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Tag: Military and defense

  • US signals broader efforts to protect Nigeria’s Christians following Trump’s military threat

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration is promoting efforts to work with Nigeria’s government to counter violence against Christians, signaling a broader strategy since he ordered preparations for possible military action and warned that the United States could go in “guns-a-blazing” to wipe out Islamic militants.

    A State Department official said this past week that plans involve much more than just the potential use of military force, describing an expansive approach that includes diplomatic tools, such as potential sanctions, but also assistance programs and intelligence sharing with the Nigerian government.

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also met with Nigeria’s national security adviser to discuss ways to stop the violence, posting photos on social media of the two of them shaking hands and smiling. It contrasted with Trump’s threats this month to stop all assistance to Nigeria if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”

    The efforts may support Trump’s pledge to avoid more involvement in foreign conflicts and come as the U.S. security footprint has diminished in Africa, where military partnerships have either been scaled down or canceled. American forces likely would have to be drawn from other parts of the world for any military intervention in Nigeria.

    Still, the Republican president has kept up the pressure as Nigeria faced a series of attacks on schools and churches in violence that experts and residents say targets both Christians and Muslims.

    “I’m really angry about it,” the president said Friday when asked about the new violence on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio. He alleged that Nigeria’s government has “done nothing” and said “what’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”

    The Nigerian government has rejected his claims.

    Following his meeting Thursday with Nigerian national security adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Hegseth on Friday posted on social media that the Pentagon is “working aggressively with Nigeria to end the persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”

    “Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians and conveyed the Department’s desire to work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

    Jonathan Pratt, who leads the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, told lawmakers Thursday that “possible Department of War engagement” is part of the larger plan, while the issue has been discussed by the National Security Council, an arm of the White House that advises the president on national security and foreign policy.

    But Pratt described a wide-ranging approach at a congressional hearing about Trump’s recent designation of Nigeria as “a country of particular concern” over religious freedom, which opens the door for sanctions.

    “This would span from security to policing to economic,” he said. “We want to look at all of these tools and have a comprehensive strategy to get the best result possible.”

    The violence in Nigeria is far more complex than Trump has portrayed, with militant Islamist groups like Boko Haram killing both Christians and Muslims. At the same time, mainly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers have been fighting over land and water. Armed bandits who are motivated more by money than religion also are carrying out abductions for ransom, with schools being a popular target.

    In two mass abductions at schools this past week, students were kidnapped from a Catholic school Friday and others taken days earlier from a school in a Muslim-majority town. In a separate attack, gunmen killed two people at a church and abducted several worshippers.

    The situation has drawn increasing global attention. Rapper Nicki Minaj spoke at a U.N. event organized by the U.S., saying “no group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion.”

    If the Trump administration did decide to organize an intervention, the departure of U.S. forces from neighboring Niger and their forced eviction from a French base near Chad’s capital last year have left fewer resources in the region.

    Options include mobilizing resources from far-flung Djibouti in the Horn of Africa and from smaller, temporary hubs known as cooperative security locations. U.S. forces are operating in those places for specific missions, in conjunction with countries such as Ghana and Senegal, and likely aren’t big enough for an operation in Nigeria.

    The region also has become a diplomatic black hole following a series of coups that rocked West Africa, leading military juntas to push out former Western partners. In Mali, senior American officials are now trying to reengage the junta.

    Even if the U.S. military redirects forces and assets to strike inside Nigeria, some experts question how effective military action would be.

    Judd Devermont, a senior adviser of the Africa program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said if Trump orders a few performative airstrikes, they would likely fail to degrade the Islamic militants who have been killing Christians and Muslims alike.

    “Nigeria’s struggles with insecurity are decades in the making,” said Devermont, who was senior director for African affairs at the National Security Council under Democratic President Joe Biden. “It will not be reversed overnight by an influx of U.S. resources.”

    Addressing the violence would require programs such as economic and interfaith partnerships as well as more robust policing, Devermont said, adding that U.S. involvement would require Nigeria’s cooperation.

    “This is not a policy of neglect by the Nigerian government — it’s a problem of capacity,” Devermont said. “The federal government does not want to see its citizens being killed by Boko Haram and doesn’t want to see sectarian violence spiral out the way it has.”

    The Nigerian government rejected unilateral military intervention but said it welcomes help fighting armed groups.

    Boko Haram and its splinter group, Islamic State of West Africa Province, have been waging a devastating Islamist insurgency in the northeastern region and the Lake Chad region, Africa’s largest basin. Militants often crisscross the lake on fast-moving boats, spilling the crisis into border countries like Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

    U.S. intervention without coordinating with the Nigerian government would carry enormous danger.

    “The consequences are that if the U.S deploys troops on the ground without understanding the context they are in, it poses risks to the troops,” said Malik Samuel, a security researcher at Good Governance Africa.

    Nigeria’s own aerial assaults on armed groups have routinely resulted in accidental airstrikes that have killed civilians.

    To get targeting right, the governments need a clear picture of the overlapping causes of farmer-herder conflict and banditry in border areas. Misreading the situation could send violence spilling over into neighboring countries, Samuel added.

    ___

    Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria, and Metz from Rabat, Morocco.

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  • Coast Guard reverses course on policy to call swastikas and nooses ‘potentially divisive’

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard has released a new, firmer policy addressing the display of hate symbols like swastikas and nooses just hours after it was publicly revealed that it made plans to describe them as “potentially divisive” — a term that prompted outcry from lawmakers and advocates.

    “Divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited,” the latest Coast Guard policy, released late Thursday, declared before adding that this category included “a noose, a swastika, and any symbols or flags co-opted or adopted by hate-based groups.”

    “This is not an updated policy but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down that the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols,” an accompanying Coast Guard press release said.

    The late-night change came on the same day that media outlets, led by The Washington Post, discovered that the Coast Guard had written a policy earlier this month that called those same symbols “potentially divisive.” The term was a shift from a years-long policy, first rolled out in 2019, that said symbols like swastikas and nooses were “widely identified with oppression or hatred” and called their display “a potential hate incident.”

    The latest policy that was rolled out Thursday night also unequivocally banned the display of any divisive or hate symbols from all Coast Guard locations. The earlier version stopped short of banning the symbols, instead saying that commanders could take steps to remove them from public view and that the rule did not apply to private spaces outside of public view, such as family housing.

    Both policies maintained a long-standing prohibition on publicly displaying the Confederate flag outside of a handful of situations, such as educational or historical settings.

    The latest Coast Guard policy appears to take effect immediately.

    After the initial policy change became public, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada said the change “rolls back important protections against bigotry and could allow for horrifically hateful symbols like swastikas and nooses to be inexplicably permitted to be displayed.”

    “At a time when antisemitism is rising in the United States and around the world, relaxing policies aimed at fighting hate crimes not only sends the wrong message to the men and women of our Coast Guard, but it puts their safety at risk,” she added.

    Admiral Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, said the policy did not roll back any prohibitions, calling it “categorically false” to claim otherwise in a statement released earlier Thursday.

    “These symbols have been and remain prohibited in the Coast Guard per policy,” Lunday said in a statement, adding that “any display, use or promotion of such symbols, as always, will be thoroughly investigated and severely punished.”

    Lunday’s predecessor, Admiral Linda Fagan, was fired on President Donald Trump’s first day in office. Trump officials later said she fired in part for putting an “excessive focus” on diversity and inclusion efforts that diverted “resources and attention from operational imperatives.”

    The older policy that was rolled out earlier in November also explicitly said that “the terminology ‘hate incident’ is no longer present in policy” and conduct that would have previously been handled as a potential hate incident will now be treated as “a report of harassment in cases with an identified aggrieved individual.”

    Commanders, in consultation with lawyers, may order or direct the removal of “potentially divisive” symbols or flags if they are found to be affecting the unit’s morale or discipline, according to the policy.

    The newest policy is silent on whether Coast Guard personnel will be able to claim they were victims of hate incidents.

    The Coast Guard is under the Department of Homeland Security, but it is still considered a part of America’s armed forces and the new policy was updated in part to be consistent with similar Pentagon directives, according to a Coast Guard message announcing the changes.

    It also has historically modeled many of its human resources policies on other military services.

    The policy change comes less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of all the hazing, bullying and harassment definitions across the military, arguing that the policies were “overly broad” and they were “jeopardizing combat readiness, mission accomplishment, and trust in the organization.”

    The Pentagon could not offer any details about what the review was specifically looking at, if it could lead to similar changes as seen in the Coast Guard policy or when the review would be complete.

    Menachem Rosensaft, a law professor at Cornell University and a Jewish community leader, said in a statement that “the swastika is the ultimate symbol of virulent hate and bigotry, and even a consideration by the Coast Guard to no longer classify it as such would be equivalent to dismissing the Ku Klux Klan’s burning crosses and hoods as merely ‘potentially divisive.’”

    Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the move “disgusting, and it’s more encouragement from the Republicans of extremism.”

    ___

    Haigh reported from Norwich, Connecticut.

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  • Trump: Democrats’ message to military ‘seditious behavior’

    President Donald Trump is accusing half a dozen Democratic lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” after the lawmakers called on U.S. military members to uphold the Constitution and defy “illegal orders.” The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from…

    By MEG KINNARD – Associated Press

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  • Melania Trump and Usha Vance are making an early holiday visit with North Carolina military families

    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump and Usha Vance were headed out on their first trip together Wednesday to spend time with North Carolina service members and their families in a show of appreciation for their service and sacrifice as the holidays approach.

    The wives of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a former Marine, were scheduled to visit with military personnel at Camp Lejeune, the largest Marine Corps base on the East Coast, and Marine Corps Air Station New River.

    The day includes joint appearances with military-connected students and remarks from both women to a gathering of service members and their families, according to Trump’s office.

    The first lady was expected in her remarks to recognize the Marine Corps’ 250 years of service, express gratitude to Marines and military families, especially during the holiday season, and highlight the importance of families in supporting the U.S. military.

    She also was expected to highlight another issue she has been focusing on lately: the rapid evolution of technology, including artificial intelligence.

    Both women were hitting the road the morning after they attended the first formal White House dinner of Trump’s second administration, a black-tie affair planned by the first lady to honor Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.

    They have appeared together at other public events, most notably at the inauguration of their husbands at the Capitol in January. Other joint appearances came at a White House event celebrating military mothers and a luncheon for Senate spouses, both in May; opening night of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center in June; and the president’s signing last week of an executive order to help foster children. The order was in support of the first lady’s Fostering the Future program, which is part of her child-focused Be Best initiative.

    Melania Trump has centered her work around children, starting with the launch of Be Best during her husband’s first term to focus on their welfare, online safety and opioid abuse.

    Last month, she announced that eight children displaced by the Russia-Ukraine war had been reunited with their families following talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Earlier this year, the first lady helped lobby Congress to pass legislation imposing federal penalties for online sexual exploitation, often targeting young girls. Her husband signed the bill into law in May.

    Usha Vance, a former lawyer, launched a “Summer Reading Challenge” to encourage students in kindergarten through eighth grade to read 12 books during the school break. Certificates and prizes were promised to those who completed the challenge.

    The second lady often accompanies the vice president on his trips and sometimes brings along their three young children.

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  • US aircraft carrier arrives in the Caribbean in major buildup near Venezuela

    WASHINGTON — The nation’s most advanced aircraft carrier arrived in the Caribbean Sea on Sunday in a display of U.S. military power, raising questions about what the new influx of troops and weaponry could signal for the Trump administration’s intentions in South America as it conducts military strikes against vessels suspected of transporting drugs.

    The arrival of the USS Gerald R. Ford and other warships, announced by the Navy in a statement, marks a major moment in what the administration insists is a counterdrug operation but has been seen as an escalating pressure tactic against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

    The Ford rounds off the largest buildup of U.S. firepower in the region in generations. With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen Navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and Marines.

    The carrier’s arrival came as the military announced its latest deadly strike on a small boat it claims was engaged in ferrying illegal drugs. The military’s Southern Command posted a video on X on Sunday showing the boat being blown up, an attack it said took place Saturday in international waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean and killed three men. The military did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

    Since early September, such strikes by the U.S. in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific have now killed at least 83 people in 21 attacks.

    The carrier strike group, which includes squadrons of fighter jets and guided-missile destroyers, transited the Anegada Passage near the British Virgin Islands on Sunday morning, the Navy said.

    Rear Adm. Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere.”

    Adm. Alvin Holsey, the commander who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that the American forces “stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilize our region.”

    Holsey, who will retire next month after just a year on the job, said the strike group’s deployment is “a critical step in reinforcing our resolve to protect the security of the Western Hemisphere and the safety of the American Homeland.”

    In Trinidad and Tobago, which is only 7 miles from Venezuela at its closest point, government officials said troops have begun “training exercises” with the U.S. military that will run through much of the week.

    Minister of Foreign Affairs Sean Sobers described the joint exercises as the second in less than a month and said they are aimed at tackling violent crime on the island nation, which has become a stopover point for drug shipments headed to Europe and North America. The prime minister has been a vocal supporter of the U.S. military strikes.

    The exercises will include Marines from the 22nd Expeditionary Unit who have been stationed aboard the Navy ships that have been looming off Venezuela’s coast for months.

    Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression. It had no immediate comment Sunday on the arrival of the aircraft carrier.

    Meanwhile, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said Sunday that U.S. troops have been training in Panama, underscoring the administration’s increasing focus on Latin America.

    “We’re reactivating our jungle school in Panama. We would be ready to act on whatever” Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth needed, he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

    The administration has insisted that the buildup of American forces in the region is focused on stopping the flow of drugs into the U.S., but it has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists.” Trump has indicated military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the U.S. would “stop the drugs coming in by land.”

    The U.S. has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because their warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country. Some experts say the Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation for Maduro in a push to get him to step down.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the United States does not recognize Maduro, who was widely accused of stealing last year’s election, as Venezuela’s legitimate leader. Rubio has called Venezuela’s government a “transshipment organization” that openly cooperates with those trafficking drugs.

    Rubio said in a statement released Sunday evening that the State Department intends to designate Cartel de los Soles, or Cartel of the Suns, a foreign terrorist organization. Rubio said the cartel is headed by Maduro and other high-ranking members of his government and is among those “responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.” When the designation takes effect on Nov. 24, it will be a crime to provide “material support” to the cartel or its members.

    Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S., has said the U.S. government is “fabricating” a war against him. On his Facebook page, Maduro wrote on Sunday that the “Venezuelan people are ready to defend their homeland against any criminal aggression.”

    Venezuela’s government recently touted a “massive” mobilization of troops and civilians to defend against possible U.S. attacks. Maduro and other officials in Venezuela’s socialist party also have been attending rallies this weekend to back the creation of neighborhood committees that will be in charge of increasing membership in Venezuela’s socialist party, and promoting the party’s policies.

    Trump has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organizations.

    He has faced pushback from leaders in the region, the U.N. human rights chief and U.S. lawmakers, including Republicans, who have pressed for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.

    Senate Republicans, however, recently voted to reject legislation that would have put a check on Trump’s ability to launch an attack against Venezuela without congressional authorization.

    Experts disagree on whether or not American warplanes may be used to strike land targets inside Venezuela. Either way, the 100,000-ton warship is sending a message.

    “This is the anchor of what it means to have U.S. military power once again in Latin America,” said Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region. “And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the U.S. is to really use military force.”

    ___

    Associated Press writers Anselm Gibbs in Port of Spain, Trinidad, and Gabriela Molina in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

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  • South Korean president calls for aggressive AI spending in budget speech

    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday called for tripling the government spending on projects for expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure and technology in a budget speech.

    Lee also called for lawmakers to approve a planned 8.2% increase in defense spending next year, which he said would help modernize the military’s weapons systems and reduce its reliance on the United States, as the allies’ military chiefs met in Seoul for annual security talks.

    Most conservative opposition lawmakers boycotted Lee’s speech amid an ongoing rift over a criminal investigation into former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s brief imposition of martial law in December.

    Lee’s speech came after South Korea last week hosted the leaders of major Pacific Rim nations for this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, which his government used to showcase its ambitions for AI and advance an effort at a trade deal with the U.S.

    In his speech at the National Assembly, Lee highlighted his APEC diplomacy and a bilateral meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, which he said eased uncertainties facing South Korea’s trade-dependent economy by securing lower tariffs on automobiles and computer chips, two of the country’s key exports.

    He said the country was still facing a critical moment for “national survival” amid rapid changes in the global trade order and a “huge, transformative wave of AI.”

    Lee said the proposed budget of 728 trillion won ($506 billion), which would represent an all-time high for government spending, would be the country’s “first budget to open the AI era.”

    He called on the liberal-led legislature to approve 10.1 trillion won ($6.9 billion) in AI-related spending — more than triple this year’s level — to advance the country’s AI computing and manufacturing capabilities, with a particular focus on industries such as semiconductors, automobiles, shipbuilding and robotics.

    “Just as President Park Chung-hee paved the highway for industrialization and President Kim Dae-jung built the highway for the information age, we must now construct the highway for the AI era to open a future of progress and growth,” Lee said, referring to major development drives under Park’s dictatorship in the 1960s and ’70s and Kim’s presidency from 1998 to 2003, which focused on expanding South Korea’s internet infrastructure.

    Lee said South Korean companies would have little difficulty securing the chips for their AI projects, citing a deal for Nvidia, whose GPUs power much of the global AI industry, to supply 260,000 graphics processing units for AI infrastructure projects with major South Korean businesses and the government. The deal was announced following a meeting during APEC between Lee and Jensen Huang, the Silicon Valley company’s chief executive.

    It isn’t immediately clear when Nvidia — which agreed to deliver 50,000 GPUs each to the government, chipmakers Samsung and SK, and automaker Hyundai, and another 60,000 to internet company Naver — will deliver those chips. Huang told reporters in South Korea that AI data centers and power networks must first be established before the company can begin shipping the GPUs.

    Concerns have grown over the projects’ future after Trump said aboard Air Force One on Monday that only U.S. customers should have access to Nvidia’s latest Blackwell AI chips, declaring, “We don’t give that chip to other people.”

    Lee proposed a defense budget of 66.3 trillion won ($46 billion) next year, which he said will be focused on modernizing the military’s weapons systems, including through the adoption of AI technologies, to make the armed forces more self-reliant.

    “It’s a matter of national pride that South Korea, which spends 1.4 times North Korea’s annual GDP on defense and is perceived as the world’s fifth most powerful military, continues to depend on others for its security,” Lee said.

    During his meeting with Trump, Lee reaffirmed South Korea’s commitment to increase defense spending and called for U.S. support for South Korean efforts to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

    Trump later said on social media that the United States will share closely-held technology to allow South Korea to build a nuclear-powered submarine, and that the vessel will be built in the Philly Shipyard in Philadelphia, which was bought last year by South Korea’s Hanwha Group.

    Lee’s speech came as U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and South Korean Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back were meeting in Seoul for the allies’ annual security talks. The meeting is expected to address key alliance issues, including South Korea’s defense spending commitments and the implementation of a plan to transfer wartime operational control to a joint command led by a South Korean general with a U.S. deputy.

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  • Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba pick up the pieces

    SANTIAGO DE CUBA, Cuba — The rumble of large machinery, whine of chain saws and chopping of machetes echoed through communities across the northern Caribbean on Thursday as they dug out from the destruction of Hurricane Melissa and surveyed the damage left behind.

    In Jamaica, government workers and residents began clearing roads in a push to reach dozens of isolated communities in the island’s southeast that sustained a direct hit from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.


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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By ARIEL FERNÁNDEZ, ANDREA RODRÍGUEZ and JOHN MYERS JR. – Associated Press

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  • Mali closes schools due to fuel scarcity as militants enforce blockade

    BAMAKO, Mali — Mali closed schools and universities nationwide starting Sunday due to a fuel scarcity caused by a blockade on fuel imports jihadi militants imposed on the capital.

    Education Minister Amadou Sy Savane announced on state television classes would be suspended for two weeks “due to disruptions in fuel supplies that are affecting the movement of school staff.”

    Militants from the al-Qaida-backed Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin group announced a ban on fuel imports from neighboring countries into Mali in early September, squeezing the landlocked country’s fragile economy and leaving hundreds of fuel trucks stranded at the border.

    Mali, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, has battled an insurgency by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group as well as local rebels. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, they have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance, which analysts say has made little difference.

    In Mali’s capital, Bamako, endless queues have stretched in front of gas stations and the fuel scarcity has affected the price of commodities and transportation.

    For a country that relies on fuel imports for domestic needs, the blockade is seen as a significant setback for Mali’s military junta. The junta defended its forceful takeover of power in 2020 as a necessary step to end decades of security crises.

    The Malian military attempted to escort some fuel trucks from border areas to Bamako. Some trucks arrived but others were attacked by militants.

    The education minister said Sunday that authorities were “doing everything possible” to restore normal fuel supplies before schools resume classes Nov. 10.

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  • US military flew supersonic B-1 bombers up to the coast of Venezuela

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday, a little over a week after another group of American bombers made a similar journey as part of a training exercise to simulate an attack.

    The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off of Venezuela, raising speculation that President Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.

    Adding to the speculation, the U.S. military since early September has been carrying out lethal strikes on vessels in the waters off Venezuela that Trump says are trafficking drugs.

    According to flight tracking data, a pair of B-1 Lancer bombers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on Thursday and flew through the Caribbean and up to the coast of Venezuela. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, confirmed that a training flight of B-1s took place in the Caribbean.

    The B-1 bomber can carry more bombs than any other plane in the U.S. inventory.

    A similar flight of slower B-52 Stratofortress bombers was conducted in the region last week. The bombers were joined by Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets — a squadron is currently based in Puerto Rico — for what the Pentagon called a “bomber attack demo” in photos online.

    When Trump was asked about Thursday’s B-1 flight and if it was meant to ramp up military pressure on Venezuela, he said, “it’s false, but we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”

    The U.S. force in the Caribbean includes eight warships, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones and an F-35 fighter squadron. A submarine has also been confirmed to be operating in the waters off South America.

    Trump on Wednesday said he has the “legal authority” to carry out the strikes on the alleged drug-carrying boats and suggested similar strikes could be done on land.

    “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the military had conducted its ninth strike, killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It followed a strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people and brought the overall death toll from the strikes to at least 37.

    The latest pair of strikes expanded the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in South America from the waters of the Caribbean to the eastern Pacific.

    Hegseth has drawn a direct comparison between the war on terrorism that the U.S. declared after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the Trump administration’s crackdown.

    “Our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al-Qaeda,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday at the White House.

    “We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he added.

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  • Pentagon announces ‘new’ press corps filled with conservative news outlets

    Several conservative news outlets said Wednesday they had agreed to a new press policy rejected by virtually all legacy media organizations and will take their place in the Pentagon to cover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the U.S. military.

    The new Pentagon press corps will include the Gateway Pundit, the National Pulse, Human Events, podcaster Tim Pool, the Just the News website founded by journalist John Solomon, Frontlines by Turning Point USA and LindellTV, run by “MyPillow” CEO Mike Lindell.

    The Pentagon’s announcement came less than a week after dozens of reporters from outlets like The New York Times, The Associated Press, CNN and the Washington Post turned in their access badges rather than agree to a policy the journalists say will restrict them to covering news approved by Hegseth.

    Hegseth’s spokesman, Sean Parnell, announced the “next generation” of the Pentagon press corps with more than 60 journalists who had agreed to the new policy. He said 26 journalists who had previously been part of the press corps were among the signees. The department wouldn’t say who any of them were, but several outlets reposted his message on X saying they had signed on.

    There isn’t even unanimity among organizations that appeal to conservative consumers. Fox News Channel, by far the most popular news source for fans of President Donald Trump, was among the walkouts, as was Newsmax.

    In a post on X, Parnell denounced the “self-righteous media who chose to self-deport from the Pentagon.”

    “Americans have largely abandoned digesting their news through the lens of activists who masquerade as journalists in the mainstream media,” Parnell wrote. “We look forward to beginning a fresh relationship with members of the new Pentagon press corps.”

    The journalists who left the Pentagon haven’t stopped working covering the U.S. military. Many have been reporting aggressively, for example, on stories about strikes against boats in central America alleged to be part of the drug trade.

    By not being in the Pentagon, “reporters will have to work harder, there’s no question about it,” said Barbara Starr, a longtime Pentagon reporter retired from CNN.

    “But the real price is paid by the American people and the American military families,” Starr said. “Military families who have their sons and daughters serving, they want to know everything and they want to know it fast.”

    Starr wondered about Hegseth: “What is he so afraid of?” New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote a biting piece about the defense secretary over the weekend titled “Fraidy-Cat at the Pentagon.” But Hegseth’s boss, President Trump, has expressed support for the new media policy and Hegseth’s aggressive moves mirror some of those made by the administration. The president has sued outlets like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal for their coverage of him.

    Some of the outlets that accepted Hegseth’s rules will have to staff up for their new roles: Just the News, for example, posted an ad online seeking a Pentagon reporter.

    The Gateway Pundit’s White House correspondent, Jordan Conradson, posted on Wednesday that he was excited to join the Pentagon press corps “and help restore honest journalism after agreeing to follow basic rules … something the legacy media refuses to do!”

    Lindell, whose My Pillow ads once blanketed Fox News before he joined the political media, posted a statement that LindellTV was “proud to be part of a new generation of news organizations reshaping how real information reaches the public.”

    Some of the publications pronounce themselves conservative in their mission statements. The “about” page on the National Pulse features a picture of Trump.

    ___

    David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social

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  • Myanmar military shuts down a major cybercrime center and detains over 2,000 people

    BANGKOK — BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military has shut down a major online scam operation near the border with Thailand, detaining more than 2,000 people and seizing dozens of Starlink satellite internet terminals, state media reported Monday.

    Myanmar is notorious for hosting cyberscam operations responsible for bilking people all over the world. These usually involve gaining victims’ confidence online with romantic ploys and bogus investment pitches.

    The centers are infamous for recruiting workers from other countries under false pretenses, promising them legitimate jobs and then holding them captive and forcing them to carry out criminal activities.

    Scam operations were in the international spotlight last week when the United States and Britain enacted sanctions against organizers of a major Cambodian cyberscam gang, and its alleged ringleader was indicted by a federal court in New York.

    According to a report in Monday’s Myanma Alinn newspaper, the army raided KK Park, a well-documented cybercrime center, as part of operations starting in early September to suppress online fraud, illegal gambling, and cross-border cybercrime.

    It published photos displaying seized Starlink equipment and soldiers said to be carrying out the raid, though it was unclear when exactly they were taken.

    KK Park is located on the outskirts of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand in Myanmar’s Kayin state. The area is only loosely under the control of Myanmar’s military government, and also falls under the influence of ethnic minority militias.

    Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government, charged in a statement Monday night that the top leaders of the Karen National Union, an armed ethnic organization opposed to army rule, were involved in the scam projects at KK Park.

    The allegation was previously made based on claims that a company backed by the Karen group allowed the land to be leased. However, the Karen, who are part of the larger armed resistance movement in Myanmar’s civil war, deny any involvement in the scams.

    Myanma Alinn said the army ascertained that more than 260 buildings were unregistered, and seized equipment, including 30 sets of Starlink satellite internet terminals. It said 2,198 individuals were detained though it did not give their nationalities.

    Starlink is part of Elon Musk’s SpaceX company and the terminals link to its satellites. It does not have licensed operations in Myanmar, but at least hundreds of terminals have been smuggled into the Southeast Asian nation.

    The company could not be immediately reached for comment Monday but its policy bans “conduct that is defamatory, fraudulent, obscene, or deceptive.”

    There have been previous crackdowns on cyberscam operations in Myanmar earlier this year and in 2023.

    Facing pressure from China, Thailand and Myanmar’s governments launched an operation in February in which they released thousands of trafficked people from scam compounds, working with the ethnic armed groups that rule Myanmar’s border areas.

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  • Ultraconservative Sanae Takaichi on track to become Japan’s first female prime minister

    TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Sanae Takaichi is on track to become Japan’s first female prime minister, after her governing party secured a crucial coalition partner.

    Takaichi, 64, is set to replace Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba in Tuesday’s parliamentary vote. If she’s successful, it would end Japan’s three-month political vacuum and wrangling since the coalition’s loss in the July parliamentary election.

    The moderate centrist Komeito party had split from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party after a 26-year-long coalition. It came just days after Takaichi’s election as LDP leader, and forced her into a desperate search for a new coalition partner to secure votes so that she can become prime minister.

    The Buddhist-backed Komeito left after raising concerns about Takaichi’s ultraconservative politics and the LDP’s lax response to corruption scandals that led to the party’s consecutive election defeats and loss of majority in both houses.

    While the leaders of the country’s top three opposition parties failed to unite to seek a change of government, Takaichi went for a quick fix by teaming up with the most conservative of them: the Osaka-based Ishin no Kai, or Japan Innovation Party. The two parties on Monday signed a coalition agreement that includes joint policy goals on diplomacy, security and energy.

    The fragile new coalition, still a minority in the legislature, would need cooperation from other opposition groups to pass any legislation.

    Big diplomatic tests await the government within days — talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and regional summits. At home, Takaichi needs to quickly tackle rising prices and come up with economic stimulus measures to appease the frustrated public.

    An admirer of former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi’s breaking of the glass ceiling makes history in a country whose gender equality ranks poorly internationally.

    But many women aren’t celebrating, and some see her impending premiership as a setback.

    “The prospect of a first female prime minister doesn’t make me happy,” sociologist Chizuko Ueno posted on X. Ueno said that Takaichi’s leadership would elevate Japan’s gender equality ranking, but “that doesn’t mean Japanese politics becomes kinder to women.”

    Takaichi, an ultraconservative star of her male-dominated party, is among those who have stonewalled measures for women’s advancement. Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the civil law allowing separate last names for married couples, so women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.

    “Ms. Takaichi’s policies are extremely hawkish and I doubt she would consider policies to recognize diversity,” said Chiyako Sato, a political commentator and senior writer for the Mainichi newspaper.

    If she’s successful in the parliamentary vote, Takaichi would immediately launch her Cabinet on Tuesday and make a policy speech later in the week.

    A protege of assassinated former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Takaichi is expected to emulate his economic and security policies.

    She would have only a few days to prepare for diplomatic talks at regional summits, and with Trump in between. She is expected to keep ties with China and South Korea stable, despite concerns over her revisionist views on wartime history and past visits to the Yasukuni Shrine.

    The shrine honors Japan’s 2.5 million war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression, especially China and the Koreas, see visits to the shrine as a lack of remorse about Japan’s wartime past.

    Takaichi supports a stronger military, currently undergoing a five-year buildup with the annual defense budget doubled to 2% of gross domestic product by 2027. Trump is expected to demand that Japan increase its military spending to NATO targets of 5% of GDP, and purchase more U.S. weapons.

    Takaichi also needs to follow up on Japan’s pledge of investing $550 billion in the U.S. as part of a U.S. tariff deal.

    Her policy plans have focused on short-term measures such as battling rising prices and improving salaries and subsidies, as well as restrictions against a growing foreign population as Japan faces a rise in xenophobia. Takaichi hasn’t addressed bigger issues like demographic challenges.

    Takaichi’s mission is to regain conservative votes by pushing the party further to the right. The LDP’s coalition with the right-wing JIP may fit Takaichi’s view.

    On Friday, Takaichi sent a religious ornament instead of going to the Yasukuni Shrine, apparently to avoid a diplomatic dispute with Beijing and Seoul. She also reached out to smaller opposition groups, including the far-right Sanseito, apparently in a bid to bring her coalition closer to securing a majority in parliament.

    “There is no room for Takaichi to show her true colors. All she can do is cooperate per policy,” said Masato Kamikubo, a Ritsumeikan University political science professor. “It’s a pathetic situation.”

    Many observers expect a Takaichi government wouldn’t last long and an early election may follow this year.

    Experts also raised concerns about how Takaichi, a fiscal expansionist, can coordinate economic policies with Ishin’s fiscal conservative views.

    “The era of LDP domination is over and we are entering the era of multiparty politics. The question is how to form a coalition,” Sato said, noting a similar trend in Europe. “We need to find a Japanese way of forming a coalition and a stable government.”

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  • A war on drugs or a war on terror? Trump’s military pressure on Venezuela blurs the lines

    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — Under President Donald Trump, the drug war is looking a lot like the war on terror.

    To support strikes against Latin American gangs and drug cartels, the Trump administration is relying on a legal argument that gained traction after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which allowed U.S. authorities to use lethal force against al-Qaida combatants who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

    The criminal groups now being targeted by U.S. strikes are a very different foe, however, spawned in the prisons of Venezuela, and fueled not by anti-Western ideology but by drug trafficking and other illicit enterprises.

    Trump’s use of overwhelming military force to combat such groups and authorization of covert action inside Venezuela, possibly to oust President Nicolás Maduro, stretches the bounds of international law, legal scholars say. It comes as Trump expands the military’s domestic role, deploying the National Guard to U.S. cities and saying he’s open to invoking the nearly 150-year-old Insurrection Act, which allows for military deployment in only exceptional instances of civil unrest.

    So far, the military has killed at least 27 people in five strikes on boats that the White House said were carrying drugs.

    The strikes — the most recent came Tuesday, in which the U.S. killed six people — have occurred without any legal investigation or a traditional declaration of war from Congress. That raises questions about the justifications for Trump’s actions and the impact they could have on diplomatic relations with Latin American nations who recall with deep resentment repeated U.S. military interventions during the Cold War.

    The U.S. intelligence community has also disputed Trump’s central claim that Maduro’s administration is working with the Tren de Aragua gang and orchestrating drug trafficking and illegal immigration into the U.S.

    Trump’s assertion that the United States is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels is based on the same legal authority used by the Bush administration when it declared a war on terror after the Sept. 11 attacks. That includes the ability to capture and detain combatants and to use lethal force to take out their leadership.

    But the United Nations charter specifically forbids the use of force except in self-defense.

    “You just can’t call something war to give yourself war powers,” said Claire Finkelstein, a professor of national security law at the University of Pennsylvania. “However frustrated we may be with the means and results of law enforcement efforts to combat the flow of drugs, it makes a mockery of international law to suggest we are in a noninternational armed conflict with cartels.”

    After 9/11, it was clear that al-Qaida was actively plotting additional attacks designed to kill civilians. But the cartels’ main ambition is selling dope. And that, while harmful to American security overall, is a dubious justification for invoking war powers, said Geoffrey Corn, a Texas Tech law professor who previously served as the Army’s senior adviser for law-of-war issues.

    “This is the government, in my humble opinion, wanting to invoke war powers for a lot of reasons” — including political ones, Corn said.

    “Even if we assume there’s an armed conflict with Tren de Aragua, how do we know everyone in that boat was an enemy fighter?” he said. “I think Congress needs to know that.”

    Asked at the White House on Wednesday why the U.S. does not use the Coast Guard to stop the Venezuelan vessels and seize any drugs, Trump replied, “We have been doing that for 30 years and it has been totally ineffective.”

    The president also suggested the U.S. may strike targets inside Venezuela, a move that would significantly escalate tensions and the legal stakes. So far, the strikes have occurred in international waters beyond the jurisdiction of any single country.

    “We’ve almost totally stopped it by sea,” Trump said of flow of drugs. “Now we’ll stop it by land.”

    Trump was also asked about a New York Times report saying he had authorized a covert CIA operation in Venezuela. Trump, who has harshly criticized the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq that overthrew the government of Saddam Hussein, declined to say whether he had given the CIA authority to take out Maduro, saying it would be “ridiculous” to answer.

    Numerous U.S. laws and executive orders since the 1970s make it illegal to assassinate foreign officials. But in declaring the Venezuelans unlawful combatants, Trump may be seeking to sidestep those restrictions and return to an earlier era in which the United States — in places like Guatemala, Chile and Iran — regularly carried out covert regime change missions.

    “If you pose a threat, and are making war on the U.S., you’re not a protected person,” Finkelstein said.

    During Trump’s first term, Maduro was indicted on U.S. federal drug charges, including narcoterrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. This year, the Justice Department doubled a reward for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million, accusing him of being “one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world.”

    But Trump’s focus on Venezuela overlooks a basic fact of the drug trade: The bulk of American overdose deaths are from fentanyl, which is transported by land from Mexico. And while Venezuela is a major drug transit zone, around 75% of the cocaine produced in Colombia, the world’s leader, is smuggled through the eastern Pacific Ocean, not the Caribbean.

    Under the Constitution, it must be Congress that declares war. So far, though, there has been little indication that Trump’s allies will push back on the president’s expansionist view of his own power to go after cartels the White House blames for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths each year.

    The GOP-controlled Senate recently voted down a war powers resolution sponsored by Democrats that would have required the president to seek authorization from Congress before further military strikes.

    Despite pressure even among some Republicans for a more complete account, the Trump administration has yet to provide underlying evidence to lawmakers proving that the boats targeted by the U.S. military were carrying narcotics, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine said he and other members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in a classified briefing this month were also denied access to the Pentagon’s legal opinion about whether the strikes adhered to U.S. law.

    Legal pushback isn’t likely to sway the White House either. A Supreme Court decision arising from an attempt in 1973 by a Democratic congresswoman to sue the Pentagon to stop the spread of the Vietnam War to neighboring Laos and Cambodia set a high bar for any legal challenge of military orders, Finkelstein said.

    Meanwhile, relatives of the Venezuelans killed in the boat attacks face their own obstacles following several high court rulings narrowing the scope of foreign citizens to sue in the U.S.

    The military strikes took place in international waters, opening the door for the International Criminal Court to launch an investigation along the lines of its war crimes probes against Russia and Israel — which, like the United States, don’t recognize the court’s authority.

    But the Hague-based court has been consumed by a sexual misconduct probe that forced its chief prosecutor to step aside. U.S. sanctions over its indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have also hindered its work.

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  • Senate Democrats reject government funding bill for 10th time

    Senate Democrats are rejecting for the 10th time a stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government. They are insisting they won’t back away from demands that Congress take up health care benefits. The repetition of votes on the funding…

    By STEPHEN GROVES and MARY CLARE JALONICK – Associated Press

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  • FACT FOCUS: Trump paints a grim portrait of Portland. The story on the ground is much less extreme

    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — President Donald Trump, members of his administration and conservative influencers painted a bleak portrait of Portland, Oregon, at a roundtable event at the White House Wednesday, alleging that the city has been besieged by violence perpetrated by “antifa thugs” and that it is essentially a war zone.

    “It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with the domestic terror group antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately,” Trump said.

    But the reality on the ground in Portland is far from the extremes described at the White House.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    The protests

    TRUMP: “In Portland, Oregon, antifa thugs have repeatedly attacked our offices and laid siege to federal property in an attempt to violently stop the execution of federal law.”

    THE FACTS: There have been nightly protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland for months, peaking in June when police declared one demonstration a riot. There have also been smaller clashes since then: On Labor Day, some demonstrators brought a prop guillotine — a display the U.S. Department of Homeland Security blasted as “unhinged behavior.”

    The protests at the ICE facility, which is outside downtown, have largely been confined to one city block and have attracted a range of participants. During the day, a handful of immigration and legal advocates mill about and offer copies of “know your rights” flyers. Daytime marches to the building have also included older people and families with young children. At night, other protesters arrive, often using megaphones to shout obscenities at law enforcement.

    While the administration claims protesters are antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for decentralized far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

    The building was closed for three weeks from mid-June to early July because of damage to windows, security cameras, gates and other parts of the facility, federal officials said in court filings submitted in response to a lawsuit brought by Portland and Oregon seeking to block the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard. The building’s main entrance and ground-floor windows have been boarded up.

    Protesters have also sought to block vehicles from entering and leaving the facility. Federal officials argue that this has impeded law enforcement operations and forced more personnel and resources to be sent from other parts of the country.

    However, in the weeks leading up to the Trump administration’s move to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard on Sept. 28, most nights drew a couple dozen people, Portland police correspondence submitted to the court shows.

    Protests began growing again after the National Guard was ordered to Portland over the objections of local and state officials.

    Since June, Portland police have arrested at least 45 people, with the majority of those arrests taking place in June. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have charged at least 31 people with crimes committed at the building, including assaulting federal officers; 22 of those defendants had been charged by early July.

    Is Portland on fire?

    TRUMP: “The amazing thing is, you look at Portland and you see fires all over the place. You see fights, and I mean just violence. It’s just so crazy. And then you talk to the governor and she acts like everything is totally normal, there’s nothing wrong.”

    THE FACTS: Fires outside the building have been seen on a handful of occasions. In June, a man was arrested after he lit a flare and tossed it onto a pile of materials stacked against the vehicle gate, according to federal prosecutors, who said the fire was fully extinguished within minutes.

    More recently, social media videos of the Labor Day protest showed a small fire lit on the prop guillotine. And in early October, following the announcement of the National Guard’s mobilization, videos on social media showed a protester holding an American flag on fire — and conservative influencer Nick Sortor stomping the fire out.

    There have also been some high-profile confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters. In late September, conservative media figure Katie Daviscourt was hit in the face with a flagpole and suffered a laceration, police logs show. In early October, Sortor, who has more than 1 million followers on X, was arrested along with two other protesters following an altercation. Local prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him after finding that one of the protesters had pushed him and that “any physical contact he had with other persons was defensive in nature.”

    While Portland police correspondence submitted to the court notes a few instances of “active” energy and disturbances between protesters and counterprotesters, many entries describe low energy and “no issues” in the weeks leading up to the National Guard’s mobilization.

    A new tongue-in-cheek website has also launched in recent days: isportlandburning.com shows multiple live cameras in the city and near-real-time data from the city’s fire department.

    Shops and sewers

    TRUMP: “I don’t know what could be worse than Portland. You don’t even have sewers anymore. They don’t even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows. But most of the retailers have left.”

    THE FACTS: This is false. Portland does have sewers — its sewer and stormwater system “includes more than 2,500 miles of pipes, nearly 100 pump stations, and two treatment plants,” according to the city’s website. The largest sewer pipe is the East Side Big Pipe, which has an inside diameter of 22 feet, while the smallest are only six inches in diameter.

    Local and state officials have suggested that many of Trump’s claims appear to rely on images from 2020. Portland famously erupted in more than 100 days of large-scale unrest and violent protests after George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police that year. Police were unable to keep ahead of splinter groups of black-clad protesters who broke off and roamed the downtown area, at times breaking windows, spraying graffiti and setting small fires.

    But Portland has largely recovered from that time. Under a new mayor and police chief, the city has reduced crime, and the downtown — which has more than 600 retail shops, many with glass storefronts — has seen a decrease in homeless encampments and increased foot traffic. This summer was reportedly the busiest for pedestrian traffic since before the coronavirus pandemic, and a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.

    Gov. Tina Kotek said she told Trump during a phone call that “we have to be careful not to respond to outdated media coverage or misinformation that is out there.”

    Accusation of a cover-up

    KRISTI NOEM, Homeland Security Secretary: “I was in Portland yesterday and had the chance to visit with the governor of Oregon, and also the mayor there in town, and they are absolutely covering up the terrorism that is hitting their streets.”

    THE FACTS: Noem did visit Portland on Tuesday and met with Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson. Both officials disagree with Noem’s narrative.

    Kotek has repeatedly said that “there is no insurrection in Portland,” including in conversations with Trump and Noem, and that the city does not need “military intervention.” She has also continually called for any protests to be peaceful and said that local law enforcement can “meet the moment.” After Trump threatened to send the National Guard to Portland, Wilson said in a statement that the city has protected freedom of expression while “addressing occasional violence and property destruction.”

    Observations on the ground in Portland support Kotek’s statement. While the nightly protests at the ICE facility have been disruptive for nearby residents — a charter school relocated this summer to get away from crowd-control devices — life has continued as normal in the rest of the city. There is no evidence of the protests in other areas of the city, including the downtown area about two miles away.

    Portland residents have taken to social media to push back against the Trump administration’s statements about their city with the hashtag #WarRavagedPortland, posting photos and videos that show protesters in inflatable unicorn and frog costumes, along with people walking their dogs, riding their bikes and shopping at farmers markets.

    ___

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

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  • Russian barrage causes blackouts in Ukraine as Zelenskyy seeks Trump’s help

    KYIV, Ukraine — KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia battered Ukraine’s energy facilities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in its latest heavy bombardment of the country’s power grid, authorities said Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to ask President Donald Trump at a White House meeting for more American-made air defenses and long-range missiles.

    As he considers Zelenskyy’s push for U.S. missiles, Trump said after Thursday’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they will meet in Budapest, Hungary to try to bring the war to an end. No date for the meeting has been set.

    Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will discuss his call with Putin “and much more” when he meets Zelenskyy on Friday, adding that “I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation.”

    Meanwhile, eight Ukrainian regions experienced blackouts after the barrage, Ukraine’s national energy operator, Ukrenergo, said. DTEK, the country’s largest private energy company, reported outages in the capital, Kyiv, and said it had to stop its natural gas extraction in the central Poltava region due to the strikes. Natural gas infrastructure was damaged for the sixth time this month, Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company, said.

    Zelenskyy said Russia fired more than 300 drones and 37 missiles at Ukraine overnight. He accused Russia of using cluster munitions and conducting repeated strikes on the same target to hit emergency crews and engineers working to repair the grid.

    “This fall, the Russians are using every single day to strike our energy infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

    The Ukrainian power grid been one of Russia’s main targets since its invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago. Attacks increase as the bitterly cold months approach in a Russian strategy that Ukrainian officials call “weaponizing winter.” Russia says it aims only at targets of military value.

    Ukraine has hit back by targeting oil refineries and related infrastructure that are crucial for Russia’s economy and war effort. Ukraine’s general staff said Thursday its forces struck Saratov oil refinery, in the Russian region of the same name, for the second time in two months. The facility is located some 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukrainian border. Moscow made no immediate comment on the claim.

    Ukrainian forces have resisted Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army, limiting it to a grinding war of attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line snaking through eastern and southern regions.

    But Ukraine, which is almost the size of Texas, is hard to defend from the air in its entirety, and Kyiv officials are seeking more Western help to fend against aerial attacks and strike back at Russia.

    Zelenskyy was expected to arrive in the United States on Thursday, ahead of his Oval Office meeting with Trump on Friday.

    Ukraine is seeking cruise missiles, air defense systems and joint drone production agreements from the United States, Kyiv officials say. Zelenskyy also wants tougher international economic sanctions on Moscow.

    The visit comes amid signs that Trump is leaning toward stepping up pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to break the deadlock in U.S.-led peace efforts.

    U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday in Brussels that if Russia won’t budge from its objections and refuses to negotiate a peace deal, Washington “will take the steps necessary to impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression.”

    Also, Trump said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally assured him that his country would stop buying Russian oil. That would deny Moscow income it needs to keep fighting in Ukraine.

    Washington has hesitated over providing Ukraine with long-range missiles, such as Tomahawks, out of concern that such a step could escalate the war and deepen tensions between the United States and Russia.

    But Trump has been frustrated by his inability to force an end to the war in Ukraine and has expressed impatience with Putin, whom he increasingly describes as the primary obstacle to a resolution.

    The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said in an assessment published late Wednesday that sending Tomahawks to Ukraine would not escalate the war and would only “mirror Russia’s own use of … long-range cruise missiles against Ukraine.”

    Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Economy Ministry said Thursday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with U.S. company Bell Textron Inc. to cooperate in aviation technology.

    The Fort Worth, Texas-based aerospace and defense company will open an office in Ukraine and establish a center for assembly and testing, while exchanging know-how and training Ukrainians in the United States, according to a ministry statement.

    Ukraine, unsure what it can expect from Western allies, is keen to develop its own arms industry.

    On Wednesday, a Ukrainian government delegation met during a U.S. visit with prominent American weapons manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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  • Russian barrage causes major blackouts in Ukraine

    KYIV, Ukraine — Russia battered Ukraine’s energy facilities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles in its latest heavy bombardment of the country’s power grid, authorities said Thursday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy prepared to ask President Donald Trump at a White House meeting for more American-made air defenses and long-range missiles.

    As he considers Zelenskyy’s push for U.S. missiles, Trump said after Thursday’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin that they will meet in Budapest, Hungary to try to bring the war to an end. No date for the meeting has been set.


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    By ILLIA NOVIKOV – Associated Press

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  • US strikes another boat accused of carrying drugs

    WASHINGTON — The United States struck another small boat accused of carrying drugs in the waters off Venezuela, killing six people, President Donald Trump said Tuesday.

    Those who died in the strike were aboard the vessel, and no U.S. forces were harmed, the Republican president said in a social media post. It’s the fifth deadly strike in the Caribbean as Trump’s administration has asserted it’s treating alleged drug traffickers as unlawful combatants who must be met with military force.


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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By MICHELLE L. PRICE and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN – Associated Press

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  • China and the US have long collaborated in ‘open research.’ Some say that must change

    WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — For many years, American and Chinese scholars worked shoulder to shoulder on cutting-edge technologies through open research, where findings are freely shared and accessible to all. But that openness, a long-standing practice celebrated for advancing knowledge, is raising alarms among some U.S. lawmakers.

    They are worried that China — now considered the most formidable challenger to American military dominance — is taking advantage of open research to catch up with the U.S. on military technology and even gain an edge. And they are calling for action.

    “For far too long, our adversaries have exploited American colleges and universities to advance their interests, while risking our national security and innovation,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, an Arkansas Republican and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He has introduced legislation to put new restrictions on federally funded research collaboration with academics at several Chinese institutions that work with the Chinese military, as well as institutions in other countries deemed adversarial to U.S. interests.

    The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party makes it a priority to protect American research, having accused Beijing of weaponizing open research by converting it into a “pipeline of foreign talent and military modernization.”

    The rising concerns on Capitol Hill threaten to unravel deep, two-generations-old academic ties between the countries even as the world’s two largest economies are moving away from each other through tariffs and trade barriers. The relationship has shifted from engagement to competition, if not outright enmity.

    “Foreign adversaries are increasingly exploiting the open and collaborative environment of U.S. academic institutions for their own gain,” said James Cangialosi, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, which in August issued a bulletin urging universities to do more to protect research from foreign meddling.

    The House committee released three reports in September alone. They targeted, respectively, Pentagon-funded research involving military-linked Chinese scholars; joint U.S.-China institutes that train STEM talent for China; and visa policies that have brought military-linked Chinese students to Ph.D. programs at American universities. The reports recommend more legislation to protect U.S. research, tighter visa policies to vet Chinese students and scholars and an end to academic partnerships that could be exploited to boost China’s military powers.

    More than 500 U.S. universities and institutes have collaborated with Chinese military researchers in recent years, helping Beijing develop advanced technologies with military applications, such as anti-jamming communications and hypersonic vehicles, according to a report by the private U.S. intelligence group Strider Technologies.

    Despite efforts in recent years by the U.S. government to set up guardrails to prevent such collaboration from boosting China’s military capabilities, the practice is still prevalent, according to Strider, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

    The report identified nearly 2,500 publications produced in collaboration between U.S. entities and Chinese military-affiliated research institutes in 2024 on STEM research, which includes physics, engineering, material science, computer science, biology, medicine and geology. While the number peaked at more than 3,500 in 2019, before some new restrictive measures came into effect, the level of collaboration remains high, the report said.

    This collaboration not only facilitates “potential illicit knowledge transfer,” but supports China’s “state-directed efforts to recruit top international talent, often to the detriment of U.S. national interests,” the report said.

    Foreign countries can exploit American research by stealing secrets for use in military and commercial settings, by poaching talented researchers for foreign companies and universities and by recruiting students and researchers as potential spies, authorities say.

    Fostering a climate of robust academic research takes funding and long-term support. Stealing the fruits of that labor, however, can be as easy as hacking into a university network, hiring away researchers or coopting the research itself. That’s why, authorities say, it’s so tempting for American adversaries looking to take advantage of U.S. institutions and research.

    The most recent threat assessment report from the Department of Homeland Security highlights concerns that American adversaries — and China specifically — seek to illicitly acquire U.S. technology. Authorities say China aims to steal military and computing technology that might give the U.S. an advantage, as well as the latest commercial innovations.

    Abigail Coplin, assistant professor of sociology and science, technology and society at Vassar College, said there are already guardrails for federally funded research to protect classified information and anything deemed sensitive.

    She also said open research goes both ways, benefiting the U.S. as well, and restrictions could be counterproductive by driving away talents.

    “American national security interests and economic competitiveness would be better served by continuing — if not increasing — research funding than they are by implementing costly research restrictions,” Coplin said.

    Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor, also said efforts to protect U.S. research risk stifling progress if they go too far and prevent U.S. colleges or startups from sharing information about new and emerging technology. Keeping up with China will also require big investments in efforts to protect innovation, said Bellini, who recently donated $40 million to establish a new cybersecurity and AI research college at the University of South Florida.

    Bellini said it’s imperative to encourage research and development without giving secrets away to America’s enemies. “In the U.S., it is a reality now that our digital borders are under siege — and businesses of every size are right to be concerned,” Bellini said.

    According to Department of Justice figures, about 80% of all economic espionage cases prosecuted in the U.S. involve alleged acts that would benefit China.

    Some members of Congress have pushed to reinstate a Department of Justice program created during the first Trump administration that sought to investigate Chinese intellectual espionage. The so-called “ ChinaInitiative ” ended in 2022 after critics said it failed to address the problem even as it perpetrated racist stereotypes about Asian American academics.

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  • Officials investigate blast at Tennessee explosives plant that left 18 missing and feared dead

    McEWEN, Tenn. — McEWEN, Tenn. (AP) — Officials were investigating a blast that leveled an explosives plant in rural Tennessee, as families of the 18 people missing and feared dead waited anxiously Saturday for answers.

    The explosion Friday morning at Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies and researches explosives for the military, scattered debris over at least a half-mile (800-meter) area and was felt by residents more than 15 miles (24 kilometers) away, said Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis.

    Aerial footage showed the company’s hilltop location smoldering and smoky Friday, with just a mass of twisted metal, burned-out shells of cars and an array of debris left behind.

    Davis, who described it as one of the worst scenes he’s ever seen, said multiple people were killed. But he declined to say how many, referring to the 18 missing as “souls” because officials were still speaking to family.

    “What we need right now is we need our communities to come together and understand that we’ve lost a lot of people,” he said.

    The company’s website says it processes explosives and ammunition at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Nashville. It’s not immediately known how many people work at the plant or how many were there when the explosion happened.

    Davis said investigators are trying to determine what happened and couldn’t say what caused the explosion.

    Accurate Energetic Systems, based in nearby McEwen, said in a post on social media on Friday that their “thoughts and prayers” are with the families and community impacted.

    “We extend our gratitude to all first responders who continue to work tirelessly under difficult conditions,” the post said.

    The company has been awarded numerous military contracts, largely by the U.S. Army and Navy, to supply different types of munitions and explosives, according to public records. The products range from bulk explosives to landmines and small breaching charges, including C4.

    When the explosion occurred, residents in Lobelville, a 20-minute drive from the scene, said they felt their homes shake, and some people captured the loud boom of the explosion on their home cameras.

    The blast rattled Gentry Stover from his sleep.

    “I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” he told The Associated Press. “I live very close to Accurate and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”

    Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee posted on the social platform X that he is monitoring the situation and asked “Tennesseans to join us in prayer for the families impacted by this tragic incident.”

    A small group gathered for a vigil Friday night at a nearby park, clutching candles as they prayed for the missing and their families and sang “Amazing Grace.”

    The U.S. has a long history of deadly accidents at workplaces, including the Monongah coal mine explosion that killed 362 men and boys in West Virginia in 1907. Several high-profile industrial accidents in the 1960s helped lead President Richard Nixon to sign a law creating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration the next year.

    In 2019, Accurate Energetic Systems faced several small fines from the U.S. Department of Labor for violations of policies meant to protect workers from exposure to hazardous chemicals, radiation and other irritants, according to citations from OSHA.

    In 2014, an explosion occurred at another ammunition facility in the same small community, killing one person and injuring at least three others.

    ____

    Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield, in Cockeysville, Maryland; Hannah Schoenbaum, in Salt Lake City; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island; and Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

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