The case against a Detroiter accused of fatally stabbing a man who was reportedly his friend has been bound over to Oakland County Circuit Court for possible trial.

At the conclusion of a preliminary exam Tuesday in 46th District Court, Judge Cynthia Arvant ruled there was probable cause to advance the case against Gregory Clark, 66.

Clark is charged with second-degree homicide for the death of 64-year-old Eddie Fisher Clora, who was stabbed in the chest on April 12 in Southfield. Clark had been charged with manslaughter, but the prosecution subsequently amended the charge.

Clora was fatally stabbed during a fight with Clark outside a BP gas station at Eight Mile and Lahser roads, police said. He died at Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital.Clora’s family identified Clark as the assailant based on video evidence, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office — and described the two men as friends. Clark turned himself in four days after the stabbing, the prosecutor’s office said.

Clark is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 6 before Oakland County Circuit Judge Nanci Grant. If convicted, he could face life in prison. For now, he’s in the Oakland County Jail with bond set at $500,000, requiring him to post 10% to be released.

Sheriff: 12-year-old car thief strikes again; mom of alleged accomplice notified detectives after seeing crime posted on Facebook

Accused of sex crimes against young kids, 70-year-old pleads to charges

By MATTHEW PERRONE, AP Health Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration’s polarizing vaccine chief is leaving the agency after a brief tenure that drew the ire of biotech executives, patient groups and conservative allies of President Donald Trump.

Dr. Vinay Prasad “did not want to be a distraction” and was stepping down from his role as the FDA’s top vaccine regulator “to spend more time with his family,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement late Tuesday.

Two people familiar with the situation told The Associated Press that Prasad was ousted following several recent controversies. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal personnel matters. Prasad did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday morning.

Prasad joined the FDA in May after years as an academic researcher at the University of California San Francisco, where he frequently criticized the FDA’s approach to drug approvals and COVID-19 vaccines.

His contrarian approach appeared to match FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who repeatedly praised Prasad’s work and intellect.

But in recent weeks Prasad became a target of right-wing activists, including Laura Loomer, who flagged Prasad’s past statements criticizing Trump and praising liberal independent Senator Bernie Sanders.

“How did this Trump-hating Bernie Bro get into the Trump admin???” Loomer posted on X last week.

Trump previously fired several national security officials a day after Loomer raised concerns about their loyalty.

Prasad also attracted scrutiny for his handling of a recent safety issue surrounding the only approved gene therapy for Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy.

Under his direction, shipments of the therapy were briefly halted after a series of patient deaths, then resumed late Monday following vocal pushback from families of boys with the fatal muscle-wasting disorder.

Prasad has long been skeptical of the therapy and other muscular dystrophy drugs sold by the drugmaker, Sarepta Therapeutics. As an academic, Prasad gained prominence by attacking the FDA for being too lenient in its standards for approving cancer drugs and other new therapies.

That approach is at odds with Trump’s Republican supporters, who generally favor speedier approvals and unfettered access to experimental treatments. During Trump’s first term he signed the “ Right to Try ” law, a largely symbolic piece of legislation that won popular support from conservatives seeking to give dying patients expanded access to unproven drugs.

Prasad’s decision to pause Sarepta’s therapy was criticized last week by a columnist and the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.

Separately, Prasad’s division issued rejection letters this month to three small biotech firms seeking approval for new gene therapies.

Those therapies have been vigorously embraced many of the anti-abortion groups in Trump’s base for their potential to address intractable diseases that sometimes lead parents to terminate pregnancies.

Prasad’s predecessor in the role, Dr. Peter Marks, oversaw a dramatic rise in approvals for new gene therapies, which aim to treat or prevent disease by replacing or modifying a portion of patients’ genetic code.

Prasad has been an outspoken critic of Marks’ leadership at FDA, which included overseeing the approval of the first COVID vaccines and therapies.

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

Virgin Voyages is hopping on the pop-culture bandwagon of popular podcasts by presenting its first true crime voyage in partnership with iHeartMedia.

Departing Oct. 10 from Miami on the Valiant Lady, the one-time five-night itinerary sails to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic and Virgin’s Beach Club at Bimini in the Bahamas. The cruise focuses on popular titles including “Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know,” “Betrayal ” and “Buried Bones.”

During the special voyage, guests can experience live podcast recordings of their favorite shows, attend “how to podcast” workshops, find meet-and-greets with top hosts, participate in giveaways and enjoy themed cocktails and bites.

The adults-only cruise line is packaging this as a “culture-driven sales opportunity” for its travel advisors, known as First Mates. Virgin is billing the experience as one that’s ripe for group bookings and people who are new to cruising.

“We designed the True Crime Voyage to tap into something people are already passionate about,” said Nathan Rosenberg, Virgin Voyages’ chief marketing officer and head of sales. “But we built it to make selling simple, profitable and fun because that’s what First Mates deserve.”

Guests can also book this cruise directly through the Virgin Voyages website, where prices start at $1,702 per cabin, double occupancy. The cruise line’s all-inclusive pricing model covers wifi, tips and gratuities, dining at more than 20 eateries, non-alcoholic beverages, fitness classes and entertainment.

The Valiant Lady is one of four Virgin ships, which share the same yacht-inspired design and a similar capacity of approximately 2,700 passengers each.

Find me @PConnPie on Instagram or send me an email: pconnolly@orlandosentinel.com. Stay up to date with our latest travel, arts and events coverage by subscribing to our newsletters at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

During its 20 years of performing and 12 years of releasing music, the AJR has taken pride in not repeating itself often. So it was fitting that the 13,000 or so fans at the Pine Knob Music Theatre saw the sibling trio in a new way on Tuesday night, July 29.

The basic difference; it was not a trio. Eldest brother Adam Met (nee Metzger) busy promoting a new book, leaving Jack and Ryan — along with accompanists Arnetta Johnson on trumpet and keyboards and Chris Berry on drums — to carry the AJR mantle for the summer’s Somewhere in the Sky Tour. The pair did not mention reference Adam’s absence — which was announced prior to the tour — but did deliver the kind of exuberant, joyful performance that’s become the band’s stock in trade, belying the angst of some of its lyrics and elevating the group from street busking to arenas and amphitheaters over the course of its five studio albums.

And that ascent has been made without radio play and other conventional measures of success. Rather, AJR is emblematic of music, and especially pop’s, new world order of building audience through social media, streaming and direct methods of contact. Shared by the other four acts on Tuesday’s bill — all of whom paid degrees of deference to the headliner — it’s created a deeply personal, boy band/alt.rock connection between AJR and its fans that was on full display throughout the 85-minute show that touched on 19 songs from the group’s catalog, including the new single “Betty” from the upcoming “What No One’s Thinking” EP (out Aug. 29).

Youngest brother Jack, sporting his trademark fur trapper’s cap, and Ryan were as energetic and wired as ever, perhaps moreso to fill any perceived gaps without Adam. The music drove the night, but aided by some clever visuals — such as Jack interacting with three images of himself on the floor-to-ceiling video screening, using high fives to create the beat into “Yes I’m a Mess.” And a step-by-step explanation of how the group wrote “100 Bad Days” was genuinely illuminating, and entertaining.

At the end of the show, meanwhile, the quartet yielded the stage to a video percussion duel on the screen, which in turn ushered the Walled Lake marching band down the pavilion aisles to join AJR for an encore rendition of “Weak.”

Sometimes the schtick was done to a fault, however. Orchestrating a pre-crowd singalong to a-ha’s “Take on Me” or John Denver’s “Country Roads” or Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go” or Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” would have been fine; all four, in their entireties, was overkill. Similarly, a mid-set comic pause would have been fine if it was only Ryan taking a squid-shaped hat from a fan OR Jack having a Pi-reciting contest with another, named Skylar; both, back-to-back, felt labored and not nearly as intriguing as another song would have been.

But there was no shortage of musical highlights, which included favorites such as the opening “Way Less Sad,” “Karma,” “The Good Part,” a “Burn the House Down” that lived up to its name and “Bang!” Ryan’s solo rendition of “Inertia” gave his bandmates time to slip into the back of the pavilion for “World’s Smallest Violin” and “Wow, I’m Not Crazy,” and a six-minute medley featured five seldom-played songs, including “I’m Ready” for the first time in eight years, according to Jack.

AJR has, in many ways, reached the “best years” the group pines for in “The Good Part,” but with a sense that things may get even better. On Tuesday, however, they were just fine in the present.

One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck Russia’s Far East early Wednesday, causing tsunami waves to wash ashore in Japan and Alaska and calls for people around the Pacific to be on alert or move to higher ground.

The 8.8 magnitude temblor set off warnings in Hawaii, North and Central America and Pacific islands south toward New Zealand, with officials warning that the potential tsunami danger may last for more than a day.

Here’s a glance at some of the most powerful earthquakes recorded previously, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

1. Biobío, Chile

A 9.5 magnitude earthquake struck in a central region of Chile in 1960. Known as the Valdivia earthquake or Great Chilean earthquake, the largest ever recorded temblor resulted in more than 1,600 deaths in the country and beyond, most of which were caused by resulting large tsunami. Thousands of people were injured.

2. Alaska

In 1964, a 9.2 magnitude earthquake jolted the Alaska’s Prince William Sound, lasting for almost 5 minutes. More than 130 people were killed in the largest recorded earthquake in the U.S. and subsequent tsunami. There were huge landslides and towering waves that caused severe flooding. The event was followed by thousands of aftershocks for weeks after the initial quake.

3. Sumatra, Indonesia

A 9.1 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated Southeast and South Asia and East Africa in 2004, killing 230,000 people. Indonesia alone recorded more than 167,000 deaths as entire communities were wiped out.

4. Tohoku, Japan

A magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck off the coast of northeastern Japan in 2011, triggering a towering tsunami that smashed into the Fukushima nuclear plant. It knocked out power and cooling systems and triggered meltdowns in three reactors. More than 18,000 people were killed in the quake and tsunami, some of whom have never been recovered.

5. Kamchatka, Russia

In 1952, a magnitude 9.0 quake caused significant damage but no reported deaths despite a tsunami that hit Hawaii with 9.1-meter (30-foot) waves.

6. Biobío, Chile

A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit central Chile in 2010, shaking the capital for a minute and half and setting off a tsunami. More than 500 people were killed in the disaster.

7. Esmeraldas, Ecuador

In 1906, an 8.8 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami killed about 1,500 people. Its effects were felt for miles along the Central American coast and as far as San Francisco and Japan.

8. Alaska

In 1965, a magnitude 8.7 quake struck Alaska’s Rat Islands, causing an 11-meter (35-foot) -high tsunami. There was some relatively minor damage, including cracks in buildings and an asphalt runway.

9. Tibet

At least 780 people were killed when a magnitude 8.6 earthquake struck in 1950. Dozens of villages were destroyed, including at least one that slid into a river. There were also major landslides that jammed the Subansiri River in India. When the water eventually broke through, it resulted in a deadly 7-meter (23-foot) wave.

10. Sumatra, Indonesia

In 2012, a powerful 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of northern Sumatra in Indonesia. Though the quake caused little damage, it increased pressure on a fault that was the source of the devastating 2004 tsunami.

Tsunami warnings fading after one of the largest earthquakes ever recorded. Here’s what to know

By DANICA KIRKA and AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press

HONOLULU (AP) — One of this century’s most powerful earthquakes struck off the coast of Russia and generated tsunami warnings and advisories for a broad section of the Pacific, including Alaska, Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast and as far south as New Zealand. Warnings are being downgraded in most areas, though advisories remain in place as more aftershocks are possible. Chile upgraded its tsunami warning to the highest level for most of its 4,000-mile Pacific coastline.

The quake registered a magnitude of 8.8 and was centered off the coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck early Wednesday local time, which was still Tuesday in the U.S.

Here’s what to know:

What a tsunami is

Tsunamis are waves triggered by earthquakes, underwater volcanic eruptions and submarine landslides. After an underwater earthquake, the seafloor rises and drops, which lifts water up and down. The energy from this transfers to waves.

Many people think of tsunamis as one wave. But they are typically multiple waves that rush ashore like a fast-rising tide.

“Tsunamis cross the ocean at hundreds of miles an hour — as fast as a jet airplane — in deep water,” said Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator with the National Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska. “But when they get close to the shore, they slow down and start to pile up.”

It could take minutes for waves to hit land next to the site of a major quake. It could take hours for tsunamis to cross the Pacific Ocean. The speed of tsunami waves also depends on ocean depth. They travel faster over deep water and slow down in shallow water.

People were urged to stay away from coastlines until any wave surges passed in places as far away as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Federated States of Micronesia and Solomon Islands.

Some tsunamis are small and don’t cause damage. Others can cause massive destruction. In 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off Indonesia caused waves that leveled remote villages, ports and tourist resorts along the Indian Ocean across Southeast and South Asia. Some 230,000 people died. A 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami ravaged parts of Japan’s northeastern coast on March 11, 2011, killing about 20,000 people and triggering a nuclear meltdown.

The power of this quake

The 8.8-magnitude quake was among the four strongest earthquakes this century, according to the USGS.

It was also the sixth-biggest quake ever recorded, said Simon Boxall, a principal teaching fellow at the University of Southampton’s Physical Oceanography Research Center.

The regional branch of Russia’s Emergency Ministry on Kamchatka warned that scientists expect aftershocks at magnitudes of up to 7.5.

The earthquake occurred along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the ring of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where more than 80% of the world’s largest quakes occur. Several tectonic plates meet there. The ring gets its name from the volcanoes that surround it.

While not all earthquakes lead to tsunamis, this one generated a series of them spreading outward from the epicenter off the coast of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

“It’s a bit like throwing a very, very large rock into the sea and then watching the waves propagate away from that rock, that splash,’’ Boxall said. “And so that’s what’s happened in this case. And that’s why this particular one has generated a tsunami. It’s not huge. It’s not one that’s going to cause mass devastation. But it will cause coastal flooding and it will cause damage, and it does put lives at risk if people don’t move to high ground.’’

The effects of this earthquake so far

A tsunami height of 10 to 13 feet was recorded in Kamchatka, while tsunami waves about 2 to 5 feet high reached San Francisco early Wednesday, officials said. Other areas have seen smaller waves.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said initial reports showed there had been no safety impact on nuclear power plants along Japan’s Pacific coast. Damage and evacuations were reported in the Russian regions nearest the quake’s epicenter, and officials declared a state of emergency in several areas. Several people were injured, but none gravely, and no major damage has been reported.

Additional aftershocks are possible, putting the entire Pacific Rim on tsunami watch. A tsunami warning remained in effect for parts of the northern California coast.

Much of the Pacific coast of North America, spanning from British Columbia in Canada to down the U.S. West Coast and into Mexico was under a tsunami advisory.

How tsunami warnings are issued

In Hawaii, emergency authorities blast alerts to people’s cellphones, on TV and radio and sound a network of sirens. In Alaska, some communities have sirens, and information is available on weather radio or public radio broadcasts.

In the U.S., the National Weather Service has different levels of alerts:

• A warning means a tsunami that may cause widespread flooding is expected or occurring. Evacuation is recommended and people should move to high ground or inland.
• An advisory means a tsunami with potential for strong currents or dangerous waves is expected or occurring and people should stay out of the water and away from beaches and waterways.
• A watch means that a tsunami is possible and to be prepared.

Kirka reported from London.

Some facts about the strongest earthquakes ever recorded

An Oakland County man went into shock when he realized he’d won a $2 million Michigan lottery prize

The 34-year-old chose to remain anonymous but told state lottery officials his “go-to” game is
Colossal Cashword. He bought his $30 ticket at USA 2 GO Quick Store, 8355 Grand River Road in Brighton.

He chose to receive his prize as a one-time lump sum payment of about $1.3 million instead of annual payments for the full amount. He told lottery officials he plans to pay off student loans and buy a new car.

“I scratched the ticket right after I bought it and was excited when I got nine words,” he told lottery officials. “When I got the 10th word for a $2 million prize, I was in total shock. Winning is such a great feeling!”

Lottery Commissioner Suzanna Shkreli congratulated the player and said the scratch-and-win experience is the dream of many lottery players.

More than $21 million in prizes remain in the Colossal Cashword game, including five $10,000 prizes, and 37 $5,000 prizes.

People with gambling addictions and their loved ones can receive free confidential help via the National Problem Gambling Helpline, (800) GAMBLER or (800) 426-2537.

Learn more about the Michigan Lottery online: https://news.michiganlottery.com/media.

How beautiful is your local college campus?

Travel + Leisure shared their list of the “30 Most Beautiful College Campuses in the U.S.”

Which college was ranked the prettiest of them all? The honor went to Stanford University in California, according to Travel + Leisure:

“The entryway to Stanford is arguably the grandest of any beautiful college campus. A mile-long palm-lined drive leads up to the expansive green oval Main Quad, surrounded by red-roofed buildings and the school’s architectural crown jewel, Memorial Church with its striking mosaic façade. Beauty continues at the Cantor Arts Center, which has 170 bronzes by Auguste Rodin, one of the largest collections outside of Paris. Take in the view of the 8,180-acre campus and the surrounding area—including the San Francisco skyline on a clear day—from the Hoover Tower observation platform.”

Other noted locations include New York’s Bard College, Texas’ Rice University, and more.

Ranking 15th overall, Yale University in Connecticut beat out other colleges like Duke, Wellesley College and The College of William & Mary, according to Travel + Leisure.

“While some campuses cling to their past, Yale embraces changing architectural movements,” according to Travel + Leisure. “The buildings span from the Georgian-style red-brick Connecticut Hall (whose construction predates the Revolutionary War) to the postmodern Ingalls Rink by Eero Saarinen.

“There’s also the School of Management’s Edward P. Evans Hall, a Norman Foster project completed in 2014. Duck inside the wondrous Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, which houses volumes in a six-story glass-enclosed tower, set against translucent grained Vermont marble panels. The most impressive items in the collection are an original Gutenberg Bible and a 12th-century book of Buddhist prayers.”

Find the full list of campuses to make the list here, courtesy of Travel + Leisure.

By Fiona Rutherford and Micah Barkley, Bloomberg News

Nonalcoholic beer needs a second act.

The category boomed in recent years as the likes of Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken NV and Diageo Plc poured in money. But after those gains made it one of brewing’s few bright spots, it’s still just 2% of the global beer market’s volume, according to IWSR.

And now growth rates are slowing. After a surge late last decade and another jump in 2021, recent increases have settled into the single digits. IWSR now projects annual gains of about 8% through 2029. That would only boost its market share to a little less than 3%.

The push into nonalcoholic beer is a reminder of how much the industry is struggling. Craft beer peaked. The hard seltzer boom fizzled. Younger adults are going out less. Legalized cannabis is replacing six packs. Weight-loss drugs are a threat. Global beer volume has declined the past two years. Meanwhile, stocks of the world’s big brewers haven’t returned to their pre-pandemic levels.

“They have no choice but to get into alcohol free,” said Kenneth Shea, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. It’s one of the few remaining growth levers for large brewers as they adapt to changing consumer habits, he said.

Brewing has consolidated about as far as it can, with the five biggest companies controlling more than half the global market. Investors are looking for organic growth, and that’s why nonalcoholic beer has become the sector’s latest shiny object. But at this point it’s far from a panacea. IWSR projects that global beer volumes will be flat over the next five years, even with the growth in nonalcoholic brews.

The first phase of nonalcoholic beer’s expansion came from startups that focused on it. Firms such as Athletic Brewing Co. pushed the category toward craft brewing with tastier styles like IPA. They marketed around wellness, moderation and active lifestyles.

Breweries are now trying to broaden nonalcoholic beer’s appeal to win over more habitual beer drinkers. There’s been a shift in marketing. Nonalcoholic beer ads used to lean heavily on responsibility and reducing alcohol consumption. Heineken 0.0 ran a spot featuring Formula 1 superstar Max Verstappen promoting designated driving.

Now brands pitch nonalcoholic beer as a casual, anytime drink. Heineken’s newer “0.0 Reasons Needed” campaign encourages people to drink it whenever they want, with no explanation required. The marketing is part of the brewer’s push to reduce the stigma around nonalcoholic beer. One survey Heineken cited showed that about 40% of Gen Z men would only consider such options if their friends did.

Guinness emphasizes how closely its nonalcoholic version matches the original and brought in NFL legend Joe Montana to promote the brand.

AB InBev, the world’s largest brewer, turned Michelob Ultra into its best-selling beer in the US by pitching it as a lower calorie option for sporty types. It announced a nonalcoholic version — Michelob Ultra Zero — in September. A commercial features young adults taking a break from beach volleyball to crack one open and then running back to play as the voiceover states: “Stay in the game.”

Heineken 0.0, which in 2023 became the first nonalcoholic beer to air a Super Bowl ad, is now one of the five most-seen beer or seltzer brands on US television, according to researcher iSpot. It’s offered in more than 100 countries and grew more than 10% last year.

The spending on US advertising has helped grow nonalcoholic beer more than other markets. IWSR expects US nonalcoholic volume to gain 16% a year over the next decade.

Mark Ruf, a longtime beer drinker, has been won over. The 31-year-old from Columbus, Ohio, now drinks a nonalcoholic beer for every regular one — a practice that’s been dubbed zebra striping — to cut back on his booze consumption when he’s at home or out with friends. He got so into the category that he started a blog and nonalcoholic beer subscription service.

“I still hate to put an end to a good time,” Ruf said. “But I start mixing it in with NA beer, so I’m not regretting it the next day.”

Nonalcoholic beer used to be a category dominated by options such as O’Doul’s, owned by AB InBev, and similar legacy brands. These brews often struggled to win fans because the process of getting rid of the alcohol included heating up the beer, which muted flavors.

Brewers have been investing in new techniques to improve taste. At AB InBev’s research center in Belgium, scientists have spent more than a decade refining nonalcoholic brewing. The company now removes the alcohol using low-temperature methods, then adds back key aromas to preserve more of the original flavor and smell.

“It is really an art, and it is also a science,” said David De Schutter, AB InBev’s vice president of global innovation.

AB InBev has also launched alcohol-free versions of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona. In May, Chief Executive Officer Michel Doukeris told investors that its nonalcoholic portfolio was growing more than 30%. Corona Cero was the first ever beer sponsor of the Olympics at last year’s games in Paris.

Diageo has invested more than 60 million euros (about $70 million) in Guinness 0 production since the product launched globally in 2021. In the US, Guinness 0 made up more than half of the Guinness brand’s growth last year, the company said. And there’s been little cannibalization, with just 2% consumer overlap between Guinness 0 and the brand’s traditional beers.

All that focus has led to consumers now expecting nonalcoholic beer to taste good, according to Laura Merritt, president of beer and pre-mix at Diageo North America.

“It’s not like 10 years ago, where you just had to take what you got,” Merritt said of NA beer’s lack of choices. “The standards for great nonalcoholic beverages are the same high standard for great alcoholic beverages.”

But meeting standards doesn’t mean more and more people will convert to beer with the alcohol removed. There are many examples of food and beverages that initially do well by offering moderation and less harm. The question is whether nonalcoholic beer will recede the same as plant-based meat or become a sustainable category like diet soda.

©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has acknowledged that President Donald Trump now meets with candidates for promotion to the rank of four-star general, in a break with past practice.

A White House spokesperson said the Republican president has the meetings because he wants to make sure the U.S. military retains its superiority and its leaders focus on fighting wars.

“President Trump wants to ensure our military is the greatest and most lethal fighting force in history, which is why he meets with four-star-general nominees directly to ensure they are war fighters first — not bureaucrats,” assistant press secretary Anna Kelly said.

The meetings, however, are a departure from past practice, and knowledge of them has raised concerns about politicization of the military’s top ranks. Trump has not always respected the long-standing tradition of walling off the military from partisan politics.

In June, Trump took the rare step of mobilizing the National Guard and then the Marines, sending hundreds of them into Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat with whom the president has feuded politically.

Trump followed up with a campaign-style rally at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where uniformed soldiers cheered as he criticized former President Joe Biden, Newsom and other Democrats — raising concerns that Trump was using the military as a political prop.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an Army veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the meetings “very welcome reform.”

“I’ve long advocated for presidents to meet with 4-star nominees. President Trump’s most important responsibility is commander-in-chief,” Cotton wrote in a post on X. “The military-service chiefs and combatant commanders are hugely consequential jobs” and “I commend President Trump and Secretary Hegseth for treating these jobs with the seriousness they deserve.”

The New York Times, which first reported on the practice, said it had been initiated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Rochester police will soon have new cameras for officers and road patrol vehicles.

The city council unanimously approved a five-year, $345,363 contract with Axon Enterprises based in Scottsdale, AZ, for 20 bodycams and 10 in-car cameras, all of which have livestreaming capabilities.

Police Chief George Rouhib said the department has been using Watchguard bodycams but Axon’s cameras had advanced features.

In addition to better-quality images, the cameras include license-plate readers, an AI assistant, and redaction software. The contract includes a supplemental language translator which helps with up to 50 languages, he said.

More than three dozen languages are spoken by Oakland County’s residents who speak English as a second language, according to the U.S. Census.

“When the individual speaks into the camera, the software will identify the language and translate it into English and vice versa,” he said. “The software will also store our department policies, allowing officers to access critical information easily while in the field, ensuring compliance and informed decision making.”

He said the current cameras are out of warranty and cannot be repaired. The new equipment, he said, will be good for an estimated five years.

The in-cruiser cameras can also read license plates and alert officers to stolen cars.

All road patrol vehicles will have cameras, he said.

The city adopted bodycams in 2021 as a way to improve evidence collection and document police officers’ actions.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, AP Education Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is pressing for a deal with Harvard University that would require the Ivy League school to pay far more than the $200 million fine agreed to by Columbia University to resolve multiple federal investigations, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Harvard would be expected to pay hundreds of millions of dollars as part of any settlement to end investigations into antisemitism at its campus, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Harvard leaders have been negotiating with the White House even as they battle in court to regain access to billions in federal research funding terminated by the Trump administration.

The White House’s desire to get Harvard to pay far more than Columbia was first reported by The New York Times, which said the school has signaled a willingness to pay as much as $500 million.

Harvard did not immediately comment.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as a staple for future agreements. Last week, Columbia leaders agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

Columbia had been in talks for months after the Trump administration accused the university of allowing the harassment of Jewish students and employees amid a wave of campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war. Harvard faces similar accusations but, unlike Columbia, the Cambridge, Massachusetts, school challenged the administration’s funding cuts and subsequent sanctions in court.

Last week, President Donald Trump said Harvard “wants to settle” but he said Columbia “handled it better.”

The Trump administration’s emphasis on financial penalties adds a new dimension for colleges facing federal scrutiny. In the past, civil rights investigations by the Education Department almost always ended with voluntary agreements and rarely included fines.

Even when the government has levied fines, they’ve been a small fraction of the scale Trump is seeking. Last year, the Education Department fined Liberty University $14 million after finding the Christian school failed to disclose crimes on its campus. It was the most the government had ever fined a university under the Clery Act, following a $4.5 million fine dealt to Michigan State University in 2019 for its handling of sexual assault complaints against disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar.

The University of Pennsylvania agreed this month to modify school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, but that school’s deal with the Trump administration included no fine.

The Trump administration has opened investigations at dozens of universities over allegations of antisemitism or racial discrimination in the form of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Several face funding freezes akin to those at Harvard, including more than $1 billion at Cornell University and $790 million at Northwestern University.

Last week, Education Secretary Linda McMahon called the Columbia deal a “roadmap” for other colleges, saying it would “ripple across the higher education sector and change the course of campus culture for years to come.”

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, is open to answering questions from Congress — but only if she is granted immunity from future prosecution for her testimony, her lawyers said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the committee that wants to interview her responded with a terse statement saying it would not consider offering her immunity.

Maxwell’s lawyers also asked that they be provided with any questions in advance and that any interview with her be scheduled after her petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to take up her case has been resolved.

The conditions were laid out in a letter sent by Maxwell’s attorneys to Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee who last week issued a subpoena for her deposition at the Florida prison where she is serving a 20-year-prison sentence on a conviction of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse underage girls.

The request to interview her is part of a frenzied, renewed interest in the Epstein saga following the Justice Department’s July statement that it would not be releasing any additional records from the investigation, an abrupt announcement that stunned online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of President Donald Trump’s base who had been hoping to find proof of a government coverup.

Since then, the Trump administration has sought to present itself as promoting transparency, with the department urging courts to unseal grand jury transcripts from the sex-trafficking investigation and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewing Maxwell over the course of two days at a Florida courthouse last week.

In a letter Tuesday, Maxwell’s attorneys said that though their initial instinct was for Maxwell to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, they are open to having her cooperate provided that lawmakers satisfy their request for immunity and other conditions.

But the Oversight Committee seemed to reject that offer outright.

“The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell’s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,” a spokesperson said.

Separately, Maxwell’s attorneys have urged the Supreme Court to review her conviction, saying she dd not receive a fair trial. They also say that one way she would testify “openly and honestly, in public,” is in the event of a pardon by Trump, who has told reporters that such a move is within his rights but that he has not been not asked to make it.

“She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning,” he said.

A 70-year-old man accused of sexually abusing two children in his family has opted out of trial with a plea in Oakland County Circuit Court.

At a pretrial hearing July 28, Southfield resident Lawrence Edward Miles pleaded no contest three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting a boy and girl — both under 10 years old. According to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, the charges stem from a series of assaults that occurred in 2024 and 2025.

A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is treated as such for sentencing purposes. It can also offer some liability protection in civil cases.

Miles is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 16 by Judge Daniel O’Brien. He faces up to life in prison for first-degree CSC, with a mandatory minimum of 25 years behind bars. Second-degree criminal sexual conduct carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison. Both convictions require lifetime electronic monitoring upon parole and AIDS/STD testing.

Miles is in the Oakland County Jail, denied bond.

3rd suspect in Oakland County purse-snatchings faces criminal charges

Fundraiser underway to support family of woman run over by truck outside Holly business

Prosecutor: Alleged human trafficker facing charges after victim escapes

By EDDIE PELLS, AP National Writer

In its push to remove transgender athletes from Olympic sports, the Trump administration provided the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee a detailed legal brief on how such a move would not conflict with the Ted Stevens Act, the landmark 1978 federal statute governing the Olympic movement.

That gave the USOPC the cover it needed to quietly change its policy, though the protection offers no guarantee the new policy won’t be challenged in court.

Olympic legal expert Jill Pilgrim called the Trump guidance “a well thought-out, well-reasoned set of arguments for people who want to look at it from that perspective.”

“But I’d be pretty shocked if this doesn’t get challenged if there is, somewhere along the line, a trans athlete who’s in contention for an Olympic team or world championship and gets excluded,” said Pilgrim, who has experience litigating eligibility rules for the Olympics and is a former general counsel for USA Track and Field.

The USOPC’s update of its athlete safety policy orders its 54 national governing bodies to rewrite their participation rules to ensure they are in sync with the executive order Trump signed in February called “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

When the USOPC released the guidance, fewer than five had rules that would adhere to the new policy.

Among the first adopters was USA Fencing, which was pulled into a congressional hearing earlier this year about transgender women in sports when a woman refused to compete against a transgender opponent at a meet in Maryland.

One of the main concerns over the USOPC’s change is that rewriting the rules could conflict with a clause in the Ted Stevens Act stating that an NGB cannot have eligibility criteria “that are more restrictive than those of the appropriate international sports federation” that oversees its sport.

While some American federations such as USATF and USA Swimming follow rules set by their international counterparts, many others don’t. International federations have wrestled with eligibility criteria surrounding transgender sports, and not all have guidelines as strict as what Trump’s order calls for.

World Rowing, for example, has guidelines that call for specific medical conditions to be met for transgender athletes competing in the female category. Other federations, such as the one for skiing, are more vague.

White House lawyers provided the USOPC a seven-paragraph analysis that concluded that requiring “men’s participation in women’s sports cannot be squared with the rest of the” Ted Stevens Act.

“And in any event, permitting male athletes to compete against only other fellow males is not a ‘restriction’ on participation or eligibility, it is instead, a neutral channeling rule,” according to the analysis, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

Once the sports federations come into compliance, the question then becomes whether the new policy will be challenged, either by individual athletes or by states whose laws don’t conform with what the NGBs adopt. The guidance impacts everyone from Olympic-level athletes to grassroots players whose clubs are affiliated with the NGBs.

Shannon Minter, the legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, said it will not be hard to find a transgender athlete who is being harmed by the USOPC change, and that the White House guidance “will be challenged and is highly unlikely to succeed.”

“There are transgender women. There are some international sporting organizations that have policies that permit transgender women to compete if they meet certain medical conditions,” Minter said. “Under the Ted Stevens Act, they can’t override that. So, their response is just to, by brute force, pretend there’s no such thing as a transgender woman. They can’t just dictate that by sheer force of will.”

Traditionally, athletes on the Olympic pathway who have issues with eligibility rules must first try to resolve those through what’s called a Section IX arbitration case before heading to the U.S. court system. Pilgrim spelled out one scenario in which an athlete wins an arbitration “and then the USOPC has a problem.”

“Then, it’s in the USOPC’s court to deny that person the opportunity to compete, and then they’ll be in court, no doubt about that,” she said.

All this comes against the backdrop of a 2020 law that passed that, in the wake of sex scandals in Olympic sports, gave Congress the power to dissolve the USOPC board.

That, combined with the upcoming Summer Games in Los Angeles and the president’s consistent effort to place his stamp on issues surrounding sports, is widely viewed as driving the USOPC’s traditionally cautious board toward making a decision that was being roundly criticized in some circles. The committee’s new policy replaces one that called for reliance on “real data and science-based evidence rather than ideology” to make decisions about transgender athletes in sports.

“As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations,” CEO Sarah Hirshland and board chair Gene Sykes wrote to Olympic stakeholders last week. “The guidance we’ve received aligns with the Ted Stevens Act, reinforcing our mandated responsibility to promote athlete safety and competitive fairness.”

The USOPC didn’t set a timeline on NGBs coming into compliance, though it’s believed most will get there by the end of the year.

CHICAGO — Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn’t want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn’t going to be him.

Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses.

He immigrated to Alabama from Korea as a toddler. From the quiet stretches of the South, he dreamed of helping patients in a pressed white coat.

But dreams don’t pay tuition. And with new borrowing limits, Mun’s family can only support one child through school.

“My parents already implied that my older brother is probably going to be the one that gets to go,” Mun said.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill, signed into law earlier this month, imposes strict new caps on federal student loans, capping borrowing for professional schools at $50,000 per year. The measure particularly affects medical students, whose tuition often exceeds $300,000 over four years.

Aspiring physicians like Mun have been thrown into financial uncertainty. Many members of the medical community say the measures will send shock waves through a system already laden with economic barriers, discouraging low-income students from pursuing a medical degree.

“It might mean there are people who want to be doctors that can’t be doctors because they can’t afford it,” said Dr. Richard Anderson, president of the Illinois State Medical Society.

Before the passage of Trump’s budget bill, the Grad PLUS loan program allowed graduate students to borrow their institution’s total cost of attendance, including living expenses. The program was slashed as part of a broader overhaul to the federal student loan system.

Now, beginning July 1, 2026, most graduate students will be capped at $20,500 in federal loans per year, with a total limit of $100,000. Students in professional schools, like medical, dental or law school, will face the $50,000 annual cap and a total limit of $200,000.

Mun’s parents work at an automobile assembly plant. Throughout high school, he knew he would have to rely on scholarships and federal loans to pay his way through college.

Mun’s voice faltered. “I’m just trying to remain hopeful,” Mun said.

Also folded into the bill: the elimination of several Biden-era repayment plans, cuts to Pell Grants and limits to the Parent PLUS loans program, which allows parents of dependent undergraduates to borrow.

Proponents of the Republican-backed bill said the curbed borrowing will incentivize medical schools and other graduate programs to lower tuition. The tuition of most Chicago-area medical schools is nearly $300,000 for four years, not including cost-of-living expenses.

Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine has a $465,000 price tag after accounting for those indirect costs, according to the school’s website. Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science trails closely behind at nearly $464,000.

“One of the main concerns about the Grad PLUS program is money that is going to subsidize institutions rather than extending access to students,” said Lesley Turner, an associate professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy.

Still, many medical professionals expressed doubt that schools will adjust their costs in response to the bill. Tuition for both private and public schools has been steadily climbing for decades, up 81% from 2001 after adjusting for inflation, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

There’s some evidence that Grad PLUS may have contributed to those tuition hikes. A study co-authored by Turner in 2023 found that prices increased 65 cents per dollar after the program’s introduction in 2006. There was also little indication that Grad PLUS had fulfilled its intended goal of expanding access to underrepresented students.

But Turner cautioned against the abrupt reversal of the program. After accounting for inflation, the lifetime borrowing limits now placed on graduate students are lower than they were in 2005, she said. Many students may turn to private loans to cover the gap, often at higher interest rates.

More than half of medical students relied on Grad PLUS loans, according to AAMC. The median education debt for indebted medical students is around $200,000, with most repayment plans lasting 10 to 20 years. The median stipend for doctors’ first year post-MD was just $65,100 in 2024.

“I think for many reasons, it would have been reasonable to put some sort of limit on Grad PLUS loans, but I think this is a very blunt way of doing it,” Turner said.

In a high-rise on Northwestern’s downtown campus last week, 20 undergraduate students and alums from local colleges gathered for the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative Fellows program. The eight-week summer intensive offers aspiring medical professionals a deep dive into cancer health disparities information and research. Participants like Mun have been left reeling after the flurry of federal cuts.

Alexis Chappel, a 28-year-old graduate of Northeastern Illinois University, watched a family member struggle with addiction growing up. She was deeply moved by the doctors who supported his recovery, and it inspired her to pursue medicine. But she has no idea how she’ll cover tuition.

“I feel like it’s in God’s hands at this point,” Chappel said. “I just felt like it’s a direct attack on Black and brown students who plan on going to medical school.”

Just 10% of medical students are Black and 12% are Latino, according to AAMC enrollment data. Socioeconomic diversity is also limited: A 2018 analysis found that 24% of students came from the wealthiest 5% of U.S. households.

Dr. Tricia Pendergrast, who graduated from Feinberg in 2023, relied entirely on Grad PLUS loans to fund her medical education. Juggling classes and clinicals, she had little money saved and no steady stream of income. Pendergrast was so strapped for cash that she enrolled in SNAP benefits — a program also cut under Trump’s budget bill.

Now an anesthesiologist at University of Michigan Health, she’s documented her concerns on TikTok for her 48,000 followers.

“It’s not going to improve representation, and it’s not going to improve access,” Pendergrast said. “It’s going to act as a deterrent for people who otherwise would be excellent physicians.”

For low-income students, the application process is already fraught with economic obstacles, Pendergrast said. Metrics like GPA and the Medical College Admissions Test, or MCAT, are heavily weighted in admissions, and may disadvantage students from underresourced schools. Many students also lack mentorships or networks to guide them through the process, she noted.

“I think the average medical student is going to be richer and whiter, and not from rural areas and not from underserved communities,” Pendergrast said.

The elimination of Grad PLUS loans comes amid a mounting nationwide physician shortage. A recent AAMC report predicted a shortfall of 86,000 physicians by 2036. Meanwhile, a significant portion of the workforce is poised to enter retirement: The U.S. population aged 65 and older is expected to grow 34.1% over the next decade.

The shortage is particularly concentrated in primary care. In practice, that means longer waiting times for patients, and an increased caseload on physicians, who may already suffer from burnout.

“If the goal is truly to make America healthy again, then we need to have a strong physician workforce …  We should be coming up with ideas to make it more accessible for people who want to be doctors as opposed to hindering that,” Anderson said.

Sophia Tully, co-president of the Minority Association of Pre-Med Students at Northwestern, said she and her peers have struggled to reconcile with a system that often feels stacked against them. The 21-year-old plans on taking an extra gap year before medical school in an effort to save money.

Tully summed up the environment on campus: “For lack of a better word, people are panicking.”

By MELINA WALLING and MATTHEW DALY

When President Donald Trump rolled out a plan to boost artificial intelligence and data centers, a key goal was wiping away barriers to rapid growth.

And that meant taking aim at the National Environmental Policy Act — a 55-year-old, bedrock law aimed at protecting the environment through a process that requires agencies to consider a project’s possible impacts and allows the public to be heard before a project is approved. Data centers, demanding vast amounts of energy and water, have aroused strong opposition in some communities.

The AI Action Plan Trump announced last week would seek to sweep aside NEPA, as it’s commonly known, to streamline environmental reviews and permitting for data centers and related infrastructure. Republicans and business interests have long criticized NEPA for what they see as unreasonable slowing of development, and Trump’s plan would give “categorical exclusions” to data centers for “maximum efficiency” in permitting.

A spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality said the administration is “focused on driving meaningful NEPA reform to reduce the delays in federal permitting, unleashing the ability for America to strengthen its AI and manufacturing leadership.”

Trump’s administration has been weakening the law for months.

“It’s par for the course for this administration. The attitude is to clear the way for projects that harm communities and the environment,” said Erin Doran, senior staff attorney at environmental nonprofit Food & Water Watch.

Here’s what to know about this key environmental law, and Trump’s effort to weaken it:

What is NEPA and why does it matter?

NEPA is a foundational environmental law in the United States, “essentially our Magna Carta for the environment,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another environmental group, referring to the 13th century English legal text that formed the basis for constitutions worldwide.

Signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1970, NEPA requires federal agencies proposing actions such as building roads, bridges or energy projects to study how their project will affect the environment. Private companies are also frequently subject to NEPA standards when they apply for a permit from a federal agency.

In recent years, the law has become increasingly important in requiring consideration of a project’s possible contributions to climate change.

“That’s a really important function because otherwise we’re just operating with blinders just to get the project done, without considering whether there are alternative solutions that might accomplish the same objective, but in a more environmentally friendly way,” Park said.

But business groups say NEPA routinely blocks important projects that often take five years or more to complete.

“Our broken permitting system has long been a national embarrassment,” said Marty Durbin, president of the U.S. Chamber’s Global Energy Institute. He called NEPA “a blunt and haphazard tool” that too often is used to block investment and economic development.

The White House proposal comes as Congress is working on a permitting reform plan that would overhaul NEPA, addressing long-standing concerns from both parties that development projects — including some for clean energy — take too long to be approved.

What’s happened to NEPA recently?

NEPA’s strength — and usefulness — can depend on how it’s interpreted by different administrations.

Trump, a Republican, sought to weaken NEPA in his first term by limiting when environmental reviews are required and limiting the time for evaluation and public comment. Former Democratic President Joe Biden restored more rigorous reviews.

In his second term, Trump has again targeted the law.

An executive order that touched on environmental statutes has many agencies scrapping the requirement for a draft environmental impact statement. And the CEQ in May withdrew Biden-era guidance that federal agencies should consider the effects of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions when conducting NEPA reviews.

Separately, the U.S. Supreme Court in May narrowed the scope of environmental reviews required for major infrastructure projects. In a ruling involving a Utah railway expansion project aimed at quadrupling oil production, the court said NEPA wasn’t designed “for judges to hamstring new infrastructure and construction projects.”

“It’s been a rough eight months for NEPA,” said Dinah Bear, a former general counsel at the Council on Environmental Quality under both Democratic and Republican presidents.

John Ruple, a research professor of law at the University of Utah, said sidelining NEPA could actually slow things down. Federal agencies still have to comply with other environmental laws, like the Endangered Species Act or Clean Air Act. NEPA has an often overlooked benefit of forcing coordination with those other laws, he said.

Some examples of cases where NEPA has played a role

A botanist by training, Mary O’Brien was working with a small organization in Oregon in the 1980s to propose alternative techniques to successfully replant Douglas fir trees that had been clear-cut on federal lands. Aerially sprayed herbicides aimed at helping the conifers grow have not only been linked to health problems in humans but were also killing another species of tree, red alders, that were beneficial to the fir saplings, O’Brien said.

The U.S. Forest Service had maintained that the herbicides’ impact on humans and red alders wasn’t a problem. But under NEPA, a court required the agency to redo their analysis and they ultimately had to write a new environmental impact statement.

“It’s a fundamental concept: ‘Don’t just roar ahead.’ Think about your options,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien, who later worked at the Grand Canyon Trust, also co-chaired a working group that weighed in on a 2012 Forest Service proposal, finalized in 2016, for aspen restoration on Monroe Mountain in Utah. Hunters, landowners, loggers and ranchers all had different opinions on how the restoration should be handled. She said NEPA’s requirement to get the public involved made for better research and a better plan.

“I think it’s one of the laws that’s the most often used by the public without the public being aware,” said Stephen Schima, senior legislative counsel at environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice. “NEPA has long been the one opportunity for communities and impacted stakeholders and local governments to weigh in.”

Schima said rolling back the power of NEPA threatens the scientific integrity of examining projects’ full impacts.

“Decisions are going to be less informed by scientific studies, and that is one of the major concerns here,” he said.

Ruple said uncertainty from NEPA changes and competing opinions on how to comply with the law’s requirements may invite even more litigation.

“And all of this will fall on the shoulder of agencies that are losing the staff needed to lead them through these changes,” he said.

This story has been updated to correct the date to 2012, not 2018, for a U.S. Forest Service proposal for aspen restoration in Utah.

Follow Melina Walling on X @MelinaWalling and Bluesky @melinawalling.bsky.social.

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and DAVID CRARY

MONTREAL (AP) — Throughout his new term, starting with his inaugural address, President Donald Trump has said he was “saved by God” to make America great again. In Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney rarely evokes religion in public; his victory speech in April never used the word God. “Canada forever. Vive le Canada,” he ended.

As Canada and the U.S. now skirmish over Trump’s tariff threats and occasional bullying, the leaders’ rhetoric reflects a striking difference between their nations. Religion plays a far more subdued role in the public sphere in Canada than in its southern neighbor.

Trump posed in front of a vandalized Episcopal parish house gripping a Bible. He invites pastors to the Oval Office to pray with him. His ally, House Speaker Mike Johnson, says the best way to understand his own world view is to read the Bible.

Such high-level religion-themed displays would be unlikely and almost certainly unpopular in Canada, where Carney — like his recent predecessors — generally avoids public discussion of his faith. (He is a Catholic who supports abortion rights.)

There are broader differences as well. The rate of regular church attendance in Canada is far lower than in the U.S. Evangelical Christians have nowhere near the political clout in Canada that they have south of the border. There is no major campaign in Canada to post the Ten Commandments in public schools or to enact sweeping abortion bans.

Kevin Kee, a professor and former dean at the University of Ottawa, has written about the contrasting religious landscapes of the U.S. and Canada, exploring the rise of American evangelist Billy Graham to become a confidant of numerous U.S. presidents.

Christianity, Kee said, has not permeated modern Canadian politics to that extent.

“We have a political leadership that keeps its religion quiet,” Kee said. “To make that kind of declaration in Canada is to create an us/them situation. There’s no easy way to keep everybody happy, so people keep it quiet.”

A dramatic loss of Catholic power in Quebec

The mostly French-speaking province of Quebec provides a distinctive example of Canada’s tilt toward secularism. The Catholic Church was Quebec’s dominant force through most of its history, with sweeping influence over schools, health care and politics.

That changed dramatically in the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, when the provincial government took control of education and health care as part of a broader campaign to reduce the church’s power. The rate of regular church attendance among Quebec’s Catholics plummeted from one of the highest in Canada to the one of the lowest.

Among religiously devout Canadians, in Quebec and other provinces, some are candid about feeling marginalized in a largely secular country.

“I feel isolated because our traditional Christian views are seen as old-fashioned or not moving with the times,” said Mégane Arès-Dubé, 22, after she and her husband attended a service at a conservative Reformed Baptist church in Saint Jerome, about 30 miles (nearly 50 kilometers) north of Montreal.

“Contrary to the U.S., where Christians are more represented in elected officials, Christians are really not represented in Canada,” she added. “I pray that Canada wakes up.”

The church’s senior pastor, Pascal Denault, has mixed feelings about the Quiet Revolution’s legacy.

“For many aspects of it, that was good,” he said. “Before that, it was mainly the Catholic clergy that controlled many things in the province, so we didn’t have religious freedom.”

Nonetheless, Denault wishes for a more positive public view of religion in Canada.

“Sometimes, secularism becomes a religion in itself, and it wants to shut up any religious speech in the public sphere,” he said. “What we hope for is that the government will recognize that religion is not an enemy to fight, but it’s more a positive force to encourage.”

Denault recently hosted a podcast episode focusing on Trump; he later shared some thoughts about the president.

“We tend to think that Trump is more using Christianity as a tool for his influence, rather than being a genuine Christian,” he said. “But Christians are, I think, appreciative of some of his stances on different things.”

Trump’s religion-related tactics — such as posing with the Bible in his hands — wouldn’t go over well with Canadians, Denault said.

“They’d see that as something wrongful. The public servant should not identify with a specific religion,” Denault said. “I don’t think most Canadians would vote for that type of politician.”

Repurposed church buildings abound in Montreal

In the Montreal neighborhood of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the skyline is dotted with crosses atop steeples, but many of those churches are unused or repurposed.

For decades, factory and port workers worshipped at Saint-Mathias-Apotre Church. Today it’s a restaurant that serves affordable meals daily for more than 600 residents.

The manager of Le Chic Resto Pop, Marc-Andre Simard, grew up Catholic and now, like many of his staff, identifies as religiously unaffiliated. But he still tries to honor some core values of Catholicism at the nonprofit restaurant, which retains the church’s original wooden doors and even its confessional booths.

“There’s still space to be together, to have some sort of communion, but it’s around food, not around faith.” Simard said during a lunch break, sitting near what used to be the altar of the former church.

Simard says the extent to which the Catholic Church controlled so much of public life in Quebec should serve as a cautionary tale for the U.S.

“We went through what the United States are going through right now,” he said.

Elsewhere in Montreal, a building that once housed a Catholic convent now often accommodates meetings of the Quebec Humanist Association.

The group’s co-founder, Michel Virard, said French Canadians “know firsthand what it was to have a clergy nosing in their affairs.”

Now, Virard says, “There is no ‘excluding religious voice’ in Canada, merely attempts at excluding clergy from manipulating the state power levers and using taxpayers’ money to promote a particular religious viewpoint.”

History reveals why role of religion is so different in U.S. and Canada

Why are Canada and the U.S., two neighbors which share so many cultural traditions and priorities, so different regarding religion’s role in public life?

According to academics who have pondered that question, their history provides some answers. The United States, at independence from Britain, chose not to have a dominant, federally established church.

In Canada, meanwhile, the Catholic Church was dominant in Quebec, and the Church of England — eventually named the Anglican Church of Canada — was powerful elsewhere.

Professor Darren Dochuk, a Canadian who teaches history at University of Notre Dame in Indiana, says the “disestablishment” of religion in the U.S. “made religious life all the more dynamic.”

“This is a country in which free faith communities have been allowed to compete in the marketplace for their share,” he said.

“In the 20th century, you had a plethora of religious groups across the spectrum who all competed voraciously for access to power,” he said. “More recently, the evangelicals are really dominating that. … Religious conservatives are imposing their will on Washington.”

There’s been no equivalent faith-based surge in Canada, said Dochuk, suggesting that Canada’s secularization produced “precipitous decline in the power of religion as a major operator in politics.”

Carmen Celestini, professor of religious studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, said that even when Canadian politicians do opt for faith-based outreach, they often take a multicultural approach — for example, visiting Sikh, Hindu and Jewish houses of worship, as well as Christian churches.

Trump’s talk about Canada becoming the 51st state fueled a greater sense of national unity among most Canadians, and undermined the relatively small portion of them who identify as Christian nationalists, Celestini said.

“Canada came together more as a nation, not sort of seeing differences with each other, but seeing each other as Canadians and being proud of our sovereignty and who we are as a nation,” she said. “The concern that Canadians have, when we look at what’s happening in America, is that we don’t want that to happen here. “

Crary, who reported from New York, was the AP’s Canada bureau chief from 1995-99.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

ALLEN PARK — The Detroit Lions’ hole at the center position was its most significant question mark entering camp, but some clarity has been provided after the first week of practice.

Lions veteran Graham Glasgow has been playing center for the last four practices — after rookie Tate Ratledge handled responsibilities for the first three practices — and reading between the lines on comments from Lions offensive coordinator John Morton, it seems that might be the team’s preferred course of action going forward.

“We’ve been in pads, what, for (three) days now. So that’s the real, true reading of where we’re going to be. I do like where we’re at right now,” Morton said Monday morning. “I think Ratledge has done a good job. I mean, we had him at center first and now we moved him to guard. Glasgow is at the center now; I think that’s more natural for him because that center and quarterback, that needs to be right.”

Campbell echoed those feelings Tuesday morning.

“Look, we just finished two days with Graham back at center in pads, and it’s looked pretty good. It’s looked pretty dang good,” Campbell said. “I think every day that it looks pretty dang good, it looks a little clearer. So it’s good to have him in there and it’s good for Tate, too, to get those right guard reps, so we’re holding tight right now.”

Over his nine-year career, Glasgow has primarily played guard. He has ample experience at center, though, having played center for an entire season in 2018 (Frank Ragnow’s rookie year), half of 2022 (with the Denver Broncos), and a few spot starts in Ragnow’s absence since returning to Detroit in 2023.

“I think things are going pretty well right now, to be honest,” Glasgow said after his fourth day of center work. “There’s a couple of little things to work out out there. I probably could’ve changed the protection today a couple times, maybe in the two-minute (drill), but other than that, today was a good day.”

Plus, Glasgow said that he actually likes playing center. If the Lions were to make him the starting right guard but still give him some center responsibilities to take a load off Ratledge, he’d rather just be the full-time starting center.

“I do like playing center. Center’s fun,” Glasgow told reporters. “I like the mental load that comes with it. I think there’s — it’s a challenge, but I think that’s something that I’m pretty good at, so I like to do it. If it came to me having to play center and make the calls or me be a guard and then think about the calls anyways just to make sure that the calls were right, I’d probably rather just play center.”

Asked how Ratledge had been doing late last week (the first day with Glasgow repping at center), Goff said, “It’s been great. Tate, I thought, was doing a good job, and Graham was in there today. I’ve been comfortable with Graham for quite some time. So whoever it ends up being, I’ll be good with.”

Of course, as it pertains to Morton’s comments, there’s still plenty of time for things to change. This time last week, it seemed the Lions believed Ratledge could be the guy — why else would they have put him there to begin training camp?

“I do like the way it’s going right now,” Morton said of the offensive line’s progress. “It’s still early, the more we do it, the better we’re going to get.”