No shots were fired but the Army treated it as an “active shooter situation” and two military bases on Oahu went into lockdown for several hours, said Michael Donnelly, a spokesperson for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii.

The Army issued a shelter-in-place order for Schofield Barracks, which was later lifted. The Army was working with the Honolulu Police Department to find the suspect, who was still at large, Donnelly said.

The Army said the man was 5 feet, 10 inches (177 centimeters) tall, wearing an aloha shirt and jeans and had a mohawk-type haircut.

The man was last seen near the Schofield commissary on a bike.

He was “trying to allegedly talk with soldiers,” Donnelly said. “I don’t know if he was bartering or selling stuff, but someone confronted him, and they got into a scuffle. There was a handgun witnessed, visible.”

Neighboring Wheeler Army Airfield also went into lockdown, as did two public schools on Schofield: Daniel K. Inouye Elementary and Solomon Elementary. The incident occurred around 2:30 p.m., as children were leaving for the day, and staff, students and parents were secured indoors.

Schofield Barracks is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Honolulu. It hosts the 25th Infantry Division and the 8th Theater Sustainment Command.

Wheeler Army Airfield, just next door, is home to the Hawaii Air National Guard and the headquarters for U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii.

About 60,000 people are on Schofield, including soldiers, civilians, workers, contractors and families. Combined with Wheeler, the population is more than 90,000.

The spill from the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility poisoned thousands of military families and continues to threaten the purity of Honolulu’s water supply.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro issued censure letters to the three rear admirals, the Navy said in a news release. He also revoked personal military decorations awarded to five rear admirals, three captains and one commander.

“Taking accountability is a step in restoring trust in our relationship with the community,” Del Toro said in a statement.

The spill “was not acceptable,” and the Navy will continue "to take every action to identify and remedy this issue," he said.

A Navy investigation last year concluded a series of errors caused the fuel to leak into a well that supplied water to housing and offices in and around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. About 6,000 people suffered nausea, headaches, rashes and other symptoms.

The investigation concluded operator error caused a pipe to rupture when fuel was being transferred between tanks on May 6, 2021, leading 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) to spill. Most of this liquid flowed into a fire suppression line and sat there for six months, causing the line to sag. A cart then rammed into the drooping line on Nov. 20, releasing 20,000 gallons (75,700 liters) of fuel that entered a French drain and the drinking water well.

The spill came even though the Navy for years reassured Oahu residents their water was safe despite Red Hill's history of leaks, including when 27,000 gallons (102,206 liters) seeped from one tank.

The water poisoning upset people across Hawaii, including veterans, environmentalists, Native Hawaiians, liberals and conservatives.

Wayne Tanaka, director of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, called the reprimands “outrageous” considering the damage done and the ongoing threat the leak poses to an aquifer underneath the tanks.

“Just to have these written slaps on the wrist is insulting to our people, to our dignity,” Tanaka said.

After months of resistance, the military agreed to an order from the state of Hawaii to drain the World War II-era tanks. It has spent the past year repairing equipment at the facility to safely remove the fuel beginning next month. It expects to finish by Jan. 19.

Three officers received letters of censure from Del Toro: Retired Rear Adm. Peter Stamatopoulos, who was the commander of Naval Supply Systems Command during the May and November spills; Rear Adm. (retired) John Korka, who was commander of the Navy Facilities Engineering Command Pacific before the two spills; and Rear Adm. (retired) Timothy Kott, who was the commander of Navy Region Hawaii during the November spill.

U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat from Hawaii, said in a statement that true accountability for the disaster would require the Navy to address “systemic command and control failures, and a lack of requisite attention to infrastructure.”

She noted the Navy's investigation found that a culture of complacency, a lack of critical thinking, and a lack of timely communication contributed to the spill.

"I have yet to see adequate evidence that Navy leadership is treating these service-wide issues with the seriousness or urgency they demand,” Hirono said in a statement.

Hirono, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she would continue pushing the Navy to make these systemic changes.

One man was struck by the gunfire and rushed to the hospital as Rio Arriba County sheriff’s officials took the suspected shooter, 23-year-old Ryan Martinez, into custody. Authorities said they were not currently seeking any other suspects in connection with the shooting.

Oñate has been a controversial figure in New Mexico's history for generations, with activists targeting the statue and other likenesses of the Spaniard for his oppressive and sometimes brutal treatment of Native Americans during his country's conquest of what is now the Southwestern United States. Some Hispanics have pointed to the statue as a symbol of their heritage.

Although the county had postponed the installation of the statue the previous day because of public safety concerns, people still turned out.

Protesters arrived Tuesday and pitched tents. They placed offerings on and around the empty pedestal to Oñate: pottery, corn stalks, votive candles, a basket of vegetables. Banners read, “not today Oñate,” and “celebrate resistance not conquistadores.”

The man who would later draw and fire a gun used profanity in arguments with protesters and was told by law enforcement officers to leave. Video captured by onlookers showed the man jumping a short wall and heading toward the crowd as others grabbed him.

One person yelled, “Hey, hey, hey. Let him go!” as he broke free and jumped back over the wall. That's when he pulled a gun from his waistband and fired a single shot before running off. Screaming ensued.

One person could be heard saying, “Help me! Help me!” and “I can’t breathe.”

The shooting occurred just outside the doors of county offices, which include sheriff offices. More than 20 law enforcement vehicles responded, crowding an Española city roadway that overlooks the Upper Rio Grande Valley.

The wounded man, whose name was not immediately released by authorities, was shot in the upper torso and was being treated at a local hospital, authorities said.

Authorities said a motive for the shooting was unclear.

“Once again, the saddest part about this is we have another incident of gun violence,” county Sheriff Billy Merrifield said at a brief news conference.

Merrifield said he expressed concerns about safety issues to county commissioners about reinstalling the statue in Española outside the county building. He said he was grateful to commissioners who decided against putting up the statue.

He declined to take any questions, saying New Mexico State Police were handling the crime scene and the investigation.

State police didn't immediately respond to emails or phone calls Thursday night from The Associated Press seeking any information about the condition of the victim or any charges that had been filed or were pending in connection with the shooting. A dispatcher who wasn't authorized to release any information said additional details were expected to be released later Thursday night or Friday.

Jennifer Marley, of San Ildefonso Pueblo, an organizer for the Native American rights group The Red Nation, said the shooting took place within view of the county sheriff’s department building but without any officers on site to intervene.

“It was awful. This was a peaceful call to action. We were there to celebrate the fact that the statue was not going up,” she said.

She described Oñate’s legacy as one of genocidal violence. “It’s really ironic, I was basically saying that this violence is ongoing ... even when we are being peaceful and prayerful. The shooting began while I was speaking.”

The shooting happened on the day the New Mexico Department of Health released a report on gunshot victims treated at New Mexico’s hospitals. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham commissioned the report earlier this month, alongside issuing a public health order that temporarily suspended gun rights in the Albuquerque area over recent gun violence.

A federal judge blocked aspects of it while a flurry of lawsuits alleging violations of constitutional rights played out.

According to the report, there was a 16% increase in patients admitted to intensive care units for firearm injuries between 2019 and 2022. Gunshot victims transferred from emergency departments to operating rooms increased by 61% over the same time frame.

The report also noted that deaths from firearm injuries between 2017 and 2021 increased among Hispanics, non-Hispanic Native Americans and non-Hispanic Black populations.

Tony Ortega, a 78-year-old retired technician who worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory, said he was glad to hear the county planned to put the Oñate statue back on public display as a symbol of local Hispanic pride. But he said he knew it would cause trouble.

“I knew this was going to be a problem. Native Americans don’t want it,” Ortega said. “They think Oñate was a bad person more or less.”

Oñate, who arrived in present-day New Mexico in 1598, is celebrated as a cultural father figure in communities along the Upper Rio Grande that trace their ancestry to Spanish settlers. But he is also reviled for his brutality.

To Native Americans, Oñate is known for having ordered the right feet cut off of 24 captive tribal warriors after his soldiers stormed the Acoma Pueblo’s mesa-top “sky city.” That attack was precipitated by the killing of Onate’s nephew.

In 1998, someone sawed the right foot off the statue of Oñate near Española, where it had been on display until it was taken down in 2020 amid a national movement for racial justice that sought to topple countless monuments.

A likeness of Oñate among a caravan of Spanish colonists set in bronze outside an Albuquerque city museum also drew protests in 2020 that resulted in it being taken down.

Rio Arriba County Commission Chairman Alex Naranjo, a Democratic former magistrate judge and school board member, said he is still committed to returning the statue to public display. He said the bronze likeness and companion cultural center in the nearby community of Alcalde was commissioned at a cost of more than $1 million in county, state and federal funding, in a project championed by his uncle Emilio Naranjo as a state senator and public figures including former Gov. Bill Richardson.

He blamed Thursday's confrontations on “disrespectful” protesters from beyond the Española Valley, though many protesters Thursday cited local Native American ties.

“To me it’s a matter of principle,” said Naranjo, who traces his ancestry to Spanish settlers who arrived in the late-1500s. “I don’t question anybody who disagrees with me as long as they do it in a respectful, cordial way.”

____

Associated Press writers Terry Tang and Walter Berry in Phoenix and Christopher L. Keller and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque contributed to this story.

When it takes effect on April 1, fast food workers in California will have the highest guaranteed base salary in the industry. The state’s minimum wage for all other workers — $15.50 per hour — is already among the highest in the United States.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the law Thursday amid a throng of cheering workers and labor leaders at an event in Los Angeles. Newsom dismissed the popular view that fast food jobs are meant for teenagers to have their first experience in the workforce.

“That's a romanticized version of a world that doesn't exist,” Newsom said. “We have the opportunity to reward that contribution, reward that sacrifice and stabilize an industry.”

Newsom’s signature reflects the power and influence of labor unions in the nation’s most populous state, which have worked to organize fast food workers in an attempt to improve their wages and working conditions.

It also settles — for now, at least — a fight between labor and business groups over how to regulate the industry. In exchange for higher pay, labor unions have dropped their attempt to make fast food corporations liable for the misdeeds of their independent franchise operators in California, an action that could have upended the business model on which the industry is based. The industry, meanwhile, has agreed to pull a referendum related to worker wages off the 2024 ballot.

“That was a tectonic plate that had to be moved,” Newsom said, referring to what he said were the more than 100 hours of negotiations it took to reach an agreement on the bills in the final weeks of the state legislative session.

Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union International, said the law capped 10 years of work — including 450 strikes across the state in the past two years.

The moment was almost too much for Anneisha Williams, who held back tears as she spoke during a news conference just before Newsom signed the bill. Williams, a mother of six — seven if you count her beloved dog — works at a Jack in the Box restaurant in Inglewood.

“They’ve been with me on the picket line, and they’ve been marching with me as well,” Williams said of her children. “This is for them.”

Newsom signing the law could win back some favor with organized labor, who sharply criticized him last week for vetoing a separate bill aimed at protecting the jobs of truck drivers amid the rise of self-driving technology. Unions have played a big part in Newsom's political rise in California, offering a reliable source of campaign cash.

Newsom’s appearance in Los Angeles comes a day after Republican presidential candidates – but not Donald Trump – appeared at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley for their second televised debate. Newsom, while denying any interest in a White House run, has positioned himself as a foil to GOP contenders and has traveled the country to criticize conservative positions on abortion and gun rights. His actions on hundreds of bills before him may be viewed through the lens of his future political ambitions.

The new minimum wage for fast food workers will apply to restaurants with at least 60 locations nationwide, with an exception for restaurants that make and sell their own bread, like Panera Bread.

Right now, California’s fast food workers earn an average of $16.60 per hour, or just over $34,000 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the California Poverty Measure for a family of four, a statistic calculated by the Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center on Poverty and Equality that accounts for housing costs and publicly-funded benefits.

The new $20 minimum wage is just a starting point. The law creates a Fast Food Council that has the power to increase that wage each year through 2029 by 3.5% or the change in averages for the U.S. Consumer Price Index for urban wage earners and clerical workers, whichever is lower.

Now, the focus will shift to another group of low-wage California workers waiting for their own minimum wage increase. Lawmakers passed a separate bill earlier this month that would gradually raise the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 per hour over the next decade. That raise wouldn’t apply to doctors and nurses, but to most everyone else who works at hospitals, dialysis clinics or other health care facilities.

But unlike the fast food wage increase — which Newsom helped negotiate — the governor has not said if he would sign the raise for health care workers. The issue is complicated by the state’s Medicaid program, which is the main source of revenue for many hospitals. The Newsom administration has estimated the wage increase would cost the state billions of dollars in increased payments to health care providers.

Labor unions that support the wage increase point to a study from the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center that said the state’s costs would be offset by a reduction in the number of people relying on publicly funded assistance programs.

___

Associated Press reporter Michael R. Blood contributed from Los Angeles.

Dexter's mother was found dead inside a home on June 6. A sheriff's coroner later classified the woman's death as a homicide, and her cause of death was determined to be an "intentional fentanyl poisoning," San Jose Police Department Officer Steve Aponte wrote.

"SJPD Homicide Detectives then began a comprehensive and thorough investigation into this incident and identified Bradley Dexter, a resident of San Jose and adult son of the victim, as the potential suspect," Aponte wrote.

Earlier this month, police discovered that Dexter was also responsible for a violent attack against his father. The father suffered serious injuries. Police did not say when or where the father was assaulted.

Patrol officers arrested Dexter on Sept. 25. The motive and circumstances surrounding the deadly poisoning are still under investigation, police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Sgt. Barragan #4106 or Det. Van Brande #4542 of the SJPD's Homicide Unit by calling (408) 277-5283.

There have been 28 homicides in San Jose this year.

Comer also subpoenaed the bank records of President Biden's brother James Biden and Hunter Biden associate Eric Schwerin.

“From day one of our investigation of Joe Biden’s abuse of public office, we’ve followed the money and that continues with today’s subpoenas for Hunter and James Biden’s bank records. Bank records don’t lie, and coupled with witness testimony, they reveal that Joe Biden abused his public office for his family’s financial gain,” Comer wrote in a press release announcing the subpoenas. 

Comer’s subpoenas come after a rocky first hearing in the impeachment inquiry of President Biden. At the end of the hearing, Comer announced his intention to issue the subpoenas in an effort to find any potential evidence connecting the president to the business dealings of his son. 

"Today I will subpoena the bank records of Hunter Biden, James Biden and their affiliated companies," Comer said at the end of the hearing, describing the subpoenas as the "next step of this investigation."

In the official notification of the subpoena, Comer outlined the concern, without offering additional substantive evidence, that members of the Biden family “sought to conceal the source of foreign income by having lucrative wires sent to Biden associates' accounts instead of their own bank accounts.”

Comer said he hopes the bank records will reveal “where the foreign money was finally sent.”

“The subpoenaed bank records will help the Committees determine whether Joe Biden abused his office by selling access and/or by receiving payments or other benefits in exchange for official acts, which is a critical aspect of the Committees' impeachment inquiry,” the notification read.

The House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee were tasked by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) with opening an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Hours before the subpoenas were issued, the Republican-led committees held the first hearing of the impeachment inquiry of the president. The hearing struggled to find its footing as Republicans largely stressed the need for an impeachment inquiry in order to determine whether there are grounds for impeachment.

Democrats, on the other hand, noted that House Republicans have not produced any evidence hinting to wrongdoing by President Biden and that lawmakers should be focusing instead on the looming government shutdown.

This story was updated at 9:40 pm.

The latest hurdle comes from a slow-moving threat — a mass influx of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico that is creeping up the drought-stricken Mississippi River. Not only is the saltwater intrusion threatening drinking water supplies for communities, but it can also kill citrus seedlings.

The issue is forcing farmers to brainstorm other ways to irrigate their crops with fresh water — including storing the little rain water they’ve gotten this summer, hauling in fresh water and establishing makeshift salination treatment facilities. Some are looking into whether they can afford, let alone get their hands on, an expensive reverse-osmosis machine.

“They’re going to have something up their sleeve. They know how to survive, but there’s no getting around how dire the situation is,” said Joey Breaux, the assistant commissioner of soil and water for the state’s agricultural department, about the farmers. “Unless they have another source of irrigation water, or a way to pretreat irrigation water, it doesn’t look too good.”

Many communities in south Louisiana rely on the Mississippi’s fresh water, with their intake facilities located along the river. Typically, the mighty flow of the Mississippi is enough to keep mass amounts of salt water from reaching too far inland. But hot and dry conditions across the country this summer triggered drought conditions that slowed the Mississippi’s velocity and lowered its water levels. As a result, for the second year in a row, Louisiana is hastily working to avoid the disaster of a slow-moving salt water intrusion.

The Army Corps of Engineers is busy raising the height of an underwater levee used to block or slow the salt water, and 15 million gallons (57 million liters) of fresh water is barged in to treatment facilities.

Additionally, earlier this week Gov. John Bel Edwards wrote to President Joe Biden, saying federal assistance is “necessary to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster.” Biden granted the request.

And while many are focused on the possible impacts of the salt water influx on Louisiana’s most well-known city, 15 miles (24 kilometers) down the river is Belle Chasse — a community of about 11,000 people that sits on the west bank of the Mississippi.

If the rows of citrus trees and farm stands advertising satsumas don't make it evident that the small community is Louisiana’s unofficial citrus capital then perhaps one can look to the area’s annual Orange Festival. The event has commemorated the harvest season for more than 70 years.

While Plaquemines Parish, home to Belle Chasse, may not be Florida or California, its microclimate — southerly latitude and nearness to warm Gulf waters — has made it possible for citrus to be a unique part of the area’s economy. For more than 300 years, farmers in south Louisiana have grown a variety of oranges that are available today in grocery stores and at farmers markets statewide.

At its peak, in 1946, Louisiana’s prized citrus industry produced 410,000 boxes of fruit, said Anna Timmerman, a horticultural agent at Louisiana State University AgCenter who works closely with Belle Chasse farmers. But the vibrant citrus industry has suffered in the wake of hurricanes, with Hurricane Katrina damaging more than half of the trees. Since then it has continued to face challenges and the industry has dwindled. Timmerman estimates that there are about 800 acres (324 hectares) of citrus groves left in the state, most in Plaquemines Parish.

Unlike disasters that can have devastating effects overnight, such as hurricanes and freezes, saltwater intrusion is slow-moving. Timmerman said that the issue is estimated to reach Belle Chasse in a week or two and would only escalate to become a significant problem if it persists for several months.

“I know (citrus farmers) are scrambling to explore options, but the beauty of this is that we have some time,” Timmerman said.

While the saltwater intrusion on the Mississippi hasn’t yet impacted orchards, it is something that state officials and local farmers are diligently watching and making contingency plans for — with people looking at desalination units, reverse-osmosis machines and more affordable makeshift options.

“It’s kind of just a wait-and-see situation for us,” said Kim Dillon, the manager of Ben & Ben Becnel, Inc, a farmer’s market owned by citrus growers who produce a variety of other crops as well.

While officials believe adult citrus trees will be okay, seedlings are much more sensitive to salt water.

Over the years some citrus farmers have focused on seedlings — shipping them to garden centers across the country and as far north as Canada. Nursery stock production is now a multimillion-dollar industry in Plaquemines Parish, Timmerman said.

For now many are monitoring the situation and seeing if state efforts will mitigate the issue. Most of all though, they’re praying for rain — and lots of it.

The Seattle Police Department confirmed Thursday that traffic Officer Daniel Auderer “has been administratively reassigned to a non-operational position," The Seattle Times reported. The reassignment information comes a week after one police watchdog group called for Auderer to be suspended without pay. It wasn't immediately clear when Auderer was taken off traffic duty and reassigned.

Auderer, who is vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, has been under investigation since a recording from his body camera was released that depicts him laughing and joking during a phone call with union President Mike Solan. The call happened in the hours after another officer, Kevin Dave, in his police SUV struck and killed 23-year-old student Jaahnavi Kandula as she was crossing a street on Jan. 23.

Dave had been driving 74 mph (119 kph) in a 25 mph (40 kph) zone on he headed to a drug overdose call. He started braking less than a second before hitting Kandula, according to a detective's report. The report said Dave was driving 63 mph (101 kph) when he hit the woman and that his speed didn’t allow Kandula or Dave sufficient time to “detect, address and avoid a hazard that presented itself.”

The SUV’s emergency lights had been activated, and Dave had “chirped” his siren at other intersections and used it immediately before the collision, the report said, adding Kandula was thrown 138 feet (42 meters).

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is conducting a criminal review of the crash.

Auderer left his body camera on during his call to Solan after leaving the crash scene, where he had been called to determine whether Dave was impaired.

In the recording released by the police department only Auderer can be heard speaking. He underplays the crash, inaccurately saying Dave was driving 50 mph at the time. Then he can be heard laughing and calling Kandula a “regular person.” He also suggests Kandula’s life had “limited value” and the city should just write a check for $11,000.

Seattle’s Office of Police Accountability began an investigation Aug. 2 after a police department employee who was reviewing the body camera video for the crash investigation reported it to a police department lawyer.

Auderer’s comments have been condemned locally and internationally. Police Chief Adrian Diaz has said he’s met with representatives of the Indian and Asian communities about it.

The Seattle Police Officers Guild in a statement has said the recorded conversation has been taken out of context and that the two men were mocking how the city's lawyers might try to minimize liability for Kandula's death.

Blinken and Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Thursday at the State Department as the U.S. tries to navigate the dispute between its northern neighbor and the South Asian country critical to its Indo-Pacific strategy to counter China's rising influence in the region.

Neither man spoke to the controversy that has disrupted Canada-India relations in very brief comments to reporters, but a U.S. official said the topic was raised. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said Blinken encouraged India to cooperate with the Canadian probe.

“We have consistently engaged with the Indian government on this question and have urged them to cooperate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters ahead of the meeting.

After the meeting, Miller said in a statement that Blinken and Jaishankar had “discussed a full range of issues, including key outcomes of India’s G20 presidency, and the creation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and its potential to generate transparent, sustainable, and high-standard infrastructure investments.”

They also covered “the continued importance of cooperation ahead of the upcoming 2+2 Dialogue, in particular in the areas of defense, space, and clean energy,” Miller said. The G20 refers to the Group of 20 summit that was recently held in New Delhi and was attended by President Joe Biden. The “2+2” dialogue is a format for meetings between the U.S. and Indian foreign and defense ministers.

Earlier Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he had been told Blinken would address the matter and encourage the Indian government to cooperate with an investigation into the killing.

“The Americans have been with us in speaking to the Indian government about how important it is that they be involved in following up on the credible allegations that agents of the Indian government killed a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil,” Trudeau said.

“This is something all democratic countries, all countries that respect the rule, need to take seriously and we are moving forward in a thoughtful, responsible way anchored in the rule of law with all partners, including in our approach with the government of India,” he told reporters in Montreal.

U.S. officials have acknowledged that the fallout from the allegations, which they take seriously, could have a profound impact on relations with India but have been careful not to cast blame in the June killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was slain in a Vancouver suburb.

Killed by masked gunmen, Nijjar was a leader in what remains of a once-strong movement to create an independent Sikh homeland, known as Khalistan, and India had designated him a terrorist.

India’s foreign ministry has dismissed the allegation as “absurd” and accused Canada of harboring “terrorists and extremists.” It also implied that Trudeau was trying to drum up domestic support among the Sikh diaspora.

In his comments, Trudeau said Canada did not want to rupture ties with India but takes the matter seriously.

“As we’ve presented with our Indo-Pacific strategy just last year, we’re very serious with about building closer ties with India," he said. “At the same time ... we need emphasize that India needs to work with Canada to ensure that we get the full facts on this matter.”

___

Associated Press writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Pvt. Travis King ran across the heavily fortified border from South Korea in July and became the first American detained in North Korea in nearly five years.

Pyongyang abruptly announced Wednesday that it would expel King, and he was flown to an Air Force base in Texas on Thursday.

Here's what we know about King, his mysterious entry into North Korea and what's happened in similar cases.

WHO IS HE, AND WHAT HAPPENED?

King, 23, joined the Army in January 2021 and was in South Korea as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division, according to military officials.

On July 10 he was released from a South Korean prison after serving nearly two months on assault charges. He was set to be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, where he could have faced potential additional disciplinary actions and discharge.

Officials said King was taken to the airport and escorted as far as customs. But instead of getting on the plane, he left and later joined a civilian tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom. He bolted across the border, which is lined with guards and often crowded with tourists, in the afternoon.

North Korea's state news agency said King, who is Black, had said he entered the country because he “harbored ill feelings against inhuman mistreatment and racial discrimination within the U.S. Army.”

U.S. officials have cast doubt on the authenticity of those statements, and King's mother, Claudine Gates of Racine, Wisconsin, told The Associated Press she never heard him express such views.

It remains unclear why King crossed the border and why Pyongyang — which has tense relations with Washington over its nuclear program, its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine and other issues — agreed to release him.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The coming weeks are likely to hold a battery of medical and phycological examinations as well as intelligence debriefings about his time in North Korea, a country few Americans enter.

King arrived early Thursday at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and was taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, according to the Pentagon. Along with the testing and questioning, he will also get a chance to see family.

King's movements will likely be controlled while commanders learn what they can from him and decide what to do next, said Rachel VanLandingham, a national security law expert and professor at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. She said the probable next steps are formal charges under the military justice system, but they could take months.

“Based on their track record, I think they’re going to court-martial him," said VanLandingham, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, adding that the evidence against King appears “overwhelming” but he could also be discharged without charges.

King was declared AWOL but not considered a deserter. Punishment for going AWOL or desertion vary based on a number of factors that are complicated by King's two-month absence and ultimate handover by North Korean.

The fact that he spent weeks in the secretive country would be unlikely to give him any leverage with the U.S. military over his punishment, said Gary Solis, a former Marine Corps. prosecutor and military judge.

“I don’t think that he would have been allowed to have seen anything of strategic or even tactical value that he might use as a bargaining chip,” Solis said. “I think he’s out of luck.”

WHAT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE IN SIMILAR CASES?

The last active-duty soldier returned to the U.S. by an adversary was Bowe Bergdahl, VanLandingham said.

Bergdahl was 23 when he left his Army post in Afghanistan in 2009, was abducted by the Taliban and was held captive and tortured for nearly five years. He later said he left to report what he saw as poor leadership within his unit.

Several U.S. servicemembers were wounded while searching for Bergdahl. After his return in a prisoner swap, he was charged in military court with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Bergdahl pleaded guilty to both charges in 2017, but a judge vacated his conviction this year.

VanLandingham said that while the two cases are not identical, the fact that the Army pursued a court-martial against Bergdahl suggests it will against King as well.

Officials said King was released in good health, unlike Otto Warmbier, another American recently held in North Korea.

Warmbier, a 22-year-old University of Virginia student, was seized by North Korean authorities from a tour group in January 2016, convicted of trying to steal a propaganda poster and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

He spent 17 months in captivity before he was released and flown home in a coma, dying shortly afterward in June 2017.

While not providing a clear reason for Warmbier’s brain damage, North Korea denied accusations by Warmbier’s family that he was tortured.

___

Associated Press writer Paul J. Weber in Austin contributed to this report.

New details behind the 2022 arson at Wellspring Health Access in Casper, delaying the clinic's opening by almost a year, emerged as Lorna Roxanne Green, 22, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years probation.

In addition, Green will have to pay “very, very substantial” restitution that is yet to be determined but will be “well over $280,000,” U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson said.

Green said little at the hearing but through her attorney, Ryan Semerad, told the court she acted alone, accepted responsibility and didn't intend to cause fear or make a political statement but failed to handle her strong emotions about the clinic.

“You are a talented and gifted person,” Johnson told her. “You are entitled to your opinions, whatever they may be, but those opinions do not justify in any respect the terror that was caused.”

Prosecutors and Green's attorney said in the hearing they agreed to the mandatory minimum sentence.

As many as 20 supporters of Green turned out for the hearing. Green looked to them with a slight smile after entering the courtroom but neither she nor they reacted emotionally during the proceedings. Two women and a man who sat among Green's supporters during the proceedings said her family had no comment.

Johnson said he received a “remarkable” outpouring of letters in support of Green from family, friends and community members.

Green faced up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty in July. As at her plea hearing, she said she was sorry for what she did.

Green told investigators she opposed abortion and that anxiety and nightmares about the clinic caused her to burn it. Johnson urged Green to get treatment for her obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety and depression described in a “lengthy report” from a psychologist.

“You are a complex person,” Johnson told her.

The judge related details from pre-sentencing reports about her now-distant relationship with “helicopter” parents after a childhood in which she was regularly spanked up to age 18. Her mother once struck and gave her sister a bloody nose, Johnson said, referring to the documents.

Green experienced “emotional and physical abuse” and “control and manipulation by her parents" who “talked down” to her, Johnson said.

The pre-sentencing reports have not been made available to the public. Green's parents, who had no listed number, did not return a phone message left through Semerad's office seeking comment on the allegations.

The fire happened weeks before the clinic was to open. Extensive damage to the building being remodeled for the clinic kept it from opening for almost a year.

Green admitted to breaking in, pouring gasoline around the inside of the building and lighting it on fire, according to court documents.

The Casper College mechanical engineering student showed no sign of anti-abortion views on social media but told investigators she opposed abortion.

She told a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent she bought gas cans and aluminum pans the day before the fire, drove to Casper, and carried the cans and pans to the clinic in a bag, matching security video and a witness account, according to a court filing.

She admitted using a rock to break glass in a door to enter and pouring gasoline into the pans in several rooms and on the floor before lighting it, according to the document.

Investigators said they made little progress finding who started the fire until a reward was increased to $15,000 in March, leading several tipsters to identify Green.

The arson was one of hundreds against abortion clinics in the U.S. since the 1970s, Wellspring founder and President Julie Burkhart said in the hearing.

Burkhart said she had a daughter about Green's age, however, and felt sorry that she had derailed her life by burning the clinic.

“In a way, my heart breaks for the defendant. She made a terrible choice and committed a heinous crime,” Burkhart said.

Burkhart once worked closely with Dr. George Tiller, a Wichita, Kansas, abortion doctor who was assassinated at church in 2009. Four years after his murder, Burkhart helped to reopen Tiller’s clinic.

The clinic, which opened in April, provides surgical and pill abortions, making it the first of its kind in the state in at least a decade. Only one other clinic in Wyoming — in Jackson, some 250 miles (400 kilometers) away — provides abortions, and only by pill.

Laws passed in Wyoming in 2022 and 2023 sought to make abortion in the state illegal but a judge has kept abortion legal while a lawsuit challenging the new laws proceeds. One of the new Wyoming laws to ban any drug used to cause an abortion would be the nation’s first explicit ban on abortion pills.

Teton County District Judge Melissa Owens has expressed sympathy with arguments that a 2012 state constitutional amendment guaranteeing Wyoming residents’ right to make their own health care decisions conflicted with the bans.

Though abortion in Wyoming has remained legal, women in the rural state often go to nearby states, including Colorado, for abortions.

Early this week, officials began permitting those who lived in a small section in the north end of Lahaina to return for the first time since the Aug. 8 wildfire demolished the historic coastal town. Next Monday and Tuesday, residents of three more streets in that area will be allowed back, Maui County said in a news release Thursday.

The wildfire killed at least 97 people, making it the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, most of them homes. It first erupted in the morning when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric power line to fall, igniting dry brush and grass. The fire was initially declared contained, but one flared up again in the same area around 3 p.m. and raced through the town.

Lawmakers probing the cause of the wildfire did not get many answers during a congressional hearing Thursday on the role the electrical grid played in the disaster.

In the days after it, some people were able to return to their properties to evaluate the damage. But the burned area was subsequently made off-limits to all but authorized workers, including Environmental Protection Agency crews tasked with removing hazardous materials.

Officials have urged returning residents not to sift through the ashes for fear of raising toxic dust. Some families have nevertheless sought to recover heirloom s and keepsakes from the ruins.

Jason Billingsley, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Pava LaPere, was released from prison last October after serving a shortened sentence for a 2013 rape because he earned good behavior credits behind bars. He was also suspected in another rape days before LaPere’s death and police had been actively searching for him since then, officials said at a news conference Thursday announcing the arrest.

Police believe LaPere was killed Friday night, although her body wasn’t discovered until after someone reported her missing Monday morning. LaPere, who founded the tech startup EcoMap Technologies from her dorm room at Johns Hopkins University, died from strangulation and blunt force trauma, court records show.

Police have said there’s no reason to believe LaPere knew Billingsley.

The killing marked a exceedingly rare random homicide in a city that has made notable progress in reversing its murder rate over the past several months. So far in 2023, Baltimore homicides are down about 18% compared to this time last year.

LaPere’s family thanked law enforcement for their “tireless efforts” during the investigation.

“We’re relieved to know he can no longer hurt other innocent victims,” the family said in a statement Thursday. “While this doesn’t change that Baltimore lost one of its most passionate, influential fans, our efforts remain focused on remembering and celebrating Pava Marie — her life, successes, and legacy.”

LaPere, who was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list for social impact earlier this year, was remembered at a vigil Wednesday as someone who remained focused on building community and using entrepreneurship to create meaningful social change even as her national profile rose.

Billingsley's arrest warrant contains new details about the suffering LaPere endured. Her partially clothed body was found on the roof of her downtown Baltimore apartment building, according to the warrant.

Surveillance footage shows LaPere arriving home Friday night and sitting on a couch in the lobby when Billingsley approached the building and waved her over to the glass door, police said. She opened the door and started talking to him, and they were seen getting on the elevator together, according to the warrant.

Billingsley was then seen “scrambling for an exit” less than an hour later and wiping his hand on his shorts before leaving the apartment building, police said.

Earlier Friday evening, LaPere had attended a festival celebrating the Baltimore arts community, her friend told The Associated Press.

Baltimore Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley said Billingsley had been firmly on the department’s radar since detectives quickly identified him as a suspect in a Sept. 19 rape and arson. Worley said officials didn’t alert the public at that time because they didn’t believe he was committing “random” acts of violence.

“Hindsight’s 20/20,” Worley added.

He said Billingsley, 32, knew the victims in the earlier case and gained entry into their apartment by identifying himself as the building maintenance man. The warrant for those charges says Billingsley did actually work in that capacity.

According to the warrant, he entered the apartment, pointed a gun at a woman inside and used duct-tape to restrain her and her boyfriend. He then raped woman several times and slit her throat with a knife before dousing both victims in liquid and setting them on fire, leaving them with serious burns, police wrote.

Officers found a backpack and other items in the bushes outside the house, including duct tape, a bleach container, gas can and lighter, the warrant says.

Investigators are reviewing all open criminal cases since Billingsley’s 2022 release to determine whether any connections exist, Worley said.

“We’re going to put this individual, this violent criminal offender, repeat offender, back in jail where he belongs,” Worley said. “Now let’s all work together to make sure that he stays there.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott questioned why Billingsley was released from prison when he was after the 2015 sexual assault conviction, but he said police are only one piece of the larger framework of the local criminal justice system.

“Rapists shouldn’t be let out early. Period,” he said.

The victim in that case said Billingsley displayed a knife and strangled her during the attack, court records show.

Officials said Billingsley pleaded guilty to first-degree sex assault, for which state guidelines recommend a sentence of 15 to 25 years. But under a plea agreement he was sentenced to 30 years with all but 14 suspended.

During a 2015 court hearing, the judge who sentenced Billingsley asked why he should accept a plea agreement below state guidelines.

“Why? It’s horrible,” Circuit Judge Emanual Brown said, according to a transcript obtained by The Baltimore Banner.

The prosecutor acknowledged the “horrible set of facts” but said the victim had been through enough and didn’t want to testify at trial.

Billingsley was denied parole twice but released in October 2022 after earning good time credits that effectively shortened his sentence.

He was also convicted of second-degree assault in 2011 and first-degree assault in 2009.

Since the Sept. 19 rape, Baltimore police had been monitoring Billingsley through his cellphone and social media use, interviewing witnesses and surveilling his known addresses, Worley said. He said Billingsley likely watched a Tuesday evening press conference and acted accordingly.

“As a matter of fact, we had the press conference the other day about Miss LaPere’s death. We delayed that press conference because we were within about 88 meters (96 yards) of capturing the suspect, but he was able to elude capture,” Worley said.

The public defender’s office, which represented Billingsley in the past, told the AP on Tuesday that it was too early for them to comment on this case. The office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Billingsley’s behalf Thursday morning.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said that if a grand jury returns an indictment, his office will pursue a sentence of life without the possibility without parole. He also said state lawmakers should revisit laws allowing certain convicted rapists to earn good time credits.

“If this individual is found guilty in a court of law that, this individual will never get out to see the light of day again to ever hurt any of the citizens of our fine city ever again,” Bates said.

Attorney Jennifer Belveal sent the request to Michigan State general counsel Brian Quinn on Thursday after what she called the “ illegal termination of Mel Tucker's contract.” Belveal wanted preservation of electronic and paper documents and listed a number of school officials and others.

It came a day after Michigan State fired the previously suspended Tucker over what he described as consensual phone sex with an activist and rape survivor.

The school said it terminated what’s left of Tucker’s $95 million, 10-year contract for acknowledging actions that subjected the institution to ridicule, breaching his contract and moral turpitude. MIchigan State said Tucker failed to offer adequate reasons why he should not be fired for cause.

Brenda Tracy, the activist and rape survivor, said Tucker sexually harassed her during the phone call in April 2022. Several months later, Tracy filed a complaint with the school’s Title IX office.

“Failure to preserve such records will result in a negative litigation inference against the university and other potential defendants,” the letter stated.

___

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

According to the Hazleton City Police Department, on Tuesday the U.S. Attorney's Office South District of New York successfully identified 33-year-old Eddie Manuel Nunez-Santos, aka "Lucas", a Peruvian National to have been the source of making hoax bomb threats.

The threats occurred between September 15-23 to more than 150 school districts, synagogues, airports, hospitals, and shopping malls.

Investigators stated the threats spanned multiple states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arizona, and Alaska, and resulted in massive disruptions to the targeted communities, including evacuations of thousands of schools, and children, a lockdown of a hospital, and flight delays. 

Detectives said Nunez-Santos is also charged with attempting to entice a 15-year-old girl to take and send him nude and sexually explicit photographs, and he allegedly sent the bomb threats in retaliation against her and other minors after they refused his requests for child pornography.

Nunez-Santos faces the following charges for the crimes he has committed;

• Transmitting threatening interstate communications
  • Carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison
• Conveying false information and hoaxes
  • Which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison
• Attempting to sexually exploit a child
  • Carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison
• Attempting to coerce and entice a minor
  • Which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison
• Attempting to receive child pornography
  • Carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  

Dozens of schools, businesses, and places of worship were impacted by the threats during the week-long span.

Kathleen Boleyn filed the lawsuit in June 2022, a year after the midday shootings in the main square of Olde Town Arvada, a historic shopping and entertainment area about 7 miles (10 kilometers) northwest of downtown Denver.

Boleyn said her son, Johnny Hurley, ran toward danger and shot the gunman, Ronald Troyke, who had just fatally shot Officer Gordon Beesley. An investigation found Troyke, who died after Hurley shot him, was intent on killing as many officers as he could that day.

Boleyn remembered her son Thursday as a talented chef who rode skateboards and snowboards, enjoyed winter camping, had a beautiful singing voice, and could “bust out some pretty incredible dance moves.”

“You can’t erase what Johnny did just because his life was erased,” Boleyn said. “Without my son, my life is diminished. But without Johnny’s heroic spirit, the world is diminished. In the two years and three months since this happened, I find that I’m stronger than I thought I was and sadder than I used to be.”

The lawsuit said Hurley, 40, was crouched down with a rifle pointing down and not in a threatening position when he was shot, adding that a witness said Hurley was taking the magazine out of a rifle that he took away from the shooter.

A district attorney investigation cleared the officer who shot him, Kraig Brownlow. The investigation said it appeared to the officer that Hurley was reloading the rifle or trying to fix something on it. District Attorney Alexis King has said that Brownlow thought Hurley was a second shooter and that he only had a moment to stop him from hurting others.

“Mr. Hurley’s heroic intervention saved lives that day. His bravery and selflessness will never be forgotten,” the Rathod Mohamedbhai law firm and the city of Arvada said in a joint statement. “Recognizing that this was a horrible set of circumstances for all involved, the parties have agreed to settle this matter.”

The trial in the civil lawsuit had been scheduled to start on Oct. 6.

“Johnny was a hero, not just because I say so,” Boleyn said. “Ask anyone who was in the square that day. Ask the chief of police. Ask the community of Arvada. I think they all remember clearly what happened that day."

She said people have come up to her crying saying, “'I know I'm alive because of what your son did.'”

Brownlow was one of three officers who had heard shots on June 21, 2021, and spotted Troyke from inside a nearby police substation. None of the officers inside the substation knew that Beesley, a 19-year department veteran and beloved school resource officer, had been shot or that Hurley had intervened, according to the district attorney’s investigation.

The lawsuit charged that Brownlow and the other two officers “cowered” in the substation, “choosing self-preservation over defense of the civilian population” before Brownlow saw Hurley with Troyke’s gun, opened the building’s door and shot Hurley from behind after deciding against giving a warning first.

“He made this choice despite the fact that no reasonable officer could have perceived a threat from Mr. Hurley’s actions,” the lawsuit said. “Mr. Hurley’s death was not the result of a misfortunate split-second judgment call gone wrong, but the result of a deliberate and unlawful use of deadly force.”

On whether she forgave the officer, Boleyn said: “For a long time, I knew that my spirit forgave him. But as Johnny's mother, I struggled with how to do that. But time has passed. I am stronger.”

The fatal incident happened at a worksite in the Lower Haight neighborhood on the corner of Divisadero and Oak streets. The victim had been working below ground on a sewer project for the city’s public utilities commission, Rachel Gorden of San Francisco Public Works told KRON4.

"They were below ground in an open trench doing sewer upgrade work," Gorden said.

Fire crews immediately launched an effort to dig down and rescue him around 10:30 a.m. with 50 rescuers on scene. The worker was trapped in the trench for two hours before his lifeless body was found, the SFFD said.

Video from SFFD showed fire crews near a hole in the ground with ropes nearby and rescuers digging dirt. Fire officials said specialized tools such as tripods, shoring equipment and a vacuum truck were utilized.

Fire Captain Jonathan Baxter said, "After being evaluated by our paramedics and our department physician ... unforcedly this individual did not survive the injuries associated to this."

According to the San Francisco PUC, the victim was a private contractor working on a city sewer line. It's unclear why the trench suddenly collapsed. There are multiple agencies investigating this death, including Cal OSHA.

Gorden said, "We are inspecting to see what they were doing at the time of this trench collapse." Gorden said safety is the number one priority for any construction site.

As of Thursday afternoon, the victim's identity had not yet been released by officials.

Dozens of residents gathered near the scene were sad to hear the news. Resident Rebecca Gallegos said the victim was "just providing for his family, and went to work, and this person is not coming home today."

Authorities are asking people to avoid the area and to take alternate routes.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

In the study, the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate says popular videos encouraging use of the products for aesthetic or athletic gain are being posted by influencers who often downplay the risks associated with them. It follows a warning issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April about performance-enhancing drugs being marketed to teenagers and young adults on social media platforms.

“They’re being marketed to young men by influencers who are deliberately saying, ‘If you want to be like Captain America, you’ve got to take these drugs’,” CCDH founder and CEO Imran Ahmed said.

The findings from the study show TikTok videos — under certain hashtags — promoting what researchers called “steroid-like drugs” have racked up more than 587 million views in the U.S. during the past three years, with 72% of those views coming from users aged 18 to 24. The report also alleges that several dozen influencers promoted websites that sold the drugs either directly or through affiliate marketing schemes that could allow them to benefit from sales.

TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe criticized the report, saying the group’s methodology doesn’t distinguish between harmful videos and positive content that talks about recovery from steroids or their side effects. It's not possible for the CCDH to know that based on the type of data they’re presenting and sheer volume of videos that are on TikTok, he said.

Researchers said they assessed the top 20 videos under some hashtags, and all of those under other hashtags that contained fewer than 20 videos.

The information for the report came from TikTok’s publicly available Creative Center tool. Researchers were unable to measure how many times users under 18 came across such content since the company does not provide that information. Ahmed said in an interview that his group has asked TikTok to make that type of data available for assessment.

Similar to Instagram, TikTok has a large fitness community made up of users who talk about various things, including exercise and steroid use. Popular videos posted on the app speculate on who’s “natty or not,” or who’s naturally fit or taking steroids.

The study looked at content associated with three classes of drugs: anabolic-androgenic steroids, or synthetic hormones that mimic the effects of testosterone; peptides that simulate the release of human growth hormones and aid in athletic performance; and selective androgen receptor modulators, which are known as “SARMs.” The substances can carry health risks and are prohibited in sports under the World Anti-Doping Code.

Anabolic steroids are also illegal to use without a prescription under U.S. law. Peptide hormones and SARMs are not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for over-the-counter use and should not be purchased in dietary supplements, according to the U.S. Anti-Doping agency.

Researchers with the nonprofit are urging lawmakers to investigate loopholes that allow sites selling the substances to operate online. They’re also calling on TikTok to better enforce its ban on content that promotes the use of recreational drugs.

Rathe, the TikTok spokesperson, said content that sells or depicts SARMS will be removed by the company when its detected.

TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd.

Republicans sought to draw attention to evidence as sprawling as the probe itself, bouncing back and forth between reviewing Hunter Biden’s business dealings, communications with family members and associates, and the ongoing Justice Department investigation into his failure to pay taxes.

Still, the bulk of what they reviewed dealt only with Hunter Biden, not his father, even as House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said “our investigation is now focused on whether President Biden engaged in impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution.”

Comer wrapped the hearing saying the panel would issue a subpoena for Hunter Biden’s personal bank records as well as those of his companies.

Democrats vacillated between drawing attention to the looming government shutdown — passing an iPad with a countdown clock from member to member — and what they deem holes in connecting any wrongdoing to President Biden.

Republicans' star witnesses not always a help for GOP

Even as Republicans sought to convince the public of the need for an inquiry, GOP-invited witnesses at turns undercut their message, saying there was not currently enough evidence to back an impeachment resolution.

Jonathan Turley, a go-to witness for conservatives in Congress, at one point told lawmakers that some of the details they’d gathered “really do gravitate in favor of the president.”

“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,” Turley said.

At another point, when asked to weigh in on GOP claims that Hunter Biden was engaged in “influence peddling,” Turley said Congress has failed to do needed work to connect it to President Biden.

“The key here that the committee has to drill down on is whether they can establish a linkage with the influence peddling, which is a form of corruption, and the President whether he had knowledge, whether he participated, whether he encouraged it. We simply don't know, and we don't even know if this was an illusion or not. But you can't find the answers to that,” Turley said.

“But without that type of nexus, then no, I don't,” he added in response to whether he would back a vote to impeach President Biden.

Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant also invited to testify by the GOP, said the party had not yet laid out enough evidence to even suggest there is wrongdoing.

“I am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing. In my opinion, more information needs to be gathered and assessed before I would make such an assessment,” he said in his opening statement.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) later repeated some of Turley’s comments in his own line of questioning.

“Boy, that’s awkward,” he said. “As a former director of Emergency Management, I know a disaster when I see one.”

Republicans lay out their goals — but say they’ve got the goods

The GOP offered an inconsistent message about the status of their investigation, at some turns suggesting they have gathered significant evidence that shows Biden family corruption while at others saying they had launched the investigation in order to determine whether there was any wrongdoing.

In his opening remarks, Comer suggested they already have such evidence, saying the committee “will examine over two dozen pieces of evidence revealing Joe Biden’s corruption and abuse of public office.”

But he later hedged that, saying he has no predetermined conclusions. 

“The title of this hearing is an impeachment inquiry. I think that Mr. Turley has done a good job explaining the basis for why we need to take the impeachment inquiry and go forward. We have led this investigation and now we need the inquiry status as we move forward to get the information,” Comer said, adding they will need information from the Biden family. 

Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) pushed back on Democrats' claims they have “no direct evidence” linking Hunter Biden’s business to his father, pointing to photos of the president at dinners with associates of his son.

“Here is the pattern. You have crooked foreigners who deliver pallets of cash to the Bidens and they have dinner with Joe, and apparently Joe Biden is an expensive dinner date, and if that is not selling political access, I don't know what is,” he said.

But other Republicans cast the evidence they’ve gathered as a rationale for continuing their search rather than proof of wrongdoing.

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) flashed a series of texts from different Biden family members, asking witnesses if those were worth looking into further. 

“Do you think this text message would lead this committee to get further information about the business dealings of Hunter Biden and how that links to Jim Biden the president’s brother?” he asked, noting the text presumably referred to the need to protect President Biden. 

He flashed another text showing Hunter Biden’s daughter Naomi Biden texting her father and making a comment about how she would not ask for half of his salary like “pop.”

“Would you be looking for information related to money going from son to father,” Donalds asked.

Democrats were dismissive of Republicans who said the inquiry was a jumping off point for gathering more evidence that would answer the questions they’ve laid out.

“Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this hearing have questions, but questions are not the basis for an impeachment. Evidence is,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said.

Democrats say it’s ‘an impeachment hearing about nothing’

Democrats on the panel largely used their time to showcase the gaps in connecting activities of the two Bidens.

Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) at one point quipped the hearing was like a "Seinfeld" episode, calling it “an impeachment hearing about nothing.”

“If Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today. They’ve got nothing on President Joe Biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago. The Burisma conspiracy theory, a fairytale so preposterous that one of the main authors, Lev Parnas, has now disowned and repudiated it,” Raskin said, nodding to a former associate of Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and lawyer to Trump.

Most argued Republicans couldn’t meet the standard for high crimes and misdemeanors required for impeachment, saying they were unable to tie the president to their complaints about his son.

“I hear a lot about the Biden family. This is an impeachment inquiry about President Biden. I would try to discern what the allegations are for the president because they are nonexistent at this point,” Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said.

Michael Gerhardt, a Democratic witness who has addressed Congress multiple times on impeachment, said Republicans’ focus on Hunter Biden would not help make their case.

“The problem is that the dots are not connected. The name that's been repeated most often in this hearing is Hunter Biden, not President Biden. And the point of an impeachment inquiry is not about a president's son, it has to be about the president himself. And I don't think those dots have been connected. There have been lots of assumptions, lots of accusations, but not evidence,” he said.

Several Democrats argued the Republicans’ goal was to drag down Biden to dilute focus as Trump faces four ongoing criminal prosecutions. 

“In the case of President Joe Biden, [Republicans] decided to start the impeaching now and figure out the whole evidence thing later, and you still haven't figured it out,” Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said.

“This inquiry is a cynical attempt to tar everyone, to make everyone look suspect, to make everyone look corrupt, so that voters just give up and say, ‘There's not much difference here.’”

And Moskowitz said Republicans efforts to launch a legitimate inquiry were undercut by Republicans who raced to file numerous impeachment inquiries at the start of the new Congress.

“Every single member, many on this committee, pre-judging their filing articles … They're all one upping each other in the Donald Trump friend Olympics trying to get invited to the sleepover at Mar-a-Lago. ‘I filed articles of impeachment against Merrick Garland.’ ‘No, I filed articles of impeachment against Kamala Harris.' It is ridiculous,” he said.

Republicans refuse to call in Rudy Giuliani 

Republicans on the panel twice quashed efforts by Democrats to bring in Rudy Giuliani and in one case an associate who worked alongside him as he traveled to Ukraine to further allegations that Biden improperly intervened to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit his son.

Raskin first made the motion, calling Giuliani and his associate Lev Parnas “the origins of the lie on which this sham impeachment is based and who worked to spread it.”

It was Giuliani who sought to raise allegations that Biden sought to force out a Ukrainian prosecutor to benefit his son — despite backing from the international community and the State Department that the prosecutor should be removed due to a failure to address corruption.

“When I walked into this hearing room, my first question was, where is Rudy Giuliani?” Lynch said. 

“This is supposed to be an inquiry on the facts against the president for potentially articles of impeachment. The one person, the one person, who was an agent of President Trump [who] was sent to Ukraine to dig up some dirt, find some dirt on Joe Biden ... We do not have him here. We are not allowed to ask him questions.”

Both motions to bring Giuliani before the panel were blocked by subsequent motions from Republicans.

At one point, Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) held up a sign asking “Where is Rudy?”  

“This committee is afraid to bring him before us and put him on the record. Shame!” he said.

“I started playing in the kitchen with knives today,” she wrote in the caption.

Once the concerned comments started to roll in, she added a disclaimer saying “Don’t worry they are NOT real knives!!! Halloween is soon!!!”

Fans became more worried when another video was posted afterward showing what looked like a cut on her thigh and a possible bandage close to her wrist.

Spears was wearing the same outfit as the knife video, so many made the assumption that those two factors were tied to the knife video.

Spears then posted a new video asking everyone to “lighten up about the knives” and said she was only “copying Shakira.”

Shakira recently performed with knives during the MTV Video Music Awards when she was honored with the Video Vanguard Award.

However, that didn’t put some at ease and a call for a welfare check was reportedly made to law enforcement.

According to TMZ and NBC News, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office (VCSO) received calls requesting a welfare check on the singer after the video was posted.  

Law enforcement sources told TMZ that the initial call for the check was made by a member of the Los Angeles Police Department's Smart Team, which is the department’s mental evaluation unit. The person who made the call reportedly wasn’t just a fan but knew Spears and was knowledgeable about her current situation.

When cops arrived on the scene, Spears’ security reportedly assured them she was fine.

Sources told the site that Spears’ attorney reached out asking for information about the visit and they allegedly told him that they don’t take welfare check calls from fans and only did so because this person knew the singer.

KTLA 5 reached out to the VCSO, LAPD and Spears' attorney but hasn’t received an immediate response.

Baylee Holbrook and her father, Matthew Holbrook, were hunting in the woods in Putnam County on Sept. 26 when lightning struck a tree, hitting both of them, according to a press release from the Putnam County Sheriff's Office.

The strike caused Matthew to fall unconscious, and when he awoke, he discovered that his daughter wasn't breathing.

Matthew called 911 and started CPR until rescue personnel arrived. The teen was taken to a trauma center, where she was listed in critical condition.

"Pray for my baby. Every single person put your knees on the ground and pray," Matthew Holbrook posted on Facebook Tuesday.

The sheriff's office also said they were rallying around the teen and her family.

"We stand with our community as we rally for this teen. She has proven a fighter and our prayers extend to her, her family and friends," the sheriff's office wrote.

On Thursday, deputies gave a tragic update, announcing that Baylee had "peacefully passed away surrounded by her family" at 9:32 a.m.

Baylee, a student at Palatka Junior-Senior High School, was described as having "touched many lives." Prior to her passing, the school held a prayer around their flagpole for the teen on Wednesday.

“Baylee Holbrook you have touched many lives and you still have many to touch,” Bryanna Hall, who attended the prayer event, wrote in a Facebook post. “Everyone please continue to pray for her, family, and friends.”

Trinity Baptist Church in Palatka held a community gathering for Baylee on Thursday afternoon.

At the time of the incident, the sheriff's office warned residents that they'd seen an "increase in lightning strikes" in the area. They also reminded the community that "storms can come quickly and lightning can strike up to 10 miles away from any rainfall."

A northbound Brightline train headed to Orlando struck the 25-year-old man shortly before 9 a.m. near the Atlantic Coast city of Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County Sheriff Ken Mascara said at a news conference. He said the man was homeless and appeared to have intentionally stepped in front of the train.

Brightline’s trains travel up to 79 mph (127 kph) in urban areas, 110 mph (177 kph) in less-populated regions and 125 mph (200 kph) through central Florida’s farmland. It is unknown how fast this train was traveling, Mascara said.

Brightline officials did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment.

Brightline opened its extension connecting Miami and Orlando on Friday, though the celebration was marred when a pedestrian was struck by one of the company's trains carrying commuters from West Palm Beach to Miami.

Brightline trains have had the highest death rate in the U.S. since its Miami-West Palm operations began — about one death for every 32,000 miles (51,500 kilometers) its trains travel, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis of federal data that began in 2019. The next-worst major railroad has a fatality every 130,000 miles (209,200 kilometers).

None of the previous deaths have been found to be Brightline’s fault — most have been suicides, drivers who go around crossing gates or pedestrians running across tracks.

Brightline has taken steps its leaders believe enhance safety, including adding closed-circuit cameras near tracks, installing better crossing gates and pedestrian barriers, and posting signage that includes the suicide prevention hotline.

___

The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can be reached by calling or texting 988 or through chatting at 988Lifeline.org.

Catherine Leavy, who was arrested last year at her home in Westfield, pleaded guilty in Boston federal court to charges including making a false bomb threat, according to prosecutors. She's scheduled to be sentenced in March.

The most serious charge she pleaded guilty to carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Her attorney, Forest O’Neill-Greenberg, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Authorities say the threat was called in August 2022 as the hospital, which launched the nation's first pediatric and adolescent transgender health program, was facing an onslaught of threats and harassment.

The hospital became the focus of far-right social media accounts, news outlets and bloggers last year after they found informational YouTube videos published by the hospital about surgical offerings for transgender patients.

The caller said: “There is a bomb on the way to the hospital, you better evacuate everybody you sickos,” according to court documents. The threat resulted in a lockdown of the hospital. No explosives were found.

Leavy initially denied making the threat during an interview with FBI agents, according to court documents. After agents told her that phone records indicated her number made the threat, she admitted doing so, but said she had no intention of actually bombing the hospital, prosecutors say. She “expressed disapproval” of the hospital “on multiple occasions” during the interview, according to court papers.

Boston Children's Hospital is among several institutions that provide medical care for transgender kids that have become the target of threats. Medical associations said last year that children’s hospitals nationwide had substantially increased security and had to work with law enforcement, and that some providers needed to get constant security.

The ceremony will be live on Disney+ on Nov. 3 and streamable afterward. ABC will air a special featuring performance highlights and standout moments on Jan. 1.

“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony has been the home to some of the most memorable moments in music history and celebrates the immeasurable impact these artists have had on the industry and culture,” said Rob Mills, an executive vice president for Walt Disney Television, in a statement. “We are so excited to offer audiences a front-row seat."

The inductees this year include Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, “Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius, Kate Bush and the late George Michael.

The Cleveland-based institution also included The Spinners, Rage Against the Machine, DJ Kool Herc, Link Wray, Al Kooper and Elton John's longtime co-songwriter Bernie Taupin.

The induction ceremony will take place at the Barclays Center in New York City.

Nominees were voted on by more than 1,000 artists, historians and music industry professionals. Fans could vote online or in person at the museum, with the top five artists picked by the public making up a “fans' ballot” that was tallied with the other professional ballots.

A judge had issued a temporary pause in the sprawling civil case after Trump claimed the trial judge was ignoring an appellate ruling. The New York attorney general's office, which brought the case against Trump, called Trump's effort a “brazen and meritless attempt” to “usurp” the authority of Justice Arthur Engoron, the trial judge. 

The appeals court's order comes after Engoron found Trump liable for fraud Tuesday, ruling that New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) proved the core elements of her case against the former president and his businesses.

Trump’s business empire was imperiled by the decision, which stripped some of the former president’s business licenses and raised the potential for him to lose control of some of his famed properties.

The New York attorney general’s office sued Trump, the Trump Organization and two of his adult children — Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. — last September, claiming it uncovered more than a decade of fraud during a multi-year investigation.

The lawsuit claims Trump’s company sought lower taxes and better insurance coverage by falsely inflating and deflating the value of its assets. James’s office is seeking some $250 million in financial penalties, plus the barring of Trump and his children from serving as officers or directors of New York-registered or licensed corporations.

Engoron’s decision applied to the first of seven causes of action applied in the lawsuit. The other six elements will be the focus of the upcoming trial.

Arguing against granting Trump’s request to delay the proceeding, James’s office said pushing back the start of the trial would likely “wreak havoc” on the former president’s legal calendar. He faces a combined 91 criminal charges across four cases, each of which has its own schedule, and he has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

—Updated 3:53 p.m.

As the Senate marches ahead with a bipartisan approach aimed at keeping the government open, spending measures are still struggling to pass the Republican-controlled House. If a shutdown arrives, millions of federal employees will be furloughed and many others — including those working in the military and the Transportation Security Administration — will be forced to work without pay until it ends.

A handful of federal programs that people nationwide rely on everyday could also be disrupted — from dwindling funds for food assistance to potential delays in customer service for recipients of Medicare and Social Security. The ripple effects would come down to how long the shutdown lasts and varying contingency plans in place at impacted agencies.

“Collectively, hundreds of millions of Americans, a majority of the population, are receiving some kind of benefits from the government,” said Forrest V. Morgeson III, an associate professor at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business. He noted a potential shutdown could bring significant financial uncertainty and economic implications down the road.

Here's what you need to know.

A government shutdown could risk millions of low-income Americans' access to food and nutrition assistance programs — with impacts depending on how long the shutdown lasts and program-by-program contingency funds.

Nearly 7 million women and children who rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) could be at risk of losing assistance almost immediately into a shutdown, according to the Biden Administration. That's because the federal contingency fund supporting normal WIC operations will likely run out in a matter of days — pushing states to rely on their own money or carryover funds.

Impacted families are “going to be going to food pantries,” said Dr. Nancy Nielsen, senior associate dean for health policy at the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences. “These are people who need the help. These are moms. These are infants. So this is a real problem.”

Families who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could also lose assistance if a shutdown drags out for a more significant period of time. According to the Agriculture Department, regardless of what happens in Washington this weekend, households will receive SNAP assistance as usual through October.

Head Start programs serving more than 10,000 disadvantaged children would immediately lose federal funding, although they might be able to stave off immediate closure if the shutdown doesn’t last long.

Those 10 programs, which are located in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts and South Carolina, serve just a fraction of the 820,000 children enrolled in the program at any given time.

Tommy Sheridan, the deputy director for the National Head Start Association, said the programs are in trouble because their grants start on Oct. 1. Programs with grants that don’t start on that date will continue getting money. But if the shutdown drags on, the number of affected programs will grow as more grants come up for renewal.

Beyond Head Start, concerns have also arisen around free school meals. But the Agriculture Department says it does not anticipate any immediate issues with federal child nutrition programs, including school meals because support for these programs is provided in part by a permanent and mandatory funding authority.

In the event of a government shutdown, state and federal operations for child nutrition are set to continue through October and potentially a few months beyond that, according to the department. But the department would not be able to support these programs for the full year without appropriations.

Regardless of what happens in Washington this weekend, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income recipients will continue to receive payments. But response times for people with issues could be delayed due to furloughs.

“If you have a question about Social Security, you may not be able to find anybody to answer your questions,” Nielsen said. “But the everyday transactions of sending checks out will still continue.”

According to a recent contingency plan from the Social Security Administration, the agency will cease non-critical actions and those "not directly related to the accurate and timely payment of benefits.” The issuance of new social security cards and replacements will continue.

Medicare and Medicaid benefits will also continue — as both are mandatory programs funded separately from annual appropriations. That means that patients should still be able to see their doctors and have medical bills paid.

But, similar to Social Security, there could be delays and disruptions to customer service due to furloughs. According to contingency details published by the Health and Human Services Department last week, about half of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is set to be furloughed in the event of a lapse of appropriations.

Beyond Medicare and Medicaid, health care services for veterans are set to continue in the event of a shutdown. The majority of programs funded by the Indian Health Service would also remain in operation and IHS has received advanced appropriations for the 2024 fiscal year, per a recent contingency plan.

The nation’s air-travel system is expected to operate relatively normally during a shutdown. Air traffic controllers and TSA screeners are deemed essential workers — however, those people won’t be paid until the shutdown ends, and TSA lines could grow longer if enough screeners stay home.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that air travel will remain safe in a shutdown, but that the training of new air traffic controllers will stop and 1,000 trainees will be furloughed.

Long before this week's deadline, airlines were already been complaining that a shortage of air traffic controllers has been causing flight delays and cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration said in August it hired 1,500 new controllers in the past year and asked Congress for money to hire another 1,800 in the new fiscal year.

The processing of passports and visas will continue in a shutdown “as the situation permits,” according to guidance that the State Department gave employees last week. The department said consulates in the U.S. and abroad will say open “as long as there are sufficient fees to support operations,” but passport work could stop if the building where the work is done gets shuttered.

The time it takes to get a passport or visa already is much longer than before the pandemic. Most Customs and Border Protection agents are also considered essential and would be expected to work at airports and border crossings.

If spending measures aren’t passed by Saturday’s deadline, the government shutdown would start the same day that student loans emerge from the pandemic pause after beginning to accrue interest again on Sept. 1.

But, shutdown or not, borrowers’ payments will still be due. For the most part, loan servicers will be able to continue to process payments regularly — but there could be delays for those who need to consult with or seek help from the Education Department due to the potential of agency furloughs.

Students applying for federal aid during a shutdown can expect similar delays because of this. Officials have pointed to potential disruptions to processing FAFSA applications, disbursing Pell Grants and pursuing public loan forgiveness, for example.

The United States Postal Service will not be affected by a government shutdown. The Postal Service doesn't rely on taxpayer dollars because it generally gets its funding through the sales of products and services.

___

Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City contributed to this report.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg agreed to make efforts to get NATO members to help provide additional air defense systems to protect Ukraine’s power plants and energy infrastructure that were badly damaged by Russian attacks last winter.

Zelensky also reminded the secretary-general of the persistent drone, missile and artillery attacks that often strike residential areas and were blamed Thursday for at least three civilian deaths in the past day.

“In the face of such intense attacks against Ukrainians, against our cities, our ports, which are crucial for global food security, we need a corresponding intensity of pressure on Russia and a strengthening of our air defense,” Zelenskyy said.

Stoltenberg said that NATO has contracts for 2.4 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in ammunition for Ukraine, including 155 mm Howitzer shells, anti-tank guided missiles and tank ammunition.

“The stronger Ukraine becomes, the closer we come to ending Russia’s aggression,” Stoltenberg said. “Russia could lay down arms and end its war today. Ukraine doesn’t have that option. Ukraine’s surrender would not mean peace. It would mean brutal Russian occupation. Peace at any price would be no peace at all.”

Ukraine has pushed to join NATO and Stoltenberg reiterated Thursday that Ukraine’s future is in the trans-Atlantic military alliance and that it would stand with Kyiv as long as it takes.

The Kremlin views Ukraine's potential membership in NATO as an existential threat, and Russia has said that preventing Ukraine from joining the alliance is one of the reasons for its invasion.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attack on the Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea had been coordinated with the help of U.S. and U.K. security agencies, and that NATO satellites and reconnaissance planes also played a role.

Ukraine said without providing supporting evidence that the attack had killed 34 officers and wounded 105 others. It also claimed to have killed the fleet’s commander, Adm. Viktor Sokolov, who was shown on Russian state television on Wednesday speaking with reporters in the Black Sea city of Sevastopol.

Unconfirmed news reports said Storm Shadow missiles provided to Ukraine by the U.K. and France were used in the attack on the Russian navy installation. The U.K. Ministry of Defense, which in the past has declined to discuss intelligence-related matters, didn't comment on Zakharova’s remarks.

The meeting with Stoltenberg came on the same day that France's defense minister met with Zelenskyy to discuss how to keep supplying weapons to the war effort. On Wednesday, the U.K. defense secretary reaffirmed the British government's support and pledged to provide more ammunition as Ukraine's counteroffensive plods forward toward the season when damp and cold weather could slow progress.

French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu brought a delegation that included about 20 representatives from French defense contractors who manufacture drones, robots, artillery, ammunition and employ artificial intelligence and cybertechnology.

Having donated air defense systems, artillery, armored vehicles and other weaponry and support to Ukraine, France is anxious not to deplete its own defenses.

But the French government is exploring other ways to help Ukraine sustain its war effort. Lecornu said that it would transfer fewer weapons to Ukraine, but make direct acquisitions, sometimes with French subsidies, for the Ukrainian army.

“It’s also a way for us to hold on for the long term and also lastingly install France’s interests in Kyiv," Lecornu said in comments carried by French broadcaster BFMTV.

U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, who hosted a Ukrainian family in his home for a year, told Zelenskyy that he was personally aggrieved by what his country had endured.

“Our support for you, for Ukraine remains absolutely undented,” Shapps said in a video posted by Zelenskyy. “We stand shoulder to shoulder with you. We feel your pain of what’s happened and we want to see a resolution, which is the resolution that you want and require.”

Zelenskyy said Thursday that Ukraine is working on a plan that will outline practical steps for it to align with the principles and standards of NATO.

“And it is very important that the allies have agreed that Ukraine does not need an action plan for NATO membership,” Zelenskyy said.

During NATO’s annual summit this summer in Lithuania, members pledged more support for Ukraine but stopped short of extending an invitation for the country to join the alliance. NATO leaders said they would allow Ukraine to join the alliance “when allies agree and conditions are met.” They also decided to remove obstacles on Ukraine’s membership path so that it can join more quickly once the war with Russia is over.

Stoltenberg was asked about the remains of drones similar to those used by Russia that have been found on several instances recently in Romania near the border with Ukraine.

He said there was no indication they were the result of an intentional attack by Russia against a NATO member, but that strikes by Moscow “close to the Romanian borders are reckless and are destabilizing.”

Stoltenberg said that NATO was adding troops, air policing and surveillance to monitor its eastern borders, including Romania.

“There should be no doubt that NATO is there to defend all allies,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials in Moldova, which lies between Romania and Ukraine, said that authorities were trying to determine where a “crashed rocket” found in Harbovat Lake had originated. The remains were detonated Thursday in Anenii Noi district near Ukraine's border, Moldova's interior ministry said.

___

John Leicester in Paris, Stephen McGrath in Sighisoara, Romania, Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, and Brian Melley in London, contributed to this report.

___

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

The actor died on Wednesday following “a bout of pneumonia," his publicist, Clair Dobbs, said Thursday.

“We are devastated to announce the loss of Sir Michael Gambon. Beloved husband and father, Michael died peacefully in hospital with his wife Anne and son Fergus at his bedside,” his family said in a statement.

While the Potter role raised Gambon’s international profile and found him a huge audience, he had long been celebrated as one of Britain’s leading actors. His work spanned TV, theater, film and radio, and over the decades he starred in dozens of movies from “Gosford Park” and “The King’s Speech” to the animated family film “Paddington.” He recently appeared in the Judy Garland biopic “Judy,” released in 2019.

Gambon was knighted for his contribution to the entertainment industry in 1998.

The role of the much loved Professor Dumbledore was initially played by another Irish-born actor, Richard Harris. When Harris died in 2002, after two of the films in the franchise had been made, Gambon took over and played the part from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” through to “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2.”

He once acknowledged not having read any of J. K Rowling’s best-selling books, arguing that it was safer to follow the script rather than be too influenced by the books. That didn't prevent him from embodying the spirit of the powerful wizard who fought against evil to protect his students.

Co-stars often described Gambon as a mischievous, funny man who was self-deprecating about his talent. Actress Helen Mirren fondly remembered his “natural Irish sense of humor — naughty but very, very funny."

Fiona Shaw, who played Petunia Dursley in the “Harry Potter” series, recalled Gambon telling her how central acting was to his life.

“He did once say to me in a car ‘I know I go on a lot about this and that, but actually, in the end, there is only acting’,” Shaw told the BBC on Thursday. “I think he was always pretending that he didn’t take it seriously, but he took it profoundly seriously.”

Irish President Michael D. Higgins paid tribute to Gambon's “exceptional talent,” praising him as “one of the finest actors of his generation."

Born in Dublin on Oct. 19, 1940, Gambon was raised in London and originally trained as an engineer, following in the footsteps of his father. He did not have formal drama training, and was said to have started work in the theater as a set builder. He made his theater debut in a production of “Othello” in Dublin.

In 1963 he got his first big break with a minor role in “Hamlet,” the National Theatre Company’s opening production, under the directorship of the legendary Laurence Olivier.

Gambon soon became a distinguished stage actor and received critical acclaim for his leading performance in “Life of Galileo,” directed by John Dexter. He was frequently nominated for awards and won the Laurence Olivier Award 3 times and the Critics’ Circle Theatre Awards twice.

A multi-talented actor, Gambon was also the recipient of four coveted British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards for his television work.

He became a household name in Britain after his lead role in the 1986 BBC TV series “The Singing Detective,” written by Dennis Potter and considered a classic of British television drama. Gambon won the BAFTA for best actor for the role.

Gambon also won Emmy nominations for more recent television work — as Mr. Woodhouse in a 2010 adaption of Jane Austen's “Emma,” and as former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 2002's “Path to War."

Gambon was versatile as an actor but once told the BBC he preferred to play “villainous characters.” He played gangster Eddie Temple in the British crime thriller “Layer Cake" — a review of the film by the New York Times referred to Gambon as “reliably excellent" — and a Satanic crime boss in Peter Greenaway's “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.”

He also had a part as King George V in the 2010 drama film “The King’s Speech.” In 2015 he returned to the works of J.K. Rowling, taking a leading role in the TV adaptation of her non-Potter book “The Casual Vacancy.”

“I absolutely loved working with him,” Rowling posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The first time I ever laid eyes on him was in ‘King Lear’, in 1982, and if you’d told me then that brilliant actor would appear in anything I’d written, I’d have thought you were insane.”

Gambon retired from the stage in 2015 after struggling to remember his lines in front of an audience due to his advancing age. He once told the Sunday Times Magazine: “It’s a horrible thing to admit, but I can’t do it. It breaks my heart.”

Gambon was always protective when it came to his private life. He married Anne Miller and they had one son, Fergus. He later had two sons with set designer Philippa Hart.

Francisco Severo Torres, of Leominster, was indicted in a Boston federal court on Wednesday. He faces one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon.

The 33-year-old was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport on March 6 after he allegedly tried to open an emergency exit door while aboard a United Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Boston. He is also accused of attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck.

Prosecutors say the flight crew became aware of the plane door becoming disarmed about 45 minutes prior to landing in Boston. Another flight attendant reported seeing Torres near the door, and believed he had been the one tampering with the handle.

When asked about the door, Torres "allegedly responded by asking if there were cameras showing that he had done so," according to a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The suspect later became disruptive and said he planned to "kill every man on this plane" before declaring he was "taking over this plane," according to the release.

Video previously shared with Nexstar's WPRI allegedly shows the suspect racing down the aisle toward a small group of people. He then appears to assault one of those people.

Court documents indicate Torres attempted to stab a flight attendant "on the neck area three times" with a broken spoon. A witness told WPRI the suspect was then tackled by a bunch of other passengers.

“As he was running down the aisle, 10 to 15 men on the plane just got up and started chasing him,” Lisa Olsen said. “[The men] tackled him and restrained him … It took four guys to just sit on him since he was still erratic and screaming.”

Members of the flight crew further subdued the suspect afterward, she said. He was arrested upon the flight's arrival in Boston, according to court documents.

If found guilty, Torres could face a sentence of up to life in prison, up to five years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

The recall includes 6,456 cases of Eagle Produce's Kandy brand whole cantaloupe with the UPC code 4050 and lot codes 797900, 797901 and 804918.

The recalled fruit was distributed between Sept. 5 and Sept. 16 in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Salmonella can cause "serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems," the FDA says.

As of Sept. 27, no illnesses have been reported. No other products or lot code dates are included in this recall.

The FDA says anyone with the recalled fruit, which was sold in various supermarkets, should not consume it but instead should throw it out. Also, anyone concerned about an illness should contact a healthcare provider.

Consumers can contact Eagle Produce LLC for more information at 1-800-627-8674 between Monday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST.

The Ojai City Council voted to adopt the ordinance introduced by Councilmember Leslie Rule (District 1) and developed with the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) by a vote of 4-1 on Tuesday night. 

The ordinance defines and protects elephants’ rights to liberty, NhRP said in a press release. 

“It’s indisputable that elephants suffer when deprived of their freedom and that animal welfare laws can’t end their suffering,” said NhRP Director of Government Relations and Campaigns Courtney Fern. “For elephants and the nonhuman animal rights movement, we are proud to support this first-of-its-kind ordinance and we commend the Ojai City Council for standing up for what is necessary and just.” 

Elephants have been found to be quite similar to humans; they are cognitively, emotionally and socially complex and are capable of suffering trauma and brain damage if they aren’t allowed to roam freely or interact with other elephants, the NhRP release said. 

“We have known for some time that elephants have strong empathetic responses to one another’s condition,” said Mark Scott, Interim Ojai City Manager. “I am glad that we are able to make this statement supporting the place of these noble creatures in our world.” 

The Nonhuman Rights Project is now looking to work with other cities in California and across the country to pass similar legislation. 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hawaii's top public utility officials and the president of Hawaiian Electric testified Thursday in a congressional hearing about the role the electrical grid played in last month's deadly Maui wildfire.

Members of a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee questioned the utility officials about how the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century began — and whether the electrical grid in Lahaina was safe and properly maintained.

The fire killed at least 97 people and destroyed more than 2,000 buildings, mostly homes. It first erupted at 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 8, when strong winds appeared to cause a Hawaiian Electric powerline to fall, igniting dry brush and grass near a large subdivision.

Hawaiian Electric CEO Shelee Kimura, Hawaii Public Utilities Commission Chair Leodoloff Asuncion Jr. and Hawaii Chief Energy Officer Mark Glick were present to testify.

Energy and Commerce Committee chair Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers; Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee chair Rep. Morgan Griffith; and Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee chair Rep. Jeff Duncan — all Republicans — questioned Kimura, Asuncion and Glick about the cause of the fire in a letter sent Aug. 30.

The letter included 10 questions about the sequence of events on the day of the fire, efforts to mitigate fire risks posed by the electrical grid, the fire investigation and other issues. The lawmakers said that a complete understanding of how the fire started is needed to ensure it doesn't happen again anywhere in the U.S.

"Information is also coming to light about actions taken — or not taken — by implicated entities in hardening and modernizing the electric grid of Maui," they wrote in the letter.

In written testimony provided to the committee before the hearing, Kimura focused on the challenges of providing electricity on an isolated island chain, and her feelings of responsibility and connection with the people of Hawaii. She did not discuss any fire mitigation efforts the utility has taken or provide new details about the events surrounding the fire.

"It was difficult to leave my island home this week when the disaster response efforts are still ongoing. It feels like leaving your family in their time of need. But I hope that as I carry out my kuleana here, it helps you carry out your important kuleana," Kimura wrote, using a Hawaiian word that she said loosely translates to having a deep sense of responsibility that is both an obligation and a privilege.

She also wrote that running the utility requires a complex and consequential balance of pursuing safe, reliable power at a reasonable cost.

Hawaiian Electric serves about 70,000 customers on Maui and nearly half a million customers statewide, including the Department of Defense, which is its largest customer.

"We all want to learn about what happened on August 8 so that it never happens again," Kimura wrote.

Kimura has acknowledged that Hawaiian Electric's downed lines caused the initial fire, but she wrote that the fire department said it extinguished that blaze and that the lines had been de-energized for more than six hours when the fire flared up in the same area again. She called the 3 p.m. blaze the "Afternoon Fire," implying it was separate from the morning blaze.

"The cause of this Afternoon Fire that devastated Lahaina has not been determined," she wrote. "We are working tirelessly to figure out what happened, and we are cooperating fully with federal and state investigators."

Whether the lines were fully de-energized — meaning they were not transmitting any electrical voltage — might still be in question, however. At least one Lahaina resident told the Associated Press that their power came back on around 2 p.m., and Maui Police Chief John Pelletier has said that his officers were trying to keep people from driving over live power lines later that afternoon as residents fled the burning town.

Asuncion Jr., the chair of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, said in written testimony that the PUC began tying Hawaiian Electric's power rates in part to its performance in 2021, moving away from a traditional method of setting rates based on the cost of providing service.

The switch was designed to help the utility commission to determine whether it was functioning as intended by creating "stringent oversight mechanisms," and allowed the commission to penalize Hawaiian Electric for poor reliability. It also was intended to give Hawaiian Electric more flexibility to manage funds in the way the company thinks will best meet objectives, Asuncion wrote.

Asuncion said the PUC is working with Hawaiian Electric to identify and implement any needed operating changes for high-wind days, and is reviewing the company's approach to whether power lines should be built above or below ground.

"The devastation of the August wildfires should never happen again," Asuncion wrote. "In thinking about this priority, the Commission aims to ensure to the greatest extent possible that electric utility operations, infrastructure, and equipment in Hawaii are safe, reliable, and resilient to natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and flooding."

Hawaii has only two electric utilities: Hawaiian Electric, which is the sole provider for Maui, and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.

Residential electricity in Maui costs about 43 cents per kilowatt-hour — that's three times the national average, he said, with the average monthly bill reaching about $216 in 2022. The utility's financial integrity is related to its ability to provide the level of maintenance and upgrades that are critical for a safe electrical grid, he said.

Glick, the chief energy officer for Hawaii's State Energy Office, also submitted written testimony detailing some efforts to identify the risk of wildfires and other natural disasters to the energy grid, and plans to eventually create a microgrid system, where small portions of the electrical grid could be shut off for safety reasons while keeping the rest of the system operational.

The chairmen of Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means held the opening hearing of their impeachment inquiry by reviewing the constitutional and legal questions surrounding their investigation of Biden and what they say are links to his son Hunter's overseas businesses.

"Based on the evidence, Congress has a duty to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden's corruption," Rep. James Comer, the Oversight chairman, said in a statement this week.
Comer added that the committee plans to "present evidence uncovered to date and hear from legal and financial experts about crimes the Bidens may have committed as they brought in millions at the expense of U.S. interests."

It's a high-stakes opening act for Republicans as they begin a process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president, punishment for what the Constitution describes as "high crimes and misdemeanors." This is all while they face a resistance in the Senate from Republicans who are worried about the political ramifications of another impeachment — and who say Biden's conviction and removal from office is a near impossibility.

But House Republicans say they are only investigating and have made no final decision on impeaching the president.

The hearing Thursday did not feature witnesses with information about the Bidens or Hunter Biden's business work. Instead, it was a soft launch of sorts with testimony from outside experts in tax law, criminal investigations and constitutional legal theory.

Democrats, who decry the investigation as a political ploy aimed at hurting Biden and helping Donald Trump as he runs again for president, brought Michael Gerhardt, a law professor who has appeared as expert on two previous impeachment efforts.

In the run-up to the hearing, Republicans were touting a tranche of new documents and bank records that detail wire transfers from a Chinese businessman to Hunter Biden in 2019. Hunter Biden had listed his father's address on the wire transfer form, which Republicans said provided a clear link to the president.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said the address on the wire transfer, which he says was a loan, was listed to the president's Delaware home only because it was the address on Hunter Biden's driver's license and "his only permanent address at the time."

"Once again Rep. Comer peddles lies to support a premise — some wrongdoing by Hunter Biden or his family — that evaporates in thin air the moment facts come out," Lowell said in a statement.

Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, since his father was vice president. And while there has been questions raised about the ethics around the family's international business, none of the evidence so far has proven that the president, in his current or previous office, abused his role, accepted bribes or both.

House Republicans are also looking into the Justice Department investigation in Hunter Biden's taxes and gun use that began in 2018. Two IRS whistleblowers came forward to Congress in the spring with claims that department officials thwarted their efforts to fully investigate Hunter Biden and his business dealings and the agents faced retaliation when they pushed back.
The claims have since been disputed by IRS and FBI agents who worked on the case.

The central focus of the testimonies have been surrounding an Oct. 7, 2022 meeting that agents from both the IRS and FBI had with David Weiss, U.S. attorney for Delaware, who has been charged with investigating Hunter Biden.

Gary Shapley, a veteran IRS agent who had been assigned to case, testified to Ways and Means committee in May that Weiss said during that meeting that he was not the "deciding person whether charges are filed" against Hunter Biden.

Two FBI agents who were in attendance told lawmakers this month that they have no recollection of Weiss saying that.

But Republicans have pointed to a failed plea deal over the summer as proof that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment because of who his father was.

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo, the chair of the Ways & Means committee, said that their investigation has shown that "Biden family were afforded special treatment that no other American would receive were they not the son of the President of the United States."

The impeachment inquiry hearing took place as the federal government was days away from what is likely to be a damaging government shutdown that would halt paychecks for millions of federal workers and the military.

Democrats used the impending fiscal disaster to question Republicans' priorities.

"Three days before they're set to shut down the United States government, Republicans launch a baseless impeachment drive against President Biden," Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on Oversight, said Wednesday. "No one can figure out the logic of either course of action."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry this month after he yielded to mounting pressure from his right flank to take action against Biden or risk being ousted from his leadership job.

On Tuesday, McCarthy said the latest bank records showing payments from Chinese individuals to Hunter showed that the president lied during his presidential campaign that no one in his family took money from China.

"President Biden had lied to Americans again," McCarthy told reporters this week.

The hearing is expected to be the first of many as House Republicans explore how this inquiry will end and whether or not they have the full support of the conference to bring and pass charges against Biden on the House floor. Regardless, any articles of impeachment would then be sent to the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim 51-49 majority.

"It really comes to how do you prioritize your time?" Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican member of leadership, told The Hill recently. "I don't know of anybody who believes (Senate Majority Leader) Chuck Schumer will take it up and actually have a trial and convict a sitting president."

The DVD service that has been steadily shrinking in the shadow of Netflix's video streaming service will shut down after its five remaining distribution centers in California, Texas, Georgia and New Jersey mail out their final discs Friday.

The fewer than 1 million recipients who still subscribe to the DVD service will be able to keep the final discs that land in their mailboxes.

Some of the remaining DVD diehards will get up to 10 discs as a going-away present from a service that boasted as many as 16 million subscribers. That was before Netflix made the pivotal decision in 2011 to separate the DVD side business from a streaming business that now boasts 238 million subscribers and generated $31.5 billion in revenue year.

The DVD service, in contrast, brought in just $146 million in revenue last year, making its eventual closure inevitable against a backdrop of stiffening competition in video streaming that has forced Netflix to whittle expenses to boost its profits.

“It is very bittersweet,” said Marc Randolph, Netflix's CEO when the company shipped its first DVD, "Beetlejuice," in April 1998. “We knew this day was coming, but the miraculous thing is that it didn’t come 15 years ago.”

Although he hasn't been involved in Netflix's day-to-day operations for 20 years, Randolph came up with the idea for a DVD-by-service in 1997 with his friend and fellow entrepreneur, Reed Hastings, who eventually succeeded him as CEO — a job Hastings held until stepping aside earlier this year.

Back when Randolph and Hastings were mulling the concept, the DVD format was such a nascent technology that there were only about 300 titles available at the time (at its height, Netflix's DVD service boasted more than 100,000 different titles)

In 1997, DVDs were so hard to find that when they decided to test whether a disc could make it through the U.S. Postal Service, Randolph wound up slipping a CD containing Patsy Cline's greatest hits into a pink envelope and dropping it in the mail to Hastings from the Santa Cruz, California post office.

Randolph paid just 32 cents for the stamp to mail that CD, less than half the current cost of 66 cents for a first-class stamp.

Netflix quickly built a base of loyal movie fans while relying on a then-novel monthly subscription model that allowed customers to keep discs for as long as they wanted without facing the late fees that Blockbuster imposed for tardy returns. Renting DVDs through the mail became so popular that Netflix once ranked as the U.S. Postal Service's fifth largest customer while mailing millions of discs each week from nearly 60 U.S. distribution centers at its peak.

Along the way, the red-and-white envelopes that delivered the DVDs to subscribers' homes became an eagerly anticipated piece of mail that turned enjoying a “Netflix night” into a cultural phenomenon. The DVD service also spelled the end of Blockbuster, which went bankrupt in 2010 after its management turned down an opportunity to buy Netflix instead of trying to compete against it.

But Randolph and Hastings always planned on video streaming rendering the DVD-by-mail service obsolescent once technology advanced to the point that watching movies and TV shows through internet connections became viable. That expectation is one of the reasons they settled on Netflix as the service's name instead of other monikers that were considered, such as CinemaCenter, Fastforward, NowShowing and DirectPix (the DVD service was dubbed “Kibble,” during a six-month testing period)

“From Day One, we knew that DVDs would go away, that this was a transitory step," Randolph said. “And the DVD service did that job miraculously well. It was like an unsung booster rocket that got Netflix into orbit and then dropped back to Earth after 25 years. That's pretty impressive.”

The resolution, from centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), comes just over a week after Schumer announced he would loosen the Senate’s dress code, a move that was seen by some as a way to accommodate Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who is often spotted on Capitol Hill wearing shorts and hoodies instead of suits. 

Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike criticized Schumer's decision, with some calling it disrespectful to the upper chamber. 

The vote came in the midst of both chambers racing to avert a shutdown at the end of the week.

The resolution seeks to “clarify the dress code” for the Senate floor. It requires men to wear a coat, tie, slacks and other long pants.

Speaking with The Hill last week, Fetterman denied he was the driving force behind the rule change. 

Manchin told The Hill last week he spoke with Fetterman directly and told the Pennsylvania lawmaker he thought he changes to the dress code were “wrong” and that not wearing a traditional suit and tie on the Senate floor “degrades” the chamber. 

"And I think it’s in keeping with that spirit that we say we want those who serve inside this room, in this hall, to show a level of dignity and respect which is consistent with the sacrifice they made and with the beauty of the surroundings," Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on the floor Wednesday.

Fetterman responded to the vote on X, formerly known as Twitter, with a meme photo of Kevin James.

The changes to SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are taking effect as a result of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, signed by President Joe Biden in June.

In order qualify for SNAP (previously called the Food Stamp Program), more people will be required to prove they are actively working, training or in school.

The changes only affect one group of SNAP recipients: able-bodied adults without dependents (or ABAWDs, as the agency calls them), ages 52 to 54.

ABAWDs between the ages of 18 and 52 already need to prove they are working at least 80 hours a month, pursuing an education or are in a training program to qualify for SNAP for more than three months.

Now, starting on Oct. 1, able-bodied childless workers who are 51 and 52 years old will also need to meet those work requirements to receive SNAP benefits.

Next year, starting in October 2024, the age requirement will expand again to 54.

There are some exemptions to the ABAWD work requirements, a USDA spokesperson told Nexstar. Homeless people, veterans, or youth ages 18 to 24 who aged out of foster care are all exempt from these requirements. People who cannot work due to a physical or mental limitation, are pregnant, or have a child 18 or younger living in their home are also exempt.

If you don’t meet the work requirements, you will only be eligible to receive SNAP benefits for three months in a three-year period.

Most people who do qualify for SNAP assistance will start receiving larger benefit amounts in October as the program implements a cost-of-living adjustment. For the contiguous 48 U.S. states, D.C. and Puerto Rico, the maximum monthly benefit for a household of four will be $973.

WHNT's Josiah Elmore contributed to this report.

While some government entities will be exempt — Social Security checks, for example, will still go out — other functions will be severely curtailed. Federal agencies will stop all actions deemed non-essential, and millions of federal employees, including members of the military, won't receive paychecks.

A look at what's ahead if the government shuts down on Sunday.

A shutdown happens when Congress fails to pass some type of funding legislation that is signed into law by the president. Lawmakers are supposed to pass 12 different spending bills to fund agencies across the government, but the process is time-consuming. They often resort to passing a temporary extension, called a continuing resolution or CR, to allow the government to keep operating.

When no funding legislation is enacted, federal agencies have to stop all nonessential work and will not send paychecks as long as the shutdown lasts.

Although employees deemed essential to public safety such as air traffic controllers and law enforcement officers still have to report to work, other federal employees are furloughed. Under a 2019 law, those same workers are slated to receive backpay once the funding impasse is resolved.

Government funding expires Oct. 1, the start of the federal budget year. A shutdown will effectively begin at 12:01 a.m. Sunday if Congress is unable to pass a funding plan that the president signs into law.

It is impossible to predict how long a shutdown would last. The Democratic-held Senate and Republican-controlled House are working on vastly different plans to avert a shutdown, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is struggling to win any support from hard-right conservatives to keep the government open.

Many are bracing for a stoppage that could last weeks.

Millions of federal workers face delayed paychecks when the government shuts down, including many of the roughly 2 million military personnel and more than 2 million civilian workers across the nation.

Nearly 60% of federal workers are stationed in the Department of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security.

While all of the military's active-duty troops and reservists would continue to work, more than half of the Department of Defense's civilian workforce, which is roughly 440,000 people, would be furloughed.

Across federal agencies, workers are stationed in all 50 states and have direct interaction with taxpayers — from Transportation Security Administration agents who operate security at airports to Postal Service workers who deliver mail.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has said new training for air traffic controllers will be halted and another 1,000 controllers in the midst of training will be furloughed. Even a shutdown that lasts a few days will mean the department won't hit its hiring and staffing targets for next year, he said.

“Imagine the pressure that a controller is already under every time they take their position at work, and then imagine the added stress of coming to that job from a household with a family that can no longer count on that paycheck," Buttigieg said.

Beyond federal workers, a shutdown could have far-reaching effects on government services. People applying for government services like clinical trials, firearm permits and passports could see delays.

Some federal offices will also have to close or face shortened hours during a shutdown.

Businesses closely connected to the federal government, such as federal contractors or tourist services around national parks, could see disruptions and downturns. The travel sector could lose $140 million daily in a shutdown, according to the U.S. Travel Industry Association.

Lawmakers also warn that a shutdown could rattle financial markets. Goldman Sachs has estimated that a shutdown would reduce economic growth by 0.2% every week it lasted, but growth would then bounce back after the government reopens.

Others say the disruption in government services has far-reaching impacts because it shakes confidence in the government to fulfill its basic duties. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned, “A well-functioning economy requires a functioning government.”

The president and members of Congress will continue to work and get paid. However, any members of their staff who are not deemed essential will be furloughed.

The Supreme Court, which begins its new term Monday, would be unaffected by a short shutdown because it can draw on a pot of money provided by court fees, including charges for filing lawsuits and other documents, court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe said.

The rest of the federal judiciary also would operate normally for at least the first two weeks of October, said Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the judiciary.

Even in a longer shutdown, the entire judiciary would not shut down, and decisions about what activities would continue would be made by each court around the country. The justices and all federal judges would continue to be paid because of the constitutional prohibition on reducing judges’ pay during their tenure, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Notably, funding for the three special counsels appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland would not be affected by a government shutdown because they are paid for through a permanent, indefinite appropriation, an area that’s been exempted from shutdowns in the past.

That means the two federal cases against Donald Trump, the former president, as well as the case against Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, would not be interrupted. Trump has demanded that Republicans defund the prosecutions against him as a condition of funding the government, declaring it their “last chance” to act.

Prior to the 1980s, lapses in government funding did not result in government operations significantly shuttering. But then-U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti, in a series of legal opinions in 1980 and 1981, argued that government agencies cannot legally operate during a funding gap.

Federal officials have since operated under an understanding they can make exemptions for functions that are “essential” for public safety and constitutional duties.

Since 1976, there have been 22 funding gaps, with 10 of them leading to workers being furloughed. But most of the significant shutdowns have taken place since Bill Clinton's presidency, when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich and his conservative House majority demanded budget cuts.

The longest government shutdown happened between 2018 and 2019 when then-President Trump and congressional Democrats entered a standoff over his demand for funding for a border wall. The disruption lasted 35 days, through the holiday season, but was also only a partial government shutdown because Congress had passed some appropriations bills to fund parts of the government.

It's the responsibility of Congress to fund the government. The House and Senate have to agree to fund the government in some way, and the president has to sign the legislation into law.

The two sides are deeply entrenched and nowhere near reaching a deal to avert a shutdown.

But if the shutdown lasts for weeks, pressure will build to end the impasse, particularly if active-duty military members miss pay dates on Oct. 13 or Nov. 1. If the wider public starts seeing disruptions in air travel or border security as workers go unpaid, it will further goad Congress to act.

Congress often relies on a so-called continuing resolution, or CR, to provide stopgap money to open government offices at current levels as budget talks are underway. Money for pressing national priorities, such as emergency assistance for victims of natural disasters, is often attached to a short-term bill.

But hardline Republicans say any temporary bill is a non-starter for them. They are pushing to keep the government shut down until Congress negotiates all 12 bills that fund the government, which is historically a laborious undertaking that isn't resolved until December, at the earliest.

Trump, who is Biden's top rival heading into the 2024 election, is urging on the Republican hardliners.

If they are successful, the shutdown could last weeks, perhaps even longer.

___

Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor, Mark Sherman, Fatima Hussein, Lindsay Whitehurst, Josh Boak, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

The Pentagon and military tech industry are going into overdrive in a massive effort to scale out existing technology in what has been the Replicator initiative. It envisions a future force in which fully autonomous systems are deployed in flying drones, aircraft, water vessels and defense systems — connected through a computerized mainframe to synchronize and command units.

Arms control advocates fear the worst and worry existing guardrails offer insufficient checks, given the existential risks. Critics call self-operating weapons “killer robots” or “slaughterbots” because they are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and can technically operate independently to take out targets without human help. 

These types of systems have rarely been seen in action, and how they will affect combat is largely unknown, though their impact on the landscape of warfare has been compared to tanks in World War I.

But there are no international treaties governing the use of these weapons, and human rights groups are uneasy about Washington’s ethical guidelines on AI-powered systems and whether they will offer any protection against an array of humanitarian concerns.

“It's really a Pandora's box that we're starting to see open, and it will be very hard to go back,” said Anna Hehir, who leads autonomous weapons system research for the advocacy organization Future of Life Institute (FLI).

“I would argue for the Pentagon to view the use of AI in military use as on par with the start of the nuclear era,” she added. “So this is a novel technology that we don't understand. And if we view this in an arms race way, which is what the Pentagon is doing, then we can head to global catastrophe.”

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks first announced Replicator during a defense conference in Washington, D.C., in late August, calling it a “game-changing” initiative that will counter China’s growing ambitions and larger fleet of military resources. It comes after years of research and testing in both the private and public sector, now reaching a point where the U.S. can move to field the technology.

While autonomous systems have been used for decades in some form, such as automatic defensive machine guns, Replicator is designed to produce swarms of AI-powered drones and flying or swimming craft to attack targets.

Hicks said Replicator will use existing funds and personnel to develop thousands of autonomous systems in the next 18-24 months. She has also publicly said that the initiative will remain within ethical guidelines for fully autonomous systems.

Those guidelines come from the Pentagon’s own directives on the use of AI in warfare, updated in January 2023, which focus on ensuring senior level commanders and officials properly review and approve new weapons. The policy stipulates there be a “appropriate level of human judgment” before an AI weapon system can use force.

A Congressional Research Service report noted that the phrase was a “flexible term” that does not apply in every situation, and that another phrase, “human judgment over the use of force,” does not mean direct human control but refers to broad decisions about deployment.

Some critics also point out that there is a waiver throughout the policy that appears to allow for the bypassing of the requirement for senior-level review of AI weapons before deployment.

Eric Pahon, a spokesperson for the Defense Department, declined to speak on the questions raised about the policy, including the language used and the waiver. The Hill sent detailed questions to the Pentagon on the concerns but did not receive a response.

Pahon said in an interview the U.S. was the “world leader in ethical AI standards.”

“We’re always going to have a person responsible for making decisions,” he said. “We’re committed to having a human responsible for decisionmaking.”

Michael Klare, secretary for the Arms Control Association’s board of directors and a senior visiting fellow researching emerging technologies, said he was “dubious that it will always be possible to retain human control over all of these devices.”

He argued these types of self-operating systems could carry out unintended missions such as attacking nuclear facilities.

“The multiplication of these kinds of autonomous devices will increase the potential for unintended or accidental escalation of conflict across the nuclear threshold [that could] trigger a nuclear war,” Klare said.

“We fear that there's a lot of potential for that down the road,” Klare added. “And that's not being given careful consideration by the people who are fielding these weapons.”

Fully autonomous systems have been feared for decades, with activists warning about the dire consequences of diminishing human oversight as they grow more ubiquitous.

The leading concerns are: 

• Making the decision to go to war will be easier the more heavily the world relies on AI weapons
• Algorithms should not take human life because they cannot comprehend its value and can be biased, for example targeting groups based on race
• AI weapons, expected to be cheap and mass-produced, will proliferate and spread to insurgent groups and bad actors
• The risk of escalation between nuclear powers increases with the use of autonomous systems

The issues are not new, but human rights groups are alarmed about the pace of Replicator and worry its ambitious timeline will not allow for proper testing in the real world.

Hehir, from the FLI, said the timeline announced by Hicks was “very, very fast” for an emerging technology that may prove to be overwhelming. Experts in the field also say the technology is lacking when it comes to humans retaking command over out-of-control autonomous weapons. 

“I don't think that's a sufficient amount of time,” she said. “If you're waging war with such a high number of systems in a particular moment or a particular attack, then it's impossible to exercise meaningful human control over such a number.”

In 2018, the FLI released a petition calling for the prohibition on any autonomous weapon taking the life of a person without a human operator making the call. The petition to date has been signed by 274 organizations and nearly 4,000 people. 

A 2016 FLI letter called for a complete ban on offensive weapons beyond meaningful human control, which has been signed by more than 34,000 people, including tech billionaire Elon Musk and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.

The western security alliance NATO has established some standards on the use of autonomous weapons, including a requirement they only attack lawful military targets. But NATO officials concede that it’s unclear “when and where the law requires human presence in the decision cycle” and “how wide a decision cycle is.”

While at least 30 countries have called for the prohibition of lethal autonomous systems, the United Nations (U.N.) has yet to ratify any treaty to govern the weapons, and to date there is no agreed upon definition for them. 

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called for a legally binding agreement by 2026 to restrict the technology and prohibit lethal autonomous weapons from being used without human oversight. The U.N.’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) has been debating the issue since 2013.

This year, the U.N. is expected to address the issue more head on; the General Assembly may bring up autonomous systems in October, and the CCW is expected to convene and discuss the topic in November. 

Human rights groups and activists largely expect the U.S. to eventually back a treaty, arguing it is in Washington’s best interest to do so, because America could help shape the use of AI weapons as adversaries such as China pursue similar tech.

The Defense Department would not say whether it would support an international treaty governing the use of AI weapons.

But as with other weapons treaties, the greatest challenge may be compliance, which is compounded by the fact that advanced AI technology can evade tracking and identification of its use.

Peter Asaro, the co-founder of the International Committee for Robot Arms Control and a spokesperson for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, said AI use will be hard to prove and easy to deny. 

“You have to have a good understanding of the technological architecture,” he said. “These drones [could] have another drone that looks just like it but doesn’t have that [autonomous] functionality. It’s really hard to tell.”

The Pentagon has now formed a working group to research, study and ensure these types of weapons are used ethically and responsibly. It also has a Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office overseeing the development of related tech.

For the U.S. military, the only known combat deployment of fully autonomous craft is Shield AI’s Hivemind — an AI pilot software that operates the Nova quadcopter to scan areas and identify targets and movement on battlefields.

Today, there are just one or two instances of the technology being used offensively, meaning it’s unclear what mass deployment of AI weapons will actually look like.

Public records show only one known instance where an offensive AI weapon is thought to have been used, in Libya in March 2020.

At the time, a Turkish-made drone system called the STM Kargu-2 attacked forces aligned with Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who leads one of two factions vying for power in the war-torn country.

A U.N. report said the STM Kargu-2 drones “were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true ‘fire, forget and find’ capability.”

It’s not clear how deadly the attack was. But as the technology rolls out, humanitarian organizations worry about an increase in civilian casualties from the mass deployment of AI bots — and possible bias in who is targeted. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross recommends explicitly prohibiting drones that could attack a target without human knowledge and has called for limitations on all other autonomous systems, such as restricting their use in urban areas, for example.

“Machines can’t make complex ethical choices,” reads a petition from Amnesty International calling to create international restrictions around the technology. “They lack compassion and understanding, they make decisions based on biased, flawed and oppressive processes.”

The current spending laws expire at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 30. Without a deal by that night, funding will lapse and many government functions, including some health care programs, will temporarily stop. 

Here's how a shutdown will, and won't, impact health agencies and services:

Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security won't be impacted — at least initially

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said it will have "sufficient funding" for Medicaid through the first three months of fiscal 2024 based on funding that has already been appropriated. 

Medicare and Social Security are mandatory entitlement programs funded by taxes and premiums, so they aren't dependent on Congress. That means benefits will continue as normal. 

However, administrative actions like benefit verifications and issuing replacement Medicare cards will be paused for the duration of the shutdown.  

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act exchanges begins Nov. 1. According to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) contingency plan, CMS "will continue Federal Exchange activities, such as eligibility verification," using leftover fees from last year that were paid by insurers.

The Department of Health and Human Services will largely be shielded

This would mark the first time since 2013 that the federal health agency would be impacted by a government shutdown. That shutdown lasted just more than two weeks.

The 2018 shutdown, which came amid a dispute between House Democrats and then-President Trump over border security, lasted more than 30 days, but much of HHS was already funded because its annual appropriations bill had been signed into law. 

In a contingency planning document updated last week, HHS said its COVID-19 response will continue, as will clinical research. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will continue drug and medical device reviews, because those are funded by industry-paid user fees. 

HHS said it will "continue to protect human life and property," such as monitoring for disease outbreaks, managing high-risk recalls and drug shortages. The agency is also responsible for caring for patients in the hospital onsite at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), though it will only be able to admit "medically necessary" patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will continue working on outbreak response, laboratory functions, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and emergency operations. 

The CDC would also continue the World Trade Center Health Program as well as the Vaccines for Children program, which are supported through mandatory funding.

But the shutdown would hit federal workers the hardest 

HHS said 42 percent of the agency's employees — more than 37,000 people— would be furloughed without pay beginning on the second day of a funding lapse. 

The remaining 58 percent of staff are considered "excepted" and will have to work unpaid for the duration of the shutdown.

All federal employees will receive back pay after the shutdown ends, but federal contractors do not have that guarantee, including those who work maintenance or food services jobs.

Doctors and hospitals could continue to submit bills to Medicare and get paid, but the staff shortage could result in reimbursement delays. 

According to a 2014 Government Accountability Office report analyzing the 2013 shutdown, grants management activities at NIH effectively ceased because of employee furloughs, although most current grant recipients were able to draw down funds. 

NIH had to reschedule the review process for more than 13,700 grant applications because of the shutdown. 

Additionally, new patients were prevented from registering for clinical trials, before NIH recalled a small number of employees to reopen the registry. 

The staffing shortages could also impact Medicare application processing. 

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan fiscal policy think tank, more than 10,000 Medicare applicants were turned away each day during the 1995-1996 shutdown.

Outside the House, the Democratic-controlled Senate — with the help of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — has aimed to take the reins on a continuing resolution (CR), advancing a stopgap that Republicans say is dead on arrival in the House.

Inside the House, McCarthy faces roadblocks from multiple corners of his conference that will likely prevent the slim House majority from executing its own short-term funding bill. GOP leadership wants to pass its own stopgap with border measures in order to put themselves in a position to extract concessions from the Senate and White House.  

McCarthy has said he would like to meet with President Biden on attaching border policy measures to a short-term funding extension. But with just three days until a government shutdown, the Speaker has not yet worked in earnest with Democrats on a deal to keep the government open.

“Negotiating with Democrats and negotiating with even some Senate Republicans can be problematic for the Speaker,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a House appropriator.

As Republicans work through those options, the House appears busy. Lawmakers are voting into the wee hours of the morning on amendments on four regular full-year appropriations bills.

But members acknowledge the chamber could be barreling toward another wall.

“Unless something dramatic happens today or tomorrow, there will likely be a couple-of-day or longer shutdown — very, very unfortunately, because it's our responsibility to exercise and exhaust all options,” Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said.

After suffering some embarrassing setbacks last week, GOP leaders met demands from hard-liners to take action on full-year funding bills before working on any stopgap proposal. They agreed to demands to further cut some overall spending levels in the GOP bills as the shutdown ticked nearer.

“I want to see the appropriations bills. I want to use the appropriations process,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.).

None of those bills alone will avert a shutdown, as they are already opposed by the White House and will be promptly rejected by the Senate. But McCarthy and his allies hope that building goodwill with the conservatives will help rally them around a stopgap bill — which some Republicans resist calling a continuing resolution, since they would aim to change policies and cut some spending for its duration.

But there are big problems with that plan.

First, a handful of Republicans say they will not support McCarthy’s bid for a stopgap with border measures while the House works through appropriations bills — enough to likely block one in the slim House majority. 

That crew includes Reps. Eli Crane (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Andy Ogles (Tenn.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Dan Bishop (N.C.) and Rosendale.

“We're gonna pass 12 appropriations bills before I will consider a CR,” Ogles said.

Second, members are not confident that all four spending bills that are up this week can actually pass the House — complicating the theory of building goodwill with the holdouts on a GOP-only stopgap.

An agriculture spending bill appears to be on particularly thin ice. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), and Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) are among the members opposed to the bill, in part because it includes a provision to nullify a Biden administration rule allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to be sold in retail pharmacies and by mail with prescriptions.

As the House trudges through the four spending bills, McCarthy this week is trying to frame holding out on a GOP-only short-term funding extension as siding with Biden on the border.

“I don’t understand where somebody would want to stand with President Biden on keeping an open border and not keep government open,” McCarthy said of the holdouts.

And some members remain optimistic that the holdouts could reverse course as the clock ticks closer to a shutdown. 

“The timeframe is certainly shortening, but I think the sort of compelling arguments for some of these things are going to start becoming stronger as we get closer to the edge,” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said.

But McCarthy has also been kneecapped by McConnell’s willingness to support the Senate’s CR, which include measures that are nonstarters in the GOP-controlled House, such as aid to Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters over the weekend, McCarthy noted that one major difference between the debt limit fight and today’s spending fight is that over the summer, Senate Republicans were behind him as he passed a GOP-only bill and then negotiated concessions from the White House. He doesn’t have that this time.

"I think they're just completely disconnected with what we're working on in the House and what the American people want," Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said of the Senate.

McCarthy told Republicans on Wednesday morning that he would not bring the Senate CR to the floor in its current form, according to GOP members.

“I don’t see the support in the House,” McCarthy later told reporters about the Senate plan.

The fear for House GOP members is that they will be forced to swallow large swaths of the Senate plan.

“I do think in the end, someone's going to come over from the Senate, and we're going to end up being forced to live with something that is far worse than our plan to resolve the issue,” Meuser said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he would support the Senate bill “if that is the only option.”

But Bacon and some other moderate Republicans have another break-glass option in the wings: Work with Democrats to force a vote on a bill crafted by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to get out of a government shutdown. The Republicans, though, have not yet taken the step to force that.

With each passing day, the chances of a shutdown increase — leading some members to expect one.

“Are we gonna shut down this weekend? I believe we will. And I think conventional wisdom should tell you that,” Womack said. “But you know, I always hold out a little bit of hope that maybe there's some epiphany that happens and we get it done.”

Mychael Schnell and Aris Folley contributed.

The winning numbers were: 1, 7, 46, 47, 63 and red Powerball 7. There were $1 million winners in California, Kansas, Maryland and New York.

The jackpot has grown so large because there have now been 30 consecutive drawings without a big winner, dating back to July 19. Powerball’s long odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to generate big jackpots, with prizes becoming ever larger as they repeatedly roll over when no one wins.

Despite its growth, the jackpot still comes in behind a $2.04 billion jackpot hit last November in California; a $1.586 billion jackpot split by three tickets (California, Florida and Tennessee) in 2016, and a $1.08 billion jackpot won by a California ticket in July.

The jackpot is the ninth-largest ever and would need to surpass $1 billion to climb any higher in the record books.

1. $2.04 billion (Powerball): Nov. 7, 2022; California
2. $1.602 billion (Mega Millions): Aug. 15, 2023; Florida
3. $1.586 billion (Powerball): Jan. 13, 2016; California, Florida, Tennessee
4. $1.537 billion (Mega Millions): Oct. 23, 2018; South Carolina
5. $1.348 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 13, 2023; Maine
6. $1.337 billion (Mega Millions): July 29, 2022; Illinois
7. $1.08 billion (Powerball): July 19, 2023; California
8. $1.050 billion (Mega Millions): Jan. 22, 2021; Michigan 
9. $925 million (Est. Powerball): Sept. 28, 2023
10. $768.4 million (Powerball): March 27, 2019; Wisconsin
11. $758.7 million (Powerball): Aug. 23, 2017; Massachusetts

In most states, a Powerball ticket costs $2 and players can select their own numbers or leave that task to a computer.

Jackpot winners can receive the prize as an annuity (30 graduated payments over 29 years) or as a lump sum. Under the annuity plan, winners will receive an immediate payment and then 29 annual payments that rise by 5% each year until finally reaching the total amount. Winners almost always take the cash option.

Officials urge anyone lucky enough to win a Powerball jackpot to consult a financial adviser — while keeping that valuable ticket safe — before showing up at a lottery office for an oversized check. Those winnings would be subject to federal taxes, and many states also tax lottery winnings.

According to data by LottoNumbers.com, which tracks lottery statistics and analysis, the current 10 most commonly drawn Powerball numbers are:

• 61 (drawn 90 times)
• 32 (89 times)
• 21 (86 times)
• 63 (85 times)
• 36 (84 times)
• 23 (82 times)
• 69 (81 times)
• 62 (78 times)
• 37 (78 times)
• 39 (78 times)

If you’re wondering what the least common Powerball numbers are, Lotto Numbers says the current three least common are 13 (drawn only 50 times), 34 (52 times) and 49 (54 times).

Powerball tickets are $2 each and sold in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET. You have a 1 in 292.2 million chance of winning the Powerball jackpot and a 1 in 24.9 chance of winning any Powerball prize. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

“I will not allow under any circumstances the American automobile industry to die,” Trump said at Drake Enterprises, a non-unionized auto parts supplier in Clinton Township, about a half-hour outside Detroit.

The Republican front-runner's trip came a day after Biden became the first sitting president in U.S. history to walk a picket line as he joined United Auto Workers in Detroit. The dueling appearances had the feel of the opening salvo of the 2024 general election, which increasingly looks like a rematch between Trump and Biden, even though primary voting won’t begin until next year.

Trump’s decision to skip another debate comes as he maintains a commanding lead in the GOP primary, even as he faces four separate criminal indictments in four different states.

Trump, in his speech, tried to cast Biden as hostile to the auto industry and workers, using extreme rhetoric to claim the industry was “being assassinated.” He insisted Biden’s embrace of electric vehicles — a key component of his clean-energy agenda — would ultimately lead to lost jobs, amplifying the concerns of some autoworkers who worry that electric cars require fewer people to manufacture and that there is no guarantee factories that produce them will be unionized.

“He’s selling you out to China, he’s selling you out to the environmental extremists and the radical left,” Trump told his crowd, flanked by American flags and pallets of auto parts.

He also downplayed the strike as the UAW pushes for higher wages, shorter work weeks and assurances from the country’s top automakers that new electric vehicle jobs will be unionized. While Trump said he supported the workers and hoped they would get a good deal, he also said no deal would matter if proposed pollution limits take effect.

“You’re all on the picket lines and everything, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference what you get, because in two years you’re all going to be out of business,” he said.

While Trump has cast himself as pro-worker, he has clashed repeatedly with union leadership and tried to turn union members against their leaders. In a recent campaign video, Trump urged autoworkers not to pay union dues and claimed their leaders have “got some deals going for themselves.”

Just hours before Trump’s visit, the UAW posted a video on its Facebook page protesting factory closures by Detroit’s automakers that included 2017 footage of Trump telling a northern Ohio crowd that auto jobs would be coming back. Two years later, General Motors closed a huge assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, costing thousands of jobs.

Still, Trump repeatedly urged the union to endorse him, at one point directly appealing to UAW President Shawn Fain.

While the union has withheld its support for Biden after endorsing him in 2020, Fain appeared at Biden’s side during his visit Tuesday and has repeatedly criticized Trump.

“I don’t think he cares about working-class people. I think he cares about the billionaire class, he cares about the corporate interests. I think he’s just trying to pander to people and say what they want to hear, and it’s a shame,” Fain said this week.

Biden's re-election campaign, in a statement, called Trump's speech “a pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans.”

Drake Enterprises, where Trump spoke, makes automotive and heavy-duty truck components, including gear shift levers for semi-trucks, said its president Nathan Stemple. He said a shift to electric cars would cripple his business.

While Trump aides had said the audience would include several hundred current and former UAW members, as well as members of plumbers and pipefitters unions, it also included many non-union workers who support the former president. Some said they had been invited by people who did business with Drake; others said they had simply arrived at the factory Wednesday afternoon and been allowed to attend.

Tony Duronio, 64, a longtime Trump supporter and real estate broker who lives in Clinton Township, said he received an invitation from a group called Autoworkers for Trump. Duronio praised the economy during Trump's time in office and echoed the former president's criticism of electric vehicles: “Nobody wants ‘em," he said — and applauded Trump’s decision to skip the debate.

“He’s the frontrunner. He doesn’t have any competition," he said. “Look, if it ain’t him, I may stay home ’cause the rest are no different than Biden.”

Trump briefly mentioned the debate happening 2,000 miles away at the Ronald Reagan presidential library, calling his GOP rivals “job candidates.”

“They’ll do anything,” he said. “Secretary of something. They even say VP, does anybody see any VP in the group? I don’t think so.”

The former president has tried to use the strike to drive a wedge between Biden and union workers, a constituency that helped pave the way for his surprise 2016 victory. Trump in that election won over voters in Democratic strongholds like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, fundamentally reshaping voting alliances as he railed against global trade deals and vowed to resurrect dying manufacturing towns.

But Biden won those states back in 2020 as he emphasized his working-class roots and commitment to organized labor. He often calls himself the “ most pro-union president” in U.S. history and argues the investments his administration is making in green energy and electric vehicle manufacturing will ensure the future of the industry unfolds in the U.S.

There’s disagreement in the auto industry over whether the shift to EVs will cost union jobs. Some executives say that because electric vehicles require fewer moving parts, companies will need 30% to 40% fewer workers to assemble them. But others say EVs will require comparable labor.

The Trump campaign has vigorously defended his record as pro-worker, but union leaders say his first term was far from worker-friendly — citing unfavorable rulings from the nation’s top labor board and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs and the closure of the Ohio GM plant.

Along the picket line, workers have been split. Adrian Mitchell, who works at the GM parts warehouse that Biden visited, said he believes Biden would be better for the middle class than a second Trump term. Still, Mitchell said workers are worried the transition to electric cars may cost them jobs.

It was a different scene at Trump's event, filled with MAGA hats and pro-Trump signs.

“Let’s put it this way: There’s nothing I don’t like about Trump," said Johnny Pentowski, who was a member of the Teamsters Union before he retired as a truck driver earlier this year.

Pentowski, 72, who lives in Eastpointe Michigan, accused union leaders of failing to listen to their members and shared Trump’s skepticism of EVs.

“You take away fossil fuels from a country, you’re taking away its lifeblood," he said. "Windmills and solars don’t do it.”

The UAW’s targeted strikes against the Big Three automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford — began at midnight Sept. 14 and have since expanded to 38 parts distribution centers in 20 states.

The union is asking for 36% raises in general pay over four years and has also demanded a 32-hour week with 40 hours of pay and a return of cost-of-living pay raises, among other benefits. It also wants to be allowed to represent workers at 10 electric vehicle battery factories, most of which are being built by joint ventures between automakers and South Korean battery makers.

While Biden has not implemented an electric vehicle mandate, he has set a goal that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. His administration has also proposed stiff new automobile pollution limits that would require up to two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032, a nearly tenfold increase over current electric vehicle sales. That proposal is not final.

It was a rambunctious night filled with personal attacks by candidates battling for survival, culminating in a clash over curtains between Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and his state’s former Gov. Nikki Haley. 

None of the contenders are within spitting distance in polls of former President Trump, who for a second time didn’t bother showing up for the debate.  

That added to the sense of desperation for some of the would-be contenders, who know the time for catching up to Trump is running out. 

Here are the winners and losers. 

WINNERS

Former President Trump 

Trump without a doubt felt like the biggest winner Wednesday night.  

He wasn’t on stage and instead appeared at an event in Michigan that signaled he’s already moving his focus to a November 2024 general election against Biden.  

In national and state polls, Trump is far ahead of his nearest competitor, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.  

He leads DeSantis by 42 points in the RealClearPolitics polling average nationally and by 33 points in Iowa. In New Hampshire, Trump holds a 31-point lead over Haley in the polling average. 

On Wednesday, none of the seven people on stage truly stood out. The night was filled with moments where it was difficult to hear what any of the candidates were saying given all of the cross-talk.  

Much of it also felt like an echo of the first debate.  

“It was a little flat today,” former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said on Fox Business immediately after the debate concluded. Her conclusion was that it was unlikely to change the polls. 

“Polls don’t elect presidents. Voters elect presidents,” DeSantis told moderator Dana Perino when asked about Trump’s dominant lead.  

That is true. But it’s difficult to believe the results of the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary will be much different based on Wednesday’s performances. 

Nikki Haley 

Haley, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, emerged as the biggest winner who was actually on the debate stage on Wednesday night.   

As with the first debate in Milwaukee, the former South Carolina governor sought to present herself as the adult in the room — albeit one who wouldn’t back down from a fight.  

Haley generated one of the most talked-about moments in Wisconsin when she got into a heated back-and-forth with Vivek Ramaswamy. That animosity carried over into the Simi Valley event, with Haley producing another memorable exchange when she bluntly told the biotech entrepreneur, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”   

She went on offense throughout the night, mostly successfully. She directly took on DeSantis, generally seen as Trump’s top rival, accusing him of banning fracking — a hot-button issue in key swing states, like Pennsylvania.   

And she stood her ground when Scott, who also hails from the Palmetto State, pressed her on her support for hiking the gas tax as South Carolina governor and for her spending while at the UN.  

“Bring it, Tim,” Haley said to him as he opened his line of attack.  

It was one of several memorable moments Haley was responsible for during the debate. While it remains to be seen if it’ll help her in the polls, there’s no question the former South Carolina governor had a solid night.  

MIXED

Ron DeSantis  

DeSantis came into Wednesday night’s event with perhaps the most to prove. After a muted showing in the first debate, observers said the governor needed a knockout performance in Simi Valley.  

DeSantis generally handled himself well during the two-hour event, drawing applause on occasion and pushing back against Haley's aggressive attack over his fracking record. He also stepped up his broadsides on Trump, repeatedly criticizing the president for being a no-show at the debate.  

Yet he failed to generate any buzzy moments and often faded into the background while some of his rivals, like Haley and Scott, managed to seize the spotlight.    

Ultimately, while DeSantis had a decent night, it might not be enough for his campaign to right the ship ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15.  

Chris Christie  

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) showed no signs of backing down from the anti-Trump persona he has cultivated in the primary, repeatedly attacking the former president and urging the party to move on.  

While it seems unlikely such remarks will endear him to the GOP primary electorate, Christie did at least manage to go viral with one of the night’s most memorable lines, in which he addressed Trump directly through the camera.  

“I want to look at the camera right now and tell you, Donald, I know you’re watching. You can’t help yourself. I know you’re watching, okay? And you’re not here tonight not because of polls and not because of your indictments. You’re not here tonight because you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record,” Christie said.  

“You’re ducking these things. And let me tell you what’s going to happen, you keep doing that, no one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore, we’re gonna call you Donald Duck,” Christie said.    

Tim Scott  

Scott has staked his candidacy on the idea that voters want a politician who embraces hope and optimism as opposed to fear and vitriol. So it was notable that Scott used Wednesday’s event to attack some of his opponents.  

The pivot suggests Scott is looking to do away with his “nice guy” image as he fails to catch fire in the polls. A recent CNN/University of New Hampshire poll found him trailing at sixth place with 6 percent support, behind Trump, DeSantis and others.  

The South Carolina senator came out swinging, knocking Ramaswamy over his alleged ties to China and pressing Haley — a fellow Palmetto State Republican — over her support for raising the gas tax as governor and for her spending while working as Trump’s U.N. ambassador.  

Yet Scott failed to land any knockout blows. Haley easily batted away his attacks, even taunting him at one point. And Scott tended to get drowned out by his other rivals, even as he stepped up his offensive.  

Ultimately, his performance on Wednesday night might be an encouraging sign for supporters who have been hoping for a course correction from the senator, but it seems unlikely to be any kind of game-changer. 

LOSERS

Vivek Ramaswamy

While Ramaswamy had a strong first debate performance last month, the tech entrepreneur-turned-politician struggled to handle the attacks his opponents threw at him Wednesday evening.

Many of the candidates came ready to put Ramaswamy on defense, particularly over his past business ties to China. Scott kicked off the debate by saying Ramaswamy was “just in business with the Chinese Communist Party,” while former Vice President Mike Pence said he was glad Ramaswamy pulled out of a business deal with China in 2018. 

However, one of the most striking attacks against Ramaswamy came from Haley over his decision to join the social media platform TikTok. Haley responded to Ramaswamy’s explanation for joining the platform by quipping, “Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say.”

The China-related attacks could stand to make him more vulnerable ‘due to the issue’s salience with Republican primary voters. 

Mike Pence

Like Ramaswamy, Pence had a good night at the first debate. However, Pence appeared to lose his footing on Wednesday’s debate stage. At one point during the forum, Pence was asked whether ObamaCare was here to stay, and he instead called for passing a federal law expediting the death penalty. 

The response prompted moderator Dana Perino to reiterate her original question. 

"I appreciate that, so does that mean ObamaCare is here to stay?"  Perino asked. 

The former vice president also found himself in an awkward spot when he attempted to build on an attack Christie made against first lady Jill Biden.

Christie had swiped at the first lady, saying the president was sleeping with a member of the teacher's unions. Pence attempted to take the line one step further, quipping, “My wife isn’t a member of the teachers union, but I’ve got to admit I’ve been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years.” 

Doug Burgum

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum was in desperate need of a knockout performance on Wednesday, and while the governor tried to steal the spotlight throughout the debate, he was unable to land a punch.

Throughout the debate, Burgum tried to interject, often to tout his record as governor. But he struggled to stand out in the fray and got drowned out during the crossfire. On top of that, Burgum also sometimes came off as a nuisance to the moderators. At one point, Perino even threatened to cut his mic when he was trying to interject. 

“I am the only person on the stage that has a career in technology,” Burgum said, speaking about artificial intelligence. 

“Sir, we'll have to cut your mic, and I don't want to do that. I don't,” Perino said. 

Burgum’s lack of a breakout moment deprives his campaign of the boost it needs to compete with Trump and the second-tier candidates and makes his viability for the nomination even less likely.

The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Radio and Television Artists announced Wednesday night that strike negotiations with studios would resume Monday. The guild said several studio executives will attend, much as they did during marathon sessions last week that helped bring the nearly five-month writers strike to an end.

Monday is the same day that network late-night hosts will return to the air.

Bill Maher led the charge back to work by announcing early Wednesday — hours after writers became free to work again — that his HBO show “Real Time with Bill Maher” would be back on the air Friday. By mid-morning, the hosts of NBC’s “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS had announced they'd also return, all by Monday. “Last Week Tonight” with John Oliver was slated to return to the air Sunday.

Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” which had been using guest hosts when the strike hit, announced Wednesday that it would return Oct. 16 “with an all-star roster of guest hosts for the remainder of 2023.” The plans for “Saturday Night Live” were not immediately clear.

The strikes have had a “catastrophic” impact on late-night television viewing, according to the research firm Samba TV. Without Colbert, Fallon and Kimmel proving fresh, topical material, the broadcast networks have seen late-night viewership declines of between 40% and 50%, Ashwin Navin, Samba TV co-founder. “It remains to be seen how late night will rebound to its previous relevance,” he said.

Fallon, Meyers, Kimmel, Colbert and Oliver spent the latter part of the strike teaming up for a popular podcast called “Strike Force Five” — named after their personal text chain and with all proceeds benefiting their out-of-work writers. On Instagram on Wednesday, they announced “their mission complete.”

Scripted shows will take longer to return due to the actors strike, which showed its first signs of a solution with the renewed plans to talk. There had previously been no official contact between SAG-AFTRA and the alliance of studios that negotiates contracts since their strike began July 14.

The first resumption of talks in the writers strike last month went poorly, and it was another month before the two sides tried again. But when the talks resumed last week it was just five days before a deal was reached.

Board members from the writers union approved that contract agreement with studios on Tuesday night, bringing the industry at least partly back from a historic halt in production that stretched nearly five months.

Maher had delayed returning to his talk show during the ongoing strike by writers and actors, a decision that followed similar pauses by “The Drew Barrymore Show,” “The Talk” and “The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

The three-year agreement with studios, producers and streaming services includes significant wins in the main areas writers had fought for — compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence — matching or nearly equaling what they had sought at the outset of the strike.

The union had sought minimum increases in pay and future residual earnings from shows and will get a raise of between 3.5% and 5% in those areas — more than the studios had initially offered.

The guild also negotiated new residual payments based on the popularity of streaming shows, where writers will get bonuses for being a part of the most popular shows on Netflix, Max and other services, a proposal studios initially rejected. Many writers on picket lines had complained that they weren’t properly paid for helping create heavily watched properties.

On artificial intelligence, the writers got the regulation and control of the emerging technology they had sought. Under the contract, raw, AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material” — a term in their contracts for scripts and other story forms a screenwriter produces. This means they won’t be competing with computers for screen credits. Nor will AI-generated stories be considered “source” material, their contractual language for the novels, video games or other works that writers may adapt into scripts.

Writers have the right under the deal to use artificial intelligence in their process if the company they are working for agrees and other conditions are met. But companies cannot require a writer to use artificial intelligence.

___

Media Writer David Bauder contributed to this report. Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

___

For more on the writers and actors strikes, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/hollywood-strikes/

The at-times chaotic event featured staple questions about immigration, economics and abortion but also spawned a new nickname for Donald Trump, included some cringey sexual references and kept our fact-checkers busy.

— An overview of tonight’s debate, where candidates went after Biden — and Trump. — Christie calls Trump “Donald Duck,” DeSantis knocks former president and other debate highlights. — Trump again skipped the debate. Here’s what he was doing instead. — See more of our 2024 coverage.

As the debate neared its end, moderator Dana Perino asked the candidates to write down which of their on-stage competitors should be voted off the 2024 GOP island.

But they didn’t bite. “With all due respect, I think that that’s disrespectful,” DeSantis said in response to the “Survivor”-style question.

Christie said Trump should be booted given his decision to skip the debate, and he accused him of dividing the country.

Ramaswamy slipped in the last word, praising Trump’s legacy but saying he was the better candidate to push forward an “America first” agenda.

And with that, the second Republican primary debate was over.

Ramaswamy is leveling criticism toward Ukraine in answer to a question about continuing U.S. support for the country.

“Just because Putin is an evil dictator does not mean Ukraine is good,” Ramaswamy says.

He also says China, not Russia, is the United States’ real enemy, and argues that the hard U.S. line toward Russia “is driving Russia further into China’s arms.”

DeSantis is rejecting the idea that Republicans have been losing elections because of their opposition to abortion, and he says his reelection as Florida governor last year is proof he’s right.

Democrats have leaned into the debate over abortion rights since a conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Voters have repeatedly supported abortion rights, and Democrats and even Trump have said it’s a big reason for the party’s better-than-expected performance in the midterms and in other elections since then.

DeSantis signed into law a ban on abortions at six weeks of pregnancy, before some women know they’re pregnant. He signed the ban after winning reelection.

Asked about the possibility that swing state Arizona will have an abortion question on its ballot next year, making it tougher for Republicans to win there, DeSantis dismissed the idea. He also called out Trump, who said it was a “terrible mistake” for DeSantis to sign the ban.

DeSantis said Republicans must go on the offensive and hit Democrats for their “extremism” on the issue.

Scott floated some ambitiously lofty job goals at the GOP debate, suggesting his policies could create 10 million jobs in a year and drive growth at 5%.

That would be an unusually large and unlikely set of hiring. More than 7 million jobs were created in 2021 under President Joe Biden, as the economy recovered from the pandemic. But deficit spending and inflation accompanied those gains — both points of attack by the Republican candidate.

Scott said he could create 3.5 million jobs “if we unleashed all our energy resources.” That would be impressive as oil and gas extraction account for just 118,700 jobs right now, according to the Labor Department.

Secondly, Scott said he could create jobs by bringing back factory jobs. Manufacturing work has rebounded under Biden to nearly 13 million jobs, the most since 2008. But few economists see manufacturing work as returning to its 1979 peak of more than 19 million jobs.

They’ve long had an intertwined political history, and even shared political consultants, but Haley and Scott’s differences took center stage on Wednesday.

The two South Carolinians sparred on stage after being asked why one should be elected president over the other.

Scott touted his work on 2017 tax cuts legislation, said he’d “love to have an opportunity to have this country pass a balanced budget amendment” and promoted his plans to “bring jobs back to America.”

“I appreciate Tim, we’ve known each other a long time,” Haley said, “but he’s been there 12 years and he hasn’t done any of that.”

Scott shot back, pointing out that Haley - who has called for an end to the federal gas tax as part of her campaign - “actually asked for a gas tax increase in South Carolina.”

“We’ve waited, and nothing has happened,” Haley said, turning back to her critique of Scott’s time in the Senate. It was Haley as governor in 2012 who appointed Scott to the seat in the first place.

Warning about the threats she perceived are posed by China is key to Haley’s stump, and it’s on full display in the debate.

Several times, Haley has pivoted her part in the conversation by noting that some U.S. supplies of amoxicillin come from China. Several times, she has pointed to Ramaswamy’s ties to the country, from business deals to his presence on TikTok, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd.

Haley also went after Trump’s China policy, saying that she feels the former president was too focused on the U.S.-China trade relationship and did too little about possible threats from the country.

Mexico has been a critical partner on border enforcement with the Trump and Biden administrations, but Haley defends sending special operations to deal with Mexican drug cartels, a common position among those on the debate stage.

It’s a nonstarter for Mexico’s leaders.

Mexico has deployed thousands of troops to its southern border to stop U.S.-bound migrants.

In January, it agreed to take back people from Cuban, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela if they enter the United States illegally, a major concession to deal with populations that are difficult to deport.

Ramaswamy called being transgender a “mental health disorder” and “confusion” in response to a question about parental notification about their children’s gender identities. That's in direct contrast to guidance from the American Psychiatric Association, which says diverse gender expressions “ are not indications of a mental disorder.”

To make his point, Ramaswamy noted that he recently met two young women who later regretted their gender-affirming surgeries.

While it’s possible, regret after a gender transition is rare. In a review of 27 studies involving almost 8,000 teens and adults who had transgender surgeries, mostly in Europe, the U.S and Canada, 1% on average expressed regret.

For a moment, it was Haley vs. Ramaswamy, round two.

As they did in last month’s debut debate, Haley and Ramaswamy had a split-screen sparring back-and-forth in which Haley went after the political newcomer for inexperience and, she alleged, dangerous ideas.

Asked about his recent conversation with a TikTok influencer, Ramaswamy defended his use of the platform.

“I’m the new guy here, and so I know I have to earn your trust,” Ramaswamy said. “I’m here to tell you, no, I don’t know at all. I will listen.” Interjecting by calling TikTok “dangerous,” Haley went on to address Ramaswamy directly — and personally.

“Every time I hear you, I feel a little bit dumber for what you say,” Haley said. “We can’t trust you.”

Ramaswamy responded by saying that “I think we would be better served as a Republican Party if we’re not sitting here hurling personal insults,” before the moderators moved on to another topic.

The debate is getting chaotic at times, with candidates shouting over one another and the moderators scolding them for not waiting their turns.

At one point, moderator Dana Perino warned Burgum, who was trying to interrupt the questioning, that they would have to cut off his microphone if he didn’t stop interjecting. “I don’t want to do that,” she said, pleadingly “I don’t.”

Moderators also told candidates multiple times that the cross-talking meant they would get fewer questions.

The topic of education also led to the issue of teaching about racism in public schools. Under DeSantis, Florida approved a controversial curriculum that suggests some enslaved people learned useful skills while they were in bondage.

Scott, the only Black candidate on stage Wednesday night, reiterated his criticism of the curriculum under DeSantis by saying, “There is not a redeeming quality in slavery.”

He also suggested that the United States had turned the page on its history.

“We are the greatest nation on earth because we faced our demons in the mirror,” Scott said. He added that, “America is not a racist country.”

A question about education took two uncomfortable and unexpected turns at Wednesday night's presidential debate.

Saying that America’s public schools are “run by the teachers unions in this country,” Christie said U.S. schools would continue to struggle because, in his view, the Biden administration is too close to the unions.

“When you have the president that states sleeping with a member of the teachers union, there is no chance that you can take the stranglehold away from the teachers union every day,” Christie said.

In a later question, Pence chimed in, saying that he had been “sleeping with a teacher for 38 years” — but noting that his wife, Karen, is not a union member.

Candidates have devoted significant time to discussing the border but said nothing significantly new. Their policy prescriptions were largely in line with each other and with Trump, who made it a signature issue.

Pence, ignoring a question about what he would do to protect immigrants who came to the country as young children, spoke about a Trump-era policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings and cracking down on asylum. Ramaswamy spoke about repealing a constitutional right to birthright citizenship, a position that Trump has entertained.

Candidates spoke as if the influx of asylum-seekers began under Biden’s watch, but it began years earlier. By 2017, the United States became the world’s most popular destination for asylum-seekers, a position it has held ever since, according to the U.N. refugee agency.

Migration has unquestionably grown sharply under Biden. Border arrests topped 2.2 million at the Mexican border in the 2022 fiscal year, which runs from October to September, the highest on record and more than twice the peak year of 852,000 under Trump in 2019. Arrests topped 400,000 during Obama’s last full year in office.

People arriving in families with children under 18 are again behind surging numbers, reaching 93,108 arrests in August, surpassing the previous high of 84,486 under Trump’s watch in May 2019.

The debate’s more than halfway done, but there has been no mention so far of the big political issue that is threatening a government shutdown as soon as this weekend — funding for Ukraine against the Russian invasion.

Much discussion in the candidates’ first debate on Ukraine funding.

He’s the only GOP presidential candidate on TikTok, but Ramaswamy is talking about teens staying away from “addictive social media.”

In a question about security, Ramaswamy pivoted to a discussion of border security, talking about teens turning to social media like Snapchat to procure pharmaceuticals.

“If you’re 16 years old or under, you should not be using an addictive social media product, period,” he said.

Ramaswamy, who at 38 is the youngest candidate on stage, has referred to TikTok as “digital fentanyl” but earlier this month joined the platform, with his campaign saying he was angling to appeal to younger voters.

The platform has been met with bipartisan criticism that it is a potential spy mechanism for China.

DeSantis raises the possibility of military intervention in Mexico when asked about fentanyl. Ramaswamy calls for more border wall when asked about fentanyl. Both ignore some critical facts about how the drug gets into the country.

Fentanyl seizures occurred predominantly at official land crossings, where commuters and visitors smuggle drugs on their bodies or in their vehicles. From September through August, 11.4 tons of the 12.8 tons of fentanyl seized at the border Mexico were discovered at land crossings, while the remaining 1.4 tons were in between border crossings, where people enter the country illegally.

At a hearing July 12, James Mandryck, a Customs and Border Protection deputy assistant commissioner, said 73% of fentanyl seizures at the border since the previous October were smuggling attempts carried out by U.S. citizens, with the rest being done by Mexican citizens.

Christie has a new name for Trump — Donald Duck.

A former ally who broke with Trump over his election denial, Christie awarded the moniker to the absent Republican front-runner for skipping the debate.

Speaking into the camera, Christie said, “I know you’re watching” because “you can’t help yourself.” And he accused Trump of being absent because “you’re afraid of being on this stage and defending your record.”

“No one up here is going to call you Donald Trump anymore. We’re going to call you Donald Duck.”

Pence is using his time onstage to remind viewers he’s a White House alumnus.

Twice asked a question about working to protect immigrants from deportation if they came with their parents as young children, Pence ignored it and emphasized his resume instead.

The former vice president recalled how during the Trump administration, he had negotiated the policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico for court hearings in the U.S.

“This is no time for on the job training,” Pence said. “I’m going to be ready on Day 1.”

Scott briefly shed his Mr. Nice Guy reputation to flame Ramaswamy for being “in business with the Chinese Communist Party.”

The attack line, a reference to Ramaswamy’s former career as an entrepreneur, fulfilled a promise from Scott’s campaign that the South Carolina senator would be more aggressive after being overshadowed in the first debate.

Ramaswamy responded angrily, leading to a long stretch of crosstalk that the moderators struggled to rein in.

“When you all speak at the same time, no can understand you,” said Univision anchor Ilia Calderón.

DeSantis says the United States needs a “totally new approach to China.”

Part of what he calls for Biden is already doing. That includes strengthening U.S. hard power in the Indo-Pacific. DeSantis does call for “decoupling” the U.S. economy from China.

Biden is trying to wean the U.S. supply chain off China but denies seeking to decouple the two economies.

Burgum is looking for more talking time — and he’s not being shy about it.

The North Dakota governor interjected a couple of times in the first 20 minutes of Wednesday night’s debate, talking over moderators and his fellow hopefuls, in one response interjecting, “Nobody answered the question” after others were asked about child care.

“We will get you some questions,” said moderator Dana Perino. “But you will have to let us move on.”

There have already been several moments where the moderators struggled to get candidates to stop talking among themselves and focus on the question at hand.

GOP presidential candidates started their second debate by mostly agreeing that the U.S. economic future should be powered by gasoline.

In lockstep, they all demonized the Biden administration’s support for electric vehicles. It’s a shift that is meant to limit the damages of climate change, but presidential candidates say it would hurt the U.S. auto sector and enrich China. The unanimity reflected the challenge candidates face to stand out on policy issues.

“Joe Biden’s Green New Deal agenda is good for Beijing and bad for Detroit,” Pence said.

Burgum said unionized autoworkers are striking because their employers “need two-thirds less workers to build an electric car.”

Ramaswamy went to his refrain that he would “unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear energy.”

After taking criticism for going soft on Trump, DeSantis took a swing at him early in the debate.

“And you know who is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action,” DeSantis said, blasting the former president for skipping the debate.

The criticism came shortly after a similar attack from Christie, who said Trump “hides behind the walls of his golf clubs” instead of answering questions.

DeSantis’ swipe at Trump marks a definite shift for the Florida governor, who largely avoided pointed criticism of the former president in the first debate.

Scott didn’t have much talking time during the first GOP debate, but he started to make up for that as soon as Wednesday night’s gathering got underway.

The first question went to Scott, who caught criticism for saying “you strike, you’re fired” about the United Auto Workers dispute. Scott quipped that Biden “should not be on the picket line, he should be on the southern border,” turning the rest of his answer to concerns about border security.

Scott also was asked to respond after Pence said Biden “belongs on the unemployment line,” saying he disagreed with Scott.

“There’s no doubt that Joe Biden needs to be fired,” Scott said. “That’s why I’m running for president.”

The debate started with questions about the United Auto Workers strike, but the Republicans kept the focus squarely on Biden.

“Joe Biden should not be on the picket line. He should be on the southern border,” said Scott, who got the first question.

Next up was Ramaswamy, who said the workers should “go picket in front of the White House in Washington, D.C.,” because “that’s really where the protest needs to be.”

Pence took a swing at it next. “Joe Biden doesn’t belong on the picket line. He belongs on the unemployment line.”

Trump skipped the Fox Business-Univision debate but appeared briefly in its introduction - or at least his mug shot did.

The debate at the Reagan library started with a montage of the former president followed by clips of the seven candidates who are appearing on stage.

Trump’s mug shot — from one of the criminal cases against him, filed in Georgia — flashed on screen as a voiceover questioned: Would Reagan even recognize the country today?

The Republican speaker laid out his strategy Wednesday behind closed doors, urging his unruly Republican majority to work together. He set up a test vote for Friday, one day before Saturday's shutdown deadline, on a far-right bill. It would slash federal spending by 8% from many agencies and toughen border security but has been rejected by Democrats and his own right-flank Republicans.

“I want to solve the problem,” McCarthy told reporters afterward at the Capitol.

But pressed on how he would pass a partisan Republican spending plan that even his own right flank doesn't want, McCarthy had few answers. He rejected outright the Senate's bipartisan bill, which would fund the government to Nov. 17, adding $6 billion for Ukraine and $6 billion for U.S. disaster relief while talks continue. Instead, he insisted, as he often does, that he would never quit trying.

Congress is at a crossroads days before a disruptive federal shutdown that would halt paychecks for millions of federal workers, leave 2 million active duty military troops and reservists to work without pay, close down many federal offices, and leave Americans who rely on the government in ways large and small in the lurch.

President Joe Biden in California at a meeting of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said Wednesday he didn’t think a federal shutdown was inevitable.

“I don’t think anything is inevitable when it comes to politics,” he said.

But later at a fundraiser in San Francisco, Biden said of McCarthy: “I think that the speaker is making a choice between his speakership and American interests.”

As the Senate pushes ahead in bipartisan fashion, McCarthy is demanding that Biden meet to discuss border security measures. But the speaker has little leverage left with the White House without the power of his House majority behind him. The White House has panned his overtures for talks after McCarthy walked away from the debt deal he and Biden reached earlier this year that is now law.

On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned of the right-wing extremes that “seem to exult in shutting down government.”

The Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell was in rare agreement with the Democratic leader, urging his House colleagues to consider the Senate's stopgap approach, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, and move off the shutdown strategy.

McConnell said that he, too, would like to do something about the “Democrats’ reckless spending” and boost border security. But he said, “these important discussions cannot progress” if the functions of government “end up being taken hostage.”

When McConnell mentioned a vote against the bill would mean voting against pay for border patrol agents and others, it sparked a response from Biden on social media.

“You know, I agree with Mitch here. Why the House Republicans would want to defund Border Patrol is beyond me,” Biden wrote.

With the Senate expected to spend the rest of this week working to pass its bill over the objections of Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and others on the right flank. Like their House colleagues, the conservative senators want to halt aid to Ukraine and push for steeper spending cuts, all action in Congress is crushing toward a last minute deadline.

The federal government would begin to shut down if funding is not secured by Sunday, Oct. 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

A new economic assessment from Goldman Sachs estimated a federal shutdown would subtract 0.2 percent points from fourth-quarter GDP growth each week it continues, according to a report issued Wednesday.

Running out of options, McCarthy revived the border security package he first tried to attach to a temporary government funding bill earlier this month. But he still faces a handful of hard-right holdouts led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who say they won't vote for any CR, denying a majority for passage.

It's late in the process to be pushing the border security provisions now, as McCarthy tries to salvage the strategy. He is seeking to shift blame to Biden and Democrats for not engaging in an immigration debate about the record flow of migrants at the Southern border with Mexico.

Facing holdouts in his own ranks, McCarthy is trying to cajole his hard-right members who have refused to vote for any temporary spending bill — even with the border provisions. He told reporters, “I don’t understand where somebody would want to stand with President Biden on keeping an open border and not keep government open.”

The holdouts are determined to force the House to debate and pass all 12 individual funding bills for all the various government agencies. It's a grinding weeks-long process with no guarantee the bills will even pass with days to go before a shutdown.

“If that means we close and we shut down, that’s what we’re going do,” said Rep. Andy Ogles, a Tennessee Republican who wants the House to vote on all 12 bills, as he exited the morning Republican meeting.

On Wednesday the House slogged through debate over four of those bills — to fund Defense, Homeland Security, Agriculture and State and Foreign Operations.

One amendment to gut $300 million for Ukraine was backed by 104 Republicans, more than ever as resistance to war funding grows, but it — and another like it — overwhelmingly failed. One from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to cut the Defense Secretary's salary to $1 was approved without dissent.

But late at night, facing the prospect that the Defense bill would fail with any Ukraine aid intact, the Republicans held an emergency Rules meeting to strip the $300 million — a stunning maneuver that the committee's top Democrat called “pathetic,” since the House had already decided the issue.

Republicans defended the action, saying the Ukraine money, which is routine and separate from Biden's larger request for funds, now will be voted on separately — and will likely pass with overwhelming support.

Lawmakers are prepared to work into the weekend, but one leading Republican, Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, said he believed Congress was headed towards a government shutdown.

“Somebody is going to have to flinch or break, or there will have to be something negotiated,” he said.

But the hard-right is threatening to oust McCarthy if he joins with Democrats and Womack, who is not among the holdouts, explained such a move could be “problematic for the speaker.”

While the White House has said it's up to McCarthy and the House Republicans to “fix” the problem they have created, Biden's chief rival in the 2024 election, Donald Trump, is urging the right flank to fight for steep spending cuts. If Republicans don't get what they want, Trump the former president says, they should “shut it down.”

—

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Lolita Baldor, Josh Boak and Colleen Long contributed to this report.

The panel of Food and Drug Administration experts voted 17-1 that drugmaker Brainstorm’s stem cell-based treatment has not been shown effective for patients with the fatal, muscle-wasting disease known as ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. One panel member abstained from voting.

While the FDA is not bound by the vote, it largely aligns with the agency’s own strikingly negative review released earlier this week, in which staff scientists described Brainstorm’s application as “scientifically incomplete” and “grossly deficient.”

"Creating false hope can be considered a moral injury and the use of statistical magic or manipulation to provide false hope is problematic,” said Lisa Lee, a bioethics and research integrity expert from Virginia Tech, who voted against the treatment. The lone positive vote came from a panel member representing patients.

Wednesday's public meeting was essentially a longshot attempt by Brainstorm and the ALS community to sway FDA’s thinking on the treatment, dubbed NurOwn.

Brainstorm’s single 200-patient study failed to show that NurOwn extended life, slowed disease or improved patient mobility. But FDA agreed to convene the panel of outside advisers after ALS patients and advocates submitted a 30,000-signature petition seeking a public meeting.

In the last year, the FDA has approved two new drugs for ALS, after a nearly 20-year drought of new options. The approvals followed intense lobbying by advocacy groups.

FDA leaders have recently emphasized a new level of “regulatory flexibility” when reviewing experimental treatments for fatal, hard-to-treat conditions, including ALS, Alzheimer’s and muscular dystrophy.

But the agency appears unwilling to overlook the failed study results and missing information in Brainstorm’s submission, including key details on manufacturing and quality control needed to establish the product’s safety.

“It really is a disease that needs a safe and effective treatment and there are a lot of other prospects out there that we need to encourage. Approving one like this would get in the way of that,” said Dr. Kenneth Fischbeck of the National Institutes of Health.

ALS destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord needed to walk, talk, swallow and — eventually — breathe. Most people die within three to five years of their first symptoms.

More than a dozen people spoke during a public comment session Wednesday, including ALS patients, their family members and physicians who implored FDA to grant approval. Several speakers presented before-and-after videos showing patients who participated in Brainstorm’s study walking, climbing stairs and performing other tasks that they attributed to NurOwn.

"When Matt is on Nurown it helps him, when he’s off of it he gets worse,” said Mitze Klingenberg, speaking on behalf of her son, Matt Klingenberg, who was diagnosed with ALS in 2018.

The FDA is expected to issue a decision on the therapy by Dec. 8.

Israel-based Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics' stock price has lost more than 90% of its value over the last year, falling to 39 cents per share before being halted ahead of Wednesday's FDA meeting.

___

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

The ritual known as ruqyah had been done countless times on the boy. But this time was different. It ended with the child foaming from the mouth until he stopped breathing.

There were no calls to 911 or attempts to rush him to the nearest hospital. Nor was he given any medication that December day in 2017 at a remote desert encampment in northern New Mexico.

Details about the last moments of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj's life were laid out in testimony Wednesday in a trial that centers on accusations of kidnapping and terrorism. The boy's father and three other family members, including two of his aunts, were charged following an August 2018 raid of a squalid compound near the Colorado state line as authorities searched for the 3-year-old boy, who had been taken from Georgia without his mother's permission.

The defendants were living with their 11 hungry children. There was no running water at the encampment, which was encircled by berms of tires with an adjacent shooting range where guns and ammunition were seized.

Prosecutors presented evidence Wednesday that Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his partner Jany Leveille, a Haitian national, took Abdul-Ghani to resettle in New Mexico, where they performed prayer rituals on the boy and the other children. Leveille was initially charged with kidnapping and terrorism-related charges, but she agreed to accept a reduced sentence on weapons charges. She has not appeared at the trial.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, along with his sisters Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj, and the latter’s husband, Lucas Morton, were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, among other counts. Morton and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj were also charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. government personnel.

No one was charged in the boy’s death because the body was too badly decomposed to determine how he died. His body was initially wrapped in plastic and placed under one of the beds in the trailer where the family was living. The body was brought out daily so it could be washed, until the remains were eventually placed in a tunnel on the property.

Leveille's son, who was 13 at the time, was asked by prosecutors about the moments before the boy died, the family's journey to New Mexico and the prophecy that his mother had relayed to the group — that the boy would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and an army they hoped to recruit would rid the world of nonbelievers.

The teen said his role was to memorize the Quran and teach it to others, while Siraj Ibn Wahhaj's role was to train the army.

The teen described the firearms and tactical training he and his older brother participated in at the makeshift shooting range. Fearing that they were being surveilled by federal authorities, the group spent months out of sight under a tarp, in a camper trailer and underground in tunnels they had dug. They used a bucket for the bathroom, and Morton was able to get food from a food bank miles away.

The teen, who now lives with an aunt and cousins in New York, testified that life at the compound was “terrible.”

“I was stuck in a hole that I couldn't get out of,” he said.

The teen spent more than three hours on the stand, with defense attorneys scheduled to question him Thursday. Two other children who lived at the compound also were expected to testify.

Defense attorneys for Wahhaj's sisters have argued that the terrorism charges are largely based on a fantastical diary written by Leveille about her belief that Abdul-Ghani would be resurrected and that the family's efforts to secure basic shelter in a harsh, remote environment were being misrepresented by prosecutors.

Prosecutors showed numerous photos of the compound and videos of some of the firearm exercises while Leveille's son was on the stand. The teen testified that the group had to stay hidden because Abdul-Ghani had been reported missing.

Early on, authorities who were searching for the boy had visited the home where they were staying in Georgia. The teen said it was soon after that his mother, stepfather and the others gathered a few belongings and began the caravan to New Mexico, where Morton owned land.

The teen said his mother had received a message from Allah that they had to move quickly. The teen was told to pack seven outfits. He also took his game console. Everything else was left behind.

A prosecutor asked about the mood the night they left Georgia.

“It felt dark and rushed and surreal,” the teen testified.

The House Rules Committee convened a last-minute meeting to remove the funding for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative — which is intended for training Ukrainian soldiers and purchasing weapons — from the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The panel approved it to move as a stand-alone bill. 

The party-line vote to remove the funding from the bill was a transparent move to get enough support for the spending measure to pass in the slim House GOP majority amid opposition to funding Ukraine. Republicans can spare just a handful of votes, since all Democrats are expected to oppose the bill’s final passage.

“For many members and for their constituents, a vote on funding for Ukraine as part of the ongoing war is a matter of conscience. Shifting these funds out of the appropriations process will allow those for whom this is a question of conscience to vote to support our troops while also allowing all members to vote on providing funding for Ukraine,” House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in the emergency hearing. 

“There are some people who can’t in good conscience take a vote for the [Defense Department] approps bill if it includes money for a war that they are morally opposed to,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said in the Rules Committee hearing, adding: “They want to be able to fund our soldiers without sending money to Ukraine.”

Removal of the funds represents a major flip-flop-flip for GOP leadership.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters Friday that he would strip the Ukraine funding from the spending bill after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) voted against advancing the legislation due to its provisions on Ukraine funding, publicly venting her frustrations about the money not being stripped. 

But the next day, McCarthy backtracked and said the Ukraine aid would remain in the bill after recognizing that another appropriations bill moving this week — funding the State Department and foreign operations — would also include money for Ukraine, and that it would be more difficult to strip from that measure. That led to Greene to being the lone GOP against advancing a package containing the two bills.

And earlier Wednesday, the House had overwhelmingly rejected an amendment from Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) to strip that very same $300 million in Ukraine funding, with 117 House Republicans joining with Democrats to reject it.

The series of events drew criticism from Democrats.

“Why go through this Kabuki theater of having an amendment vote on the floor and forcing the House to vote on something, when you know full well that if you’re going to lose that vote, you’ve still got the Rules Committee and the Speaker as a backstop, because you know he’ll capitulate to whatever demand you make?” Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said in the hearing.

“Mr. Chairman, I have to be honest with you: This is kind of an absurd meeting,” House Rules Committee Ranking Member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in the Wednesday evening meeting.

“To say that this place is a clown show under Republican control is doing a disservice to actual clowns,” McGovern later added. 

The funds are separate from the $24 billion supplemental funding that the White House has requested for Ukraine as it fights a Russian invasion.

Any House-passed defense spending bill will have to be adjusted and agreed to by the Senate in order to become law.

Left unanswered were questions of why North Korea — which has tense relations with Washington over the North's nuclear program, support for Russia's war in Ukraine and other issues — had agreed to turn him over and why the soldier had fled in the first place.

North Korea had abruptly announced earlier Wednesday that it would expel Pvt. Travis King — though some had expected the North to drag out his detention in hopes of squeezing concessions from Washington at a time of high tensions between the two countries.

"U.S. officials have secured the return of Private Travis King from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. “We appreciate the dedication of the interagency team that has worked tirelessly out of concern for Private King’s wellbeing."

Officials said they did not know exactly why North Korea decided to expel King, but suspected Pyongyang determined that as a low-ranking serviceman he had no real value in terms of either leverage or information. One official, who was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity, said the North Koreans may have decided that King, 23, was more trouble to keep than to simply release him.

Swedish officials took King to the Chinese border, where he was met by the U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns, the Swedish ambassador to China, and at least one U.S. Defense Department official. Biden administration officials insisted they provided no concessions to North Korea to secure the soldier's release.

“We thank the government of Sweden for its diplomatic role serving as the protecting power for the United States in the DPRK and the government of the People’s Republic of China for its assistance in facilitating the transit of Private King,” Sullivan added.

King was flown to a U.S. military base in South Korea before being returned to the U.S.

His expulsion almost certainly does not end his troubles or ensure the sort of celebratory homecoming that has accompanied the releases of other detained Americans. He has been declared AWOL from the Army, which can mean punishment military jail, forfeiture of pay or a dishonorable discharge.

In the near term, officials said that their focus would be on helping King reintegrate into U.S. society, including helping him address mental and emotional concerns, according to a senior Biden administration officials who briefed reporters on the transfer.

The soldier was in “good spirits and good health” upon his release, according to one senior administration official. He was to be taken to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and was expected to arrive overnight, officials said.

King, who had served in South Korea, ran into North Korea while on a civilian tour of a border village on July 18, becoming the first American confirmed to be detained in the North in nearly five years.

At the time he crossed the border, King was supposed to be heading to Fort Bliss, Texas, following his release from prison in South Korea on an assault conviction.

After arriving on the Texas military installation, King is expected to undergo psychological assessments and debriefings. He will also get a chance to meet with family. King’s legal situation remains complicated because he willingly bolted into enemy hands, so legally he would be in military custody throughout the process.

Sweden was the chief interlocutor with North Korea on the transfer, while China helped facilitate his transfer, administration officials said.

Biden administration officials expressed gratitude for China’s assistance with the transfer but underscored that Beijing did not play a mediating role in securing King's release. The U.S. first learned through Swedish officials earlier this month that North Korea was looking to expel King. That information accelerated the effort to release King with Sweden acting on the United States' behalf in its talks with the North, an official said.

On Wednesday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported that authorities had finished their questioning of King. It said that he confessed to illegally entering the North because he harbored “ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” within the U.S. Army and was “disillusioned about the unequal U.S. society.”

It had attributed similar comments to King before, and verifying their authenticity is impossible. Some previous foreign detainees have said after their releases that declarations of guilt while in North Korean custody were made under coercion.

The White House did not address the North Korean state media reports that King fled because of his dismay about racial discrimination and inequality in the military and U.S. society. One senior administration official said that King was “very happy” to be on his way back to the United States.

In an interview last month with The Associated Press, King’s mother, Claudine Gates, said her son had reason to want to come home. She thanked the U.S. government on Wednesday for securing her son's release.

“Ms. Gates will be forever grateful to the United States Army and all its interagency partners for a job well done," Jonathan Franks, spokesperson for Gates, said in a statement.

King was among about 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea as deterrence against potential aggression from North Korea. U.S. officials had expressed concern about King’s well-being, citing the North’s harsh treatment of some American detainees in the past.

Both Koreas ban anyone from crossing their heavily fortified shared border without special permissions. The Americans who crossed into North Korea in the past include soldiers, missionaries, human rights advocates or those simply curious about one of the world’s most cloistered societies.

While King was officially declared AWOL, the Army considered, but did not declare him a deserter, which is a much more serious offense. In many cases, someone who is AWOL for more than a month can automatically be considered a deserter, which means they intended to leave permanently.

Punishment for going AWOL or desertion can vary, and it depends in part on whether the service member voluntarily returned or was apprehended. King’s turnover by the North Koreans makes that a more complicated determination.

North Korea’s decision to release King after 71 days appears relatively quick by the country’s standards, especially considering the tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the North’s growing nuclear weapons and missile program and the United States' expanding military exercises with South Korea. Some had speculated that North Korea might treat King as a propaganda asset or bargaining chip.

The U.S. has also publicly accused North Korea of providing munitions to Russia for its war with Ukraine and says that Moscow is pushing Pyongyang to provide even more military aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met for talks in Russia's Far East earlier this month.

Biden administration officials on Wednesday downplayed any idea that the release could augur a broader shift by Kim, but reiterated that the U.S. remains ready to engage the North with diplomatic talks.

Captive Americans have been flown to China previously. In other cases, an envoy has been sent to retrieve them.

That happened in 2017 when North Korea deported Otto Warmbier, an American college student who was in a coma at the time of his release and later died.

___

Kim Tong-Hyung reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Eric Tucker contributed from Washington.