberger have downplayed their support for progressive priorities, including LGBTQ rights and resistance against Trump’s attack on American institutions. Spanberger rarely even mentions Trump’s name on the campaign trail. Both also have resumes that might appeal to the middle. Sherrill spent a decade as an active-duty helicopter pilot for the Navy before entering Congress, while Spanberger is a former CIA case officer who spent years abroad working undercover. They have played up their public safety backgrounds as a direct response to the GOP’s attack that Democrats are soft on crime. Above all, the Democrats have focused on rising costs such as groceries, energy and health care, which Trump has struggled to control. A new star for Democrats (and Republicans) in New York City That approach is far different from New York City’s mayoral race, where progressives are energized by Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old Muslim state legislator who identifies as a democratic socialist and backs radical changes to address economic inequality. His bold agenda and inspirational approach have attracted thousands of volunteers in New York and brought the likes of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to campaign on his behalf. It has also spooked some business leaders and voices in the Jewish community, who otherwise support Democrats but oppose some of Mamdani’s past statements about personal wealth accumulation and Israel. Mamdani has been locked in a caustic race against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani. Republican Curtis Sliwa is looking for a huge upset. And while many progressives are thrilled, some Republicans in Washington are also quietly rooting for a Mamdani victory. Republican campaign committees have already launched attack ads against more than a dozen vulnerable House Democrats in New York and New Jersey linking them to Mamdani and his far-left politics. Trump endorsed Cuomo, posting online Monday evening: “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!” That’s after Trump derided Mamdani nearly every day. GOP operatives are also giddy about the opportunity to use him to attack many more Democrats closer to next year’s midterm elections — just as they have done with progressive Democrats such as House “squad” members like Ocasio-Cortez and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar. The shutdown effect Election Day comes in the midst of a federal government shutdown that has already spanned more than a month. Both parties in Congress blame each other, and there is no end in sight. Will it matter? Virginia is home to more than 134,000 federal workers, many of whom have been furloughed or are being forced to work without pay. New Jersey has nearly 21,000 federal employees, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, out of a total of more than 2 million such government employees nationwide. Either number is more than enough to swing a close election. At the same time, millions of people may be losing critical food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, offering voters another urgent reason to express their displeasure. Polling shows that Republicans, who control Congress and the White House, are getting slightly more blame than Democrats — though there is plenty of frustration aimed at both sides. Trump has taken the extraordinary step of calling on the Senate to scrap filibuster rules requiring a 60-vote minimum on major legislation to try and force the government to reopen — even though his party’s leadership considers that a nonstarter. A test for the Trump realignment While Trump lost Virginia and New Jersey last fall, there were significant shifts to the right in both states. In New Jersey, Trump’s 16-point loss in 2020 shrunk to less than 6 points in 2024. Those shifts were fueled by Trump’s increasing popularity among traditional Democratic loyalists: labor union members, Black men, Hispanic voters and younger people. Democrats are particularly vulnerable in New Jersey, which has among the largest percentage of labor union households in the nation. If those pro-Trump trends continue this week, Democrats could be in trouble. But Trump is not on the ballot, of course. And the Trump coalition — especially lower-propensity voters — has not typically shown up in the same numbers in non-presidential years. Democrats are cautiously optimistic given that Trump did not campaign aggressively in either state, a move driven both by the president’s weak standing and his allies’ concerns about the Republican candidates’ viability — especially in Virginia. At the same time, the biggest star in Democratic politics, former President Barack Obama, rallied voters in New Jersey and Virginia over the weekend. Pennsylvania and California and the future of elections Pennsylvania voters will decide whether three state Supreme Court justices supported by Democrats will serve another term. The outcome may shape the seven-member high court in the nation’s most populous swing state, and may have implications for key cases involving redistricting and balloting for midterm elections and the 2028 presidential race. The incumbents aren’t listed by party affiliation. The ballot merely asks voters to cast a yes-or-no vote. But spending on the race is likely to exceed $15 million, indicating how important it is to Democrats and Republicans in Pennsylvania and beyond. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom, frequently mentioned as a 2028 presidential hopeful, is leading a charge to redraw congressional maps to give Democrats as many as five more House seats in upcoming elections. The push is the centerpiece of a Democratic effort to counter new Republican maps in Texas and elsewhere that were drawn to boost the GOP’s chances in next year’s fight to control Congress. In order for the new maps to count in 2026, however, voters will first have to approve a yes-or-no ballot question known as Proposition 50.

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