Tag: United States government

Live Updates: Russia-Ukraine War

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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces have retaken 400 square kilometers (155 square miles) of territory in the southern Kherson region, so far this month as they continue to push Russian troops back in the south and east, Ukraine’s southern military command says.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Operational Command South, said in a briefing Thursday that the situation along the southern front was rapidly changing and remained complicated.

Ukraine has recaptured 29 settlements in the oblast since Oct. 1, Oleksii Hromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the Ukrainian army’s General Staff, told a separate briefing.

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KEY DEVELOPMENTS:

— EXPLAINER: Russia’s military woes mount amid Ukraine attacks

— Russian rockets slam into Ukrainian city near nuclear plant

— Experts: Russia finding new ways to spread propaganda videos

— EU agrees on price cap for Russian oil over Ukraine war

— Belarus opposition hopeful at Russian setbacks in Ukraine

— Ukraine links World Cup host bid to beating horrors of war

Follow all AP stories on the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

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BRUSSELS — The European Union on Thursday froze the assets of an additional 37 people and entities tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, bringing the total of EU blacklist targets to 1,351.

The newly sanctioned people include officials involved in last week’s illegal Russian annexation of — and sham referenda in — the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The latest sanctions, published in the EU’s Official Journal, also widen trade bans against Russia and lay the ground for a price cap on Russian oil being prepared with other G-7 members. The new commercial curbs hit an estimated 7 billion euros ($6.9 billion) of EU imports of Russian goods including steel, plastics, textiles and non-gold jewelry.

The wider EU prohibition on exports to Russia covers such products as coal, electronics used in Russian weapons and aircraft components.

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COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Norway on Thursday said that Russian fishing vessels can only call at three Arctic ports ports, and that all Russian vessels arriving at these ports will be checked.

Russian fishing boats only will be allowed in three Arctic ports — Kirkenes, Tromsø and Båtsfjord.

“We now have information which indicates that there is a need to increase the control of Russian fishing vessels, Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said.

“The recent serious developments with Russia’s unacceptable annexation of Ukraine, the attacks on gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and increased drone activity, means that the government has further tightened preparedness.

“This will make it more difficult to use Russian fishing vessels for illegal activities, for example by circumventing export regulations, ”Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl added.

In April, the European Union, of which Norway is not a member, banned Russian vessels from entering EU ports. Norway followed suit with the exception of fishing boats, which led to criticism from the Norwegian opposition.

Authorities in Norway, a major oil and gas producer, have reported several drone sightings near offshore installations in the North Sea.

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PRAGUE — Czech social media users have shared satirical tweets claiming that the Czech Republic has annexed the Russian territory of Kaliningrad and renamed it Královec.

It is a satire on Russia’s illegal annexation of four Ukrainian territories where Kremlin-installed authorities held voter “referendums” that Ukraine and its allies regard as an illegitimate farce.

Even Slovak President Zuzana Caputova got in on the joke on Thursday, tweeting “I might consider a state visit. Or not.” Turning serious, she added: “Well done our #Czech friends for de-masking the absurdity of #Russia’s fictitious referendums in #Ukraine.”

An anonymous Twitter user in Poland first posted about the fake “annexation” of Kaliningrad. A Czech member of the European Parliament, Tomasz Zdechovsky, then posted about it. There has since been an explosion of jokes under the hashtags Kralovec and VisitKralovec.

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CANBERRA, Australia — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday it was “hard to say” whether the risk of nuclear war had increased with his military’s territorial gains, but he remains confident his Russian counterpart would not survive such as escalation in hostilities.

Zelenskyy was addressing the Lowy Institute international think tank in Sydney via video link after Ukraine’s military retook ground illegally annexed by Russia last week. He questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin had enough control over the Russian campaign to direct a tactical nuclear strike.

The Russians found it “hard to control everything that is happening in their country, just as they’re not controlling everything they have on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said.

Putin “understands that after the use of nuclear weapons he would be unable any more to preserve, so to speak, his life,” Zelenskyy said, “and I’m confident of that.”

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WARSAW, Poland –- Poland is distributing potassium iodide tablets to regional firefighters’ stations in a pre-emptive measure in case of damage to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops.

Stored in some 1,500 stations nationwide, the potassium iodide pills would be distributed to Poles in case of real threat, the government said. Deputy interior and administration minister, Blazej Pobozy, has said radioactive contamination is “very unlikely.”

The Zaporizhzhia plant, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from Poland’s eastern border, is Europe’s largest. It was damaged recently in the fighting with Russian forces.

In 1986, following the accident at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant many Poles took iodine solution to prevent absorbing radiation.

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland is raising its security emergency level for energy infrastructure located outside Poland’s borders.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki signed the decision Thursday to raise security to the second out of four levels, through November. The decision means that security services need to be especially vigilant and ready to react to any potential terrorist threats.

Poland recently opened a new natural gas pipeline from Norway, the Baltic Pipe, that partly runs on the Baltic seabed. It is helping Poland cut its decades-long dependence on Russian gas.

Last week Russian’s Nord Stream pipelines suffered leaks in the Baltic Sea caused by explosions, widely believed to be the result of sabotage.

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KYIV, Ukraine — The U.S. deployed its international development chief to Ukraine on Thursday, the highest-ranking American official to visit the country since Russia illegally annexed the four regions.

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, traveled to Kyiv and was holding meetings with government officials and residents. She said the U.S. would provide an additional $55 million to repair heating pipes and other equipment.

Among the sites she visited were a Kyiv neighborhood and school that had previously been hit by Russian missiles.

USAID said the United States has delivered $9.89 billion in aid to Ukraine since February.

A spending bill signed by President Biden last week promises another $12.3 billion in Ukraine-related aid — directed both at military and public services needs. Power said Washington plans to release the first $4.5 billion of that funding in the coming weeks.

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KYIV, Ukraine — The head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog is expected to visit Kyiv this week to discuss the situation at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which has been occupied by Russian troops since the early part of the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Wednesday declaring that Russia was taking over the six-reactor plant, the largest in Europe.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called it a criminal act and said it considered Putin’s decree “null and void.” The state nuclear operator, Energoatom, said it would continue to operate the plant.

Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, plans to talk with Ukrainian officials about the Russian move.

He will also discuss efforts to set up a secure protection zone around the facility, which has been damaged in the fighting and seen staff including its director abducted by Russian troops.

Grossi will travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials after his stop in Kyiv.

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October 6, 2022
Judge: Fake heiress can fight deportation on house arrest

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NEW YORK — A U.S. immigration judge cleared the way Wednesday for fake German heiress Anna Sorokin to be released from detention to home confinement while she fights deportation, if she meets certain conditions.

She must post a $10,000 bond, provide a residential address where she’ll stay for the duration of her immigration case and refrain from social media posting, Manhattan Immigration Judge Charles Conroy said.

Sorokin, 31, has been in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since March 2021, after spending more than three years behind bars for swindling banks, hotels and friends to bankroll a posh lifestyle.

Immigration authorities say she’s overstayed her visa and must be returned to Germany.

Sorokin’s lawyer, Duncan Levin, said they are “extremely gratified” by the decision to release her to home confinement.

“The judge rightfully recognized that Anna is not a danger to the community,” Levin said in a written statement. “While there are still a few hurdles to jump through on her release conditions, Anna is thrilled to be getting out so she can focus on appealing her wrongful conviction.”

A message seeking comment was left with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Sorokin, whose scheme inspired the Netflix series “Inventing Anna,” was convicted in 2019 on multiple counts of larceny and theft. She was sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, credited with more than 500 days time served while her case was pending and released on good behavior in February 2021.

Immigration authorities picked her up a few weeks later.

Using the name Anna Delvey, Sorokin maneuvered her way into elite New York social circles by passing herself off as a socialite with a $67 million (68 million euros) fortune overseas, prosecutors said. She falsely claimed to be the daughter of a diplomat or an oil baron.

Prosecutors said Sorokin falsified records and lied to get banks to lend, luxury hotels to let her stay and well-heeled Manhattanites to cover plane tickets and other expenses for her, stealing $275,000 in all.

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October 6, 2022
Barges grounded by low water halt Mississippi River traffic

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The unusually low water level in the lower Mississippi River is causing barges to get stuck in mud and sand, disrupting river travel for shippers, recreational boaters and even passengers on a cruise line.

Lack of rainfall in recent weeks has left the Mississippi River approaching record low levels in some areas from Missouri south through Louisiana. The U.S. Coast Guard said at least eight “groundings” of barges have been reported in the past week, despite low-water restrictions on barge loads.

One of the groundings happened Friday between Louisiana and Mississippi, near Lake Providence, Louisiana. It halted river traffic in both directions for days “to clear the grounded barges from the channel and to deepen the channel via dredging to prevent future groundings,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson Sabrina Dalton said in an email.

As a result, dozens of tows and barges were lined up in both directions, waiting to get by. The stoppage also brought a halt to a Viking cruise ship with about 350 passengers on board, said R. Thomas Berner, a Penn State professor emeritus of journalism and American studies, and one of the passengers.

The Viking ship was originally supposed to launch from New Orleans on Saturday, but the water there was so low that the launch was moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Berner said.

By Tuesday, the ship was halted near Vicksburg, Mississippi, due to the backup caused by the grounding. It wasn’t near a dock so passengers couldn’t leave. The ship’s crew kept people entertained as much as possible with music, games and other activities.

“Some of us are taking naps,” Berner joked.

The stuck barges were freed midday Tuesday. Berner said the cruise ship restarted Tuesday night, but the restart didn’t last long: Viking told passengers in a letter Wednesday that the rest of the scheduled two-week trip was being called off, citing low water problems causing additional closures. Viking made arrangements to get passengers home and the letter said they would get a full refund.

Nearly all of the Mississippi River basin, from Minnesota through Louisiana, has seen below-normal rainfall since late August. The basin from St. Louis south has been largely dry for three months, according to the National Weather Service.

The timing is bad because barges are busy carrying recently harvested corn and soybeans up and down the river.

Lucy Fletcher of the agricultural retailer AGRIServices of Brunswick, who serves on the board for the St. Louis-based trade association Inland Rivers, Ports & Terminals, said navigation woes on the Mississippi, Missouri and other major rivers have some shippers looking at other means of transportation.

“Can they divert to rail?” Fletcher asked. “Well, there’s not an abundance of rail availability. And usually people are booking their transportation for fall early in the season. So if they haven’t booked that freight already, you’re going to see people in dire straits.”

Fletcher said that with the supply chain still snagged following the COVID-19 pandemic, trucks also are largely booked and unavailable.

Mike Steenhoek, executive director of Soy Transportation Coalition, said 29% of the nation’s soybean crop is transported by barge. He estimated that barge capacity is down by about one-third this fall because of limits on the tows caused by the low water. That reduced capacity at a time when demand remains high is contributing to a 41% jump in barge shipping prices over the past year.

Matt Ziegler, manager of public policy and regulatory affairs for the National Corn Growers Association, said about 20% of the corn crop is exported, and nearly two-thirds of those exports typically travel down the Mississippi River on barges before being sent out of New Orleans.

“It’s certainly the worst time possible for these bad conditions,” Ziegler said.

To keep river traffic flowing, the Corps of Engineers has been dredging the Mississippi at several spots and placed limits on the number of barges each tow can move.

The forecast for much of the Mississippi River basin calls for continued dry weather in the near future. Fletcher is hopeful the winter will bring some relief.

“We need a good year for lots of snow melt,” she said. “The whole system’s just going to need some water.”

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AP journalists Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Adrian Sainz in Memphis, Tennessee, contributed to this report.

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October 5, 2022
Russian launches to space from US, 1st time in 20 years

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.. — For the first time in 20 years, a Russian cosmonaut rocketed from the U.S. on Wednesday, launching to the International Space Station alongside NASA and Japanese astronauts despite tensions over the war in Ukraine.

“We’re so glad to do it together,” said Anna Kikina, Russia’s lone female cosmonaut, offering thanks in both English and Russian. “Spasibo!”

She was among the three newcomers on the flight, alongside Marine Col. Nicole Mann, the first Native American woman to orbit the world, and Navy Capt. Josh Cassada. They were joined by Japan Space Agency’s Koichi Wakata, who is making his fifth spaceflight.

“Awesome!” radioed Mann. “That was a smooth ride uphill. You’ve got three rookies who are pretty happy to be floating in space right now.”

They’re due to arrive at the space station Thursday, 29 hours after a noon departure from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, and won’t be back on Earth until March. They’re replacing a U.S.-Italian crew that arrived in April.

Their SpaceX flight was delayed by Hurricane Ian, which devastated parts of the state last week.

“I hope with this launch we will brighten up the skies over Florida a little bit for everyone,” Wakata said before the flight.

Kikina is the Russian Space Agency’s exchange for NASA’s Frank Rubio, who launched to the space station two weeks ago from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket. He flew up with two cosmonauts.

The space agencies agreed over the summer to swap seats on their flights in order to ensure a continuous U.S. and Russian presence aboard the 260-mile-high (420-kilometer-high) outpost. The barter was authorized even as global hostilities mounted over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The next crew exchange is in the spring.

Shortly before liftoff, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said that the key reason for the seat exchange is safety — in case an emergency forces one capsule’s crew home, there would still be an American and Russian on board.

In the meantime, Russia remains committed to the space station through at least 2024, Russia space official Sergei Krikalev assured reporters this week. Russia wants to build its own station in orbit later this decade, “but we know that it’s not going to happen very quick and so probably we will keep flying” with NASA until then, he said.

Beginning with Krikalev in 1994, NASA started flying cosmonauts on its space shuttles, first to Russia’s Mir space station and then to the fledgling space station. The 2003 Columbia reentry disaster put an end to it. But U.S. astronauts continued to hitch rides on Russian rockets for tens of millions of dollars per seat.

Kakina is only the fifth Russian woman to rocket off the planet. She said she was surprised to be selected for the seat swap after encountering “many tests and obstacles” during her decade of training. “But I did it. I’m lucky maybe. I’m strong,” she said.

Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes in California, took along her mother’s dream catcher, a small traditional webbed hoop believed to offer protection. Retired NASA astronaut John Herrington of the Chickasaw Nation became the first Native American in space in 2002.

“I am very proud to represent Native Americans and my heritage,” Mann said before the flight, adding that everyone on her crew has a unique background. “It’s important to celebrate our diversity and also realize how important it is when we collaborate and unite, the incredible accomplishments that we can have.”

As for the war in Ukraine, Mann said all four have put politics and personal beliefs aside, “and it’s really cool how the common mission of the space station just instantly unites us.”

Added Cassada: “We have an opportunity to be an example for society on how to work together and live together and explore together.”

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has now launched eight crews since 2020: six for NASA and two private groups. Boeing, NASA’s other contracted taxi service, plans to make its first astronaut flight early next yea r, after delays to fix software and other issues that cropped up on test flights.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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October 5, 2022
US to require more rest between shifts for flight attendants

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Airlines will be required to give flight attendants at least 10 hours off duty between shifts, one more hour than currently, under a rule announced Tuesday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said that the extra hour of rest would contribute to safety.

Congress directed the FAA in 2018 to increase the rest requirement for flight attendants and eliminate a provision that let crews work with less rest under some circumstances.

“It took us way too long, but we are finally here,” Nolen said at a news conference.

The Association of Flight Attendants has fought for years to get the rest requirement expanded. The union’s president, Sara Nelson, accused the Trump administration of attempting to kill the expansion even after Congress had voted by large margins to require it.

The FAA took public comments on the extra rest requirement in both 2019 and 2021 and received more than 1,000 comments from airlines, flight attendants and the public.

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October 4, 2022
Kim Kardashian settles with SEC over crypto promotion

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Kim Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that she promoted a cryptocurrency on Instagram without disclosing she’d been paid $250,000 to do so

Kim Kardashian has agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that she promoted a cryptocurrency on Instagram without disclosing she’d been paid $250,000 to do so.

The SEC said Monday that the reality TV star and entrepreneur has agreed to cooperate with its ongoing investigation.

The SEC said Kardashian failed to disclose that she was paid to publish a post on her Instagram account about EMAX tokens, a crypto asset security being offered by EthereumMax.

Kardashian’s post contained a link to the EthereumMax website, which provided instructions for potential investors to purchase EMAX tokens.

“The federal securities laws are clear that any celebrity or other individual who promotes a crypto asset security must disclose the nature, source, and amount of compensation they received in exchange for the promotion,” Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s division of enforcement, said in a prepared statement.

Kardashian has agreed to not promote any crypto asset securities for three years.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to reach Kardashian for comment.

While Kardashian is well known for reality TV, currently appearing on “The Kardashians” on hulu, she is also a successful businesswoman. Her brands include SKIMS, which has shapewear, loungewear and other products, and a skincare line called SKKN.

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October 3, 2022
FBI: Jetliner evacuated in Albuquerque after security threat

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An American Airlines flight from Texas to New Mexico was evacuated Sunday after landing at the Albuquerque airport because of a security threat, authorities said.

All 179 people aboard Flight 928 from Dallas-Fort Worth were taken off the jet in the morning at Albuquerque International Sunport and were bused to the terminal, airport officials said. No injuries were reported.

FBI officials in Albuquerque did not disclose the nature of the security threat but said that the matter was being investigated and that no other information was available.

American Airlines passengers flying out of the airport were expected to see flight delays while the episode is investigated, airport officials said.

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October 2, 2022
2 hurt when helicopter crashes in yard of California home

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FRESNO, Calif. — A helicopter spun out of control and crashed in the front yard of a home in central California, hurting a pilot and passenger, authorities said.

The helicopter clipped the edge of the house and sheared off the top of a palm tree before crashing and coming to rest on its side in southeast Fresno around 10 a.m. Saturday, said police Lt. Charlie Chamalbide.

Two men aboard, the 47-year-old pilot and a 33-year-old passenger, were hospitalized with minor injuries, Chamalbide said. Nobody on the ground was hurt.

The aircraft was a surveying helicopter on a test run, the lieutenant said. He did not have information about who owned it or who the occupants were working for.

“They heard a pop and then they started losing altitude — that’s as far as we know,” Chamalbide told reporters.

Neicy Miramontes told the Fresno Bee that her 9-year-old son, Ezekiel Carranco, was walking to a friend’s house when he saw the helicopter in trouble.

“All of a sudden he looks up and sees the helicopter spinning and after that he heard a loud boom,” she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating.

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October 2, 2022
Migrant-death suspect ran detention center accused of abuse

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AUSTIN, Texas — One of two Texas brothers who authorities say opened fire on a group of migrants getting water near the U.S.-Mexico border, killing one and injuring another, was warden at a detention facility with a history of abuse allegations.

The shooting happened Tuesday in rural Hudspeth County about 90 miles (145 kilometers) from El Paso, according to court documents filed Thursday. One man was killed; a woman was taken to a hospital in El Paso where she was recovering from a gunshot wound in her stomach, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

DPS said the victims were among a group of migrants standing alongside the road drinking water out of a reservoir when a truck with two men inside pulled over. According to court documents, the group had taken cover as the truck first passed to avoid being detected, but the truck then backed up. The driver then exited the vehicle and fired two shots at the group.

Witnesses from the group told federal agents that just before hearing the gunshots, they heard one of the two men in the vehicle yell derogatory terms to them and rev the engine, according to court documents.

Authorities located the truck by checking cameras and finding a vehicle matching the description given by the migrants, according to court records.

Michael Sheppard and Mark Sheppard, both 60, were charged with manslaughter, according to court documents. Court records did not list attorneys for either man. Contact information for them or for their representatives could not be found and attempts to reach them for comment since their arrest have been unsuccessful.

Records show that Michael Sheppard was warden at the West Texas Detention Facility, a privately owned center that has housed migrant detainees. A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Associated Press that no ICE detainees had been held at that detention facility since October 2019, following the opening of a larger detention facility nearby.

Scott Sutterfield, a spokesman for facility operator Lasalle Corrections, responded to an AP email asking whether Sheppard had been fired as warden. Sutterfield said the warden had been fired “due to an off-duty incident unrelated to his employment.” Sutterfield declined further comment, citing the “ongoing criminal investigation.”

A 2018 report by The University of Texas and Texas A&M immigration law clinics and immigration advocacy group RAICES cited multiple allegations of physical and verbal abuse against African migrants at the facility. According to the report, the warden “was involved in three of the detainees’ reports of verbal threats, as well as in incidents of physical assault.” The warden cited in the report was not named.

However, Texas Congressman Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat, said in a press conference Saturday that Sheppard was in fact the warden at the facility at the time of the allegations and when the report was published. According to information provided by Doggett’s office, the webpage for Louisiana-based LaSalle Corrections listed Sheppard as an employee at West Texas since 2015.

Doggett, along with other Texas Democratic congressmen, called on Saturday for a federal investigation into the shooting.

“The dehumanizing, the demeaning of people who seek refuge in this country, many of whom are people of color, is what contributed to the violence we see here,” Doggett said.

In one account detailed in the report, a migrant told the lawyers that the warden hit him in the face while at the nurse’s station and when he turned to the medical officers he was told they “didn’t see anything.”

“I was then placed in solitary confinement, where I was forced to lie face down on the floor with my hands handcuffed behind my back while I was kicked repeatedly in the ribs by the Warden,” a migrant referred to as Dalmar said in the report.

The attorneys submitted a civil rights complaint over the allegations that year but according to response letter sent to the lawyers in 2021, the Department of Homeland Security Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties conducted an onsite investigation, made multiple recommendations to ICE, but did not find evidence of “any excessive use of force incidents” or “incidents of wrongful segregation” and found some uses of force to have been appropriate.

Fatma Marouf, a co-author of the report and director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Texas A&M, said it was difficult for authorities to follow up on the allegations because many of the people interviewed for the report were deported shortly after.

Marouf said current views on immigration enforcement based in deterring people at all costs have “spiraled out of control.”

“We don’t even see people as humans anymore,” Marouf said.

The number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S.- Mexico soared in August, while fewer migrants from Mexico and some Central American countries were stopped, officials said earlier this month. Overall, U.S. authorities stopped migrants 203,598 times in August, up 1.8% from 199,976 times in July but down 4.7% from 213,593 times in August 2021.

Silky Shah, executive director of advocacy organization Detention Watch Network, said this is both a problem of the current rhetoric around immigration, including the use of terms like “invasion” by GOP leaders including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and inaction from federal officials to move away from the previous administration’s immigration policies that added to this sentiment.

“I think there is no question that there is a discourse that is stoking actions like this,” Shah said.

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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Paul Weber contributed to this report.

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October 1, 2022
Some officials now say monkeypox elimination unlikely in US

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NEW YORK — Some U.S. health officials are conceding that monkeypox is probably not going away anytime soon.

The disease’s spread is slowing but the virus is so widespread that elimination is unlikely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. That conclusion was in a recent CDC report, and echoed Friday by Marc Lipsitch, director of science in the agency’s disease-forecasting center.

Lipsitch hesitated to say monkeypox is permanently here to stay, but he said it stands to be a continuing threat for the next few years.

“It’s in many geographic locations within the country” as well as in other countries, Lipsitch told The Associated Press. “There’s no clear path in our mind to complete elimination domestically.”

The virus has mainly spread among gay and bisexual men, though health officials continue to stress that anyone can be infected. It’s important that people at risk take steps to prevent spread and that vaccination efforts continue, Lipsitch said.

The CDC report contained some good news: The U.S. outbreak seems to have peaked in early August. The average number of daily cases being reported — fewer than 150 — is about a third what it was reported in the middle of the summer, and officials expect the decline will continue for at least the next several weeks.

Lipsitch attributed the good news to increasing vaccinations, cautious behavior by people at risk and infection-derived immunity in the highest risk populations.

Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, agreed that it’s unlikely that spread of monkeypox will stop in the U.S. anytime soon, but he said it’s still possible in the long term.

If domestic transmission were stopped, infections may still continue if people catch the virus while traveling internationally, he said. But the declining cases makes it seem like “we’ve turned a real corner.”

“The efforts underway are succeeding, and should be continued, if not intensified,” he said.

With case numbers going down, this is a good time for local health departments to take a new stab at doing intensive contact tracing to try to stop chains of transmission, he said.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals, but it wasn’t considered a disease that spreads easily among people until May, when infections emerged in Europe and the U.S.

There have been more than 67,000 cases reported in countries that have not historically seen monkeypox. The U.S. has the most infections of any country — more than 25,600. One U.S. death has been attributed to monkeypox.

More than 97% of U.S. cases are men. The vast majority have been men who reported recent sexual contact with other men.

Though cases have been declining, the proportion of new cases that have information about recent sexual contact is also down, officials said. That’s causing a growing blind spot about how the virus may be spreading, Lipsitch noted.

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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September 30, 2022
Sailor found not guilty of setting fire that destroyed ship

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SAN DIEGO — A Navy judge ruled Friday that a sailor was not guilty of setting a fire that destroyed the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego in 2020.

The ruling came after a nine-day trial at Naval Base San Diego. Ryan Sawyer Mays, who had been charged with arson and the willful hazarding of a ship, let out a deep breath, put both hands on the defense table, broke into sobs and began hugging supporters.

“Seaman Recruit Mays was found not guilty on the charges of willful hazarding of a vessel and aggravated arson. The Navy is committed to upholding the principles of due process and a fair trial,” said Lt. Samuel R. Boyle, spokesman for U.S. 3rd Fleet.

Prosecutors accused then-19-year-old Mays of igniting cardboard boxes in a lower vehicle storage area to drive home an earlier text to his division officer that the ship was so cluttered with contractors’ stuff it was “hazardous as (expletive).” They contended that Mays was angry and vengeful about failing to become a Navy SEAL and being assigned to deck duty and ignited the ship to send a message.

There is no physical evidence, however, tying Mays to the fire on the ship, which was docked and undergoing maintenance at that time.

Outside the courtroom building at Naval Base San Diego, Mays read a brief statement to reporters and declined to answer questions. He did not address his plans.

“I can say that the past two years have been the hardest two years of my entire life, as a young man,” he said. “I’ve lost time with friends. I’ve lost friends. I’ve lost time with family and my entire Navy career was ruined. I am looking forward to starting over.”

The prosecution acknowledged that a Navy report last year concluded the fire that destroyed the $1.2 billion amphibious assault ship was preventable and unacceptable and that there were lapses in training, coordination, communications, fire preparedness, equipment maintenance and overall command and control. The failure to extinguish or contain the fire led to temperatures exceeding 1,200 degrees (649 Celsius) in some areas, melting sections of the ship into molten metal that flowed into other parts of the ship.

More than 20 senior officers and sailor were disciplined in connection with the incident.

Defense lawyers argued the trial exposed a shoddy probe by government investigators who rushed to judgment and failed to collect evidence showing that the culprit also could have been lithium ion batteries or a sparking forklift instead of arson.

The prosecution said that investigators found no scientific data to back the theory that batteries or a forklift malfunction sparked the inferno, while testimony from fellow shipmates bolstered the case against Mays along with his own words when he was being escorted in handcuffs and blurted out, according to the sailor escorting him to the brig: “It had to be done. I did it.”

The defense said Mays, known for being flippant, was being sarcastic after denying doing it more than 150 times during 10 hours of questioning by investigators.

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September 30, 2022
Case against source for Trump dossier advances, barely

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A judge is allowing prosecutors to move forward with their criminal case against an analyst who provided key details for a flawed dossier on ex-President Donald Trump, although the judge called his decision “an extremely close call.”

Lawyers for Igor Danchenko asked a judge Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria to dismiss all five charges against him. He’s accused of lying to the FBI about how he obtained the information that ultimately made its way into the “Steele dossier,” a report that purported to detail connections between Trump and Russian intelligence and helped fuel a full-fledged FBI investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane” in the months leading up to the 2016 election.

The dossier famously suggested that Russians had compromising information on Trump regarding salacious sexual activity he allegedly engaged in at a Moscow hotel.

The indictment alleges Danchenko lied about the credibility of his sources when in reality his primary source was actually a Democratic operative named Charles Dolan with ties to Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton.

The indictment says the FBI could have better judged the veracity of the Steele dossier had it known that a Democratic operative who volunteered for Clinton was the source of much of the dossier’s information.

Danchenko’s lawyers argued Thursday that all the charges should be dismissed because Danchenko’s answers to the FBI were technically true, if not necessarily illuminating.

Specifically, Danchenko denied that he “talked” to Dolan about the allegations in the dossier. In reality, Danchenko had discussed the accusations in an email with Dolan, but never spoke with him in an oral conversation.

“It was a bad question,” said Danchenko’s lawyer, Stuart Sears. “That’s the special counsel’s problem. Not Mr. Danchenko’s. … He is not required to guess what the question actually means.”

The other counts deal with a statement to the FBI that Danchenko received other details in an anonymous phone call from someone he “believed” to be Sergei Millian, a former president of the Russian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Sears said Danchenko never said with any certainty that Millian was the source and that it can’t be a false statement if that was what Danchenko truly believed.

Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed in 2019 by then-Attorney General William Barr to look for government misconduct in the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation, said that Danchenko’s statements, if examined in context rather than in isolation, will show that he knowingly lied.

He said Danchenko himself used the word “speaking” to refer written words posted on social media accounts. And he said the evidence will show Millian didn’t know Danchenko and that Danchenko had no reason to believe that Millian was the anonymous caller that Danchenko cited.

“He knows exactly what the FBI is looking for, the context of those questions,” Durham said.

The judge, Anthony Trenga, acknowledged that the defense’s theory “can be a very persuasive, strong argument to a jury,” but he said that ultimately the government met its burden to overcome a motion to dismiss.

It will be up to a jury to determine whether the government can meet its burden of proving a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, a much higher standard. Trenga said he will revisit the issue during trial after the government presents its case.

The most incendiary allegations in the Steele dossier — that Trump hired prostitutes to engage in sexual activity in the presidential suite of the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow — may not be part of the trial at all. Danchenko is not actually charged with lying to the FBI about his sourcing for that specific allegation. But prosecutors want to present evidence to the jury about it nonetheless, and elicit testimony that would suggest Dolan was Danchenko’s source for that allegation as well.

Defense lawyers say any testimony about it is irrelevant and prejudicial and threatens to “swallow the trial” if it’s allowed in.

Prosecutor Michael Keilty countered that it’s important to show Dolan’s connection to those allegations.

“It’s not going to be a sideshow,” he said. “We’re not going to talk about what Mr. Trump did or did not do at the Ritz.”

Trenga took the issue under advisement — he said he had concerns about the relevancy of the information compared to its potential for prejudice, and that he would rule on that and other issues of what evidence will be allowed at trial before it begins Oct. 11.

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September 29, 2022
NKorea test launches missiles on eve of Harris trip to Seoul

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SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles toward its eastern waters on Wednesday, its neighbors said, a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is to visit South Korea.

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North Korean missiles lifted off 10 minutes apart on Wednesday afternoon from its capital region and flew toward the waters off its east coast.

Japanese Vice Defense Minister Toshiro Ino said Japan’s military also detected the launches and that the weapons flew in an irregular trajectory.

Ino said that “North Korea’s repeated missile firings amid (Russia’s) invasion of Ukraine is impermissible.” The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea’s provocations would only deepen its international isolation while pushing South Korea and the United States to strengthen their deterrence.

The launches follow a missile test by North Korea earlier this week.

Harris is to arrive in South Korea on Thursday for talks with President Yoon Suk Yeol and other officials. She also is to visit the tense border with North Korea, in what U.S. officials call an attempt to underscore the strength of the U.S.-South Korean alliance and the U.S. commitment to “stand beside” South Korea in the face of any North Korea threats.

U.S. and South Korean navy ships were also conducting drills off South Korea’s east coast in a show of force against North Korea.

The four-day exercise, which began Monday, involves the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan. It is the first training exercise by the allies involving a U.S. aircraft carrier near the Korean Peninsula since 2017.

South Korea-U.S. joint military exercises often draw a furious response from North Korea, which views them as an invasion rehearsal. A short-range North Korean missile launched Sunday was seen as a response to the U.S.-South Korean training.

South Korea and Japan estimated that the North Korean missiles fired Wednesday flew 300-360 kilometers (185-220 miles) with a maximum altitude of 30-50 kilometers (19-30 miles). The low trajectories resembled the flight of the missile fired on Sunday, which some analysts said was likely a nuclear-capable, highly maneuverable weapon modeled after Russia’s Iskander missile.

In recent years, North Korea has been adding Iskander-like missiles and other solid-fuel weapons to its arsenal. Some experts say the weapons are designed to carry battlefield nuclear warheads to counter the stronger conventional forces of South Korea and the United States, which stations about 28,500 troops in the South.

North Korea has dialed up its missile testing activities to a record pace in 2022, launching more than 30 ballistic weapons, including its first intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017. North Korea’s Sunan area where Wednesday’s launches occurred was the site of various missile tests this year, including two ICBMs.

Earlier this month, North Korea adopted a new law authorizing the preemptive use of nuclear weapons in some situations, as it continues to escalate its nuclear doctrine. U.S. and South Korean officials have also said the North may soon conduct its first nuclear test in five years.

North Korea’s torrid run of weapons tests this year is seen as exploiting divides in the United Nations Security Council over Russia’s war against Ukrain300300e and the U.S.-China rivalry. In May, China and Russia vetoed a U.S.-led bid to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile tests this year, which violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Earlier Wednesday, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that a North Korean nuclear test could happen between mid-October and early November.

According to some lawmakers who attended the meeting, the National Intelligence Service said if the test occurs, it is likely to come after China, North Korea’s last major ally, holds a key Communist Party congress on Oct. 16 but before the United States votes in midterm elections on Nov. 7.

The spy service also said North Korea recently began administering COVID-19 vaccines to its people for the first time, Yoo Sang-bum, one of the lawmakers present at the briefing, said without elaborating.

Earlier this month, leader Kim Jong Un told his country’s rubber-stamp parliament that North Korea would begin its rollout of vaccines. In August, he made a widely disputed claim that his country had overcome its first COVID-19 outbreak and ordered an easing of pandemic-related restrictions.

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Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

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September 28, 2022