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  • Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 72 in the Philippines as Survivors Recall Moment When Tragedy Struck

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    BOGO, Philippines (AP) — When firefighters brought out the body of his 4-year-old son in a bag from a budget hotel demolished by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in the central Philippines, Isagani Gelig stooped down and gently stroked the black cadaver bag for several minutes, trying to feel his child’s remains inside for the last time.

    A bag containing the body of Gelig’s wife, the Condor Pension House’s receptionist, was carried out next. She had worked there at night while taking care of their son, John. A rescuer handed him a cellphone found with her body and he nodded a confirmation that it was hers.

    Gelig and his family had frantically called after the powerful earthquake shook the city of Bogo in Cebu province Tuesday night, but she never picked up.

    “I went around the rubble and kept calling out their names,” Gelig told The Associated Press beside the hotel ruins, where he and rescuers discovered their remains pinned together in the first-floor rubble.

    The death toll from the earthquake rose to at least 72 people Thursday with nearly 300 injured. Disaster officials said there have not been reports of additional missing people. More than 170,000 people were affected, including many who have refused to return home because they were traumatized and fearful of aftershocks.

    The earthquake damaged or destroyed 87 buildings and nearly 600 houses in Bogo, a relatively new and progressive coastal city of about 90,000, and outlying towns. Bridges and concrete roads were damaged and a seaport in Bogo collapsed.

    The quake was triggered around 10 p.m. by a shallow undersea fault line that Filipino seismologists said has not moved for at least 400 years.

    President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. flew to Bogo Thursday to assess the damage and offer aid and support to survivors while mourning with families of the victims. Just days ago, the president was in the central region after a fierce storm left at least 37 people dead and lashed more than half a million people, including in Cebu province.


    Countries offer condolences and support

    The United States, a longtime treaty ally of the Philippines, offered assistance following the earthquake. Several other countries, including China and Japan, expressed condolences.

    “Japan always stands with the Philippines in overcoming this time of difficulties,” Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said in a message to Marcos.

    One of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, the Philippines is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean.

    The archipelago also is lashed by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, making disaster response a major task of the government and volunteer groups.


    Victims and survivors share harrowing stories

    Shortly after the earthquake ravaged Bogo, the Red Cross tried to call up one of its full-time volunteers who lived in the city.

    Ian Ho, 49, was a highly trained first responder. When he did not answer, a Red Cross team was deployed. His house had crumbled and he was found inside, buried in the rubble while embracing his 14-year-old son, who was injured. The teen survived, Red Cross Secretary-General Gwendolyn Pang said.

    “He chose to be the shield of his son,” Pang said. “This is the kind of people that we have, lifesavers with an innate instinct to help other people. In this case, the last person that he saved was his son.”

    While most people were at home when when the quake struck, Bryan Sinangote was watching a basketball game with less than 100 spectators in San Remigio town, just outside Bogo. Everybody froze. When the up-and down shaking became intense, everybody dashed out of the gym in panic, the 49-year-old driver said.

    A gymnasium ceiling collapsed, killing three coast guard personnel and a firefighter. Sinangote said he tried to roll away but was partly trapped. He was later pulled free by members of the coast guard and treated for face and arm injuries.

    It was not his first brush with death. He recalled how Typhoon Haiyan, one of the strongest tropical cyclones on record, destroyed his house in San Remigio in 2013. Haiyan left more than 7,300 people dead or missing, flattened entire villages and caused ships to run aground and smash into houses in the central Philippines.

    “It’s heartbreaking to hear what happened to Bogo city,” Sinangote said, adding that Filipinos have no option but to learn to live side by side with calamities. “After Typhoon Haiyan destroyed my house, I built it back in one year. We just have to be prepared for anything.”

    Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Uses Government Shutdown to Dole Out Firings and Political Punishment

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    Rather than simply furlough employees, as is usually done during any lapse of funds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said layoffs were “imminent.” The Office of Management and Budget announced it was putting on hold roughly $18 billion of infrastructure funds for New York’s subway and Hudson Tunnel projects — in the hometown of the Democratic leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.

    Trump has marveled over the handiwork of his budget director.

    “He can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,” the president said at the start of the week of OMB Director Russ Vought, who was also a chief architect of the Project 2025 conservative policy book.

    “So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown,” Trump said during an event at the White House.

    Thursday is day two of the shutdown, and already the dial is turned high. The aggressive approach coming from the Trump administration is what certain lawmakers and budget observers feared if Congress, which has the responsibility to pass legislation to fund government, failed to do its work and relinquished control to the White House.

    Vought, in a private conference call with House GOP lawmakers Wednesday afternoon, told them of layoffs starting in the next day or two. It’s an extension of the Department of Government Efficiency work under Elon Musk that slashed through the federal government at the start of the year.

    “These are all things that the Trump administration has been doing since January 20th,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, referring to the president’s first day in office. “The cruelty is the point.”

    With no easy endgame at hand, the standoff risks dragging deeper into October, when federal workers who remain on the job will begin missing paychecks. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated roughly 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed on any given day during the shutdown, a loss of $400 million daily in wages.

    The economic effects could spill over into the broader economy. Past shutdowns saw “reduced aggregate demand in the private sector for goods and services, pushing down GDP,” the CBO said.

    “Stalled federal spending on goods and services led to a loss of private-sector income that further reduced demand for other goods and services in the economy,” it said. Overall CBO said there was a “dampening of economic output,” but that reversed once people returned to work.

    “The longer this goes on, the more pain will be inflicted,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., “because it is inevitable when the government shuts down.”

    Trump and the congressional leaders are not expected to meet again soon. Congress has no action scheduled Thursday in observance of the Jewish holy day, with senators due back Friday. The House is set to resume session next week.

    The Democrats are holding fast to their demands to preserve health care funding, and refusing to back a bill that fails to do so, warning of price spikes for millions of Americans nationwide. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates insurance premiums will more than double for people who buy policies on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

    The Republicans have opened a door to negotiating the health care issue, but GOP leaders say it can wait, since the subsidies that help people purchase private insurance don’t expire until year’s end.

    “We’re willing to have a conversation about ensuring that Americans continue to have access to health care,” Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday at the White House.

    With Congress as a standstill, the Trump administration has taken advantage of new levers to determine how to shape the federal government.

    The Trump administration can tap into funds to pay workers at the Defense Department and Homeland Security from what’s commonly called the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that was signed into law this summer, according to CBO.

    That would ensure Trump’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation agenda is uninterrupted. But employees who remain on the job at many other agencies will have to wait for government to reopen before they get a paycheck.

    Already Vought, from the budget office, has challenged the authority of Congress this year by trying to claw back and rescind funds lawmakers had already approved — for Head Start, clean energy infrastructure projects, overseas aid and public radio and television.

    The Government Accountability Office has issued a series of rare notices of instance where the administration’s actions have violated the law. But the Supreme Court in a ruling late last week allowed the administration’s so-called “pocket rescission” of nearly $5 billion in foreign aid to stand.

    Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Matt Brown, Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Rescuers Chip Away Debris With Hand Tools to Save Those Trapped in Indonesia School Collapse

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    SIDOARJO, Indonesia (AP) — Rescuers wearing hard hats crawled into tight passages of concrete rubble, chipping away debris with hand tools to try to reach survivors days after they were trapped in Monday’s collapse of an Islamic school’s prayer hall in Indonesia.

    Some of the survivors were communicating with the rescuers working to free them.

    “How old are you, son?” a team of rescuers asked a student who was trapped.

    “Sixteen,” he replied, in a video released Wednesday by Indonesia’s Search and Rescue Agency.

    The student confirmed to the rescuers that he was not hurt but his torso was stuck in the debris of the collapsed building.

    “Be patient, OK? Haikal… where are you?” the rescuers reassured the older student while calling out to a 13-year-old boy.

    “Yes! I’m here,” Haikal responded. When asked what hurt, he said: My whole body.”

    “Be patient, son… we’re trying to get you out now,” the rescuers said.

    The 16-year-old and 13-year-old, along with three other students, were rescued Wednesday after a tunnel was dug about 70 centimeters (27.5 inches) below the base of the building to their location.

    “Their conditions were better as they were detected yesterday. They can communicate since yesterday while their bodies are covered by concrete. We have been able to provide food and drink support since Tuesday,” said Yudhi Bramantyo, deputy chief of operations at the National Search and Rescue Agency.

    The search has been complicated by the instability of the debris, and heavy equipment was not being used due to concerns it could cause further collapse.

    Rescuers were racing the clock to find survivors, with the number of missing people, mostly teen boys, continuing to be revised.

    National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari said in a statement Thursday morning that 59 people are still buried in the rubble. The revisions were due to various factors, such as some people listed as missing confirmed to have survived or to have not been at the scene when the collapse occurred.

    The death toll was also confirmed Thursday to be five, not six, after data from hospitals were verified, Muhari said.

    Of about 105 injured, more than two dozen are still hospitalized, with many said to have suffered head injuries and broken bones.

    The students were mostly boys in grades seven to 12, between ages 12 and 19.

    Authorities have said the building was two stories but two more were being added without a permit. Police said the old building’s foundation was apparently unable to support two floors of concrete and collapsed during the pouring process.

    On Wednesday evening, hundreds of family members who anxiously awaited news of their loved ones at the boarding school since they heard the incident on Monday. They filled the school’s corridors with mattresses to sleep provided by local government with sufficient food, snacks and drinks.

    “I can’t give up, I have to believe that my son is still alive, he is a hyperactive boy… he is very strong,” said Hafiah, who uses one name.

    Her son, Muhammad Abdurrohman Nafis, is 15 and in the ninth grade.

    She recalled that he ate his favorite satay rice with gusto when she visited him Sunday, a day before his friends told her Nafis had been hit in the collapse.

    She said Nafis is to graduate from al Khoziny’s junior high school in a few months and wants to continue his education at a mechanical engineering high school.

    “I couldn’t get close to him… maybe he was starving, in pain, but I couldn’t help him,” Hafiah said, “ ”I can’t give up as the rescue team is currently trying to help our children out.”

    Associated Press journalists Fadlan Syam and Achmad Ibrahim in Sidoarjo, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Anti-Foreigner Sentiments and Politicians Are on the Rise as Japan Faces a Population Crisis

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    TOKYO (AP) — Outside a train station near Tokyo, hundreds of people cheer as Sohei Kamiya, head of the surging nationalist party Sanseito, criticizes Japan’s rapidly growing foreign population.

    As opponents, separated by uniformed police and bodyguards, accuse him of racism, Kamiya shouts back, saying he is only talking common sense.

    “Many Japanese are frustrated by these problems, though we are too reserved to speak out. Mr. Kamiya is spelling them all out for us,” said Kenzo Hagiya, a retiree in the audience who said the “foreigner problem” is one of his biggest concerns.

    The populist surge comes as Japan, a traditionally insular nation that values conformity and uniformity, sees a record surge of foreigners needed to bolster its shrinking workforce.

    In September, angry protests fueled by social media misinformation about a looming flood of African immigrants quashed a government-led exchange program between four Japanese municipalities and African nations.

    Even the governing party, which has promoted foreign labor and tourism, now calls for tighter restrictions on foreigners, but without showing how Japan, which has one of the world’s fastest-aging and fastest-dwindling populations, can economically stay afloat without them.


    Kamiya says his platform has nothing to do with racism

    “We only want to protect the peaceful lives and public safety of the Japanese,” he said at the rally in Yokohama, a major residential area for foreigners. Japanese people tolerate foreigners who respect the “Japanese way,” but those who cling to their own customs are not accepted because they intimidate, cause stress and anger the Japanese, he said.

    Kamiya said the government was allowing foreign workers into the country only to benefit big Japanese businesses.

    “Why do foreigners come first when the Japanese are struggling to make ends meet and suffering from fear?” Kamiya asked. “We are just saying the obvious in an obvious way. Attacking us for racial discrimination is wrong.”


    Kamiya’s anti-immigrant message is gaining traction

    All five candidates competing in Saturday’s governing Liberal Democratic Party leadership vote to replace outgoing Shigeru Ishiba as prime minister are vowing tougher measures on foreigners.

    One of the favorites, former Economic Security Minister Sanae Takaichi, a hardline ultra-conservative, was criticized for championing unconfirmed claims that foreign tourists abused deer at a park in Nara, her hometown.

    Takaichi later said she wanted to convey the growing sense of anxiety and anger among many Japanese about ”outrageous” foreigners.

    During the July election campaign, far-right candidates insulted Japan’s about 2,000 Kurds, many of whom fled persecution in Turkey.

    A Kurdish citizen, who escaped to Japan as a child after his father faced arrest for complaining about military hazing, said he and his fellow Kurds have had to deal with people calling them criminals on social media.

    Japan has a history of discrimination against ethnic Koreans and Chinese, dating from the colonialist era in the first half of the 20th century.

    Some of that discrimination persists today, with insults and attacks targeting Chinese immigrants, investors and their businesses.

    Hoang Vinh Tien, 44, a Vietnamese resident who has lived in Japan for more than 20 years, says foreigners are often underpaid and face discrimination, including in renting apartments. He says he has worked hard to be accepted as part of the community.

    “As we hear about trouble involving foreigners, I share the concerns of the Japanese people who want to protect Japan, and I support stricter measures for anyone from any country, including Vietnam,” Hoang said.


    Rising foreigner numbers, but not nearly enough to bolster the economy

    Japan’s foreign population last year hit a new high of more than 3.7 million. That’s only about 3% of the country’s population. Japan, which also promotes inbound tourism, aims to receive 60 million visitors in 2030, up from 50 million last year.

    The foreign workforce tripled over the past decade to a record 2.3 million last year, according to Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare statistics. An increase of 300,000 from a year earlier was twice the projected pace. Many work in manufacturing, retail, farming and fishing.

    Even as the foreign population surged, only about 12,000 foreigners were arrested last year, despite alarmists’ claims that there would be a crimewave, National Police Agency figures show.

    The pro-business ruling Liberal Democratic Party in 1993 launched a foreign trainee program and has since drastically expanded its scope in phases. But the program has been criticized as an exploitive attempt to make up for a declining domestic workforce. It will be renewed in 2027 with more flexibility for workers and stricter oversight for employers.

    Many Japanese view immigrants as cheap labor who speak little Japanese, allow their children to drop out of school and live in high-crime communities, says Toshihiro Menju, a professor at Kansai University of International Studies and an expert on immigration policies.

    He says the prejudice stems from Japan’s “stealth immigration system” that accepts foreign labor as de facto immigrants but without providing adequate support for them or an explanation to the public to help foster acceptance.

    A Sanseito supporter in her 50s echoed some of these views but acknowledged that she has never personally encountered trouble with foreigners.

    Meanwhile, Japan faces real economic pain if it doesn’t figure out the immigration issue.

    The nation will need three times more foreign workers, or a total of 6.7 million people, than it currently allows, by 2040 to achieve 1.24% annual growth, according to a 2022 Japan International Cooperation Agency study. Without these workers, the Japanese economy, including the farming, fishing and service sectors, will become paralyzed, experts say.

    It is unclear whether Japan can attract that many foreign workers in the future, as its dwindling salaries and lack of diversity makes it less attractive.


    A growing party that’s part of a changing political landscape

    Sanseito started in 2020 when Kamiya began attracting people on YouTube and social media who were discontent with conventional parties.

    Kamiya, a former assembly member in the town of Suita, near Osaka, focused on revisionist views of Japan’s modern history, conspiracy theories, anti-vaccine ideas and spiritualism.

    Kamiya said he’s “extremely inspired by the anti-globalism policies” of U.S. President Donald Trump, but not his style. He invited a conservative activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk to Tokyo for talks days before his assassinationhas been also connecting with far-right parties such as the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) and Britain’s Reform UK.

    His priority, he said in an interview with The Associated Press, is to further expand his support base, and he hopes to field more than 100 candidates in future elections.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Federal Government Could Resume Taking DACA Applications for Permits to Live and Work in U.S.

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    McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The federal government is expected to again accept new applications for a program that grants some people without legal immigration status the ability to live and work in the United States.

    Lawyers for the federal government and immigrant advocates have presented plans before a federal judge that would open the door again to accepting applications for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, otherwise known as DACA.

    One state — Texas, where the case is being heard — however, would be exempted from providing work permits.

    It’s estimated that hundreds of thousands of people could be eligible to be enrolled in DACA, once a federal judge issues an order to formalize plans laid out by the Department of Justice in a legal filing made on Monday. The program, created under the Obama administration, grants people without legal immigration status who were brought into the country by their parents two-year, renewable permits to live and work in the U.S. legally.

    The program has allowed people who were brought to the United States as children to temporarily remain in the country and obtain work permits. It does not confer legal status but provides protection from deportation.

    Eligibility requirements include people who entered the country as children before their 16th birthday, were under 31 years old as of June 15, 2012, and have not been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor, or three misdemeanors. There would be restrictions related to work permits for those who reside in Texas, which filed a lawsuit against the DACA program in 2018.

    DOJ attorneys laid out the proposal before U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Monday as part of the ongoing Texas lawsuit. It would allow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to take new and renewal applications for DACA across the country, which it has not done for four years.

    In Texas, USCIS would take new and renewal applications for the DACA program but recipients residing in the state will not receive a work permit.

    Attorneys representing DACA recipients proposed adding a wind-down period that would allow Texas residents to keep their work authorization for one more renewal period.

    These proposals follow an earlier decision from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the program to continue with the work permit carveout in Texas.

    The federal government and attorneys for DACA recipients have two more opportunities in October to file responses to the proposals submitted this week. Hanen, based in Houston, will then decide what proposal or combination of proposals to implement in his order.

    Immigrant advocates are not celebrating yet but believe thousands may be eligible for the program. Aside from the over 533,000 who are enrolled already in DACA, about 1.1 million people may be eligible across the country, according to a 2023 estimate from the Migration Policy Institute.

    People interested in applying were urged to start preparing. “While we are still waiting for an official decision, we believe our communities and families should be prepared and begin gathering the required documents,” Michelle Celleri, Legal Rights Director for Alliance San Diego, said in a statement.

    Other advocates are cautiously optimistic. Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, a spokesperson for United We Dream, pointed to a section in the government’s proposal that could hint at changes. “These proposals do not limit DHS from undertaking any future lawful changes to DACA,” the government’s proposal said in Monday’s filing.

    “We need to be able to look at this in a fuller picture than just this case, because we’re seeing the administration detain and deport DACA recipients,” Macedo do Nascimento said on Wednesday.

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  • Man Charged for Role in Brooklyn Bar Shoot-Out That Killed Three; Video Shows Chaotic Scene

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man they say played a role in a gang-related shooting that broke out in a crowded Brooklyn bar this summer, leaving three dead and 10 others injured.

    For the first time Wednesday, prosecutors also released security camera footage of the chaotic gunfight, which unfolded Aug. 17 inside the Taste of City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.

    The video showed patrons scrambling for cover as bullets ricocheted across the densely-packed club, with at least 40 shots fired from five guns, prosecutors said.

    Among the shooters was Elijah Roy, a 25-year-old gang member who arrived at the club with several associates, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.

    At around 3:30 a.m., one of those associates, Marvin St. Louis, 19, began taunting a rival gang member, Jamel Childs, 35, authorities said. The confrontation quickly escalated with, authorities said, St. Louis shooting at Childs, who returned fire. Both St. Louis and St. Louis were killed in the shoot-out, as was another man, 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who is believed to have been a bystander.

    After ducking under a table, Roy fired two shots, according to prosecutors. It was unclear if those shots hit anyone. He is accused of violent assault in aid of racketeering and illegal possession of ammunition.

    Mehdi Essmidi, an attorney for Roy, did not respond to a voice message.

    Prosecutors described Roy and St. Louis as members of the 5-9 Brims, a subset of the Bloods. They said Childs was part of a rival gang, the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples.

    Roy was arrested last week in North Carolina, carrying $7,000 in cash, according to the criminal complaint. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and ordered held without bail.

    New York City has seen a year of record-low gun violence, with the fewest number of shootings and shooting victims recorded across the city during the first nine months of 2025, according to police.

    At a vigil held for the victims in August, Mayor Eric Adams said that “what happened in the Taste of the City is not a reflection of our city.”

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  • Woman Who Was Confronted by Michigan Church Gunman Says She Instantly Forgave Him for Killing Dad

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    A woman who was inside a Michigan church when her father and three other people were killed says she and the gunman locked eyes during the chaos and she was able to look into his soul, seeing his pain and a feeling of being lost. She said she instantly forgave him “with my heart.”

    “He let me live,” Lisa Louis, 45, wrote.

    A photo of a handwritten statement that Louis wrote was posted on Facebook. She described how she encountered the shooter and she also made a plea to the public for peace.

    “Fear breeds anger, anger breeds hate, hate breeds suffering,” Louis wrote. “If we can stop the hate we can stop the suffering. But stopping the hate takes all of us.”

    Thomas “Jake” Sanford, 40, rammed his pickup truck into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel in Grand Blanc Township, near Flint, on Sunday, shot at the congregation and destroyed the building with fire, police said. Police killed him at the scene.

    Friends said Sanford had expressed hatred toward the Mormon church, as it is commonly known, after living in Utah and returning to Michigan years ago. Utah is the home state of the church.

    Louis said she was kneeling next to her mortally wounded father, Craig Hayden, 72, when Sanford approached and asked a question.

    “I never took my eyes off his eyes, something happened, I saw pain, he felt lost,” Louis wrote. “I deeply felt it with every fiber of my being. I forgave him, I forgave him right there, not in words, but with my heart.”

    She also wrote: “I saw into his soul and he saw into mine. He let me live.”

    Louis declined to be interviewed by The Associated Press. Her brother-in-law, Terry Green, wrote on Facebook that he believes her interactions with the gunman “bought precious time for others to escape.”

    Besides Hayden, William “Pat” Howard and John Bond also were killed. The shooter’s fourth victim has not been publicly identified. Eight people were wounded.

    Meanwhile, a different church said Wednesday that Sanford tried to have his 10-year-old son baptized there on Sept. 21 and was upset when he was turned down.

    Sanford did not threaten staff at The River Church in Goodrich, but he was “frustrated,” Caleb Combs, an elder, told the AP. “You could see his agitation. … He wanted it done.”

    Church staff tried to get a grasp of the boy’s belief in Jesus Christ but “came to the conclusion their son was unable to understand what he was doing,” Combs said.

    Sanford and his wife did not regularly attend the church, Combs said, but had held an event there 10 years ago to raise money for the boy’s medical care. He was born with a health condition that produced abnormally high levels of insulin.

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  • Federal Safety Board Tells Philadelphia’s Mass Transit Agency to Shelve Railcars Implicated in Fires

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Federal transportation safety officials told Philadelphia’s mass transit agency this week that it should shelve an aging electric railcar model that is heavily used in its regional rail fleet until it figures out how to stop them from catching fire.

    The recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board came after it investigated five fires this year involving the Silverliner IV passenger railcars used by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA.

    In addition to suspending operation of the Silverliner IV fleet until it can fix the cause, the agency said SEPTA should fast-track the replacement of the Silverliner IV fleet or retrofit cars to meet modern fire safety standards and add systems to give the train crew detailed information on when dynamic brakes or other electrical systems aren’t functioning normally.

    All five fires forced everyone aboard to evacuate — in one case, as many as 350 passengers — with a few minor injuries reported. One railcar was involved in two of the fires, and two other railcars were destroyed, the NTSB said.

    SEPTA is one of the nation’s largest mass transit agencies, carrying 800,000 daily riders on buses, trolleys and rail.

    The recommendation comes at a time when SEPTA and major transit agencies around the U.S. are fighting for more public funding as they struggle with rising costs and lagging ridership.

    In its report, the NTSB was critical of SEPTA’s maintenance and operating practices.

    That, combined with the outdated design of the Silverliner IV railcars, “represents an immediate and unacceptable safety risk because of the incidence and severity of electrical fires that can spread to occupied compartments,” the NTSB said.

    The NTSB traced the fires to different components, including electrical components associated with the train’s propulsion system, the dynamic brakes and a traction motor.

    SEPTA did not immediately respond to questions about whether it would or could comply with the recommendations.

    In its budget report issued earlier this year, SEPTA reported that ballooning material, manufacturing and construction costs has made it more expensive for it to replace the Silverliner IV fleet.

    Still, it said the replacements are “long-overdue investments” and “can no longer be delayed.”

    It put the price tag at nearly $1 billion to replace its 230 Silverliner IV cars built by General Electric in the 1970s.

    However, SEPTA also projected that the design, procurement and construction timeline for the replacement would stretch until 2036.

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  • Looming Health Insurance Spikes for Millions Are at the Heart of the Government Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government shut down Wednesday, with Democratic lawmakers insisting that any deal address their health care demands and Republicans saying those negotiations can happen after the government is funded.

    At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The subsidies, which go to low- and middle-income people who purchase health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, are slated to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them. Their expiration would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for premiums next year, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonprofit that researches health care issues.

    Democrats have demanded that the subsidies, first put in place in 2021 and extended a year later, be extended again. They also want any government funding bill to reverse the Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump’smega-bill passed this summer, which don’t go into effect immediately but are already driving some states to cut Medicaid payments to health providers.

    Some Republicans have expressed an openness to extending the tax credits, acknowledging many of their constituents will see steep hikes in insurance premiums. But the party’s lawmakers in Congress argue negotiations over health care will take time, and a stopgap measure to get the government funded is a more urgent priority.


    Health insurance rates will skyrocket for millions without congressional action

    A record 24 million people have signed up for insurance coverage through the ACA, in large part because billions of dollars in subsidies have made the plans more affordable for many people.

    With the expanded subsidies in place, some lower-income enrollees can get health care with no premiums, and high earners pay no more than 8.5% of their income. Eligibility for middle-class earners is also expanded.

    When the tax credits expire at the end of 2025, enrollees across the income spectrum will see costs spike. Annual out-of-pocket premiums are estimated to increase by 114% — an average of $1,016 — next year, according to the KFF analysis.


    Millions expected to lose Medicaid coverage without changes to Trump’s big bill

    Republicans’ tax and spending bill passed this summer includes more than $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and food assistance over the next decade, largely by imposing new work requirements on those receiving aid and by shifting certain federal costs onto the states.

    Medicaid’s programs, which serve low-income Americans, enroll roughly 78 million adults and children. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects 10 million additional Americans will become uninsured in the next decade as a result of Republicans’ law, between Medicaid and other federal health care programs.

    Democrats want to roll back the Medicaid cuts in any government funding measure, while Republicans have argued that cuts are needed to reduce federal deficits and eliminate what they say is waste and fraud in the system.


    Democrats say health care can’t wait

    Democrats have insisted an extension of the health subsidies needs to be negotiated immediately as people are beginning to receive notices of premium increases for next year.

    “In just a few days, notices will go out to tens of millions of Americans because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

    He added the higher health care costs millions of Americans are facing are coming “in an environment where the cost of living is already too high.”

    At the White House on Monday, congressional Democratic leaders shared their health care concerns with Trump. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said after the meeting that Trump “was not aware” that so many Americans would see increases to their health care costs.


    Republicans call for stopgap funding first, and a negotiation later

    Republican leaders say they handed Democrats a noncontroversial stopgap funding measure and argue that Democrats are instead choosing to shut the government down.

    “We didn’t ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said after Tuesday’s failed vote. “We didn’t add partisan riders. We simply asked Democrats to extend the existing funding levels, to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started. And the Senate Democrats said no.”

    Republican leaders have offered to negotiate with Democrats on ACA health insurance subsidies — but only once they vote to keep the government open until Nov. 21.

    “I will go to the Capitol right now to talk to Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats about premium support for the Affordable Care Act, but only after they’ve reopened the government,” Vice President JD Vance said Wednesday on Fox News.

    That might be easier said than done, with many Republicans in Congress still strongly opposed to extending the enhanced tax credits.

    Swenson reported from New York.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Morgan Wallen Denied Throwing Chair off Bar Roof to Police in 2024, Footage Shows

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    Roughly two weeks after his April 2024 arrest, Wallen commented on social media: “I’m not proud of my behavior, and I accept responsibility” and said he “made amends” with Nashville law enforcement and others. Then in December, he pleaded guilty to two counts.

    The Metro Nashville Police Department released the footage of Wallen’s arrest, captured by several officers’ body and cruiser cameras, in response to a public records request from the AP. A previously released arrest affidavit did not get into the details of what Wallen told officers.


    A broken chair by Chief’s

    A police car camera shows two officers, who were standing outside, react to something apparently falling from above on a late Sunday night. And one officer’s body camera video begins with a shot of a broken chair in the road near his parked police cruiser, close to Chief’s on Broadway, in the city’s entertainment district.

    Then, as Wallen and his bodyguard team come down to the main entrance on Broadway, one of the men with Wallen is shouting, “He didn’t see anything. You don’t have witnesses, you are accusing!”

    “He didn’t throw nothing, he didn’t throw nothing,” the bodyguard continues, and accuses two bar workers of “being aggressive.”

    When an officer asks Wallen what happened, the musician replies, “I don’t know.”

    He later tells another officer, “We’ve not tried to cause no problems, man. I don’t know what they are — I don’t know why.”

    That officer said police were figuring out what happened after a chair came flying off the roof and landed by his patrol car. Wallen replied, “As you should.”

    At one point, Wallen is on his cellphone, then points it at the officer and says, “Eric Church is on the phone.” Church, another country star, co-owns Chief’s. During the call, Wallen had used an expletive to describe the officers he said were “trying to take me to jail outside of your (expletive) bar.”

    Church, who can’t be heard on the police recording, recommended to the officer that Wallen wait in a private space instead of standing on the public sidewalk, said a representative for Church.

    The officer responds: “It’s not really something we can do. Law enforcement have to enforce the laws. Figure out what happened. We’ve got a supervisor coming to the scene. Gotta treat it like we would with anybody else.”

    Representatives for Wallen did not respond to requests for comment.

    Back in the bar, police were in an office watching security footage from the roof, body camera footage shows. The security video was not clear from the officers’ body cameras and a police spokesperson said there was no security camera footage from the bar in the case files.

    The officers return outside and a sergeant, who says he watched security video of Wallen throwing a chair off the roof, handcuffs him.

    Another officer talks to two witnesses. One, referring to the chair, says she saw Wallen “lift it up and throw it off” and laugh.

    Throughout the hour-and-a-half ordeal, Wallen makes apologetic comments to officers without explicitly admitting to anything, including: “I truly didn’t mean no harm,” “Sorry to cause problems, I didn’t mean to,” and “God damn it, I am sorry man.”

    “He didn’t admit to it, but we got him on camera doing it,” one sergeant says after Wallen was cuffed, also noting police had witness statements.

    Some fans took notice as Wallen stood surrounded by police in Nashville’s busy tourist hub. One yells, “We love you Morgan!” Once Wallen is in the back of the police car, he says to the officer, “Get us out of here,” noting that people were videotaping him.

    Born and raised in Sneedville, Tennessee, the two-time Grammy nominee is one of the biggest names in contemporary popular music, loved for his earworm hooks and distinctive combination of bro country, dirt-rock and certain hallmarks of hip-hop. 2023’s “One Thing at a Time” broke Garth Brooks’ record for longest running No. 1 country album, and this year’s “I’m The Problem” spent 12 weeks at No. 1.

    Wallen’s career has been marked by several other controversies, including a 2020 arrest on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges after being kicked out of Kid Rock’s bar in downtown Nashville. In 2021, after a video surfaced of him using a racial slur, he was disqualified or limited from several award shows and received no Grammy nominations for his massively popular “Dangerous: The Double Album.”


    A Thomas Rhett sing-along

    Wallen was talkative in the cruiser, the footage shows, saying, “I ain’t done nothing wrong,” and pressing the officer for his favorite country musicians.

    “I can tell you my top three right now,” the officer replies. “You’re honestly one of them.” One of Wallen’s songs with Thomas Rhett comes on from the officer’s playlist.

    “This is me and Thomas Rhett! Turn it up. That’s me and TR! That’s me right there,” Wallen says, before singing a couple of the words from the song.

    “TR is one of the best dudes in the world. He would definitely not be getting arrested,” Wallen adds.

    Wallen pleaded guilty in December 2024 to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to spend seven days in a DUI education center and be under supervised probation for two years.

    When the judge asked how he would plead, he said, “Conditionally guilty.” His attorney has said the charges will be eligible for dismissal and expungement after he completes probation.

    Wallen’s own Nashville honky tonk, not far from Chief’s, opened less than two months after his arrest.

    Associated Press Music Writer Maria Sherman contributed to this story from New York.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Ford’s Third-Quarter US Auto Sales Rise 8.2%

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    (Reuters) -Ford Motor Co reported an 8.2% rise in its third-quarter U.S. auto sales on Wednesday, aided by steady SUV and pickup truck demand.

    The Detroit automaker reported sales of 545,522 units during the quarter compared with 504,039 units a year earlier.

    (Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • UnitedHealth to Exit Medicare Advantage Plans in 16 US Counties

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    NEW YORK (Reuters) -UnitedHealth said it will stop offering Medicare Advantage plans in 16 U.S. counties in 2026, impacting 180,000 members, as the company balances higher costs with reimbursement pressure in the insurance program.

    “The combination of (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) funding cuts, rising healthcare costs and increased utilization have created headwinds that no organization can ignore,” said Bobby Hunter, who runs the company’s government programs.

    UnitedHealth is leaving the counties but will continue to operate in most states, he said in a Tuesday press briefing.

    The government pays private insurers to operate the Medicare Advantage plans for people 65 and older or with disabilities. The company’s UnitedHealthcare insurance business has the most enrolled members, ahead of rivals CVS Health and Humana.

    UnitedHealth suspended its full-year guidance this year, after missing earnings for the first time since 2008. The company attributed the first-quarter earnings miss to unexpected costs in its Medicare Advantage business as members increased use of medical services.

    UnitedHealth in a second-quarter earnings call said regulatory changes set to decrease payments the company receives for certain conditions would present a $4 billion risk to insurance profits in 2026.

    It flagged in its second-quarter earnings release that closing certain plans with about 200,000 members could help mitigate the impact.

    When compared with 2023, Hunter said government funding will have dropped in 2026 by about 20%.

    The company will cease operating over 100 plans representing about 600,000 members in all, largely comprised of preferred provider organizations or those that allow members to see providers outside of a plan network, Hunter said.

    The exits will likely steer patients toward health maintenance organizations, or plans which require more frequent referrals and limit patients to a network of providers, Hunter said.

    Most plan closures will occur in rural areas said Hunter, where UnitedHealthcare is still working to streamline operations: “We need a model that is sustainable and allows us to bring care to folks in those areas in a cost-effective way.”

    (Reporting by Amina Niasse; Editing by Caroline Humer and Jane Merriman)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Texas’ Redrawn US House Map That Boosts GOP Begins a Key Court Test

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    A panel of federal judges will begin Wednesday to consider whether Texas can use a redrawn congressional map that boosts Republicans and has launched a widening redistricting battle ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

    The case in an El Paso courtroom is the first test of Texas’ new map, which was quickly redrawn this summer to give Republicans five more seats at the urging of President Donald Trump in an effort to preserve the slim Republican U.S. House majority.

    Civil rights groups and dozens of Black and Hispanic voters joined the lawsuit, saying the new map intentionally reduces minority voters’ influence. Their lawsuit argues that the new district lines represent racial gerrymandering prohibited by the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution.

    Texas Republican lawmakers and state leaders deny these claims, saying the map is a legal partisan gerrymander.

    The hearing is expected to last more than a week. It is unclear how quickly the judges will issue a ruling.

    The new map eliminated five of the state’s nine “coalition” districts, where no minority group has a majority but together they outnumber non-Hispanic white voters.

    “Race and party have folded onto each other,” said Keith Gaddie, a Texas Christian University political science professor who has testified as an expert witness in redistricting cases over the past 25 years. “What could be seen as being racial gerrymandering could just be partisan gerrymandering.”

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering.


    Texas says critics cloak partisan fears in rhetoric about race

    The new Texas map is designed to give Republicans 30 of the state’s 38 House seats, up from 25 now.

    The state’s attorneys argue that Texas officials’ persistent statements about their partisan motives show they weren’t engaged in illegal racial gerrymandering but were in a “political arms-race,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office said in a recent court filing.

    The move in Texas has subsequently led some other states — Republican-led as well as those led by Democrats — to respond with some redistricting plans of their own in a scramble to try to dominate the midterm elections.

    In court filings, Paxton’s office argued that Republicans are offsetting past Democratic gerrymanders, and the Texas map’s critics “seek to use race as a foil to kneecap Texas’s efforts to even the playing field.”

    “Whenever they do not get what they want, they cry racism,” its filing said.


    Making a case involves detailed election analysis

    The case will be heard by a panel of three judges, one each appointed by Trump, and Presidents Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan.

    Attorneys for groups and voters challenging the map aim to show that a trial is likely to prove the new lines deny minority voters opportunities to elect candidates of their choosing.

    “States have to follow rules when they redistrict,” said Nina Perales, an attorney representing some the voters and groups, including the League of United Latin American Citizens. “They provide essentially the buffer guards to protect the democratic process.”

    The judges are likely to hear a detailed analysis of voting patterns.

    “The minority community has to be what’s called politically cohesive, which tends to mean that members of that community overwhelmingly tend to prefer the same candidates in elections,” said Richard Pildes, a constitutional law professor at New York University.


    Critics see new, ‘sham’ minority districts

    The new map decreased the total number of congressional districts in which minorities comprise a majority of voting-age citizens from 16 to 14.

    Republicans argue the map is better for minority voters. While five “coalition” districts are eliminated, there’s a new, eighth Hispanic-majority district, and two new Black-majority districts.

    Critics consider each of those new districts a “sham,” arguing that the majority is so slim that white voters, who tend to turn out in larger percentages, will control election results.

    “There is growing animus against African-American and other communities who have historically been disenfranchised,” said Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s national president. “This is consistent with the current climate and culture germinating from the White House.”

    Critics also argued that the 2021 map itself didn’t have enough minority districts. For example, Perales said, Houston has enough Hispanic voters for two such districts, and the new map has one.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill at Least 16 as the World Awaits Hamas’ Response to Trump’s Peace Plan

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    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza on Wednesday, with at least 16 Palestinians reported killed across the strip as the world awaited Hamas’ response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan for the embattled territory.

    The dead included people who had sought refuge in a school sheltering the displaced in Gaza City. Al-Falah school in the city’s eastern Zeitoun neighborhood was hit twice, minutes apart, according to officials at Al-Ahli Hospital.

    Among the casualties were first responders, they said. Five Palestinians were killed later on Wednesday morning, when a strike hit people gathered around a drinking water tank on the western side of Gaza City, the same hospital said.

    Also in Gaza City, the Shifa Hospital said it received the body of a man killed in a strike on his apartment west of the city.

    Israeli strikes also hit the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing a husband and wife, the Al-Awda hospital said. Another man was killed in a separate strike in the Bureij refugee camp, according to the same hospital.

    A funeral was planned for Yahya Barzaq, a journalist working for Turkish broadcast outlet TRT who was killed in a strike in Gaza on Tuesday, according to the broadcaster.

    The Israeli army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the killed journalist or Wednesday’s strikes.

    Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 66,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 170,000 others, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its toll, but has said women and children make up around half of the dead.

    The war was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1,200 people and abducted 250 others. Most of the hostages have been freed under previous ceasefire deals, but 48 are estimated to be still held in Gaza — 20 believed by Israel to be still alive.

    The comments by Qatar, a key mediator, appeared to reflect Arab countries’ discontent over the text of the 20-point plan that the White House put out after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced they had agreed on it Monday.

    The plan, which has received wide international support, requires Hamas to release hostages, leave power in Gaza and disarm in return for the release of Palestinian prisoners and an end to fighting. The plan guarantees the flow of humanitarian aid and promises reconstruction in Gaza, placing it and its more than 2 million Palestinians under international governance. However, it sets no path to Palestinian statehood.

    The Palestinian government in the occupied West Bank said earlier it welcomed the plan, as did the governments of Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.


    More roadblocks and a flotilla headed to Gaza

    The Israeli military said that starting at midday Wednesday, it would only allow Palestinians to travel south along the only north-south route still open in the coastal strip — meaning, people fleeing the intensifying fighting in Gaza City can continue to head south but they could not go north.

    While the military did not offer more details on the closure, the road carries great symbolism for Palestinians. Earlier this year, when Israel opened access to the north — Gaza’s most heavily destroyed area — hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crowded it, seeing their return as an act of steadfastness and defiance.

    Hundreds of thousands remain displaced across Gaza, and finding food is a daily struggle.

    A widely watched flotilla of activists carrying a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid is sailing toward Gaza, in what organizers have described as the largest attempt to date to break Israel’s maritime blockade of the strip.

    The activists aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla of about 50 vessels say they expect Israeli authorities to intercept them, as has happened in past flotilla attempts to reach Gaza. On Wednesday, they said two of the vessels were harassed by an Israeli warship overnight, though it stopped short of intercepting them.

    Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Giovanna Dell’Orto in Jerusalem and Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Greece General Strike Disrupts Services Across the Country

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    ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A nationwide general strike in Greece left ferries tied up in port and disrupted public transportation across the capital on Wednesday, as public and private sector workers protest changes to the country’s labor laws.

    No taxis in Athens or trains will run for the duration of the 24-hour strike, while buses and the city’s subway, tram and trolley services were operating on a reduced schedule.

    The strike was disrupting services across the country, including in schools, courts, public hospitals and municipalities. Two protest marches were planned in central Athens, with demonstrations also set for other cities.

    Unions representing civil servants and private sector workers called the strike to protest labor law changes that will introduce more flexibility, including allowing overtime that could stretch shifts to 13 hours in a day. Under the new regulations, working hours that include overtime would be capped at 48 hours per week, with a maximum 150 overtime hours allowed per year.

    Unions argue the new rules leave workers vulnerable to labor abuses by employers.

    “We say no to the 13-hour (shift). Exhaustion is not development, human tolerance has limits,” the private sector umbrella union, the General Confederation of Workers of Greece, said in a statement. The union called for a 37½-hour working week and the return of collective bargaining agreements.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Activists From Sudan, Myanmar, Pacific Islands, and Taiwan Receive Human Rights Award

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    STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Right Livelihood Award was awarded Wednesday to activists from Sudan and Myanmar, where military and political violence devastates communities, to the Pacific Islands, where climate disaster threatens entire nations, and to Taiwan, which is the frequent target of threats and disinformation.

    “As authoritarianism and division rise globally, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates are charting a different course: one rooted in collective action, resilience and democracy to create a livable future for all,” the Stockholm-based foundation said about the winners. It considered 159 nominees from 67 countries this year.

    The youth-led organization Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change and Julian Aguon were awarded the prize “for carrying the call for climate justice to the world’s highest court, turning survival into a matter of rights and climate action into a legal responsibility.”

    Justice for Myanmar was awarded “for their courage and their pioneering investigative methods in exposing and eroding the international support to Myanmar’s corrupt military.” The covert group of activists is working to expose the financial architecture and global corporate complicity sustaining the military government, Right Livelihood said.

    Audrey Tang from Taiwan won the prize “for advancing the social use of digital technology to empower citizens, renew democracy and heal divides.” Tang is a “civic hacker and technologist who rewires systems for the public good,” the organization said.

    In Sudan, the Emergency Response Rooms network was awarded for “for building a resilient model of mutual aid amid war and state collapse that sustains millions of people with dignity.” The Sudanese community-led network has become the backbone of the country’s humanitarian response amid war, displacement and state collapse. They helps includes health care, food assistance, and education, where many international aid organizations cannot reach, according to the foundation.

    Created in 1980, the annual Right Livelihood Award honors efforts that the prize founder, Swedish-German philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull, felt were being ignored by the Nobel Prizes.

    “At a time when violence, polarization and climate disasters are tearing communities apart, the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureates remind us that joining hands in collective action is humanity’s most powerful response,” said Ole von Uexkull, the nephew of the prize founder and the organization’s executive director.

    “Their courage and vision create a tapestry of hope and show that a more just and livable future is possible,” he added.

    Previous winners include Ukrainian human rights defender Oleksandra Matviichuk, Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. Matviichuk and Mukwege received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 and 2018, respectively.

    The Right Livelihood Award comes just a week before the Nobel Prizes. The 2025 laureates will be given their awards on Dec. 2 in Stockholm. The size of the prize amount was not announced.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Asian Shares Are Mixed as Markets Shrug off a Likely US Government Shutdown

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    Shares were mixed in Asia on Wednesday, with Chinese markets closed for a weeklong holiday, as a U.S. government shutdown loomed.

    Japan’s Nikkei 225 index shed 1.2% to 44,411.26 after the Bank of Japan reported a slight improvement in business sentiment among major manufacturers.

    The BOJ’s quarterly tankan adds to the likelihood the central bank will raise its key interest rate soon, to counter inflation that has topped its target range of about 2% for some time.

    Political uncertainty is also looming over Japan’s markets, with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party due to chose a new leader and prime minister later this week to replace embattled Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

    Although markets and offices in mainland China are closed Oct. 1-8 for the National Day holiday, China’s central bank said it plans a 1.1 trillion yuan ($160 billion) reverse repo operation on Oct. 9, to increase the amount of cash in circulation and stimulate consumer spending and business investment.

    Elsewhere in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi gained 0.8% to 3,450.62, while Taiwan’s Taiex added 1.3% on heavy buying of semiconductor-related shares.

    Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 8,812.90.

    Markets appeared to be taking a potential shutdown of the U.S. government in stride ahead of a midnight U.S. Eastern time deadline. Past U.S. government shutdowns have had a limited impact on the economy and stock market, and many investors expect something similar this time around.

    Many economists and professional investors expect something similar this time around.

    The S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 6,688.46 to close out its fifth straight winning month after setting a record last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%, to set its own all-time high at 46,397.89.

    The Nasdaq composite ticked 0.3% higher to 22,660.01.

    A second report suggested the job market may be remaining in its “low-hire, low-fire” state. U.S. employers were advertising roughly the same number of job openings at the end of August as the month before. The hope on Wall Street had been for a number that’s neither too high nor too low, one balanced enough to keep the Fed on track to continue cutting interest rates.

    When Wall Street will get the next data reports on the job market is uncertain, since a government shutdown would cause delays for several important reports, including Friday’s on how many jobs U.S. employers created and destroyed in September.

    The Department of Labor has said that the Bureau of Labor Statistics will completely cease operations if there’s a lapse. The agency already was strained by Trump’s firing of Erika McEntarfer as BLS commissioner on Aug. 1 after the July jobs report showed a rapid slowdown in hiring, with job gains in May and June revised much lower than initially estimated.

    Late Tuesday, the White House was withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the bureau, according to an AP source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a White House action that hadn’t been publicly announced.

    Oil-related companies weighed on the market as the price of crude fell again as traders see too much oil washing around the world. Baker Hughes sank 3.6%, and Schlumberger fell 2.1%.

    Early Wednesday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 11 cents at $62.48 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 12 cents to $66.15 per barrel.

    The U.S. dollar rose to 147.98 Japanese yen from 147.94 yen. The euro inched up to $1.1738 from $1.1734.

    AP Business Writers Stan Choe and Matt Ott contributed.

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  • Planned Parenthood Closes Louisiana Clinics After 40 Years Due to Financial and Political Pressure

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    BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Planned Parenthood on Tuesday shuttered its two clinics in Louisiana over what the organization said were mounting financial and political challenges that made operating in the state no longer possible after more than 40 years.

    The closures make Louisiana the most populous of just four states with no Planned Parenthood locations.

    The exit underlines the pressures on Planned Parenthood as it warns of wider closures nationwide in the face of Medicaid funding cuts in President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill. The organization is also halting advocacy work in Louisiana, where the state’s Republican leaders have cheered on the closures.

    The closures were “not the result of a lack of need” but rather the outcome of “relentless political assaults that have made it impossible for us to continue operating sustainably in Louisiana,” said Melaney Linton, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

    Supporters have said the closures will have a detrimental impact on Louisiana, where Planned Parenthood has never been licensed to perform abortions in the state but did provide other medical care services to nearly 11,000 patients last year at its Baton Rouge and New Orleans clinics.

    Advocates and medical professionals fear that the organization’s departure will further exacerbate reproductive health care in a state that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country. In addition, a March report by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office noted the state’s significant OB-GYN shortage and health care deserts.


    Planned Parenthood warns of more closures

    Earlier this year, five clinics in California and eight in Iowa and Minnesota shut their doors. In the past week, the Wisconsin affiliate announced that it would stop providing abortion and the Arizona affiliate said it would halt Medicaid-funded services.

    Louisiana joins Wyoming, North Dakota and Mississippi as states where the organization is absent.

    “This is a win for babies, a win for mothers, and a win for LIFE!” Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry posted on social media Tuesday.


    High numbers of Medicaid patients

    Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of services, including cancer screenings and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment. Federal Medicaid money was already not paying for abortion, but affiliates relied on Medicaid to stay afloat.

    In Louisiana, a state with one of the nation’s highest poverty rates, 60% of patients at Planned Parenthood clinics used Medicaid. Last year, the clinics in Louisiana provided nearly 30,000 tests for sexually transmitted infections, 14,400 visits for birth control, 1,800 cancer screenings and 655 ultrasounds.

    Nearly a decade ago, Jordyn Martin said she turned to Planned Parenthood when she couldn’t afford medical services anywhere else. While at the clinic, a doctor offered Martin a free HIV test. A week later, she was diagnosed with the virus.

    “Planned Parenthood saved my life,” said Martin, who went on to volunteer for the organization.


    Connecting patients with new providers

    Outside of the New Orleans Planned Parenthood clinic Tuesday, several people gathered and brought thank-you notes to the organization that has spent four decades in Louisiana. Inside the building, up until close, staff worked to connect patients with alternative health care providers.

    Starting Wednesday, calls to Planned Parenthood numbers in Louisiana will be transferred to the nearest location in Texas or Arkansas.

    Michelle Erenberg, the head of a New Orleans-based abortion rights group named LIFT, said people have been contacting her for help to find new clinics. She said it was important to connect people with providers but worries about the strain it will put on clinics that are already short-staffed.

    “Whether patients are going to be able to get appointments quickly, or access all of the services that Planned Parenthood provided, is unknown at this point,” she said.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • US Says It Encourages South Korean Investment at Meeting on Worker Visas

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    SEOUL (Reuters) -The U.S. and South Korea are working closely to advance their trade and investment partnership including by processing appropriate visas for qualified South Korean workers, the U.S. State Department said.

    U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau stressed the “critical role” of skilled workers of foreign companies investing in the U.S. at the first working group meeting on new visas for South Korean companies, the State Department said in a statement.

    The meeting between senior State Department and South Korean foreign ministry officials aimed at improving U.S. visa programmes for South Korean businesses was held in Washington on Tuesday.

    Landau said the United States was committed to encouraging investment by companies from South Korea as one of the leading foreign investors in the U.S., the statement said.

    The talks were set up in the aftermath of a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai Motor car battery facility under construction in the U.S. state of Georgia in September where hundreds of South Korean workers were arrested.

    The arrests, which stunned the South Korean government and public, highlighted the lack of access to the right class of U.S. visas for specialised South Korean workers needed at investment sites.

    (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Jamie Freed)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • New Orleans Police Official Says Crime Is Down After Governor Requests National Guard Troops

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    NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A top New Orleans police official on Tuesday welcomed the possibility of a National Guard deployment in his city but pushed back on suggestions of rising crime rates and said he was unclear on how the military might be used.

    Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is asking for up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help fight crime in his state, a request that comes weeks after President Donald Trump raised the potential of sending troops to New Orleans.

    In a letter sent Monday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Landry cited “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and shortages in local law enforcement. But Hans Ganthier, the assistant superintendent of New Orleans’ police department, disputed that the numbers were up.

    “Our crime rate is going down,” Ganthier told reporters.

    New Orleans is on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more than five decades, according to preliminary data from the city’s police department. There have been 84 homicides in 2025 as of Sept. 27, including 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street. There were 124 homicides last year and 193 in 2023, according to city figures. Armed robberies, aggravated assaults, carjackings, shootings and property crimes have also declined.

    His recent plans to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois and Oregon follow a crime crackdown by military personnel in the District of Columbia, immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and the deployment of troops to Memphis. The president says the expansion into American cities is necessary, blasting Democrats for crime and lax immigration policies. He has referred to Portland, Oregon, as “war-ravaged” and threatened apocalyptic force in Chicago.

    “We collaborate well with anyone, whether it is the state police, federal government, federal agents, different parishes, and the National Guard shouldn’t be any different,” Ganthier said. “If they can help us, be a multiplier for our forces, I welcome them.”


    Louisianans react to possible troop deployment

    Landry’s request proposes a deployment of troops to “urban centers” around the state under a mission that would “provide logistical and communication support, and secure critical infrastructure.” He said operations would follow established rules for use of force and prioritize community outreach to ensure transparency and trust.

    New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said during a Tuesday meeting that he had been hearing from street performers and others who were concerned that National Guard troops would disrupt the city’s traditions, such as brass band parades through the streets known as “second-lines.”

    “The last thing they want is the National Guard stumbling across a second-line and trying to do crowd control on their own,” Morrell said.

    Louisiana’s Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said that while National Guard deployments to Louisiana cities is “not a permanent solution,” he does believe it will help deter crime.

    “Increased law enforcement decreases crime, no matter the color of the uniform,” Cassidy told reporters Tuesday.


    Deployment prospect in Chicago adds to tension

    The federal immigration processing center in Broadview, a community of about 8,000 people just west of downtown Chicago, has been at the front lines of the immigration operation. It’s where hundreds of arrested immigrants are being processed for deportation or detention in neighboring states.

    Armed immigration agents have used chemical agents and increasingly aggressive tactics against protesters that local police say are unnecessary, dangerous to residents and raise serious concerns.

    “We are experiencing an immediate public safety crisis,” Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills told reporters Tuesday.

    In Oregon, Democratic Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a motion in federal court Monday seeking to temporarily block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard.

    The motion is part of a lawsuit Rayfield filed Sunday, after state leaders received a Defense Department memo that said 200 members of the state’s National Guard will be placed under federal control for 60 days to “protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur.”

    Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek are among local leaders who object to the deployment.

    U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday on X that the Memphis Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by President Donald Trump to fight crime in Memphis, Tennessee, is underway with 219 officers being deputized. Bondi said nine arrests were made on Monday.

    Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporters Sara Cline and Stephen Smith in New Orleans; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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