News from Multiple Perspectives

After weeks of military threats and arguments over a venue, the US and Iran are about to hold talks in Oman.

Activists announced at a briefing in South Africa plans to launch the largest civilian-led flotilla to Gaza in March.

Scott Bessent used a Senate appearance to defend President Donald Trump's campaign to slash interest and raise tariffs.

This undated photo provided by the Ape Initiative shows Kanzi, a bonobo who learned to communicate with humans, in Des Moines, Iowa. (Ape Initiative via AP) 2026-02-05T19:00:08Z NEW YORK (AP) — By age 2, most kids know how to play pretend. They turn their bedrooms into faraway castles and hold make-believe tea parties. The ability to make something out of nothing may seem uniquely human — a bedrock of creativity that’s led to new kinds of art, music and more. Now, for the first time, an experiment hints that an ape in captivity can have an imagination. “What’s really exciting about this work is that it suggests that the roots of this capacity for imagination are not unique to our species,” said study co-author Christopher Krupenye with Johns Hopkins University. Enter Kanzi, a bonobo who was raised in a lab and became a whiz at communicating with humans using graphic symbols. He combined different symbols to make them mean new things and learned how to create simple stone tools. Scientists wondered whether Kanzi had the capacity to play pretend — that is, act like something is real while knowing it’s not. They’d heard reports of female chimpanzees in the wild holding sticks as though they were babies and chimps in captivity dragging imaginary blocks on the ground after playing with real ones. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); But imagination is abstract, so it’s hard to know what’s going on in the apes’ heads. They could just be imitating researchers or mistaking imaginary objects for the real thing. Researchers adapted the playbook for studying young children to stage a juice party for Kanzi. They poured imaginary juice from a pitcher into two cups, then pretended to empty just one. They asked Kanzi which cup he wanted and he pointed to the cup still containing pretend juice 68% of the time. To make sure Kanzi wasn’t confusing real with fake, they also ran a test with actual juice. Kanzi chose the real juice over the pretend almost 80% of the time, “which suggests that he really can tell the difference between real juice and imaginary juice,” said Amalia Bastos, a study co-author from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); A third experiment placing fake grapes into two jars had similar positive results. But not all scientists are convinced that Kanzi is playing pretend like humans do. There’s a difference between envisioning juice being poured into a cup and maintaining the pretense that it’s real, said Duke University comparative psychologist Michael Tomasello. “To be convinced of that I would need to see Kanzi actually pretend to pour water into a container himself,” Tomasello wrote in an email. He had no role in the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Science. Kanzi grew up among humans, so it’s hard to say whether his abilities extend to all apes or are because of his special upbringing. He died last year at the age of 44. Many great ape species in the wild are critically endangered and it’ll take more research to understand what their minds are capable of. “Kanzi opened this path for a lot of future studies,” Bastos said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN Ramakrishnan is a science reporter for The Associated Press, based in New York. She covers research and new developments related to space, early human history and more. twitter mailto

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., arrives for the Senate Prayer Breakfast, at the Capitol in Washington, early Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) 2026-02-05T18:40:43Z WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that demands made by Democrats for new restrictions on federal immigration officers are “unrealistic” and warned that the Department of Homeland Security will shut down next week if they do not work with Republicans and the White House. Democrats say they will not vote for a DHS spending bill when funding runs out unless there are changes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal law enforcement agencies in the wake of the fatal shootings of two protesters in Minneapolis last month . The Democratic leaders, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, released an expanded list of 10 detailed proposals on Wednesday night for restraining President Donald Trump’s aggressive campaign of immigration enforcement . Among the demands are a requirement for judicial warrants, better identification of DHS officers, new use of force standards and a stop to racial profiling. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Thune, R-S.D., said most of the demands are “very unrealistic and unserious” and he called on Democrats to negotiate. “This is not a blank check situation where Republicans just do agree to a list of Democrat demands,” he said. “The only way to get reforms to ICE is to agree to a bill.” Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is “astounded to hear” Republicans say his party’s proposals were political or unworkable . “It’s about people’s basic rights, it’s about people’s safety,” Schumer said. If Republicans do not like the ideas, he said, “they need to explain why.” As the two parties traded blame, a DHS shutdown appeared increasingly likely, starting Feb. 14. As of now, Thune said, “we aren’t anywhere close to having any sort of an agreement.” In addition to ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the homeland security bill includes funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration. If DHS shuts down, Thune said, “there’s a very good chance we could see more travel problems” similar to the 43-day government closure last year . freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Democratic demands Schumer and Jeffries, D-N.Y., have made several demands, including masks for officers , judicial warrants and better federal coordination with local authorities. The list they released Wednesday added several new items, including a stricter use of force policy, legal safeguards at detention centers and a prohibition on tracking protesters with body-worn cameras. Democrats say Congress should end indiscriminate arrests, “improve warrant procedures and standards,” ensure the law is clear that officers cannot enter private property without a judicial warrant and require that before a person can be detained, it’s verified that the person is not a U.S. citizen. They also want an end to racial profiling, saying DHS officers should be prohibited from stopping, questioning or searching people “based on an individual’s presence at certain locations, their job, their spoken language and accent or their race and ethnicity.” For officers conducting immigration enforcement, Democrats say that in addition to officers taking off their masks and showing identification, DHS should regulate and standardize uniforms and equipment to bring them in line with other law enforcement agencies. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Republican pushback Schumer called it a “gut check moment for Congress” as the immigration enforcement operations have rocked Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. But Republicans were dismissive. Wyoming’s John Barrasso, the No. 2 Republican senator, said the demands are “radical and extreme” and a “far-left wish list.” Sen. Katie Britt, who is helping lead negotiations, said it was “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands.” “This is NOT negotiating in good faith, and it’s NOT what the American people want,” said Britt, R-Ala. “They continue to play politics to their radical base at the expense of the safety of Americans.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Down to the last funding bill Congress is trying to renegotiate the DHS spending bill after Trump last week agreed to a Democratic request that it be separated from a larger spending measure and extended at current levels for two weeks while the two parties negotiate. But with nearly a week gone, a shutdown is becoming increasingly likely. Thune has encouraged Democrats and the White House to talk. It is unclear whether they are or whether Democrats would be willing to back down on any of their demands. Some Republicans have demands of their own, including adding legislation that would require proof of citizenship before Americans register to vote and restrictions on cities that they say do not do enough to crack down on illegal immigration. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said it is up to Republicans to ensure the government does shut down because they are in charge. “The American people want this abuse to stop,” Murphy said. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Some look to limit shutdown pain Other lawmakers are searching for options to prevent another partial shutdown. One idea being floated is to essentially fund some of the other agencies within DHS -– the Coast Guard, airport operations under TSA and disaster assistance from FEMA. “Why not take that off the table?” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is in need of FEMA funds from recent disasters. “If it doesn’t look like they can get it done,” he said about the immigration enforcement overhaul, “I really think they should look at a la carte funding of agencies.” That would mean essentially cutting ICE loose by allowing it to go without its routine federal funding because the agency already has such a robust budget from Trump’s tax and spending cut bill from last year. ICE is expected to receive about $10 billion in the annual appropriations bill, a fraction of the $175 billion-plus for homeland security for the administration’s mass deportation agenda.

In this Nov. 19, 2014, file photo, lawyer Brad Karp leaves federal court in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) 2026-02-05T18:05:50Z Brad Karp, chairman of one of the country’s most prestigious law firms , has resigned from his position after the release of emails revealing his exchanges with Jeffrey Epstein , a high-profile departure in the fallout among those with ties to the late convicted sex offender. A statement Wednesday from Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Garrison & Wharton did not explicitly mention any connection Karp had with Epstein, whom the firm has said it never represented. But Karp, who will remain at the firm where he has practiced for 40 years and served as chairman since 2008, said “recent reporting has created a distraction and has placed a focus on me that is not in the best interests” of Paul Weiss. The Department of Justice last week released the largest batch of documents so far from its Epstein investigative files in compliance with a new law intended to reveal what the government knew about the millionaire financier’s sexual abuse of young girls, as well as his interactions with rich and powerful people. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before a House committee investigating Epstein after Republicans pressed for criminal contempt of Congress charges against them. Bill Clinton, like a number of other high-powered men including President Donald Trump, had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Neither Trump nor Clinton has been credibly accused of wrongdoing in their interactions with the late financier. The fallout has spread beyond the United States. A top official in Slovakia resigned after photos and emails revealed he had met with Epstein in the years after Epstein was released from jail, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued an apology for appointing an ambassador to Washington who had ties to Epstein. Among the newly released documents was a July 22, 2015, email in which Karp thanked Epstein for hosting an evening that the lawyer said was “once in a lifetime” and one he would “never forget.” Epstein responded that Karp was “always welcome,” adding, “there are many many nights of unique talents. you will be invited often.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Later that day, Epstein told Karp he wanted to connect him with Larry Summers , whom he described as “funny and warm.” Summers is a former treasury secretary and Harvard University president who has been ostracized from a number of organizations after Epstein files made public earlier showed his close relationship with Epstein. In 2016, Karp was trying to help his son, who was interested in a film career, and reached out to Epstein in hopes of making a connection with Woody Allen. Karp’s son sent several follow-up messages to Epstein, but it was not clear whether they connected further. In 2018, Karp was invited for dinner with Epstein. Karp said he could arrange to have a car outside to take him back to his office for a video call, before rejoining the dinner. “Im easy,” Epstein, in suggesting arrangements. “I know you are,” Karp replied. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); The messages between the two continued through the years. In February 2019, Karp emailed with Epstein seeking advice on behalf of John Havens, the former Citigroup president who, according to Karp’s message, needed “immediate help” before Haven’s name came out in what turned out to be a Florida massage parlor investigation. Epstein also offered help finding a local lawyer for New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft in the matter, with Karp suggesting Kraft needed “the best there is.” Both Kraft and Havens were among 300 men accused of being patrons of massage parlors engaging in prostitution . A month later, Karp was apparently reviewing a draft court filing in which Epstein’s lawyers argued that his plea deal in a decade-old federal sex abuse investigation in Florida should not be reopened. “The draft motion is in great shape. It’s overwhelmingly persuasive. Truly,” Karp wrote in a March 3, 2019, email to Epstein, according to documents published online by the Justice Department. “I particularly liked the argument that the ‘victims’ lied in wait and sat on their rights for their strategic advantage, knowing you were in prison, before they came forward.” freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in that case, spent 13 months in jail, paid settlements to victims and became a registered sex offender. Paul Weiss was founded in 1875. The storied New York firm has advanced the cause of civil rights, handled the legal affairs of corporate power brokers and grown into a multibillion-dollar global enterprise. In his return to the White House, Trump has sought to exercise retribution against firms whose lawyers have performed legal work with which he disagrees. Paul Weiss was among the targets. In March 2025, the Republican president issued an executive order threatening the suspension of security clearances for its attorneys as well as the termination of any federal contracts involving the firm. freestar.queue.push(function () { window.fsAdCount = window.fsAdCount + 1 || 0; let customChannel = '/dynamic_' + fsAdCount; let adList = document.querySelectorAll(".fs-feed-ad") let thisAd = adList[fsAdCount]; let randId = Math.random().toString(36).slice(2); thisAd.id = randId; let thisPlacement = fsAdCount == 0 ? "apnews_story_feed" : "apnews_story_feed_dynamic"; freestar.newAdSlots({ placementName: thisPlacement, slotId: randId }, customChannel); }); That order noted that a former Paul Weiss attorney, Mark Pomerantz, had been a central player in an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Trump’s finances before Trump became president. Karp was initially prepared to sue over the order, saying his firm “would not be able to survive a protracted dispute with the Administration.” Karp later cut a deal with Trump , saying that he did so to save the firm. The move was ridiculed by lawyers outside Paul Weiss, and more than 140 alums of the firm signed a letter assailing it as well. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP MEG KINNARD Kinnard covers national politics for The Associated Press. She lives in South Carolina. twitter instagram mailto

The PM says the depth of the pair's relationship was not known when he was appointed US ambassador.

Bezalel Zini, an Israeli military reservist on active duty, is accused of smuggling 14 cartons of cigarettes in exchange for $117,000.

The swap - the first since October - sees 157 Ukrainians and 160 Russians returned home.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is facing intense criticism over its failure to swiftly outlaw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The development comes as a London-based Islamic center has been accused of selling merchandise supporting terrorism. Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on Iran who has written extensively on Iran’s influence operations in the United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital that the "Islamic Center of England is a regime outpost. The head of the center is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader. The letter of the appointment is publicly read during the inauguration ceremony. There is not a shred of doubt that the center is used to peddle the influence of Iran’s political Islam. It is also used to recruit disgruntled British individuals who are sent to Iran for training." The Daily Telegraph reported in late January that the U.K. authorities were investigating the Islamic Center of England for allegedly selling Hezbollah phone cases and pro-Iranian regime key rings. Britain has sanctioned the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah. TRUMP’S IRAN THREATS FACE ‘OBAMA RED LINE’ TEST AS WHITE HOUSE PIVOTS TO DIPLOMACY The pro-Hezbollah and pro–Islamic Republic goods were reportedly sold at a bazaar that took place on Dec. 14, 2025, according to the paper. One key ring displayed the words, "With the kindness of God, Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is our leader." The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei, would order just weeks later the murder of thousands of Iranian demonstrators . The bazaar also allegedly had stickers of the late IRGC global terrorist, Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the murders of over 600 military personnel, according to the Trump administration. President Trump ordered a drone strike in January 2020 that killed Soleimani in Iraq. Emma Schubart, a research fellow at Britain's Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, "The Islamic Center of England is not an isolated religious institution; it is part of a wider ecosystem of Iranian state-linked influence operating openly in the U.K. and at the center of that ecosystem sits the IRGC." She said, "The U.K. Government is dragging its feet over designating the IRGC. By delaying action, ministers are allowing hostile Iranian networks to continue operating under the cover of civil society and religious life. This is a dangerous blind spot in Britain’s national security." The Islamic Center of England is a registered charity. When asked about reports of the Islamic Center’s role in selling pro-terrorist merchandise, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Charity Commission told Fox News Digital, "As part of our ongoing statutory inquiry into Islamic Center of England, we have raised concerns with the trustees about material sold by third parties at a recent event hosted at the charity’s premises. We take very seriously any alleged links between a charity and extremism or terrorism. Such links are abhorrent and corrosive to the trust on which the charitable sector depends." Azarmehr, however, countered that "The U.K. Charity Commission, the regulatory body, has been ‘investigating’ the center for five years with no decisions and no updates, other than appointing an interim director, but the center carries on business as usual." He added, "The only tangible result is that every time you make a complaint to the charity about the center, they reply by saying that because they are investigating the center, they cannot comment." IRAN REGIME OPENED FIRE WITH LIVE AMMUNITION ON PROTESTERS, DOCTOR SAYS: ‘SHOOT-TO-KILL’ He claimed that, " The first head of the center, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, is now a member of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts and a key figure in propagating Iran’s soft power abroad. Araki’s family have U.K. citizenship. The previous U.K. government, in which Alicia Kearns was part of its administration, even paid the center in excess of £100,000 in COVID-19 furlough." Kearns, who is presently the shadow minister for home affairs for the opposition Conservative party, is now demanding that the Islamic Center be shuttered. "These latest revelations of terrorist tat being sold by the Islamic Center of England are yet more evidence of why the center must be closed and those responsible for propagating terrorist propaganda face the law," she told the Telegraph. "The figures being idealized are responsible for the cold-blooded murder of tens of thousands of young Iranian protesters, adding to the many regional and international crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran," she said. WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM BOOTS IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER FROM DAVOS SUMMIT AMID DEADLY CRACKDOWN ON PROTESTERS A spokesperson for the Islamic Center of England told Fox News Digital that "The trustees take all concerns about the center very seriously. We are currently reviewing matters pertaining to the Dec. 14 event and, in light of this, are unable to comment further at this time." The EU announced last week that it has classified the IRGC as a terrorist entity. The U.S., Canada and Australia have previously designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization. The IRGC played a key role in the massacre of Iranian demonstrators last month. The proliferation of pro-Iran activism unfolded last weekend in London. Nigel Farage , leader of the Reform Party in the United Kingdom, posted on X:" When people in Britain are chanting support for the thuggish regime in Iran, we are in serious trouble as a nation." Video footage embedded in Farage’s post and other clips on social media shows a mix of pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran regime messaging at the protests. Multiple Fox News Digital inquiries to the British prime minister’s office went unanswered.

U.S. special presidential envoy for peace missions Steve Witkoff announced on Thursday that delegations from the U.S., Ukraine and Russia had agreed to the exchange of hundreds of prisoners. "Today, delegations from the United States, Ukraine, and Russia agreed to exchange 314 prisoners — the first such exchange in five months," a Thursday post on X declared. "This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive. While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine," the post continued. WITKOFF SAYS TALKS WITH RUSSIAN ENVOY WERE ‘PRODUCTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE’ AMID TRUMP ADMIN'S PEACE PUSH "Discussions will continue, with additional progress anticipated in the coming weeks. We thank the United Arab Emirates for hosting these discussions, and President Donald J. Trump for his leadership in making this agreement possible," the post noted. President Donald Trump's administration has been aiming to try to help broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. TRUMP SPEAKS WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING ON RANGE OF ISSUES INCLUDING RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR The president said in a Wednesday Truth Social post that "the War between Russia/Ukraine" was one of the topics during a phone call he had that day with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in a Tuesday post on X that he "would urge President Trump to start a process to provide Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles which would be a game changer militarily." WITKOFF CELEBRATES ‘NEW DAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST’ AFTER FINAL ISRAELI HOSTAGE IS RETURNED FROM GAZA "In the coming days and weeks, we must apply more pressure to Putin. Any negotiation that is seen as overly rewarding aggression will set in motion catastrophes all over the world. The opposite is equally true. If negotiations result in a free, strong and independent Ukraine — who had to make concessions — then the world will be far more stable," Graham asserted .

Venezuelan official Alex Saab, a former businessman and close ally of captured former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro , was arrested in the Latin American country on Wednesday as part of a joint operation between the U.S. and Venezuela, according to a U.S. law enforcement official. Saab, 54, who had previously been held in the U.S., is expected to be extradited to the U.S. in the coming days, the U.S. official told Reuters. A lawyer for Saab, Luigi Giuliano, was cited in the Colombian newspaper El Espectador later on Wednesday, denying the arrest as "fake news." Journalists aligned with Venezuela's government also made social media posts denying that Saab had been arrested. Giuliano told Venezuelan news site TalCual that Saab may make an appearance to refute the arrest allegations himself but was consulting with the government about what had happened. VENEZUELA RELEASES ALL KNOWN AMERICAN DETAINEES AFTER MADURO'S CAPTURE AND GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER Venezuela's top lawmaker, Jorge Rodríguez, did not confirm or deny the reports during a press conference, saying he had no information concerning the possible arrest. This comes after the U.S. operation to attack Venezuela and arrest Maduro, and the Trump administration's subsequent seizing of oil tankers from the country. Saab's arrest would suggest a new level of collaboration between U.S. and Venezuelan authorities under the government of interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former deputy, who currently controls Venezuela's law enforcement agencies and actions. VENEZUELA'S ACTING PRESIDENT OVERHAULS OIL INDUSTRY AMID PRESSURE FROM TRUMP ADMINISTRATION The U.S. official highlighted the significance of Rodriguez's cooperation in the joint operation. Raul Gorrin, the head of Venezuela's Globovision TV network, was also arrested in the operation, the official said. Saab, who was born in Colombia, was previously detained in the African nation of Cape Verde in 2020 and held in the U.S. for more than three years on bribery charges. He was eventually granted clemency in exchange for the release of Americans held in Venezuela. Before he was granted clemency, U.S. officials had charged Saab with taking around $350 million out of Venezuela through the U.S. as part of a bribery scheme connected to Venezuela's state-controlled exchange rate. Saab denied the allegations and appealed to have the charges dismissed on grounds of diplomatic immunity. An appeals court had not ruled on Saab's appeal by the time the prisoner swap went through. When he returned to Venezuela at the end of 2023, Maduro praised Saab's loyalty to the country's socialist revolution and called him a national hero. Maduro later appointed Saab as industry minister, a position he held until last month, when he was dismissed by Rodriguez following the arrest of the country's former leader. Reuters contributed to this report.

By playing pretend with an ape, scientists found a human hallmark in our closest living relative: the capacity for make-believe.

The New York Times collected and analyzed hundreds of videos of a crackdown on anti-government protests that Iranians shared despite an internet blackout. Sanjana Varghese explains how the Visual Investigations team at The Times verified them.

Prime Minister Mark Carney announced several measures Thursday aimed at making Canada a global leader in electric vehicles and rescuing an industry ravaged by U.S. trade policy.

Minutes after a federal agent shot and killed a Mexican immigrant in a Chicago suburb last September, a group of police officers stood on the sidewalk trying to figure out the answer to a question of protocol: Who would investigate the shooting? “Wouldn’t it be state’s, at a minimum?” one Franklin Park officer asked, according to body camera footage. Chief Mike Witz shook his head. “No, because it’s a federal shooting,” he said. “You’re not going to investigate a federal officer.” His officers didn’t investigate. In their report, they didn’t even note the names of the two Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at the scene of Silverio Villegas González’s death. Instead, they deferred to the FBI. Local law enforcement officials also did not investigate when a Border Patrol agent shot and wounded a U.S. citizen in her car in Chicago less than a month later. Or when an ICE agent in Phoenix shot a Honduran man during a traffic stop later that month. In fact, local police did not open investigations into six of the 12 shootings by on-duty federal agents that have led to the deaths or injuries of citizens and immigrants since September, a ProPublica analysis found. In three other shooting cases, state or local police said they have opened inquiries, which they called a routine practice in those jurisdictions. And in Minnesota, where ICE and Border Patrol shot and killed two U.S. citizens and injured a Venezuelan man last month, state police have tried to conduct independent investigations only to be thwarted by the Trump administration, which has gone so far as to block officers from a scene, even when they had a judicial warrant. In almost every instance, President Donald Trump’s administration blamed the injured and dead for the shooting within hours of the incident, raising questions about whether federal officials can fairly and objectively investigate their own. Legal experts and advocates for immigrants say this apparent lack of accountability demands that local authorities step up and exercise their power to investigate and prosecute federal agents who break state laws — from battery to murder. “Local police and the state have gotten a free pass,” said Craig Futterman, a law professor at the University of Chicago and the co-founder and director of its Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project. “Residents have every right and should be demanding that, ‘Hey, state authorities, police, local police: Protect us. Arrest people who kill us, who batter us, who point guns at us and threaten and assault us without legal cause to do so.’” Body camera footage shows then-Franklin Park Police Chief Mike Witz responding to his officers’ questions about whether they would investigate the shooting of a Mexican immigrant by federal agents. Obtained by ProPublica It’s usually the opposite scenario: federal authorities coming in to investigate a troubled police department. But local authorities have investigated and charged federal agents in the past . It’s just rare and complicated. The federal supremacy clause in the U.S. Constitution bars local interference with federal law enforcement officers when they act reasonably and within the scope of their duties. But given the aggressive tactics employed by immigration agents under the Trump administration, Futterman and other legal experts said local police and prosecutors are morally obligated to at least try to hold federal law enforcement officers accountable. “We’re in an environment right now where ICE officers are blatantly and egregiously violating the Constitution and the law,” said Joanna Schwartz, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “The federal government has made it very clear that they are not going to do anything to provide any sort of accountability backstop to its officers. Unfortunately, because Congress is not taking any steps to rein ICE officers in, there really is no option other than states protecting their constituents’ rights.”  In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said that agents are “trained to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and our officers.” All use-of-force incidents are properly reported and reviewed by an appropriate law enforcement agency, the spokesperson said. Immigration agents at the border have long been criticized for use of deadly force and lack of rigorous investigations afterward. But now the same militarized force is on display in major American cities far from the border, where residents are not used to their presence.  The shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month — and the federal government’s resistance to a routine local investigation — has prompted Democratic and some Republican officials across the country to call for more accountability. Last week, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson signed an executive order directing police officers to document alleged illegal activity by federal immigration agents and refer any evidence of felonies to prosecutors.  California’s governor and attorney general issued a reminder to local police of their rights to investigate federal agents. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes launched a website asking residents to submit evidence of federal agents’ misconduct. And prosecutors from nine jurisdictions around the country announced a new coalition to provide mutual support to law enforcement authorities bringing charges against federal officers. In Minneapolis, prosecutors say they’re working with state police to investigate in spite of resistance from federal officials. So far, DHS officials have refused to provide evidence or even the names of the agents involved in the January shootings . Prosecutors went so far as to obtain an emergency order to require that federal agencies preserve evidence in the Pretti case. A judge dropped the temporary restraining order on Monday, following assurances from the federal government that it would maintain investigative materials.  The prosecutors said they believe they can still gather enough evidence to make an informed decision about whether to charge the federal agents. “We get cases submitted to us every day that don’t have all the evidence we would like,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in an interview. “We would certainly like the gun. We would like the shell casings, that kind of thing. But it’s also not a mystery as to why these people died.” Even after getting a judicial warrant, investigators from the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension were turned away by federal agents from the Minneapolis intersection where Pretti, 37, was shot and killed. Federal officials also excluded the BCA from the investigation into the death of Renee Good, who was shot and killed in her car two weeks before Pretti.  BCA Superintendent Drew Evans said he’d never seen his officers physically stopped from doing their job by another law enforcement agency. Across the country, he said, state agencies like the BCA routinely investigate deadly force incidents like this one. “We’re in uncharted territory here,” he said. Within hours of each killing, Trump officials publicly labeled the dead “domestic terrorists.” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti was “brandishing” a gun when he approached the officers, while the Border Patrol’s Gregory Bovino claimed Pretti was planning a “massacre.”  Video footage contradicted the administration’s version of events. Pretti, for instance, never unholstered his gun, which he was legally allowed to carry.   Early last week, Trump sent Bovino and Border Patrol agents away from Minneapolis, and on Wednesday DHS officials said they would pull another 700 agents out of the state — signs  the administration may be changing its approach in response to rising criticism. The FBI is now investigating the Pretti shooting, and the Justice Department announced Friday that it had opened a civil rights investigation.  A DOJ spokesperson did not answer questions for this story but referred reporters to a press conference last weekend in which Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said DHS is following its normal investigative protocols in the Pretti shooting.  Meanwhile, the Justice Department has said it has no plans to investigate Good’s shooting.  “We don’t just go out and investigate every time an officer is forced to defend himself against somebody putting his life in danger,” Blanche told Fox News. Residents set up a memorial to Silverio Villegas González, who was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Franklin Park, Illinois, in September. Todd Heisler/The New York Times/Redux Police in Franklin Park and Chicago have not explained why they didn’t open their own investigations into the two shootings last fall. In the Franklin Park case, the decision to let the FBI alone investigate the killing of Villegas was made within minutes of the shooting, according to dispatch records.  Villegas, a 38-year-old restaurant cook, was shot as he tried to drive away from ICE agents who had pulled him over. As in Minneapolis, the Trump administration’s narrative of what happened did not match the evidence. DHS claimed that Villegas dragged one of the agents, causing serious injuries. The agent fired “because he feared for his life,” officials said. Police body camera footage released after the shooting showed the agent downplaying his injury as “nothing major.” At the scene, Franklin Park police officers directed traffic and interviewed a witness, the footage shows. At one point, one officer told his colleague that the police department was “just securing until they get here,” referring to the FBI. Witz, who was then the police chief but has since retired, could not be reached for comment; the current chief did not respond to interview requests. A similar situation unfolded in Chicago on Oct. 4 after a Border Patrol agent fired into the vehicle of a woman who federal officials claimed “ambushed” them. Marimar Martinez was charged with assaulting federal agents, though the charges were later dropped.  At the time, the Chicago Police Department said officers had responded to a call about a shooting “to document the incident” and to “maintain safety and traffic control.” When asked last week why it didn’t open an independent inquiry, the department directed ProPublica to its October statement, which made clear the police were “not involved in the incident or its investigation” and directed questions to federal authorities.  As the events in Minneapolis continued to generate criticism nationwide, Chicago’s mayor unveiled his executive order that directed officers to investigate federal immigration agents who break the law and to refer them for criminal prosecution. In a statement, the mayor’s office said the initiative was a response to “the absence of legal repercussions in the wake of the shooting of Marimar Martinez in Chicago and the killings of Silverio Villegas González in Franklin Park and Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.” Legal experts said they were not aware of recent examples of Illinois law enforcement agencies investigating an on-duty federal agent, though last month a suburban police department obtained misdemeanor charges against an off-duty ICE agent accused of attacking an activist who was filming him while the agent was pumping gas.  Illinois State Police officials said they would investigate federal agents who were accused of breaking the law if they are asked to do so. Meanwhile, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called on a state accountability commission to examine the roles of key Trump officials in the escalation of aggressive tactics during a monthslong immigration enforcement campaign in Chicago and its suburbs late last year. Pritzker had previously established the commission to​ gather videos and testimonies about federal agents’ conduct, and to create a public record of what happened. The commission lacks subpoena power but can refer information about potential violations of state law to law enforcement agencies or prosecutors. “Just imagine if the agents who shot Mr. Villegas González back on Sept. 12 had been publicly disciplined,” Rubén Castillo, a retired federal judge who chairs the commission, said at a hearing Friday. “Maybe, just maybe, the Minnesota shootings would not have occurred, and two people would be alive who are now dead.” He added: “We will have conversations with those in local law enforcement to suggest prosecutions that should be occurring even as we speak.” Police and federal law enforcement gathered at the Minneapolis intersection where Renee Good was shot and killed by federal agents in January. David Guttenfelder/The New York Times/Redux In California, neither the Los Angeles nor Ontario police departments investigated after two men were shot by federal immigration agents in separate October incidents and then accused of assaulting federal officers — despite video evidence and victim statements that conflicted with the accounts officials provided. A federal judge dismissed the case against one man, a Mexican immigrant and popular TikTokker; the other, a U.S. citizen, pleaded not guilty and has a trial scheduled for April. Police in Phoenix also said they are not investigating the shooting of a man who federal officials say fled immigration agents last October, leaving the case to the FBI and ICE. And local police in Portland, Oregon, are not investigating an incident where federal agents shot at a Venezuelan man who had allegedly hit an unoccupied Border Patrol vehicle with his car in early January, injuring him and his passenger. The man was later charged with assaulting an officer. Unlike in some of the other cases, the Oregon attorney general’s office has opened its own investigation. In contrast, police in Pima County, Arizona, and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, and the Texas Rangers have all said they opened investigations into recent shootings involving federal immigration officers. Asking local officials to investigate their federal counterparts does not come without challenges. Police officers and prosecutors are wary of being seen as interfering with federal law enforcement operations. They may be reluctant to damage their already complicated relationships with agencies with whom they sometimes partner.  Then there’s the worry about the political consequences, including the threat of losing federal funding, a dynamic that’s particularly acute under the Trump administration. “This particular federal government has lobbed all kinds of threats and acted on threats against local authorities and state authorities for failure to cooperate or not do what they want them to do,” said Futterman, the University of Chicago law professor. “It’s a reason in itself not to bite a hand that feeds you.” Even when local officials open their own investigations into federal agents, there’s no guarantee they can bring the cases to court. Federal agents can claim immunity in response to state charges, legal experts said, and can move their cases to federal court. That immunity stems from a Supreme Court ruling more than a century ago. During the Civil Rights Movement, that immunity was used when the federal government wanted to protect its law enforcement officers tasked with enforcing then-controversial efforts like desegregation in hostile states.  Now local officials face the opposite challenge: protecting their constituents’ constitutional rights from what they believe is excessive force at the hands of federal officers.  Steve Descano, the commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia, would be the first to admit that nothing about prosecuting federal agents is easy. During the first Trump administration, Descano brought state manslaughter charges against two U.S. Park Police officers who shot and killed a Virginia man. A federal judge dismissed the case in 2021 and said the officers were entitled to immunity because their actions were necessary and proper. Still, Descano, who is part of the coalition of prosecutors aiming to hold federal law enforcement accountable, said he believed he and others have a responsibility to do so.  “If they are not willing to take these actions,” he said, “then they are cowards and they are not worthy of their positions.” The post “You’re Not Going to Investigate a Federal Officer” appeared first on ProPublica .

For the first time since Texas criminalized abortion, the state’s medical regulator is instructing doctors on when they can legally terminate a pregnancy to protect the life of the patient — guidance physicians have long sought as women died and doctors feared imprisonment for intervening.   The new training from the Texas Medical Board comes nearly five years after the state passed its strict abortion ban in 2021, threatening doctors with severe penalties. ProPublica’s reporting has shown that pregnancy became far more dangerous in the state after the law took effect: Sepsis rates spiked for women suffering a pregnancy loss, as did emergency room visits in which miscarrying patients needed a blood transfusion ; at least four women in the state died after they didn’t receive timely reproductive care. More than a hundred OB-GYNs said the state’s abortion ban was to blame. In response, the Texas Legislature passed the Life of the Mother Act last year. The law updated the abortion ban’s medical exceptions , added to the legal burden needed for prosecutors to criminally charge a doctor and required the medical board to create guidance for doctors by Jan. 1, something no other state with an abortion ban has done. The new medical training , which ProPublica obtained under a public records request, assures doctors they can now legally provide abortions, even when a patient’s life isn’t imminently in danger, and goes over nine example scenarios, including a patient’s water breaking before term and complications from an incomplete abortion.  Some of the scenarios make clear how doctors can intervene in circumstances similar to cases ProPublica has investigated. For example, in 2021, Josseli Barnica was diagnosed with an “inevitable” miscarriage , leaving her at high risk of dangerous infection, and she died after doctors would not empty her uterus while there was still a fetal heartbeat. The new training includes an example that indicates an abortion would be legal in similar cases. But medical and legal experts who reviewed the training for ProPublica said the case studies represent only the most straightforward situations doctors encounter. The complications that women face in pregnancy are varied, complex and impossible to capture in a brief presentation, many cautioned. One attorney called the training “the bare minimum.” “I could probably list 100 different situations that would cause people to pause and say, ‘Wow, does that fit into the law?’” said Dr. Tony Ogburn, an OB-GYN practicing in Texas. “They’re taking years and years of medical training and experience on how to manage these cases and summarizing it in 43 slides.” Notably absent from the training is guidance on how doctors should care for patients with chronic conditions, a gray area that has come up again and again in ProPublica’s reporting. Last year, ProPublica investigated the death of Tierra Walker , a San Antonio woman with diabetes and high blood pressure who endured repeated hospitalizations and escalating symptoms before she died. Doctors dismissed her requests for an abortion to protect her health, her family said. Doctors and hospitals involved in Walker’s care did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. And no amount of training can solve what many doctors see as the main problem: the law’s steep criminal penalties. If found guilty of performing an illegal abortion, doctors face up to 99 years in prison, $100,000 in fines and the loss of their medical license. Even the possibility of a lengthy and public court battle can be a powerful deterrent, many physicians told ProPublica.  The Texas Medical Board writes in its training that “the legal risk of prosecution is extremely low” if doctors practice “evidence-based medicine,” follow “standard emergency protocols” and document cases appropriately. The training also emphasizes multiple times that the burden now falls on the state to prove that “no reasonable doctor” would have performed the abortion. Before the Life of the Mother Act, prosecutors could accuse a physician of performing an illegal abortion with little evidence. That assurance rings hollow to some doctors, who point to the actions of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton since the state’s abortion ban took effect. Dr. Damla Karsan, an OB-GYN based in Houston, said she appreciates that the training tells physicians they can use their expertise to make judgment calls during emergency situations. “But having to defend your decision is still scary,” Karsan said.  In 2023, Paxton overruled Karsan’s medical judgement when her patient Kate Cox sought an abortion at 20 weeks after learning the fetus had a fatal genetic anomaly. Texas bans abortions for all fetal anomalies unless the pregnant woman is facing a medical emergency. Karsan argued that Cox qualified: She had previously had two C-sections, increasing her risk of hemorrhage, infection and future infertility. A Texas lower court permitted the abortion, but Paxton appealed the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, which ultimately overturned the decision, arguing Karsan hadn’t done enough to prove Cox’s life was at risk.  Paxton’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the Cox case and the medical board’s assertion that the risk of legal action for doctors who follow its guidance is extremely low. Texas Medical Board President Dr. Sherif Zaafran told ProPublica that the training was reviewed by Paxton, as well as Gov. Greg Abbott and state Sen. Bryan Hughes, the abortion ban’s author. The board, which has 19 members appointed by the governor, including 12 licensed physicians but no OB-GYNs, also consulted with the Texas Hospital Association and the Texas Medical Association.  Any doctors who practice obstetric care, including all emergency room and urgent care physicians, will need to complete the self-administered online course before 2027 in order to obtain or renew their license. Multiple doctors told ProPublica decisions about abortion care are also shaped by hospital lawyers. The Life of the Mother Act required the State Bar of Texas to create its own training for attorneys, which ProPublica reviewed. That presentation also explains that prosecutors looking to file a criminal charge now need to demonstrate that no other doctor would provide an abortion if faced with the same scenario. Blake Rocap, a longtime reproductive rights attorney, said the state guidance should give doctors and hospitals more protections to help patients access care. “It will save lives,” he said. After Texas’ six-week abortion ban took effect in 2021, doctors, hospitals and reproductive rights advocates repeatedly urged the Texas Medical Board to provide guidance on how medical professionals could comply with it. In particular, they sought clarity around the law’s vague exception for a “life-threatening emergency.”  For years, the board declined, saying it lacked the authority.  In the absence of guidance, confusion reigned across the state. The standard of care for miscarrying patients in the second trimester, for example, is to offer to empty the uterus, which can lower the risk of infection and sepsis, according to leading medical organizations. While some Texas doctors told ProPublica last year they regularly offer to empty the uterus in these cases, others said their hospitals didn’t allow them to do so until the fetal heartbeat stopped or they could document a life-threatening complication, leading to delays in care like the one that Barnica experienced. Across the state, cases of sepsis in second-trimester pregnancy losses shot up more than 50% after the ban took effect, according to a data analysis by ProPublica.  In 2024, the board released limited guidance stating that providers don’t need to wait until a pregnant woman is on the brink of death to intervene. The new training goes further, offering detailed examples of when abortion would be legal.   One case study addresses patients who get an abortion out of state but retain tissue in the  uterus. Because the pregnancy was already ended, the medical board advises, “ongoing treatment of any retained products is not an abortion and is not considered aiding and abetting an abortion.” ProPublica investigated the death of a woman in Georgia, Amber Thurman , who died of sepsis when doctors there delayed emptying her uterus after an incomplete abortion. The training also makes clear that the definition of ectopic pregnancies — which are always life-threatening — includes any that implant in an abnormal location outside of the uterine cavity. Previous laws had defined an ectopic pregnancy as one outside of the uterus. While most ectopic pregnancies occur in the fallopian tubes, some can also implant inside the uterus, such as in the scar tissue from a previous pregnancy. Still, the training doesn’t address a key issue in miscarriage management that ProPublica’s reporting has highlighted : Early pregnancy loss often can’t be conclusively diagnosed with a single ultrasound. Confirming that a pregnancy has ended can take days or weeks. In those cases, some doctors have left women bleeding and in pain instead of offering a D&C, a procedure that can prevent hemorrhage. Another Texas woman named Porsha Ngumezi bled to death in 2023 while miscarrying, according to the medical examiner, after her doctor did not provide a D&C.  The training also offers no instruction on how to care for patients whose pregnancies are high risk because of underlying medical conditions like autoimmune disorders, uncontrolled blood pressure or heart disease. Pregnancy can often exacerbate these chronic conditions, sometimes leading to a small risk of death, but doctors may not consider this “life-threatening.”  Walker, the San Antonio woman ProPublica reported on last year , had uncontrolled blood pressure and developed seizures and blood clots. More than 90 doctors were involved in Walker’s care, but not one offered her the option to end her pregnancy, according to medical records. Doctors who reviewed the new training for ProPublica said they still weren’t clear when they could intervene in cases like hers — would it be when a woman first got pregnant because she already had some risk factors that made pregnancy more dangerous? Or would they have to wait until she developed specific symptoms that showed her health was declining?   Zaafran said the training makes clear that doctors can judge whether a patient is at risk of death or irreversible damage — and that they can intervene before the patient reaches that state. “In other words, you don’t need to wait until somebody has clots or seizures or whatever it might be to make a determination that something needs to be done.” What doctors do need to do, Zaafran repeatedly said, is document those risks in case their patients qualify for an abortion. But Karsan argues she did that in the Cox case, and Paxton fought her in court anyway.  While the medical board’s training includes two case studies related to patients with fatal fetal anomalies, neither addresses whether the updated law allows an abortion in a scenario similar to Cox’s. Karsan documented in the medical records that a third C-section would put Cox at risk of death or a hysterectomy if there was a complication, and that argument is what she shared with the courts. The training emphasizes that a fatal fetal anomaly alone is not covered by the exceptions and that “the mother must have a life-threatening physical condition.” Zaafran declined to comment on Cox’s case specifically but said that his understanding was there was not enough documentation.  Cox told ProPublica she trusted her medical team’s judgment and she did not want to risk her health by continuing her pregnancy. Grieving the unexpected loss while being denied care and seeing her doctor threatened by the top lawyer in the state, Cox said, “was incredibly scary.” She ultimately traveled out of Texas to get an abortion. “I’m grateful for my doctors. Their hands were tied in many ways,” she said. “The problem isn’t our doctors. It’s that pregnancy is too complicated to legislate.” The post After Years of Silence, Texas Medical Board Issues Training for Doctors on How to Legally Provide Abortions appeared first on ProPublica .

In the summer of 2019, a crew leader tasked with overseeing farm laborers sent them to harvest corn in a field where they weren’t authorized to work — and where there wasn’t adequate protection from the sweltering sun. One of them died of symptoms of heatstroke. Five months later, a crew leader for another Georgia farm kidnapped and brutally assaulted one of his workers who had escaped. Two years after that, a third crew leader confined workers to housing surrounded by an electric fence so they couldn’t try to flee. These and other recently documented abuses were carried out by third-party middlemen, or farm labor contractors, who were hired by farm owners to recruit and supervise foreign workers. Those contractors had found ways to wield power with near impunity over hundreds of workers at a time. Federal prosecutors spent years revealing the scope of the problem in Georgia, in a giant labor-trafficking case that launched in 2016 and is now nearing its conclusion. The evidence in that case led prosecutors to liken the abuse to a form of modern-day slavery.  But despite prosecutors’ efforts to crack down on the exploitation of workers by labor contractors, there has been little to no movement at the state or federal level to make the changes that can stop it. There are laws and regulations that could curb exploitation, but reports from farmworker advocates and labor experts have shown that enforcement has long been lax. A number of elected officials have pushed for years for the government to do more to ensure workers receive those protections. Some advocates now say the only solution is for the government to require that farm owners cut out the middleman and assume ultimate responsibility for their workers. Experts told ProPublica there aren’t enough state and federal inspectors to adequately vet whether the contractors are following the rules. Nor is there broad political support to invest more resources to protect foreign workers, who themselves have little incentive for reporting abuse given the fear of retribution.  “Regardless of the administration — even ones that are sympathetic to labor — regulators are handicapped,” said Cesar Escalante, a University of Georgia professor of agricultural and applied economics. “They know what’s happening, but they’re incapable of enforcing the regulations.” As American farmers continue to rely on the decades-old H-2A visa program to fill the seasonal farmworker jobs, they’ve grown more reliant on contractors to find and oversee those workers. Contractors often are fluent in the languages spoken by workers, familiar with the Mexican towns where they’re plentiful and well-versed in the process of securing their temporary work visas. Many farmers also end up hiring contractors to manage the laborers’ work, pay and housing.  Federal regulators have long known about contractors abusing and exploiting these workers — including stealing their wages, charging them illegal fees, forcing them to live in substandard housing, and even physically and sexually abusing them. Government watchdogs have published reports about those regulators’ failures to do more to prevent abuses in the fields — inaction that, according to the U.S. Labor Department’s inspector general’s office, has increased the odds of employers getting away with serious H-2A violations.  The number of H-2A seasonal worker visas requested by contractors has nearly tripled over the past decade, with roughly 2 out of every 5 H-2A workers now directly overseen by a labor contractor. The Government Accountability Office found that more than half of the employers banned from the H-2A visa program between 2020 and 2023 were labor contractors, even though they submitted just 15% of the visa applications during that same period.   One of the key ways to uncover abuses by labor contractors is for regulators to inspect the farms where their workers pick crops. Daniel Costa, an attorney and director of immigration with the think tank the Economic Policy Institute, said federal regulators have become so strapped for resources that they’re only inspecting a tiny fraction of farms each year. “When less than 1% of farm employers are investigated every year, they can act with impunity, knowing that there is a very low likelihood that they will ever be investigated,” Costa said.  Every year, hundreds of thousands of foreign laborers are drawn to America by the promise of steady, seasonal farmwork through the H-2A program. One of them, Agustin Chavez Santiago, traveled more than 1,500 miles from Oaxaca, Mexico, for his chance to pick crops on a Georgia farm. Once he arrived in the spring of 2019, one of the labor contractors he’d worked with failed to pay him the $11 an hour his contract had promised. Soon after, Chavez was sent to work on a farm where he wasn’t authorized to do so.  As Chavez harvested corn one sweltering afternoon, his body temperature spiked to over 105 degrees. He walked off the field to sip water and rest. Before he cooled down, Chavez collapsed. He was taken to a nearby hospital and died from symptoms of heatstroke. He was 34 years old. The hospital where Augustin Chavez Santiago died after harvesting corn in extreme heat Audra Melton for ProPublica Federal prosecutors charged two contractors involved in recruiting and overseeing Chavez on trafficking charges. Those contractors each pleaded guilty to a lesser crime; one admitted to money laundering and the other admitted to concealing knowledge of a felony. Lawyers for those contractors declined ProPublica’s requests for comment.  In addition, workplace safety inspectors determined that Chavez died because of the negligence of another labor contractor who oversaw his work in the fields. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration concluded that the labor contractor did not provide a worksite free from “hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” The contractor’s company paid OSHA a fine of $16,433. He was able to keep supervising workers.  “The fact that OSHA fined him $16,000 is a slap in the face to the victims,” said Teresa Romero, the president of the United Farm Workers, one of the country’s largest farmworker advocacy organizations. “This person should have been behind bars.” The contractor didn’t respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. He told OSHA in 2019 that he provided water to his employees and allowed them to take breaks in the shade as needed. The U.S. Labor Department can fine or suspend contractors for violating the rules of the H-2A program. But it’s doing fewer agricultural investigations than at any point since the turn of the millennium. In the latest year of available data, including parts of 2024 and 2025, the department completed 649 of those investigations, fining farm employers $8.3 million across the country. That is less than half of the investigations done just a decade earlier, even though the H-2A program more than doubled in size during that time. Experts say the decline in investigations reflects the limited capacity of federal regulators, not that conditions have improved for H-2A workers. Alexis Guild, vice president of strategy and programs with the advocacy group Farmworker Justice, told ProPublica that regulators now rely on workers to report potential violations against themselves. But she said many workers are too scared to speak out because it may lead to retribution and the loss of future work. “It creates an environment that’s ripe for abuse,” she said. The U.S. Labor Department is responsible for vetting H-2A visa applications that the contractors submit to get foreign workers cleared to come to America. Those regulators routinely audit the contractors’ applications to verify information about the number of workers needed and the terms of their employment. If contractors submit false information, they may be criminally charged, as happened in the federal case in Georgia.  But a surge in those requests has meant that large piles of applications haven’t been vetted as closely for red flags. Regulators went from conducting over 500 audits in the fiscal year ending in 2018 to doing less than 50 five years later. The U.S. Labor Department’s Office of Inspector General has warned that the way that its regulators audit “ increases the risk of fraud and noncompliance going undetected .” That warning followed another OIG report that said the way that the department had conducted those audits created an “ unnecessarily elevated risk of foreign labor program abuse .”  Federal labor regulators have acknowledged to the Government Accountability Office that they have had “widespread concern” about farmworkers being exploited by contractors. They have also told the GAO that the department has “limited resources” to carry out some of its work, including the audits.  In recent years, the U.S. Labor Department has been pressed to take greater action to fix these problems. After the Georgia case was publicly unveiled in 2021, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia called for more “ rigorous oversight ” of the contractors. United Farm Workers has also pushed for workers to have “ stronger and more effective ” protections from their contractors.  In response, the Biden administration finalized a rule in 2024 that sought to increase protections for H-2A workers and hold their employers more accountable . But after numerous states filed lawsuits challenging the rule, the Trump administration decided to suspend all enforcement of those strengthened protections until the litigation is resolved.  The U.S. Labor Department did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment.  With fewer federal investigations of farmworker abuses, some states that heavily depend on H-2A workers have tried to address rampant contractor abuses.  Florida regulators require labor contractors to get a state license — a move intended to help ensure greater compliance with the rules of the H-2A program. Washington posts all of its housing inspection and enforcement records in an online database, allowing workers to look at those records before they accept a job. California lawmakers last year passed a new law that will give greater power to its regulators to crack down on the abuses of foreign farmworkers by labor contractors .  But even amid a period of extra scrutiny, Georgia hasn’t made those or any other major changes that could prevent the kind of abuses uncovered in the massive federal probe.  Federal investigators have found inadequate housing for H-2A workers provided by labor contractors. Obtained by ProPublica Labor experts say that one of the most important actions that states can take to protect H-2A workers is to devote sufficient resources to the inspection of their housing conditions. In the last full year of available data, Georgia had one H-2A housing inspector for roughly every 7,100 H-2A workers. Other states with high numbers of H-2A workers had hired more inspectors relative to the number of workers. In recent years, Michigan has had one housing inspector for every 2,000 or so H-2A workers; North Carolina has had one inspector for roughly every 4,000 workers. (Other states, including California, have had worse inspector-to-worker ratios .) At the same time that Georgia’s Labor Department failed to expand its oversight of farmworker housing, one of its top officials called for an internal investigation into alleged problems within the department.  In 2018, as federal investigators were building their case, Georgia’s Labor Department received a complaint alleging that one of its regulators had been approving inspections of H-2A worker housing in exchange for cash. Four years later, a federal agent testified in court that employees of Georgia’s Labor Department had accepted bribes to approve inspections of H-2A worker housing. The employee accused in the 2018 complaint, who was not indicted and retired three months after that agent testified, told ProPublica that he denied any wrongdoing. Around the time of his retirement, labor advocates published a report that called for the “rebuilding” of the state’s Labor Department. They demanded more stringent inspections of H-2A worker housing, better monitoring for potential violations and increased funding so regulators could more effectively do their jobs.  Instead of having Georgia’s Labor Department adopt those recommendations, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an executive order that stripped the beleaguered department of its oversight powers.  Georgia’s Labor Department did not respond to ProPublica’s requests for comment. A spokesperson for Kemp said the decision was made to “improve alignment with workforce training programs.” Kemp transferred H-2A oversight to the Technical College System of Georgia. A Technical College System spokesperson said its officials have “strengthened its monitoring processes to ensure thorough oversight of potential H-2A violations.”  She also noted that the agency has increased the number of employees who conduct housing inspections from three to six — with plans to add a seventh soon. In a statement, the spokesperson wrote that the Technical College System has taken steps that “have enhanced our ability to monitor, document, and respond to issues more effectively than before.” Yet, even after doubling the number of inspectors, Georgia still has fewer inspectors per H-2A worker than some of the other states that heavily rely on the visa program. States like Georgia that have too few inspectors for H-2A workers all but guarantee that violations of the program’s rules will increase, according to Diane Charlton, an associate professor of agricultural economics at Montana State University. “We need to invest more in actually monitoring labor conditions,” Charlton said. “This has to be a major priority.” H-2A worker Agustin Chavez Santiago collapsed after harvesting corn near this field and later died of symptoms of heatstroke. Audra Melton for ProPublica The post The Dramatic Rise of Farm Labor Contractors Has Led to Rampant Abuses. Here’s Why Regulators Have Failed to Stop Them. appeared first on ProPublica .

US President Donald Trump plans to unveil a website on Thursday allowing people to directly buy prescription drugs, part of his push to address Americans’ concerns about affordability. The president is scheduled to host a 7pm event to launch the site - branded as TrumpRx - at the White House alongside Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz and government design chief Joe Gebbia, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on social media. The website is...

Chinese researchers have pushed the frontiers of quantum encryption, demonstrating a powerful new way to send secure information over more than 100km (62 miles) of optical fibre – without having to trust the equipment being used. A team led by Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China used a pair of individual rubidium atoms, trapped in laser beams at two separate network nodes, as the foundation for their system, according to a paper published in Science this week. The...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will visit the White House on March 19, President Donald Trump said on Thursday, praising the Asian country’s first female leader ahead of weekend snap elections she is expected to win. Takaichi “has already proven to be a strong, powerful, and wise Leader, and one that truly loves her Country”, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social as he announced her visit next month. The United States and Japan have been working to strike a “very substantial” deal on...

Vodafone also reviewing its contract with Global Counsel after revelations of former minister’s links to Jeffrey Epstein Barclays has reportedly cut its ties with the lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, after intense scrutiny of the founders’ dealings with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Vodafone has also said it is reviewing its contract for public affairs services with Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010 after Labour lost the general election. Continue reading...

Party says it will not back funding bill without reforms on – among other things – masks, ID and judicial warrants Following the fatal shootings of American citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last month, Democrats have refused to support long-term funding for the Department of Homland Security unless Republicans agree to reforms on the tactics of federal agents carrying out Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. “The American people rightfully expect their elected representatives to take action to rein in ICE and ensure no more lives are lost,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries wrote on Wednesday night in a letter issuing 10 formal demands to GOP leadership in order to avert a 13 February lapse in funding for the department, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Border Patrol. Continue reading...

Anger at former US ambassador Peter Mandelson’s relations with the child sex offender threatens to topple the prime minister It was the one scandal that Donald Trump seemed unable to shake. No matter his best efforts to convince his supporter base that there was nothing to see here, the demands for the administration to release every document it had on the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein only grew. Yet even after the most shocking revelations in the latest drop about Trump’s inner circle – involving everyone from Elon Musk to the Maga honcho Steve Bannon to the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, not to mention Trump himself – so far, it seems, the administration has escaped largely unscathed. Nobody has resigned, nobody has been fired, and certainly there is no sign that the US president is going anywhere. Continue reading...