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  • Coal miner killed on the job in West Virginia. The death marks fourth in the state this year

    Coal miner killed on the job in West Virginia. The death marks fourth in the state this year

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A coal miner was killed on the job in West Virginia on Friday night, Gov. Jim Justice said.

    The Republican governor said Gary Chapman, 33, of South Williamson, Kentucky, died after being injured at the Mountaineer II Mine near Sharples, West Virginia.

    Justice expressed his condolences in a statement, saying Chapman and his family were in his prayers.

    “When we lose a miner, it’s not just a loss for the community, but a loss for the entire State of West Virginia,” Justice said in a statement. “Mr. Chapman’s loss is a powerful reminder that we should always have a deep gratitude for every one of our coal miners. They are the ones who keep our nation running.”

    At least eight U.S. coal miners have died on the job in 2024, according to the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration. Four of them died in West Virginia.

    The incident is under investigation by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, Safety, and Training and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

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  • Mega Millions jackpot soars to an estimated $800 million

    Mega Millions jackpot soars to an estimated $800 million

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    BOSTON (AP) — The Mega Millions jackpot has risen to an estimated $800 million with a cash option of $401.8 million for Tuesday’s drawing after no one matched all the winning numbers for Friday night’s drawing.

    The jackpot was last won in Illinois on June 4 with a ticket valued at $552 million.

    Only two Mega Millions jackpots have been won so far this year. Before the Illinois winning ticket, a $1.1 billion winning ticket was purchased in New Jersey in March. That prize is still unclaimed. Winners in New Jersey have one year to claim their winnings.

    Tickets are sold in 45 states, Washington, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are conducted at 11 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays in Atlanta, Georgia. Tickets are $2 each. Half of the proceeds from the sale of each Mega Millions ticket remains in the state where the ticket was sold.

    The odds of winning the jackpot are one in more than 302 million. The overall odds of winning any Mega Millions prize are 1 in 24.

    The top Mega Millions jackpot ticket — $1.6 billion — was sold in Florida in August of last year.

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  • Environment solution: New metals refinery for nickel and cobalt opens in Ohio

    Environment solution: New metals refinery for nickel and cobalt opens in Ohio

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    In a step forward for efforts to acquire the metals crucial to addressing climate change, on Monday a new plant that can extract nickel and cobalt from scrap material opens in Fairfield, Ohio. The resulting metals will be used in new batteries and other clean energy markets.

    Extracting metals out of old material avoids the environmental damage of open pit mining and prevents the metals from ending up in the landfill. Many see this as the future, even if it takes decades to become reality.

    Climate change is largely caused by burning dirty fuels for two broad purposes: to make electricity and to move vehicles. Batteries can substitute for both much of the time, but this changeover is still in its infancy and the need for more minerals is great.

    The metals refining company Nth Cycle builds systems that yield nickel and cobalt from a form of shredded lithium ion batteries and nickel scrap from electric vehicles and consumer electronics. There are a growing number of companies, including Redwood Materials and Li-Cycle, that are expanding the young U.S. battery recycling industry.

    Currently, even when battery materials are collected for recycling in the U.S., they’re mostly shipped overseas to be refined. Building a traditional metals refinery in the U.S. could cost upward of $1 billion, but Nth Cycle uses a modular design it says is ideal because it can be added onto existing manufacturing facilities.

    “We have no refining capacity in the U.S. at all for these types of materials,” said Megan O’Connor, CEO of Nth Cycle. “We will be the first commercial cobalt nickel refinery in the U.S., which we’re very excited about.”

    Some experts heralded the development.

    “I think it’s very encouraging to hear the scaling has reached a stage where this is a possible revenue-making business,” said Shirley Meng, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

    Craig Arnold, engineering professor and university innovation officer at Princeton University, said this type of advancement is “huge” for the industry. “If we had a stronger domestic supply of these critical materials, it would absolutely benefit the battery industry,” he said.

    Right now the only U.S. source of nickel is the Eagle Mine in Michigan. Ore mined there is shipped internationally for refining.

    The demand for critical minerals for battery usage is surging as the world becomes more electrified. The need for nickel for electric vehicles grew nearly 30% in 2023 over the year before, according to the International Energy Agency. EV battery demand for cobalt increased 15% in the same period.

    Critical minerals are currently extracted from the Earth from mines in Australia, Indonesia, Congo and Brazil, among other countries. The supply chain is complex, involving an international matrix of labor rights concerns, tribal land conflicts and environmental damage. China is the dominant player in minerals crucial to the energy transition and also leads in battery recycling.

    The supply chain can be shaken by geopolitical conflict and also emits carbon emissions as materials are transported from country to country. This puts U.S. battery ambitions at risk, which is why experts say carrying out more of these processes domestically will make it easier to reach sustainability goals.

    The Inflation Reduction Act is incentivizing the expansion of the battery supply chain in the U.S. and Nth Cycle received $7.2 million under the law’s Advanced Energy Project Tax Credit (48C) program. The IRA also offers credits for EV’s containing battery materials and components from the U.S. or a country that has a free trade agreement with the U.S.

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    The 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.

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  • Recreational marijuana sales begin on North Carolina tribal land, drug illegal in state otherwise

    Recreational marijuana sales begin on North Carolina tribal land, drug illegal in state otherwise

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    CHEROKEE, N.C. (AP) — The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians began selling marijuana and cannabis products to any adult 21 or over starting Saturday at its tribe-owned dispensary in North Carolina, where possession or use of the drug is otherwise illegal.

    A post on the Facebook page of Great Smoky Cannabis Co., located on the Eastern Band of Cherokee’s western tribal lands, called the day “history in the making” with a video showing a line of people waiting outside the shop shortly before sales began at 10 a.m.

    The outlet already started July 4 to sell in-store or drive-thru products for recreational use to adults enrolled in the tribe or any other federally recognized tribe. It had opened its doors in April initially for adult medical marijuana purchases.

    Marijuana possession or use is otherwise illegal in North Carolina, but the tribe can pass rules related to cannabis as a sovereign nation. Of North Carolina and its surrounding states, only Virginia allows for the legal recreational use of marijuana statewide.

    Tribal members voted in a referendum last September backing adult recreational use on their reservation and telling the tribal council to develop legislation to regulate such a market. Those details were hammered out by the council, approving language in June that effectively decriminalized cannabis on Eastern Band land called the Qualla Boundary.

    The move was not without its opponents. Shortly before the referendum, Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Edwards introduced legislation that would have removed federal highway funding from tribes and states that have legalized marijuana — a bill that ultimately died.

    The Great Smoky Cannabis marijuana sales center, located near the Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, is predicted to be more of a revenue-generator for the 14,000-member tribe as its customer base is expanded.

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  • Freshman classes provide glimpse of affirmative action ruling’s impact on colleges

    Freshman classes provide glimpse of affirmative action ruling’s impact on colleges

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    Some selective colleges are reporting drops in the number of Black students in their incoming classes, the first admitted since a Supreme Court ruling struck down affirmative action in higher education. At other colleges, including Princeton University and Yale University, the share of Black students changed little.

    Several schools also have seen swings in their numbers of Asian, Hispanic and Native American students, but trends are still murky. Experts and colleges say it will take years to measure the full impact of last year’s ruling that barred consideration of race in admissions.

    The end of affirmative action isn’t the only factor affecting the makeup of freshman classes. Some colleges are changing standardized test requirements, heightening their importance. And the federal government’s botched rollout of a new financial aid form complicated decisions of students nationwide on where and whether to attend college.

    “It’s really hard to pull out what one policy shift is affecting all of these enrollment shifts,” said Katharine Meyer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank. “The unsatisfying answer is that it’s hard to know which one is having the bigger impact.”

    On Thursday, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reported drops in enrollment among Black, Hispanic and Native American students in its incoming class. Its approach to admissions has been closely watched because it was one of two colleges, along with Harvard University, that were at the center of the Supreme Court case.

    The population of Black students dropped nearly 3 percentage points, to 7.8%, compared with the UNC class before it. Hispanic student enrollment fell from 10.8% to 10.1%, while the incoming Native American population slid half a percentage point to 1.1%, according to the university. The incoming Asian student population rose 1 percentage point to 25.8%. The share of white students, at 63.8%, barely changed.

    It is “too soon to see trends” from the affirmative action decision, said Rachelle Feldman, UNC’s vice provost for enrollment. She cited the delays in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application process as another possible influence on the makeup of the incoming class.

    “We are committed to following the new law. We are also committed to making sure students in all 100 counties from every population in our growing state feel encouraged to apply, have confidence in our affordability and know this is a place they feel welcome and can succeed,” Feldman said.

    Some colleges reported sharp declines in the percentages of Black students in their incoming class, including drops from 15% to 5% at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and from 11% to 3% at Amherst College. At Tufts University, the drop in the share of Black students was more moderate, from 7.3% to 4.7%. At Yale, the University of Virginia and Princeton, the change year-over-year was less than a percentage point.

    Many colleges did not share the demographics of applicants, making it impossible to know whether fewer students of color applied, or were admitted but chose not to attend.

    Changes in other demographic groups also did not follow a clear pattern. At MIT, for example, the percentage of Asian students increased from 40% to 47% and Hispanic and Latino students from 16% to 11%, while the percentage of white students was relatively unchanged. But at Yale, the percentage of Asian students declined from 30% to 24%. White students at Yale went from 42% of the class to 46%, and Hispanic and Latino students saw an increase of 1 percentage point.

    Colleges have been pursuing other strategies to preserve the diversity they say is essential to campus life.

    JT Duck, dean of admissions at Tufts, emphasized the school would work on expanding outreach and partnerships with community organizations to reach underrepresented, low-income and first-generation students. He cautioned against reading too much into year-to-year changes in enrollment.

    “The results show that we have more work to do to ensure that talented students from all backgrounds, including those most historically underrepresented at selective universities, have access to a Tufts education. And we are committed to doing that work, while adhering to the new legal constraints,” he said in an email. “We’ve already done a lot of work toward these ends and look forward to doing even more.”

    At UNC, Feldman said it is a priority to offer substantial financial aid to low-income families, along with retaining students through investments in undergraduate advising and other initiatives. She said there are no plans for dramatic changes in light of the new enrollment data.

    The university wants to make sure “anyone from any background knows they can earn their way here,” she said at a news conference.

    Sharp declines in the number of students of color can impact how prospective students view schools, leading some to choose other colleges where they might feel a stronger sense of community, said Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles.

    “If we’re below a certain threshold, people who see themselves as having a more difficult time developing a sense of belonging will choose elsewhere,” he said. That’s especially true at selective colleges, where admitted students may be choosing between multiple top-tier schools.

    So far, the drops in underrepresented minority students are smaller in scope than when states like Michigan and California passed bans on affirmative action decades earlier, Meyer said. But since those bans, colleges have developed more best practices for effective, non-race-based ways of recruiting and enrolling a diverse class, Meyer said.

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    The Associated Press’ education 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.

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  • How to talk with kids about school shootings and other traumatic events

    How to talk with kids about school shootings and other traumatic events

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    Mass shootings have effects on communities that are felt long after the day’s tragedy. School shootings in particular can have physical, emotional and behavioral effects on kids — even if the shooting occurred on the other side of the country.

    Exposure to school shootings, even if indirectly, is shown to disrupt people’s sense of safety and stability, said Sonali Rajan, professor at Columbia University, who studies firearm-related harms on children.

    Talking about it can help.

    Parents aren’t alone in this task. Many health experts, including psychologists and grief counselors, remind people there are resources to support students’ mental and emotional health as they grieve and process.

    Here’s how they say families should address traumatic experiences with their kids.

    Don’t avoid the conversation

    It takes time to process emotions, regardless of age, so adults should start by taking care of themselves. That said, experts encourage parents to have conversations with their children and not avoid the topic, if kids indicate a willingness to talk about it.

    “If they are not hearing about it from you as their parent, they will hear about it from their friends at school,” says Emilie Ney, director of professional development at the National Association of School Psychologists.

    It’s OK for caregivers to say they don’t have all the answers and not force the conversation, according to guidance from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Being available and patient is key.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    This isn’t just a job for parents and guardians. All adults should remember to be available for the kids in their life. After all, not all children have trusted adults they can speak with, said Crystal Garrant, chief program officer at Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit group that works to prevent suicides and mass shootings.

    For instance, she said, adults who work in before-school or after-school programs should ask the kids in their care open-ended questions, do community-building activities or provide kids with other opportunities to share openly. They may not have the opportunity to do so otherwise.

    Tailor the talk to the child’s age

    How much children are able to understand a situation will depend on their age and development, Ney said.

    “There is no specific age target for these conversations,” said Garrant, who has a 9-year-old daughter. “But make sure that younger children understand the word that you’re using. When we say safety, what does it mean to feel safe? How does it feel in your body? What does it sound like when you’re not safe?”

    Some children may have emotional and behavioral responses to traumatic events, such as anxiety, nightmares or difficulty concentrating.

    Younger children need simple information and reassurances their schools and homes are safe, guidance from the National Association of School Psychologists notes. Older children have a deeper capacity for understanding and could benefit from hearing about what agency they might have to keep themselves safe.

    Validate big feelings about school shootings

    Recognizing, acknowledging and validating children’s emotions are key, said Beverly Warnock, executive director of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children based in Cincinnati.

    “You need to get those feelings out and be honest,” she said. “Don’t try to squash the feelings or not talk about it. It’s something that will be with you for the rest of your life.”

    The process of navigating emotions after a shooting can be confusing and frustrating for people, Ney said.

    “The stages of grief are not necessarily sequential. People may go in and out of the various different phases, and it may be that it doesn’t really hit someone until a week later,” Ney said.

    Psychologists hope to reassure people their feelings are normal and they don’t have to pretend they are unaffected.

    “Even if you didn’t know anyone involved, even if they were very far away from you, it is okay to grieve,” Ney said. “It shows that you care about others.”

    After acknowledging the emotional response, Warnock said, there is comfort in knowing life goes on.

    “You will find a coping skill, and you will be able to enjoy life again,” she said. “You may not feel that way now, but it does happen. It’s just going to take some time.”

    If you need more help

    If you or someone you know are experiencing distress because of a mass shooting, you can call the 24/7 National Disaster Distress Helpline. The number is 1-800-985-5990, and Spanish speakers can press “2” for bilingual support. To connect directly to a crisis counselor in American Sign Language, call 1-800-985-5990 from your videophone.

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    The Associated Press’ education 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.

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  • LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business and closing all of its stores

    LL Flooring, formerly Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business and closing all of its stores

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    NEW YORK (AP) — LL Flooring, the hardwood flooring retailer formerly known as Lumber Liquidators, is going out of business.

    Less than a month after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the Virginia-based company says it is now “winding down operations” after failing to find a buyer in recent negotiations with prospective bidders. That means all of its remaining stores will soon close their doors.

    LL Flooring expected to begin to begin the process this week, with closing sales at hundreds of stores slated to start Friday. The retailer says store closures should be completed over the next 12 weeks, with timing varying by location.

    “This is not the outcome that any of us had hoped for,” LL Flooring CEO Charles Tyson wrote in a letter to customers. “As we begin to wind down operations and close our stores, we are committed to doing so as smoothly as possible to minimize the impact on you, our associates and the communities we serve.”

    LL Flooring touted more than 400 stores earlier this year. By the time of its Chapter 11 petition, the company said it would be continuing forward with closer to 300 locations, with closing sales already beginning at 94 stores. But now, the closings will effect all remaining stores.

    Scores of workers are set to lose their jobs as a result. The company had about 1,970 employees as of its August 11 bankruptcy petition, according to court documents, 99% of whom were working full time in the U.S. across retail, corporate and distribution roles.

    LL Flooring’s history dates back more than 30 years. The brick-and-mortar retailer, founded by Tom Sullivan, got its start in 1993 as a modest operation in Massachusetts, later expanding operations nationwide.

    Known for decades as Lumber Liquidators, the company officially changed its name to LL Flooring at the start of 2022 — in a move following years of turmoil. The retailer faced expansive litigation after a 2015 segment of “60 Minutes” reported that laminate flooring it was selling had illegal and dangerous levels of formaldehyde. Lumber Liquidators later said it would stop selling the product, which was manufactured in China, and agreed to pay $36 million to settle two class-action lawsuits in 2017.

    LL Flooring saw difficulty turning a profit over more recent years, with the company reporting loss after loss. Net sales fell 18.5% in 2023, according to a recent earnings report, amid declines in foot traffic and weak demand. In its Chapter 11 filing, LL Flooring disclosed that total debts amounted to more than $416 million as of July 31, compared to assets of just over $501 million.

    Ahead of filing for bankruptcy, LL Flooring also saw a proxy battle earlier in the summer — centered around attempts to keep Sullivan off the board. In June, company leadership wrote a letter urging shareholders to vote for other nominees, accusing Sullivan of “pushing a personal agenda.” But LL Flooring later confirmed that the founder and his proposed nominees were elected at its annual shareholder meeting in July.

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  • Fashion is slowly embracing the needs of disabled people. It’s happening for some Paralympians, too

    Fashion is slowly embracing the needs of disabled people. It’s happening for some Paralympians, too

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    Three years ago, when Team Canada appeared at the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, the athletes were dressed in sleek white jeans. They may have looked good, but for some Paralympians on the team, they were a challenge.

    For Alison Levine, for example. The para athlete, who competes in the sport of boccia, couldn’t wear jeans because in a wheelchair, they dug into her skin. They lacked an elastic waistband, and were difficult to take on and off.

    “There was no way I was getting those on,” says Levine, who had to go find something else herself that would work, and not look too different. “You don’t want to look different because of your disability,” Levine says. “You don’t want it to be, ‘Team Canada plus you guys.’”

    Things are different this year. At the Paralympics opening ceremony in Paris, Levine and teammates wore bright red jackets with features like magnetic closures that make it easier for everyone, disabled or not. And there was an option of a seated carpenter pant that was designed with Levine in mind — even called the “Alison pant.”

    Levine sees the design process, in which apparel company Lululemon started interviewing her and others for guidance three years ago, as a meaningful advance not only in Olympics attire but in the broader area of what’s known as adaptive or inclusive fashion, in which fashion labels are starting — albeit slowly — to respond to the needs of disabled people, and recognize that they’re an important economic force.

    “Listen, people want to look good,” says Levine, 34, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disorder. “It doesn’t matter if you’re disabled or not. A lot of the time when you’re disabled, you have to sacrifice your looks for what works for you, or for comfort. But the disability movement is getting bolder and stronger and saying that we’re not going to accept these things anymore.”

    Levine recognizes that she and her Canadian teammates are among the luckier ones, and that most athletes don’t have the luxury of a major apparel company designing their kits and reaching out for guidance. Lululemon, which has a four-Games deal with Team Canada, designed all outfits for Olympians and Paralympians outside the field of play: for opening and closing ceremonies, village wear, medal ceremonies, media appearances and travel.

    Audrey Reilly, creative director for Team Canada at Lululemon, says she was shocked to find out that Levine mostly wore medical scrubs, for ease and comfort, when training or competing. That led to new designs for both sitting and standing athletes. “All the athletes want to look the same,” says Reilly. “They want to feel the same.”

    The garment she called the “Alison pant” has pockets at the shins, so an athlete in a wheelchair can easily access them. Levine says it was “insane” to hear that a garment was named after her, but mostly she was happy that she could wear what others were wearing: “You feel like you’re really part of the team.”

    Alison Brown, a podcaster who has been covering Olympics for years, says this Olympic cycle is the first where she has seen signs of adaptive fashion taking hold. She was struck by both the Lululemon kit reveal in the spring and the Nike reveal for Team USA, in which there were models in wheelchairs or with prosthetics.

    “It’s so simple, yet so impactful,” says Brown – who also points out that most teams don’t have the resources or the institutional setup, like Team USA and Team Canada, where Olympians and Paralympians are part of the same structure.

    To Mindy Scheier, who’s been advocating for better clothing options for the disabled for more than a decade, it’s no surprise that 2024 is the year the issue became visible at the Olympics – not to mention in Paris, a world capital of fashion.

    “The paradigm has shifted, and brands are really starting to see this as a business opportunity,” Scheier says. “The momentum has absolutely trickled down to the Olympics and Paralympics, because there has been such a breakthrough in the industry.”

    Scheier began her advocacy work a decade ago when her 8-year-old son, born with muscular dystrophy, wanted to wear jeans to school rather than sweatpants. She couldn’t find any options. A fashion designer herself, Scheier formed a foundation and consulting agency and works with design labels and retailers to embrace adaptive fashion.

    Ten years ago she had no partners; she now has many, from a high-end label like Tommy Hilfiger, which has its own adaptive line, Tommy Adaptive, to Target, Victoria’s Secret and others. Scheier’s foundation, Runway of Dreams, will be mounting a show this month at New York Fashion Week featuring some 60 models with varying disabilities.

    “This is a vocal population, and it wants to be considered a consumer,” says Scheier.

    Jessica Long counts herself a fashion fan. A long-dominant para swimmer for Team USA, Long, 32, is now competing in her sixth Paralympics — she began winning gold medals at age 12. As a double amputee, one of the hardest things for her growing up, she says, was finding shoes that would work for her prosthetics.

    “There’s not many things in my life that make me feel very disabled, but shoe shopping, and clothes shopping in general, has always been the hardest,” she says.

    It got easier as she grew older and more confident. But she says finding shoes is still the biggest challenge: “What people might not think about is that shoes can completely throw off my walking … if they’re too heavy.”

    She’s grateful that the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and sponsor Ralph Lauren, which designed opening and closing ceremony wear, surveyed the para athletes a year ago, asking what works best.

    “I’ve seen so much improvement in the mobility for us,” Long said in an interview ahead of the Paralympics. “It’s those little pieces that mean the most, I think, to the para athletes. I think it’s going to be really exciting when we all dress up.”

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    AP Paralympics: https://apnews.com/hub/paralympic-games

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  • Stakeholder in Trump’s Truth Social parent company wins court ruling over share transfer

    Stakeholder in Trump’s Truth Social parent company wins court ruling over share transfer

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    DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal judge in Delaware has ruled in favor of a firm seeking assurance that it will be able to sell its minority stake in the parent company of former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform.

    The judge on Friday granted summary judgment to Florida-based United Atlantic Ventures LLC in a lawsuit filed against Minnesota-based Odyssey Transfer and Trust Co., a business that handles securities transfers among registered shareholders.

    UAV is owned by Andrew Litinsky and Wesley Moss, former contestants on Trump’s TV show, “The Apprentice” who also helped facilitate a merger that took Trump Media public in March.

    Since then, UAV and Trump Media have been battling in courts in both Delaware and Florida over UAV’s stake in the company. Attorneys for Trump Media assured a state judge in Delaware earlier this year that UAV was entitled to an 8.6% stake and would suffer no merger-related dilution. They now contend, however, that UAV is not entitled to its shares because of pre-merger mismanagement by Litinsky and Moss.

    Friday’s ruling involves UAV’s concerns that it will not receive its Trump Media shares, currently valued at about $350 million, from Odyssey when a post-merger lockup period expires Sept. 19. According to court filings, Odyssey told UAV earlier this year that it would be taking direction from TMTG and its lawyers.

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    After Odyssey filed a lawsuit, the parties appeared to have reached a resolution, with Odyssey saying it would remove transfer restrictions on the share after the lockup period expires “without preference to any TMTG shareholder.” After seeking approval from Trump Media, however, Odyssey tried to change that language to “on the same basis as other similarly situated TMTG shareholders.”

    Trump holds about 115 million TMTG shares, or roughly 60% of the company’s outstanding shares.

    U.S. District Judge Gregory Williams questioned Odyssey’s conduct, noting that it claimed the language change was “immaterial,” while allowing it to scuttle settlement negotiations.

    “Even outside settlement negotiations, Odyssey’s conduct has been elusive,” Williams wrote.

    Williams ordered that when Odyssey is notified by TMTG of the expiration of the lockup provisions, it must promptly notify UAV, remove transfer restrictions on all shares and not interfere with the delivery of the shares.

    TMTG’s share price hit a high of $79.38 on its first day of trading but is now hovering around $17, closing Friday at $17.10.

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  • Swirling federal investigations test New York City mayor’s ability to govern

    Swirling federal investigations test New York City mayor’s ability to govern

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    NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing mounting questions over his ability to govern after federal investigators seized phones from multiple officials in his administration, compounding scrutiny of a Democrat who was already ensnared in an apparently separate criminal probe.

    Federal agents on Wednesday took devices from Adams’ police commissioner, his schools chancellor, two deputy mayors and several other advisers.

    None of the officials involved have been charged with a crime, but the wave of searches added to a cloud of suspicion around Adams, a former city police captain who has fashioned himself as a champion of law and order.

    They’ve also raised questions internally about the administration’s ability to stay focused on serving the nation’s largest city.

    In a private call Friday with senior staff, the city’s Emergency Management Commissioner, Zach Iscol, offered a blunt assessment of the impact of the investigations on public safety.

    “This is not good,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Associated Press. “There’s a lot going on in the city and the thing that I’m most concerned about is city leadership being distracted.“

    The agency, which is responsible for the city’s emergency procedures, falls under the portfolio of Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Philip Banks, whose home was visited by law enforcement Wednesday. Iscol said on the call that he had not spoken to City Hall leadership as of Friday morning.

    The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment and it was not immediately clear whether federal authorities were seeking information linked to one investigation or several.

    In addition to Banks, federal agents on Wednesday seized devices from Police Commissioner Edward Caban; First Deputy Mayor Sheena Wright; Banks’ brother, David Banks, the city’s schools chancellor; and Timothy Pearson, a top mayoral adviser and former high-ranking New York Police Department official.

    The seizures came nearly a year after federal agents seized Adams’ phones and iPad as he was leaving an event in Manhattan. Investigators also searched the homes of a top Adams campaign fundraiser and a member of his administration’s international affairs office.

    In February, federal authorities searched two properties belonging to his director of Asian affairs as part of a separate investigation overseen by the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.

    Then earlier this summer, Adams, his campaign and City Hall all received subpoenas from federal prosecutors requesting information about the mayor’s overseas travel and potential connections to the Turkish government.

    The most recent round of searches appear to be unrelated to the Turkey inquiry and the investigation by Brooklyn federal prosecutors, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigations.

    “There is a stench of corruption around the mayor,” said Douglas Muzzio, a retired political science professor at Baruch College with deep knowledge of New York politics. “You’ve got to believe that at some point, the feeling that the government is not working is going to start pervading the public consciousness.”

    Federal investigators appear to have been interested in Adams’ inner circle as far back as this winter. John Scola, an attorney representing four city employees who have accused Pearson of sexual harassment, said three of his clients received visits in February from FBI agents, who wanted to know about Pearson and his work with City Hall.

    Pearson previously worked alongside Phil Banks before he was assigned to lead a new mayoral unit tasked with overseeing city agencies.

    Those who worked with Pearson said he had an unusual suite of responsibilities that gave him wide latitude over police promotions, pandemic recovery efforts and certain homeless shelters for migrants. He is currently facing a separate city investigation for his role in a brawl at one of those shelters.

    Throughout the various FBI activities, Adams has forcefully maintained that he has followed the law and that he would continue to focus on his duties as mayor.

    Asked repeatedly at news conferences about the investigations, Adams has said his mantra is to “stay focused, no distractions and grind.”

    Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for the mayor, said nothing would hamper the administration’s ability to govern.

    “For the better part of a year, the mayor has been absolutely clear that, as a former member of law enforcement, he will always follow the law, and in the same time he has stayed focused on delivering for the people of the city,” Levy said in a statement Friday, pointing to recent drops in crime and increases in job numbers and other city initiatives.

    Since the Wednesday morning searches, the mayor has personally visited a tunnel emergency, held a public event about the first day of school, and met with residents concerned about e-bikes. On Friday, he held his regularly scheduled senior staff call at 8 a.m., then met with the mayor of Lisbon, Levy said.

    In a statement, Schools Chancellor David Banks said: “I remain focused on ensuring they have safe, academically rigorous, and a joyful school year. I am confirming that I am cooperating with a federal inquiry. At this time, I cannot comment any further on that matter.”

    Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Philip Banks, confirmed that a search was conducted, but otherwise declined to comment. The NYPD’s media relations office also confirmed a federal investigation involving members of the department, but declined to make Caban available for comment. A phone message left for Pearson’s attorney was not returned.

    But news of the latest investigations has provided Adams’ foes with fresh and potent lines of attack ahead of what is expected to be a heavily contested primary election season for the Democratic mayor.

    Brad Lander, a Democrat who serves as the city’s comptroller and is one of a handful of challengers to Adams in next year’s primary, said the fact that investigations are swirling around much of the mayor’s top staff could create “a level of both distraction and anxiety about trustworthiness and consequences for all New Yorkers.”

    “New Yorkers want to know their leaders are focused on their problems and not their own problems, and the staff of agencies also need focused leadership helping them confront the challenges New Yorkers have,” Lander said.

    Scott Stringer, a former city comptroller who is expected to run against Adams next year, said the investigations are becoming a serious impediment to the day-to-day process of governing.

    “We New Yorkers are not stupid,” he said. “We know that this government is paralyzed by the investigation. I think the mayor needs to step up and tell New Yorkers, in a real way, everything he knows about what’s going on.”

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  • AP Week in Pictures: Global

    AP Week in Pictures: Global

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    Aug. 30 – Sept. 5, 2024

    Cadets sing the national anthem, an woman dances, a health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child and boys row on the Sava river in Serbia.

    Children visit a Blow Up Experience installation, actress Mahlagha Jaberi poses for photographers and Chinese J-10 fighter jets perform during the Egypt International Airshow.

    This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images published in the past week by The Associated Press.

    Mahlagha Jaberi poses for photographers upon arrival for the premiere of the film ‘Diva Futura’ during the 81st edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

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    Chinese J-10 fighter jets perform during the first edition of the Egypt International Airshow at al-Alamein airport, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

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    A woman with blue hair blows a kiss to the audience as she walks the runway at a fashion show of Afro hairstyles in Havana, Cuba, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

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    Firefighters extinguish the fire after a Russian missile attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

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    A woman wears a mask during a protest against a bill approved by Turkish legislators that aims to remove stray dogs off the country’s streets, in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

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    Medias film as South Korean Marines take positions after landing on the beach during the combined military amphibious landing exercise between South Korea and the U.S., called Ssangyong exercise, in Pohang, South Korea, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

    Image

    Residents protect their belongings as they negotiate a flooded street caused by heavy rains from Tropical Storm Yagi, locally called Enteng, in Cainta, Rizal province, Philippines, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

    Image

    People carry idol of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh from the workshop to pandal, a temporary shelter, ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

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    A model showcases a creation by Misuity during the China Fashion Week Opening Show in Beijing, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

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    People light candles during a vigil in memory of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Jerusalem, Israel, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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    Mourners gather for the funeral of slain hostage Alexander Lobanov, who was killed in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)

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    Palestinian activist Khairi Hanoon walks with the Palestinian flag on a damaged road following an Israeli army raid in Tulkarem, West Bank, on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

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    A Ukrainian war veteran wearing prosthetics takes to the runway to demonstrate outfit by designers Andreas Moskin and Andriy Bilous during Fashion Week show in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

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    The Grand Imam of Istiqlal Mosque Nasaruddin Umar, left, hugs Pope Francis during a family photo following an interreligious meeting with religious leaders at the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Yasuyoshi Chiba/Pool Photo via AP)

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    A woman shouts slogans as she joins a rally to protest against the rape and murder of a resident doctor at a government hospital in August, in Kolkata, India, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)

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    A retiree protests the presidential veto of a bill passed by Congress to raise pensions, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

    Image

    A man falls down to death from a burning apartment window after Russia’s guided air bomb strike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv using powerful plane-launched glide bombs killed five people, including a 14-year-old girl on a playground, and wounded 47 others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

    Image

    Paramedics help an injured man to walk out of the rubble at a sports facility destroyed after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 1 2024. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

    Image

    Members of a military honor guard prepare before the arrival of Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at Beijing Capital Airport in Beijing, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, ahead of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). (Greg Baker/Pool Photo via AP)

    Image

    People stand on balconies of a high rise building as a Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18F Super Hornet conducts a flight in the lead-up to the Brisbane Festival’s Riverfire in Brisbane, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (Darren England/AAP Image via AP)

    Image

    An elderly woman dances while the Military Band of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army performs at the Historical Museum prior to the closing of Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival in Red Square, with the statue of Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov in the background, in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024, with foreign participants include Belarus, Venezuela, Egypt, China, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa and Guinea. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

    Image

    Schoolgirls sing the national anthem on the first day at school in a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. Children and students went to school despite the fact that Kyiv was hit by massive Russian missile barrage early in the morning, causing fires, damaged buildings and infrastructure objects. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

    Image

    A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child at a hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

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    Naailah Reese, 4, left, Nayyara Reese, 8, center, and Kade Lewis, 8, right, all of Atlanta, watch the parade during Dragon Con on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

    Image

    Boys row on the Sava river in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, Sept. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)

    Image

    Children visit a Blow Up Experience installation, part of an exhibit of inflatable art and technology, in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

    Image

    A supporter dances before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at 1st Summit Arena at the Cambria County War Memorial, in Johnstown, Pa., Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Droke)

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    Denmark’s Queen Mary at the parade during the flag day for Denmark’s deployed at Christiansborg Palace Square in Copenhagen, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix)

    Image

    Nicaraguan citizens wave from a bus after being released from a Nicaraguan jail and landing at the airport in Guatemala City, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

    ___

    Follow AP visual journalism:

    AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

    X: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

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  • Ralph Lauren draws the fashion crowd to the horsey Hamptons for a diverse show of Americana

    Ralph Lauren draws the fashion crowd to the horsey Hamptons for a diverse show of Americana

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    BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Ralph Lauren took to Hamptons horse country for a rollout of his signature Americana featuring first lady Jill Biden, Usher and Colman Domingo on his front row and Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and a bevy of adorable kids on his runway.

    Horses and riders meandered Thursday night in a nearby field behind a white picket fence at a tony equestrian complex in Bridgehampton as Lauren showed bright tennis whites, baby blue dresses and jackets, and bright orange, green and yellow looks for men, women and the aforementioned tots.

    The sun faded as the open-air show came to a close and Lauren’s guests made their way to dinner in an on-site pop-up of his iconic Polo Bar restaurant.

    Lauren, taking his bow with Biden at his side, has fond memories of the Hamptons, where he maintains a home and visited as a child. For his spring 2025 show, a day ahead of the official start of New York Fashion Week, he chose Khalily Stables, a state-of-the-art, 19-acre equestrian compound of stalls, barns, riding arenas and grassy paddocks.

    Lauren mixed his Ralph Lauren Collection, Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren and children’s wear for an extra-long show that stressed wearability on a weather-perfect evening as summer turns to fall.

    There were picnic looks in soft blue dresses, and white trousers and shorts paired with stripes and jackets. There were evening looks, including a stunning long blush pearled skirt worn by Campbell with a knotted white T-shirt.

    For the men, Lauren offered skinny cuffed trousers, blue floral dinner jackets and splashes of color blocking in orange pants paired with navy nautical jackets and wide multicolored ties over pinstripe shirts.

    Whites and blues dominated, with a sprinkling of crochet and khaki. He threw in some sparkle in slinky sequined evening gowns, backless white cocktail dresses and blue blouses, adding a bit of his fairy dust to a pair of torn khaki trousers and other looks.

    Lauren’s young ones, from preschoolers to tweens and teens, were ready for anything.

    One wore white shorts and a green slicker worthy of the U.S. Open the company just sponsored in looks for the ball crews and on-court officials. Others wore high riding boots with blue polos and matching pants. Still more were tiny prepsters in pinstripe button downs, navy jackets and cropped white pants.

    The show, Usher mused afterwards, was “American life. That’s American love. That’s family.”

    Another of Lauren’s guests, Tom Hiddleston, agreed. “It’s an extremely precise and intelligent vision because you sort of think, I’d like to be a part of that. I’d like to live that,” he said. “Very inspiring.”

    Domingo added: “You saw literally all different colors and shapes and sizes of people and people feeling like they belong and go together.”

    Fellow guest Jude Law summed it up this way: “Aspiration for a better place.”

    Naomi Watts, Kasey Musgraves, Demi Singleton and Justin Theroux were also among Lauren’s guests. So was Kim Min-jeong, known as Winter, from the K-pop girl group Aespa.

    In his show notes, Lauren said the Hamptons is “more than a place. It’s a natural world of endless blue skies, the ocean, green fields, and white fences, rusticity and elegance with a quality of light that drew artists here decades ago.”

    He called the summer haven for New Yorkers like himself his home away from home, “my refuge and always an inspiration.” Perhaps Lauren has better luck with the travel gods overseeing New York traffic. Some of his city guests without access to helicopters for hire spent four hours fighting traffic on the way to his show.

    The company has had a big year. In addition to the U.S. Open, Lauren dressed Team USA for the Paris Games.

    ___

    Associated Press video producer Brooke Lefferts contributed to this story.

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  • Family of West Virginia governor, running for Senate, has deal to avoid Greenbrier hotel foreclosure

    Family of West Virginia governor, running for Senate, has deal to avoid Greenbrier hotel foreclosure

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    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has reached an agreement with a credit collection company to avoid the foreclosure of their historic hotel as he runs for U.S. Senate, the resort announced Thursday.

    The Republican governor’s family had been set to appear in court Friday to ask a judge to halt the auction of The Greenbrier resort’s hotel, which had been scheduled for Tuesday. That hearing has been canceled.

    “It’s taken care of, and we move forward, and The Greenbrier is as whole as it can possibly be,” Justice said at a news briefing. “The Greenbrier is going to be in our family forevermore.”

    The 710-room hotel has hosted U.S. presidents, royalty and congressional retreats. The resort held a PGA Tour golf tournament from 2010 until 2019 and has welcomed NFL teams for training camp and practices. A once-secret 112,000-square-foot (10,080-square-meter) underground bunker built for Congress at the Greenbrier in case of nuclear attack during the Cold War now hosts tours.

    The hotel came under threat of auction after JPMorgan Chase sold a longstanding loan taken out by the governor to a credit collection company, McCormick 101 — a subsidiary of Beltway Capital — which declared it to be in default. In a statement, the Justice family said it had reached an agreement with Beltway Capital to “receive a specific amount to be paid in full by October 24, 2024.”

    The family said it had already secured the money, although the Justices did not specify the amount.

    “Beltway reserves its rights if the Justice family fails to perform,” the statement reads.

    A message left with Beltway Capital wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.

    Justice defended his family’s business practices at Thursday’s briefing and repeated past claims that JPMorgan Chase’s sale of The Greenbrier loan was a politically motivated effort to hurt his U.S. Senate campaign.

    “We had a 14-year working relationship with JPMorgan, and then shortly after the primary where I was the winner — hands down, you’re going to the U.S. Senate, no matter what anybody says under the sun — it makes, it made, total no sense other than political, it made no sense at all,” he said.

    Justice said that his family had made payments on the JPMorgan loan as recently as June and that it was notified the loan had been sold in July without prior warning. JPMorgan Chase did not respond to an email seeking comment.

    If the hotel had been sold, Justice said, “there would have been carnage and devastation like you can’t imagine to the great people of The Greenbrier,” referring to jobs that could have been lost.

    The auction, which had been set to occur at a courthouse Tuesday in the small city of Lewisburg, involved 60.5 acres, including the hotel and parking lot.

    Justice family attorneys filed a motion this week for a preliminary injunction to try to halt the auction of The Greenbrier. They claimed that a 2014 deed of trust approved by the governor was defective because JPMorgan didn’t obtain consent from the Greenbrier Hotel Corp.’s directors or owners, and that auctioning the property violates the company’s obligation to act in “good faith and deal fairly” with the corporation.

    They also argued, in part, that the auction would harm the economy and threaten hundreds of jobs.

    About 400 employees at The Greenbrier hotel received notice this week from an attorney for the health care provider Amalgamated National Health Fund saying they would lose coverage Tuesday, the scheduled date of the auction, unless the Justice family paid $2.4 million in missing contributions.

    Peter Bostic, a union official with the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board, said that the Justice family hasn’t contributed to employees’ health fund in four months, and that an additional $1.2 million in contributions will soon be due, according to the letter the board received from Ronald Richman, an attorney with Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP, the firm representing the fund.

    The letter also said some contributions were taken out of employees’ paychecks but never transferred to the fund, concerning union officials.

    Justice dismissed concerns about the claims Thursday, telling reporters that “insurance payments were made and were being made on a regular basis.”

    “There is no way that the great union employees at The Greenbrier are going to go without insurance,” he said. “There is no possible way.”

    Justice is running for U.S. Senate against Democrat Glenn Elliott, a former mayor of Wheeling. Justice, who owns dozens of companies and had a net worth estimated at $513 million by Forbes Magazine in 2021, has been accused in court cases of being late in paying millions for family business debts and fines for unsafe working conditions at his coal mines.

    He began serving the first of his two terms as governor in 2017, after buying The Greenbrier out of bankruptcy in 2009.

    Justice’s family also owns The Greenbrier Sporting Club, a private luxury community with a members-only “resort within a resort.” That property was scheduled to be auctioned off this year in an attempt by Carter Bank & Trust of Martinsville, Virginia, to recover more than $300 million in business loans defaulted by the governor’s family, but a court battle delayed that process.

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  • Floridians balk at DeSantis administration plan to build golf courses at state parks

    Floridians balk at DeSantis administration plan to build golf courses at state parks

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    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The golf course is not a threatened species in the Sunshine State — but the Florida scrub-jay is.

    And advocates are warning that life for the small blue and gray birds and many other imperiled species could get much harder if Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration follows through on a proposal to build golf courses, pickleball courts and 350-room hotels at state parks from Miami to the Panhandle.

    State parks “are the last strongholds for a lot of wildlife in rapidly urbanizing communities in Florida,” said Julie Wraithmell, executive director of Audubon Florida.

    “They have an outsized importance — not just to wildlife but also as places where Floridians and visitors can continue to see what Florida was like,” she said. “It’s the best of Florida.”

    DeSantis has enjoyed rock solid support from the Republicans who dominate state politics. It has been rare for DeSantis to get pushback on anything from GOP lawmakers, and he has a reputation for seeking vengeance when they do.

    But it appears a political line in the sand is being drawn after DeSantis’ administration announced plans this week to carve out golf courses and pickleball courts in Florida’s beloved state parks.

    Unlike the issues of abortion, LGBTQ rights, race and guns that have divided voters, state parks apparently hold a place in the hearts of Floridians regardless of party. The state park system has received national recognition for years, and people are resistant to change the protected lands they enjoy.

    The proposal announced by Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection to build new sports facilities, hotels and glamping sites at nine state parks across Florida has drawn a wave of opposition, not just from nature lovers and birdwatchers but also from members of DeSantis’ Cabinet, a Republican member of Congress and conservative state lawmakers. That includes outgoing Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.

    “Our vision (for state parks) did not contemplate the addition of golf courses and hotels, which in my view are not in-line with the peaceful and quiet enjoyment of nature,” Passidomo posted on X. “From what I know at this time, the proposal should not move forward in its current form.”

    A spokesperson for DeSantis defended the plans — which are not final — and touted the administration’s investments in protecting and conserving the state’s natural resources.

    “Teddy Roosevelt believed that public parks were for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and we agree with him,” press secretary Jeremy Redfern said. “But it’s high time we made public lands more accessible to the public.”

    The Department of Environmental Protection did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

    All of the parks slated for development are located near heavily visited tourist destinations, including Miami, Tampa, Panama City and St. Augustine.

    Florida’s state park system is a bastion of wildness in a state where vast stretches of sugar sand beaches and mangrove forests have long given way to condos, motels and strip mall souvenir shops.

    Advocates say places like Topsail Hill Preserve State Park near Destin are literal beacons on a hill — the preserve is known for its 25-foot high sand dunes that tower over a stretch of the Panhandle known for its spring break destinations and military installations.

    Eric Draper, a former head of the Florida Park Service, said Topsail is one of the last undeveloped stretches of Florida’s Gulf Coast.

    In that part of the state, Draper said, “you can stand on the beach, you look right, you look left, and you just see a lot of condos and developments and houses. But this is one place that you can stand and look for three miles and not see any development.”

    Under the new plans, Topsail would get up to four new pickleball courts, a disc golf course and a new hotel with a capacity of up to 350 rooms — a scale of development that Draper said is more in line with a conference center than a quiet beach retreat.

    Another proposal is for a golf complex at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County on the state’s southeast coast north of West Palm Beach. Building the golf courses would entail removing a boardwalk and observation tower as well as relocating the residences and offices of park staff, as well as existing cabins for visitors.

    A change.org petition targeting the would-be golf complex at Jonathan Dickinson had netted more than 60,000 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.

    It is not the first time a Republican administration has raised the idea of leveraging more revenue from state parks by providing golf, lodging and other attractions. But past ideas were quickly dropped after public opposition.

    In 2015, then-Gov. Rick Scott’s administration floated plans to allow cattle farmers to graze their herds and loggers to harvest timber from park lands.

    Legendary former professional golfer Jack Nicklaus has long lobbied state officials to underwrite his push to build golf courses in state parks, efforts that fizzled following public pushback.

    Wraithmell, the head of Audubon Florida, said she hopes state officials will listen to the Floridians who plan to pack public meetings next week to weigh in on the proposals.

    “Absolutely there is demand for more people to enjoy state parks,” she said. “The solution is not to try to cram as many people into a park as we can …. The solution is to create more state parks.”

    ___

    This story was first published on Aug. 22, 2024. It was updated on Aug. 23, 2024, to correct that there are nine state parks included in the proposal, not eight.

    ___ Associated Press reporter Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee contributed to this story.

    ___

    Kate Payne 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.

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  • Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race

    Donald Trump falsely suggests Kamala Harris misled voters about her race

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    CHICAGO (AP) — Donald Trump falsely suggested Kamala Harris had misled voters about her race as the former president appeared Wednesday before the National Association of Black Journalists in Chicago in an interview that quickly turned hostile.

    The Republican former president wrongly claimed that Harris, the first Black woman and Asian American to serve as vice president, had in the past only promoted her Indian heritage.

    “I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black. So, I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said while addressing the group’s annual convention.

    Harris is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, both immigrants to the U.S. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Howard University, one of the nation’s most prominent historically Black colleges and universities, where she also pledged the historically Black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, supporting legislation to strengthen voting rights and to reform policing.

    AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Donald Trump has falsely suggested Kamala Harris misled voters about her race.

    Trump has leveled a wide range of criticism at Harris since she replaced President Joe Biden atop the likely Democratic ticket last week. Throughout his political career, the former president has repeatedly questioned the backgrounds of opponents who are racial minorities.

    Michael Tyler, the communications director for Harris’ campaign, said in a statement that “the hostility Donald Trump showed on stage today is the same hostility he has shown throughout his life, throughout his term in office, and throughout his campaign for president as he seeks to regain power.”

    “Trump lobbed personal attacks and insults at Black journalists the same way he did throughout his presidency — while he failed Black families and left the entire country digging out of the ditch he left us in,” Tyler said. “Donald Trump has already proven he cannot unite America, so he attempts to divide us.

    White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked during her briefing with reporters on Wednesday about Trump’s remarks and responded with disbelief, initially murmuring, “Wow.”

    Jean-Pierre, who is Black, called what Trump said “repulsive” and said, “It’s insulting and no one has any right to tell someone who they are, how they identify.”

    Trump has repeatedly attacked his opponents and critics on the basis of race. He rose to prominence in Republican politics by propagating false theories that President Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, was not born in the United States. “Birtherism,” as it became known, was just the start of Trump’s history of questioning the credentials and qualifications of Black politicians.

    He has denied allegations of racism. And after Biden picked Harris as his running mate four years ago, a Trump campaign spokesperson then pointed to a previous Trump political donation to Harris as proof that he wasn’t racist.

    “The president, as a private businessman, donated to candidates across all aisles,” the spokesperson, Katrina Pierson, told reporters. “And I’ll note that Kamala Harris is a Black woman and he donated to her campaign, so I hope we can squash this racism argument now,” Pierson said.

    During this year’s Republican primary, he once referred to former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, as “Nimbra.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    Later Wednesday, Trump did not repeat his criticism of Harris’ race at a campaign rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, although he called her “phony” and said she has been trying to change her image. He also repeatedly mispronounced her first name.

    “If she becomes your president, our country is finished,” Trump charged.

    Before he took the stage, Trump’s team displayed what appeared to be years-old news headlines describing Harris as the “first Indian-American senator” on the big screen in the arena.

    Trump’s appearance Wednesday at the annual gathering of Black journalists immediately became heated, with the former president sparring with interviewer Rachel Scott of ABC News and accusing her of giving him a “very rude introduction” with a tough first question about his past criticism of Black people and Black journalists, his attack on Black prosecutors who have pursued cases against him and the dinner he had at his Florida club with a white supremacist.

    “I think it’s disgraceful,” Trump said. “I came here in good spirit. I love the Black population of this country. I’ve done so much for the Black population of this country.”

    Trump continued his attacks on Scott’s network, ABC News, which he has been arguing should not host the next presidential debate, despite his earlier agreement with the Biden campaign. He also several times described her tone and questions as “nasty,” a word he used in the past when describing women, including Hillary Clinton and Meghan the Duchess of Sussex.

    The Republican also repeated his false claim that immigrants in the country illegally are “taking Black jobs.” When pushed by Scott on what constituted a “Black job,” Trump responded by saying “a Black job is anybody that has a job,” drawing groans from the room.

    At one point, he said, “I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln.”

    The audience responded with a mix of boos and some applause.

    Scott asked Trump about his pledge to pardon people convicted for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and specifically whether he would pardon those who assaulted police officers.

    Trump said, “Oh, absolutely I would,” and said, “If they’re innocent, I would pardon them.”

    Scott pointed out they have been convicted and therefore are not innocent.

    “Well, they were convicted by a very, very tough system,” he said.

    At one point, when he was defending his supporters who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, he said, “Nothing is perfect in life.”

    He compared the 2021 insurrection to the protests in Minneapolis and other cities in 2020 following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police and to more recent protests at the Capitol last week by demonstrators opposed to the war in Gaza. Trump falsely claimed that no one was arrested in those other demonstrations and that only his supporters were targeted.

    As Trump made the comparison, a man in the back of the room shouted out, “Sir, have you no shame?”

    The former president’s invitation to address the organization sparked an intense internal debate among NABJ that spilled online. Organizations for journalists of color typically invite presidential candidates to speak at their summer gatherings in election years.

    As he campaigns for the White House a third time, Trump has sought to appear outside his traditional strongholds of support and his campaign has touted his efforts to try to win over Black Americans, who have been Democrats’ most committed voting bloc.

    His campaign has emphasized his messages on the economy and immigration as part of his appeal, but some of his outreach has played on racial stereotypes, including the suggestion that African Americans would empathize with the criminal charges he has faced and his promotion of branded sneakers.

    Trump and NABJ also have a tense history over his treatment of Black women journalists. In 2018, NABJ condemned Trump for repeatedly using words such as “stupid,” “loser” and “nasty” to describe Black women journalists.

    The vice president is not scheduled to appear at the convention, but NABJ said in a statement posted on X that it was in conversation with her campaign to have her appear either virtually or in person for a conversation in September.

    Harris addressed Trump’s comments briefly Wednesday night while speaking at a gathering of Sigma Gamma Rho, a historically Black sorority, in Houston.

    “It was the same old show,” she said. “The divisiveness and the disrespect.”

    Harris added: “And let me just say, the American people deserve better.”

    ___

    Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Aaron Morrison and Steve Peoples in New York, Gary Fields in Chicago and Will Weissert and Farnoush Amiri in Washington, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and Chris Megerian in Houston contributed to this report.

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  • FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference

    FACT FOCUS: Google autocomplete results around Trump lead to claims of election interference

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    With fewer than 100 days until the 2024 election, social media users are claiming that a lack of Google autocomplete results about former President Donald Trump and his attempted assassination is evidence of election interference.

    Many posts include screenshots showing what the autocomplete feature, which predicts what users are trying to type, has generated for text such as “attempted assassination of tr” or “president donald.” Among the pictured results for the former phrase are references to other assassination attempts, including that of Harry Truman and Gerald Ford, but nothing for Trump. The latter provides two options — “president donald duck” and “president donald regan.”

    Multiple high-profile figures, including Trump and sitting members of Congress, promoted the claim across social media platforms, collectively amassing more than 1 million likes and shares by Tuesday. Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Google attributed the situation to existing protections against autocomplete predictions associated with political violence, noting that “no manual action was taken” to suppress information about Trump.

    Search engine experts said there are many reasons that could explain why some autocomplete results concerning the former president were not appearing.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: Google is engaging in election interference by censoring autocomplete results about former President Donald Trump, including the assassination attempt at his Pennsylvania rally on July 13.

    THE FACTS: It is true that Google’s autocomplete feature as of Monday was not finishing certain phrases related to Trump and the assassination attempt as shown in screenshots spreading online, but there is no evidence it was related to election interference.

    By Tuesday, some of the same terms were providing relevant autocomplete results. The text “president donald” now also suggests “Donald Trump” as a search option. Similarly, the phrase “attempted assassination of” includes Trump’s name in autocomplete predictions. Adding “tr” to the same phrase though makes the option disappear.

    Completed searches about Trump and the assassination attempt done on both Monday and Tuesday yielded extensive relevant results regardless of what autocomplete predictions came up.

    Google told the AP that its autocomplete feature has automated protections regarding violent topics, including for searches about theoretical assassination attempts. The company further explained that its systems were out of date even prior to July 13, meaning that the protections already in place couldn’t take into account that an actual assassination attempt had occurred.

    Additional autocomplete results now appearing about Trump are the result of systemic improvements — rather than targeted manual fixes — that will affect many other topics, according to the company.

    “We’re rolling out improvements to our Autocomplete systems to show more up-to-date predictions,” Google told The Associated Press in a statement. “The issues are beginning to resolve, and we’ll continue to make improvements as needed. As always, predictions change over time and there may be some imperfections. Autocomplete helps save people time, but they can always search for whatever they want, and we will continue to connect them with helpful information.”

    Search engine experts told the AP that they don’t see evidence of suspicious activities on Google’s part and that there are plenty of other reasons to explain why there have been a lack of autocomplete predictions about Trump.

    “It’s very plausible that there’s nothing nefarious here, that it’s other systems that are set up for neutral or good purposes that are causing these query suggestions to not show up,” said Michael Ekstrand, an assistant professor at Drexel University who studies AI-powered information access systems. “I don’t have a reason not to believe Google’s claim that this is just normal systems for other purposes, particularly around political violence.”

    Thorsten Joachims, a professor at Cornell University who researches machine learning for search engines, explained that autocomplete tools typically work by looking at queries people make frequently over a certain period of time, providing the most frequent completions of those queries. Beyond that, a search engine may automatically prune predictions based on concerns such as safety and privacy.

    This means that it’s plausible that Google’s autocomplete feature wouldn’t have accounted for recent searches about the assassination attempt on Trump, especially if its systems indeed had not been updated since before the shooting.

    “Depending on how big the window is that they’re averaging over, that may simply not be a frequent query,” Joachims said. “And it may not be a candidate for autocompletion.” He added that it’s typical not to update a search model on a daily basis, given the costs and technical risks involved.

    A 2020 Google blog post about its autocomplete feature describes how the system reflects previous searches and why users might not see certain predictions, including those that are violent in nature. The post also explains that predictions may vary based on variables such as a user’s location, the language they speak or rising interest in a topic.

    Both Ekstrand and Joachims agreed that proving bias in a complex system like Google’s search engine from the outside would be extremely difficult. It would require much more data than just a couple of searches, for example, and would risk setting off the company’s protections against data scraping, reverse engineering and fraud.

    “In general, claims that platforms are taking particular targeted actions against specific people on political bases are hard to substantiate,” Ekstrand said. “They sometimes, I’m sure, happen, but there’s so many other explanations that it’s difficult to substantiate such claims.”

    Joachims noted that the demographics of Google’s user base could impact the results of such a study if they skewed toward one side of the political aisle or another and therefore searched more for their preferred candidates. In other words, the way the system works would make it difficult to probe the system.

    Technical issues aside, limiting autocomplete predictions as a method of political influence could simply be bad for business.

    “Even if Google would like to do that, I think it would be a very bad decision because they could lose a lot of users,” said Ricardo Baeza-Yates, a professor at Northeastern University whose research includes web search and information retrieval.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • Candlelite, Rogers Park’s Iconic Tavern-Style Pizzeria, Is Opening a Second Location

    Candlelite, Rogers Park’s Iconic Tavern-Style Pizzeria, Is Opening a Second Location

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    Lately, there’s been a rising tide of anger from so-called Chicago pizza purists who object to the term “tavern-style pizza.” The objections have coincided with the increased national popularity of the thin-crust pizza which is cut into squares and triangles. Even Pizza Hut has a Bizarro version.

    Through these civic shenanigans, a 74-year-old Rogers Park pizzeria is trying to adapt to the times. Candlelite, founded in 1950, has established itself as one of the city’s most beloved spots for thin-crust pies. Instantly recognizable along Western Avenue for its neon sign, it’s become a pillar of the Loyola University community and is Sister Jean-approved. They’ve been selling frozen pizzas via Gold Belly and briefly opened a stall inside the Time Out Chicago Market food hall.

    After looking at a few spots, the esteemed pizzeria is ready to open a second location this month, treading on rival DePaul University’s turf in Lincoln Park. Candlelite is partnering with the iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury Street, taking over the comedy club’s food and drink service. Candlelite owner Pat Fowler says the theater’s co-owner, Larry Weiner, is a loyal customer in Rogers Park and floated the idea.

    “It’s like having two businesses in one building — two iconic Chicago businesses,” Fowler says.

    The bar will seat about 80 and be friendly to sports fans with games shown on TVs. A separate dining room — which will feel more like the original Candlelite — will seat an additional 100. They’ll also serve on two patios with 50- and 100-seat capacities. They’ve already redone the kitchens, bringing in conveyor-style pizza ovens, similar to the ones they have on Western.

    Pizzas will be available during shows with servers bringing them to tables. The tables are smaller than traditional dining room tables, so Fowler and staff had to find the appropriate pizza stands to hold full-size pies while allowing room for drinks.

    “What’s cool for us, from that standpoint, is iO is a destination, right?” Fowler says. “You know, people want to go to a show, and they’re willing to come from far away or nearby. So we’re able to draw from that.”

    Candlelite has changed hands several times over seven decades, and Fowler — a former pizza delivery man who started in 2008 — purchased the business in 2012.

    The original restaurant’s full menu — with burgers, sandwiches, and options for kids — will be available, and Fowler says they’re working on their beverage selections, hoping to potentially work with Off Color Brewing whose taproom is across the street. They’ll have some fun cocktails as Fowler reminds us that Candlelite’s famous neon sign features a martini. Speaking of the sign, crews in October will install a replica of the original outside the new restaurant. They’ve turned the sign into a logo, using it for their line of frozen pizzas.

    In Rogers Park, Candelite has become a community icon and part of the Loyola Rambler community. Fowler wants to enjoy a tight relationship with the Lincoln Park area, even if that means cavorting with Loyola’s rivals at DePaul.

    “I’ll either need Sister Jean’s permission or I’ll have to ask for forgiveness,” Fowler says with a laugh. “But we love supporting local so DePaul will definitely be something we want to incorporate openly with Sister Jean’s permission.”

    Candlelite Lincoln Park, 1501 N. Kingsbury, planned for a mid-September opening.

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    Ashok Selvam

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  • FACT FOCUS: Posts falsely claim video shows Harris promising to censor X and owner Elon Musk

    FACT FOCUS: Posts falsely claim video shows Harris promising to censor X and owner Elon Musk

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    After a nationwide suspension of billionaire Elon Musk’s X platform in Brazil, social media users — including former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — are misrepresenting a years-old video of Vice President Kamala Harris to falsely claim that the Democratic presidential nominee has threatened to censor both X and Musk.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: A video clip portrays Harris as saying that she will shut down X if she wins the 2024 presidential election and that Musk has “lost his privileges.”

    THE FACTS: That’s false. Harris was referring to Trump long before Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it as X.

    The clip is from 2019 and shows Harris speaking with CNN host Jake Tapper after a Democratic primary debate, discussing whether then-President Donald Trump’s profile should be removed from the platform, called Twitter at the time, and how there needs to be increased accountability for social media companies.

    Kennedy, who on Aug. 23 suspended his presidential bid and endorsed Trump, used the clip in an X post as alleged proof that Harris was talking about Musk, stating: “Can someone please explain to her that freedom of speech is a RIGHT, not a ‘privilege’?” He also provided his own interpretation of Harris’ comments on social media sites in general as follows: “If they don’t police content to conform to government-approved narratives, they will be shut down.”

    The post had been liked and shared approximately 200,300 times as of Tuesday.

    Another popular X post that shared the video simply reads: “Kamala will shut down X if she wins.” It has been liked and shared approximately 105,000 times. Other social media users claimed that Harris was speaking in support of a Brazilian Supreme Court justice who made the decision last week to block X.

    In extended footage of the interview, part of CNN’s post-debate analysis on Oct. 15, 2019, Tapper asked Harris: “So, one of the topics that you chose to talk a lot about, especially confronting Sen. Warren on, was your push, your call, for Twitter to suspend the account of President Trump. Why was that important?”

    Tapper was referring to the moment in the debate when Harris criticized then-fellow Democratic candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren for not urging such a suspension. Twitter did eventually ban Trump’s account in January 2021, citing “the risk of further incitement of violence” after the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, with multiple other social media platforms kicking him off around the same time. Musk restored Trump’s account in November 2022 after he bought the platform.

    Harris responded during the interview that Trump had “proven himself to be willing to obstruct justice” and that what he says on Twitter “impacts people’s perceptions about what they should and should not do.”

    She continued: “And as far as I’m concerned, and I think most people would say, including members of Congress who he has threatened, that he has lost his privileges and it should be taken down.”

    Harris did not call for the platform as a whole to be shut down. Rather, she advocated for increased accountability.

    “The bottom line is that you can’t say that you have one rule for Facebook and you have a different rule for Twitter,” she stated. “The same rule has to apply, which is that there has to be a responsibility that is placed on these social media sites to understand their power. They are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any level of oversight or regulation, and that has to stop.”

    What to know about the 2024 Election

    The exchange is reflected in CNN’s transcript of the coverage.

    The Harris campaign directed an Associated Press inquiry about the false claims to a Democratic National Committee spokesperson, who declined to comment. Representatives for Trump and Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.

    Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered X blocked last Friday for refusing to name a local legal representative, as required by law. His decision was unanimously upheld by a court panel on Monday. X had removed its legal representative from Brazil on the grounds that de Moraes had threatened her with arrest. The platform will stay suspended until it complies with de Moraes’ order and pays outstanding fines.

    ___

    Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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  • An appeals court upholds a ruling that an online archive’s book sharing violated copyright law

    An appeals court upholds a ruling that an online archive’s book sharing violated copyright law

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    NEW YORK (AP) — An appeals court has upheld an earlier finding that the online Internet Archive violated copyright law by scanning and sharing digital books without the publishers’ permission.

    Four major publishers — Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons and Penguin Random House — had sued the Archive in 2020, alleging that it had illegally offered free copies of more than 100 books, including fiction by Toni Morrison and J.D. Salinger. The Archive had countered that it was protected by fair use law.

    In 2023, a judge for the U.S. District Court in Manhattan decided in the publishers’ favor and granted them a permanent injunction. On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit concurred, asking the question: Was the Internet Archive’s lending program, a “National Emergency Library” launched early in the pandemic, an example of fair use?

    “Applying the relevant provisions of the Copyright Act as well as binding Supreme Court and Second Circuit precedent, we conclude the answer is no,” the appeals court ruled.

    In a statement Wednesday, the president and CEO of the Association of American Publishers, Maria Pallante, called the decision a victory for the publishing community.

    “Today’s appellate decision upholds the rights of authors and publishers to license and be compensated for their books and other creative works and reminds us in no uncertain terms that infringement is both costly and antithetical to the public interest,” Pallante said.

    The Archive’s director of library services, Chris Freeland, called the ruling a disappointment.

    “We are reviewing the court’s opinion and will continue to defend the rights of libraries to own, lend, and preserve books,” he said in a statement.

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  • There’s no X in Brazil. Celebrity fandom worldwide is in disarray

    There’s no X in Brazil. Celebrity fandom worldwide is in disarray

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    It was a rapture and a revelation all at the same time.

    En masse, celebrity stan accounts posted tearful farewells over the weekend as X was suspended in Brazil amid a showdown between Elon Musk and a Supreme Court justice. Many of their hundreds of thousands of followers learned only then that their favorite celebrity’s most dedicated English-language fan accounts had actually been run by Brazilians.

    It shouldn’t have necessarily been a surprise — “Come to Brazil” is a stalwart meme. Brazil’s CCXP bills itself as the Americas’ largest comic-con, drawing A-list Hollywood talent. The stars of the long-ended show “Everybody Hates Chris” are beloved. Brazil does fandom like no other, the avalanche of goodbyes unearthing a wide array of accounts for Taylor Swift, C-list celebrities and the long-dead alike.

    “I came to realize how strong our digital power is in this last minute, because we tweet in English so people don’t know that we are Brazilians. But we are a lot, we are everywhere,” said Aianne Amado, a University of Sao Paulo doctoral candidate who studies Brazilian fandoms. “I think that we will be missed and it’s not going to be the same network.”

    Meet the fans

    Paola Strabelli didn’t care much for reading. A few years ago, though, she saw “Vita and Virginia” and became entranced — not with its lead actors, but with Virginia Woolf herself.

    She started to read Woolf voraciously, and created @botvirginia to share Woolf’s quotes, amassing 115,000 followers.

    Strabelli, 26, told The Associated Press that, growing up, she didn’t have many friends. In some ways, she said, her life began with online fandom — first, through Katy Perry and the show “Once Upon A Time,” and then Woolf. Online friendships translated into real life, and, for a year, she dated a girl she met through their shared passion.

    The law student behind @agron_updates, dedicated to “Glee” actor Dianna Agron, never reckoned on disclosing her nationality. The 32-year-old from Brazil’s center-west region requested anonymity for privacy, as she pursues government jobs. She was drawn to Agron because she thought the actor seemed “so kind.” By 2016, annoyed with how Agron’s fan accounts operated — cropping out boyfriends, for example — she co-founded an X account that grew to more than 7,600 followers.

    All along, she’s been careful to maintain a separation between her own feelings and the account’s.

    “Sometimes I will watch a movie and I think it’s terrible, but I’ll go on the account and say, ‘Guys, it’s amazing,’” she said. “I wasn’t hoping to have to come out as a Brazilian.”

    Then there’s @21metgala, run by two 18-year-old college students, Maria and Tamara. In three years, it’s gained more than 175,000 followers and, unlike many stan accounts, covers general celebrity news (though they have a soft spot for Rihanna). Maria, who cited privacy in not wanting to publish her surname, said via WhatsApp that she was taken aback by the response to their departure.

    “Most of our followers didn’t know we were Brazilian, so it was a huge shock when we announced it,” she wrote. Even Cardi B responded with distraught emojis.

    Amado attributed Brazil’s fervor for foreign entertainment to both its colonial history and the country’s sheer diversity, noting its high consumption of Japanese otaku culture and its large population of Japanese descent.

    Fandom is hard work

    Fandom can often be derided with a condescension that belies the sheer amount of work that goes into maintaining these accounts.

    “At first, I thought that fans were crazy. And, like, psychologically, I don’t know, sick? … And now, I’ve come to see that it’s all about passion and effect and it’s a very human behavior. Everybody’s interested in something,” be it cooking or canines, Amado said. “But for some reason, when you’re interested in something in pop culture, people tend to think that is less than.”

    An academic from Belo Horizonte, Samira Spolidorio has studied fansubbing — where devoted viewers come together to subtitle. She has a simple theory for why Brazilians are such engines of fandom, using a word that came up in interview after interview: Brazilians are just “passionate.” They’re also looking for a sense of belonging, she said.

    Despite being grassroots efforts that drew no profit, fansubbing groups had “very strict rules” requiring volunteers to work overnight, Spolidorio said. A 40-minute episode required at least four people to subtitle and two to review — there were style guides, too.

    That commitment can exact a price. Before X’s suspension, @agron_updates had an expiration date of Dec. 31. Running it was affecting its administrator’s entire life, even leading to a breakup.

    “One of the reasons was I was always on the phone, always checking for content,” she told the AP. “It’s kind of like a drug, it seizes something in your brain. You want to be first to post it.”

    “I’ve been unemployed for the past two years, and I have to study, I have to do something with my life,” she added. “There’s no way I can keep my life revolving around keeping a Twitter account for someone who — I love Dianna, but she doesn’t work.”

    What’s next

    In the past week, X alternative Bluesky has boosted its base by one-third, adding 2 million users, CEO Jay Graber told the AP. Around 90% are Brazilian and most activity is in Portuguese, she said Monday.

    Brazilians using virtual private networks to bypass the suspension face steep fines, but @21metgala has been able to continue posting sporadically.

    “Some Wi-Fi providers haven’t fully blocked access yet, but it’s very unstable,” Maria wrote Monday. While they are on other platforms, @21metgala will certainly be back if X is unsuspended.

    “Twitter was faster for posting photos, and Bluesky doesn’t allow video posts yet, which is a bit of a challenge. We’re not huge fans of Instagram because accounts can be easily taken down due to copyright issues,” she wrote. (Video is coming to Bluesky, Graber says, “definitely sooner than months.”)

    For CCXP, the suspension doesn’t pose much of a threat to the convention’s success. In a statement, vice president for content Beto Fabri said they’d already “focused on valuing and building relationships with the geek community” on WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and their own platforms.

    Not everyone plans to pivot. Despite having nearly 16,000 followers at @GALITZINEFOX, 23-year-old Alana Souza is relatively new to stanning actor Nicholas Galitzine. The advertising student from Recife became devoted after watching “Red, White & Royal Blue” last year. Given the amount of time she’s spent on X, she’s doesn’t want to start over.

    “If X doesn’t get unsuspended in Brazil then that’s gonna be the end of it,” she wrote in an email, later adding that her absence “gives me the feeling of being disconnected from what’s going on in the world.”

    Since Musk bought X, Strabelli has found it less fun. But it still had a cachet that, for her, can’t be replicated. While she appreciates Instagram for letting her start over — she can reuse quotes instead of scouring the internet for lesser-known scraps of Woolf’s writing — she finds it impersonal. There are many things she will miss about X, including her “gringo friends that are tweeting.”

    “I felt famous and wanted,” she said. “And when I saw the replies, I don’t know, I’m not going to lie, this ego bump was really nice.”

    ___

    Sen reported from New York. Associated Press journalist David Biller contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.

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