The post Senate votes to move ahead with Trump’s request for $9 billion in spending cuts appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

The University of Michigan is under federal scrutiny after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the United States.

Today is Tuesday, July 15, the 196th day of 2024. There are 169 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On July 15, 1799, the Rosetta Stone, a key to deciphering ancient Egyptian scripts, was found at Fort Julien in the Nile Delta during the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt.

Also on this date:

In 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was abolished more than 350 years after its creation.

In 1870, Georgia became the last Confederate state to be readmitted to the Union.

In 1913, Democrat Augustus Bacon of Georgia became the first person elected to the U.S. Senate under the terms of the recently ratified 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, providing for popular election of senators.

In 1916, The Boeing Company, originally known as Pacific Aero Products Co., was founded in Seattle.

In 1975, three American astronauts blasted off aboard an Apollo spaceship hours after two Soviet cosmonauts were launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft for a mission that included a linkup of the two ships in orbit.

In 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell. (The captives escaped unharmed; the kidnappers were caught.)

In 1996, MSNBC, a 24-hour all-news network, made its debut on cable and the internet.

In 1997, fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, was shot dead outside his Miami Beach home; suspected gunman Andrew Phillip Cunanan (koo-NAN’-an), 27, was found dead eight days later, a suicide. (Investigators believed Cunanan killed four other people before Versace in a cross-country rampage that began the previous March.)

In 2002, John Walker Lindh, an American who’d fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, pleaded guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to two felonies in a deal sparing him life in prison.

In 2006, Twitter (now known as X) was launched to the public.

In 2019, avowed white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. was sentenced by a state court to life in prison plus 419 years for killing one and injuring dozens when he deliberately drove his car into a crowd of anti-racism protesters during a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. (The previous month, Fields received a life sentence on 29 federal hate crime charges.)

In 2020, George Floyd’s family filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis and the four police officers charged in his death, alleging the officers violated Floyd’s rights when they restrained him and that the city allowed a culture of excessive force, racism and impunity to flourish in its police force. (The city would agree to pay $27 million to settle the lawsuit in March 2021.)

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor Patrick Wayne is 86.
• R&B singer Millie Jackson is 81.
• Singer Linda Ronstadt is 79.
• Author Richard Russo is 76.
• Musician Trevon Horn is 76.
• Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post, is 75.
• Former professional wrestler and Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura is 74.
• Actor Terry O’Quinn (TV: “Lost”) is 73.
• Rock drummer Marky Ramone is 73.
• Rock musician Joe Satriani is 69.
• Model Kim Alexis is 65.
• Actor Willie Aames is 65.
• Actor-director Forest Whitaker is 64.
• Actor Brigitte Nielsen is 62.
• Rock drummer Jason Bonham is 59.
• TV personality Adam Savage (TV” “MythBusters”) is 58.
• Actor-comedian Eddie Griffin is 57.
• Actor-screenwriter Jim Rash (TV: “Community”) is 53.
• Actor Scott Foley is 53.
• Actor Brian Austin Green is 52.
• Singer Buju Banton is 52.
• Actor Diane Kruger is 49.
• Actor Lana Parrilla (LAH’-nuh pa-REE’-uh) is 48.
• Actor Travis Fimmel is 46.
• Actor-singer Tristan “Mack” Wilds is 36.
• Actor Iain Armitage (TV: “Young Sheldon”) is 17.

MIAMI (AP) — Former NFL quarterback Teddy Bridgewater said he has been suspended from coaching his former high school team in Miami because he provided players with financial benefits that he says he’d reported to the school.

The 32-year-old Bridgewater publicized action taken against him by Miami Northwestern High School in a social media post in which he also reaffirmed his desire to continuing coaching the team for which he once played.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Bridgewater’s social media post said. “And if it comes down to it, I will volunteer from the bleachers like I used to in 2018 and 2019 when no one had a problem.”

A message left for school administrators on Monday was not returned.

Last fall was Bridgewater’s first season coaching his former school, which he led to a Class 3A state championship before signing with Detroit in late December to serve as a backup for the playoff-bound Lions.

He wound up seeing his only action in the postseason, completing his only pass for 3 yards in a divisional-round loss to Washington.

Bridgewater had written in an earlier social media post that he paid for rides, meals and treatment for players last season. This year, he solicited donations to help cover those costs.

He said in his more recent post that he reported those payments to the school.

Drafted 32nd overall out of Louisville by Minnesota in 2014, Bridgewater appeared in 79 regular-season NFL games during 10 seasons split among the Vikings, New Orleans, Carolina, Miami, Denver and Detroit.

By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump’s first judicial pick of his second term, voting to approve Whitney Hermandorfer as a judge for the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The confirmation of Hermandorfer, who worked for Tennessee’s attorney general, comes after the Democratic-led Senate under former President Joe Biden confirmed 235 federal judges and the Republican-led Senate in Trump’s first term confirmed 234 federal judges.

The two presidents each worked to reshape the judiciary, with Trump taking advantage of a high number of judicial vacancies at the end of President Barack Obama’s term and Democrats working to beat Trump’s number after he had the opportunity to nominate three Supreme Court justices.

So far in his second term, Trump has fewer vacancies to fill. While he inherited more than 100 vacancies from Obama, who was stymied by a Republican Senate in his final two years, Trump now has 49 vacancies to fill out of almost 900 federal judgeships.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said last week that the Senate would work to quickly confirm Trump’s judicial nominees, even though “we’re not facing the number of judicial vacancies this Congress we did during Trump’s first term.”

Hermandorfer, who was confirmed 46-42 along party lines, has defended many of Trump’s policies as director of strategic litigation for Tennessee’s attorney general, including his bid to end birthright citizenship. Democrats and liberal judicial advocacy groups criticized her as extreme on that issue and others, also citing her office’s defense of the state’s strict abortion ban.

Before working for the Tennessee Attorney General, she clerked for three Supreme Court justices. But at her confirmation hearing last month, Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware criticized what he called a “striking brevity” of court experience since Hermandorfer graduated from law school a decade ago.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday that Trump is only focused on “a nominee’s perceived loyalty to him and his agenda — and a willingness to rule in favor of him and his administration.”

The Judiciary panel is scheduled to vote on additional judges this week, including top Justice Department official Emil Bove, a former lawyer for Trump who is nominated for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Bove’s nomination has come under scrutiny after a fired department lawyer claimed in a complaint that Bove used an expletive when he said during a meeting that the Trump administration might need to ignore judicial commands. Bove has pushed back against suggestions from Democrats that the whistleblower’s claims make him unfit for the federal bench.

Bove has also accused FBI officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.

By JULIE WATSON, AMY TAXIN and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ, Associated Press

Federal authorities now say they arrested more than 360 people at two Southern California marijuana farms last week, characterizing the raids as one of the largest operations since President Donald Trump took office in January.

One farmworker died after falling from a greenhouse roof during the chaotic raids on Thursday after the Department of Homeland Security executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities in Camarillo and Carpinteria, northwest of Los Angeles.

The raids came more than a month into an extended crackdown across Southern California that was originally centered on Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities. A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to halt indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in seven California counties, including Los Angeles.

What happened?

During the raid on the Camarillo site, crowds gathered seeking information about their relatives and to protest immigration enforcement. Authorities clad in military-style helmets and uniforms faced off with the demonstrators, and people ultimately retreated amid acrid green and white billowing smoke.

Glass House Brands is a major cannabis company in California that started a decade ago with a greenhouse in the Santa Barbara County community of Carpinteria.

The company said it later expanded, buying another facility in the Ventura County community of Camarillo that included six tomato and cucumber-growing greenhouses. Glass House converted two of them to grow cannabis, according to the company’s website.

Relatives of workers at the Camarillo site said tomatoes are still grown at the location in addition to cannabis.

Arrest numbers keep rising

The federal government initially reported that some 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally were arrested.

Then on Saturday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said 319 people were arrested and said on X it was “quickly becoming one of the largest operations since President Trump took office.”

A day later, the arrest numbers, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were up to 361 from the two locations.

The government said four of the 361 arrested had prior criminal records, including convictions for rape and kidnapping.

One death reported from the raids

A farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof during the raid at the farm in Camarillo died Saturday of his injuries.

Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known fatality during one of the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Yesenia Duran, Alanis’ niece, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

She posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe that her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to a wife and daughter in Mexico. Alanis worked at the farm for 10 years, his family said.

He called his wife in Mexico and told her he was hiding from federal agents during the raid Thursday. A doctor told his relatives that the ambulance crew who took him to a hospital said he fell about 30 feet, Duran said.

Why was the business raided?

The government says it is investigating potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuse. Initially, DHS said 10 immigrant children were on the property. They later increased that number to 14.

Authorities declined to share the warrant for the operation. The administration has released no additional information about the children, including their ages and what they were doing on the property when authorities arrived. DHS has not provided details to back up its claim of possible trafficking or other abuse, and the company has not been charged with anything.

It was unclear if any of the minors were the children of farm workers at the sites or if they came to the U.S. without an adult.

Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. In California, children as young as 12 can work on farms outside of school hours, while those as young as 16 can work during school hours if they are not required to attend school, the agency said on its website.

No one under the age of 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.

The California Department of Cannabis Control conducted a site visit in May 2025 and observed no minors on the premises, a spokesperson said. After receiving a subsequent complaint, the state opened an investigation to ensure full compliance with state law.

U.S. citizens were among those arrested

Four U.S. citizens were arrested during the raids for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers,” according to DHS, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.

Among those arrested was California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli posted on X.

Essayli said Caravello was arrested for throwing a tear gas canister at law enforcement and was to appear in court Tuesday.

The California Faculty Association said Caravello was taken away by agents who did not identify themselves nor inform him of why he was being arrested. The association said he was then held without being able to contact his family.

Caravello was attempting to dislodge a tear gas canister that was stuck underneath someone’s wheelchair, witnesses told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles.

A federal judge on Monday ordered Caravello to be released on $15,000 bond. He’s scheduled to be arraigned August 1.

Separately, the federal Bureau of Prisons said George Retes, 25, was in their custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Sunday.

Retes’ family told KABC-TV on Sunday that he is a U.S. citizen, works as a security guard at the farm in Camarillo and is a disabled U.S. Army veteran. They said Retes was trying to drive away during the clashes between protesters and agents when an officer stopped him, broke his car window and shot pepper spray before dragging him out of his car and arresting him.

Retes’ sister, Destinee Magaña, told the television station on Sunday that the family had been trying to get in touch with her brother.

Federal agents “thought he was probably part of the protest, but he wasn’t, he was trying to reverse his car,” Magaña said.

Neither Retes nor Magaña responded to emails Monday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

The region prepares for more raids

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is now proposing to provide cash assistance to residents too scared to leave their homes to go to work.

The plan comes as part of a sweeping executive order the mayor signed on Friday that instructs Los Angeles officials “to bolster their protocols and training to prepare for federal immigration activity occurring on city property.”

The order also establishes a police department working group for immigrants and expands access to resources for impacted families. In addition, it seeks records from the federal government on what the city deems unlawful raids from federal agencies.

The monetary relief will not come from city funds but from philanthropic partners, officials said. Immigrant rights groups will distribute cash cards similar to those used to provide financial assistance to Angelenos struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic. It wasn’t immediately clear how people will qualify to receive the cards.

The goal is to help people who have been deterred “from attending school and church, seeking city services, accessing health care, and going to work,” the order states.

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

By DEE-ANN DURBIN, Associated Press

The U.S. government said Monday it is placing a 17% duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff.

Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking U.S. tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the U.S. is also grown there. Mexico currently supplies around 70% of the U.S. tomato market, up from 30% two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange.

But opponents, including U.S. companies that grow tomatoes in Mexico, said the tariff will make fresh tomatoes more expensive for U.S. buyers.

Tim Richards, a professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness at Arizona State University, said U.S. retail prices for tomatoes will likely rise around 8.5% with a 17% duty.

The duty stems from a longstanding U.S. complaint about Mexico’s tomato exports and is separate from the 30% base tariff on products made in Mexico and the European Union that President Donald Trump announced on Saturday.

The Commerce Department said in late April that it was withdrawing from a deal it first reached with Mexico in 2019 to settle allegations the country was exporting tomatoes to the U.S. at artificially low prices, a practice known as dumping.

As part of the deal, Mexico had to sell its tomatoes at a minimum price and abide by other rules. Since then, the agreement has been subject to periodic reviews, but the two sides always reached an agreement that avoided duties.

In announcing its withdrawal from the Tomato Suspension Agreement, the Commerce Department said it had been “flooded with comments” from U.S. tomato growers who wanted better protection from Mexican goods.

But others, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association, had called on the Commerce Department to reach an agreement with Mexico.

In a letter sent last week to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the Chamber of Commerce and 30 other business groups said U.S. companies employ 50,000 workers and generate $8.3 billion in economic benefits moving tomatoes from Mexico into communities across the country.

“We are concerned that withdrawing from the agreement – at a time when the business community is already navigating significant trade uncertainty – could lead to retaliatory actions by our trading partners against other commodities and crops that could create further hardship for U.S. businesses and consumers,” the letter said.

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday took another step to make it harder to find major, legally mandated scientific assessments of how climate change is endangering the nation and its people.

Earlier this month, the official government websites that hosted the authoritative, peer-reviewed national climate assessments went dark. Such sites tell state and local governments and the public what to expect in their backyards from a warming world and how best to adapt to it. At the time, the White House said NASA would house the reports to comply with a 1990 law that requires the reports, which the space agency said it planned to do.

But on Monday, NASA announced that it aborted those plans.

“The USGCRP (the government agency that oversees and used to host the report) met its statutory requirements by presenting its reports to Congress. NASA has no legal obligations to host globalchange.gov’s data,” NASA Press Secretary Bethany Stevens said in an email. That means no data from the assessment or the government science office that coordinated the work will be on NASA, she said.

On July 3, NASA put out a statement that said: “All preexisting reports will be hosted on the NASA website, ensuring continuity of reporting.”

“This document was written for the American people, paid for by the taxpayers, and it contains vital information we need to keep ourselves safe in a changing climate, as the disasters that continue to mount demonstrate so tragically and clearly,” said Texas Tech climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe. She is chief scientist at The Nature Conservancy and co-author of several past national climate assessments.

Copies of past reports are still squirreled away in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s library and the latest report and its interactive atlas can be seen here.

Former Obama White House science adviser and climate scientist John Holdren accused the administration of outright lying and long intended to censor or bury the reports.

“The new stance is classic Trump administration misdirection,” Holdren said. “In this instance, the administration offers a modest consolation to quell initial outrage over the closure of the globalchange.gov site and the disappearance of the National Climate Assessments. Then, two weeks later, they snatch away the consolation with no apology.”

“They simply don’t want the public to see the meticulously assembled and scientifically validated information about what climate change is already doing to our farms, forests, and fisheries, as well as to storms, floods, wildfires, and coast property — and about how all those damages will grow in the absence of concerted remedial action,” Holdren said in an email.

That’s why it’s important that state and local governments and every day people see these reports, Holdren said. He said they are written in a way that is “useful to people who need to understand what climate change is doing and will do to THEM, their loved ones, their property and their environment.”

“Trump doesn’t want people to know,” Holdren wrote.

The most recent report, issued in 2023, found that climate change is affecting people’s security, health and livelihoods in every corner of the country in different ways, with minority communities, particularly Native Americans, often disproportionately at risk.

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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.

Jorge Polanco and Cole Young hit back-to-back home runs in a four-run ninth inning and the Seattle Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers 8-4 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep.

Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arozarena and Mitch Garver also hit solo home runs for the Mariners, who humbled the major league-leading Tigers with 12-3 and 15-7 wins in the first two games of the series.

Seattle's 35 runs is the most they have scored in a three-game series since 2002.

The Tigers are taking a season-high four-game losing streak into the All-Star break.

After Polanco broke a 4-all tie in the ninth and Young created a two-run cushion, the Mariners scored two more runs.

Matt Brash (1-0) struck out two in the eighth to earn the win.

Tommy Kahnle (1-2) gave up three runs on two hits and a walk without getting an out in the pivotal ninth.

Detroit scored two unearned runs off Logan Gilbert in the first inning, taking advantage of Luke Raley's throwing error, and went ahead again in the seventh on Riley Greene's 24th homer of the season.

Seattle's Cal Raleigh went 0 for 2 with three walks, leaving him with an AL-record 38 homers before the All-Star Game one shy of Barry Bonds 2001 major league record for homers before the break. Raleigh stole a base, joining Babe Ruth (1921), Reggie Jackson (1969) and Ken Griffey Jr. (1998) as players with at least 38 homers and 10 stolen bases in their team's first 96 games.

Key moment

Polanco was a pinch-hitter to lead off the ninth and hit a 401-foot homer to right.

Key stat

Raleigh is the first catcher to lead the majors outright in homers at the All-Star break since Hall of Famer Johnny Bench in 1972.

Up next

The Tigers have a franchise-record six All-Stars in Atlanta, including starting pitcher Tarik Skubal. Seattle is sending five All-Stars to the Midsummer Classic for the first time since 2003.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/mlb

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan football staff member Connor Stalions, whose actions triggered an NCAA investigation into sign-stealing, says he knew almost every signal opponents used in seven games over two seasons.

Stalions shared those details Saturday on social media, responding to TCU coach Sonny Dykes telling On3 that his team changed some signs in advance of its win over the Wolverines in the 2022 College Football semifinals.

“We got some favorable matchups because of that and, yeah, there was some big plays in the game,” Dykes said in the On3 report.

Stalions bristled at the latest attempt to suggest Michigan won or lost games because of his sign-stealing role with the team.

“There were 7 games in my time at Michigan where I knew almost every signal the whole game: 2021 MSU, 2022 MSU, 2022 PSU, 2022 OSU, 2022 TCU, 2021 Georgia, and 2021 Wisconsin,” Stalions wrote in his post. “We lost 3 of those games because we didn’t tackle well, and Georgia was historically good. We won the four other games because we dominated the line of scrimmage & tackled well. Blocking, ball security, tackling, run fits & coverage tools.

“That’s football. This is not rocket science.”

Nearly a year ago, the NCAA alleged in a notice relating to Michigan’s sign-stealing investigation that current coach Sherrone Moore violated rules as an assistant under former coach Jim Harbaugh, who served a three-game suspension in exchange for the Big Ten dropping its own investigation into the allegations after the two ended up in court.

Moore also was accused of deleting text messages with Stalions, before they were recovered and provided to the NCAA. Moore has said he has and will continue to cooperate with the NCAA’s investigation.

Michigan is prepared to suspend Moore for two games during the coming season. The NCAA will decide if that self-imposed sanction is enough to address allegations that Moore failed to cooperate in an investigation that rocked college football during the 2023 championship season with Harbaugh on the sideline.

The school had a hearing with the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions last month. The governing body takes three months on average for contested cases to make a final decision.

The Wolverines open the season on Aug. 30 at home against New Mexico State and then go to Oklahoma, where Moore was an offensive lineman, on Sept. 6.

The NCAA does not have rules against stealing signs, but it does prohibit schools from sending scouts to the games of future opponents and using electronic equipment to record another team’s signals. Records from other Big Ten schools showed that Stalions bought tickets to games involving future opponents, sending people to digitally record teams when they signaled plays.

Stalions initially was placed on leave by Michigan and later resigned. He did not participate in the NCAA investigation.

The NCAA previously put Michigan on three years of probation, fined the school and implemented recruiting limits after reaching a negotiated resolution in a recruiting case and banned Harbaugh from coaching college football for four years.

Pittsburgh's Paul Skenes will start his second straight All-Star Game for the National League and Detroit's Tarik Skubal will open for the American League on Tuesday night at Truist Park.

Major League Baseball made the announcement Saturday night.

Skenes will become the first pitcher to start consecutive All-Star Games since Washington's Max Scherzer and Boston's Chris Sale in 2017 and '18. Sale started three in a row beginning in 2016.

Skenes and Skubal are 1-2 in average four-seam fastball velocity among those with 1,500 or more pitches this season, Skenes at 98.2 mph and Skubal at 97.6 mph, according to MLB Statcast.

Skenes worked around Juan Soto's walk in a scoreless first at Arlington, Texas, last year, throwing at up to 100.1 mph. He made the start after just 11 major league appearances, the fewest for an All-Star.

Milwaukee's Jacob Misiorowski, with five appearances, could take over that mark Tuesday if he pitches.

Skubal pitched a perfect second inning in his first All-Star appearance last year, following Baltimore's Corbin Burnes to the mound.

A 23-year-old right-hander, Skenes is 4-8 despite a major league-best 2.01 ERA for the Pirates, who are last in the NL Central. The 2024 NL Rookie of the Year has 131 strikeouts and 30 walks in 131 innings.

Skubal, a 28-year-old left-hander, is the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner. He is 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA, striking out 153 and walking 16 in 121 innings.

Watch our recent interview with Tarik Skubal INTERVIEW: Tarik Skubal talks Tigers success, relentless work, and enjoying a kids gameTarik Skubal is living out his dream, and is relentless in his work to be great on the mound. The 2024 American League Cy Young winner recently talked with WXYZ about the team's strong start to the 2025 season, the fun they have, and the fan support at Comerica Park and beyond. Skubal grinned with relief that young Tigers fans want to be like him, mimicking his backpedal off the mound and not some other words I might say. Watch the interview in the video player

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Trump's latest Canadian tariff threat deepens a rift between two North American countries that have suffered a debilitating blow to their decades-old alliance.

The post New Hampshire judge decides to pause Trump’s birthright citizenship order appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By FARNOUSH AMIRI

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is issuing sanctions against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza.

The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, follows an unsuccessful U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post. It also comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington this week to meet with President Donald Trump and other officials about the war in Gaza and more.

It’s unclear what the practical impact the sanctions will have and whether the independent investigator will be able to travel to the U.S. with diplomatic paperwork.

Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer, has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the U.S., which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied that accusation.

The U.S. had not previously addressed concerns with Albanese head-on because it has not participated in either of the two Human Rights Council sessions this year, including the summer session that ended Tuesday. This is because the Trump administration withdrew the U.S. earlier this year.

Albanese has urged countries to pressure Israel

In recent weeks, Albanese has issued a series of letters urging other countries to pressure Israel, including through sanctions, to end its deadly bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

She has also been a strong supporter of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Netanyahu, for allegations of war crimes. She most recently issued a report naming several large U.S. companies as among those aiding what she described as Israel’s occupation and war on Gaza.

“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”

Albanese’s July 1 report focuses on Western defense companies that have provided weapons used by Israel’s military as well as manufacturers of earth-moving equipment that have bulldozed Palestinian homes and property.

It cites activities by companies in the shipping, real estate, technology, banking and finance and online travel industries, as well as academia.

“While life in Gaza is being obliterated and the West Bank is under escalating assault, this report shows why Israel’s genocide continues: because it is lucrative for many,” her report said.

A request for comment from the U.N.’s top human rights body was not immediately returned.

Israel strongly refutes Albanese’s allegations

Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva, where the 47-member Human Rights Council is based, called Albanese’s report “legally groundless, defamatory, and a flagrant abuse of her office” and having “whitewashed Hamas atrocities.”

Outside experts, such as Albanese, do not represent the United Nations and have no formal authority. However, they report to the council as a means of monitoring countries’ human rights records.

Albanese has faced criticism from pro-Israel officials and groups in the U.S. and in the Middle East. The U.S. mission to the U.N. issued a scathing statement last week, calling for her removal for “a years-long pattern of virulent anti-Semitism and unrelenting anti-Israel bias.”

The statement said Albanese’s allegations of Israel committing genocide or apartheid are “false and offensive.”

Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., Danny Danon, celebrated the U.S. action, saying in a statement Wednesday that Albanese’s “relentless and biased campaign against Israel and the United States has long crossed the line from human rights advocacy into political warfare.”

Trump administration’s campaign to quiet criticism of Israel

It is a culmination of a nearly six-month campaign by the Trump administration to quell criticism of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza. Earlier this year, the administration began arresting and trying to deport faculty and students of U.S. universities who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and other political activities.

The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.

Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, and European Union.

Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, it is nearly impossible for the critically wounded to get the care they need, doctors and aid workers say.

“We must stop this genocide, whose short-term goal is completing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, while also profiteering from the killing machine devised to perform it,” Albanese said in a recent post on X. “No one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Associated Press writer Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon had directed that some deliveries be paused.

The weapons now moving into Ukraine include 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, two U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been announced publicly.

It’s unclear exactly when the weapons started moving.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause last week, which affected a specific recent shipment of weapons to Ukraine, to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles, in a move that caught the White House by surprise.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. would continue to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine. He has sidestepped questions about who ordered the pause in exchanges with reporters this week.

“I would know if a decision is made. I will know,” Trump said Wednesday. “I will be the first to know. In fact, most likely I’d give the order, but I haven’t done that yet.”

When asked a day earlier who ordered the pause, he said: “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?”

Trump has privately expressed frustration with Pentagon officials for announcing the pause — a move that he felt wasn’t properly coordinated with the White House, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The Pentagon has denied that Hegseth acted without consulting the president.

The U.S. has sent more than $67 billion in weapons and military assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A man awaiting trial on federal charges of attempting to assassinate Donald Trump last year at his Florida golf course is seeking to get rid of his court-appointed federal public defenders.

A hearing for Ryan Routh’s motion regarding the proposed termination of his appointed counsel is scheduled for Thursday in Fort Pierce, according to court records. The motion requesting the hearing didn’t say why Routh, 59, no longer wished to be represented by Kristy Militello and Renee Michelle Sihvola.

The attorneys didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Routh was hiring a new attorney or planned to represent himself.

Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15, 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club. Before Trump came into view, Routh was spotted by a Secret Service agent. Routh allegedly aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who prosecutors said informed officers that he saw a person fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested and the witnesses confirmed it was the person he had seen, prosecutors have said.

Routh faces charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, assaulting a federal officer, being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Besides the federal charges, Routh also faces state charges of terrorism and attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty.

Routh’s trial is set for September. If convicted, he could face a sentence of life in prison, federal officials have said.

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are urging seven U.S. universities to cut ties with a Chinese scholarship program that lawmakers call a “nefarious mechanism” to steal technology for the Chinese government.

In letters to Dartmouth College, the University of Notre Dame and five other universities, leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party raise concerns about the schools’ partnerships with the China Scholarship Council, a study abroad program funded by China.

The program sponsors hundreds of Chinese graduate students every year at U.S. universities. After graduating, they’re required to return to China for two years. In the letters sent Tuesday, Republicans described it as a threat to national security.

“CSC purports to be a joint scholarship program between U.S. and Chinese institutions; however, in reality it is a CCP-managed technology transfer effort that exploits U.S. institutions and directly supports China’s military and scientific growth,” wrote Republican Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the committee.

The Chinese Embassy didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Associated Press for comment.

Dartmouth said Wednesday it has had fewer than 10 participants in the program over the last decade and already had decided to end its participation. Notre Dame said it began the process of terminating its association with the program earlier this year. University of Tennessee said it had also received the letter and was reviewing the committee’s request.

Letters were also sent also to Temple University and the University of California campuses in Davis, Irvine and Riverside. The committee said it’s opening a review into the program’s “infiltration” of U.S. universities and demanded records related to the program from all seven institutions.

The universities’ partnerships with the council bring up to 15 graduate students a year to Dartmouth, along with up to 60 at Temple and 40 at Notre Dame, according to the letters. Some schools split the cost of attendance with China. Dartmouth, for instance, covers 50% of tuition and provides a stipend to doctoral students.

Among other records, lawmakers are demanding documents showing whether scholarship recipients worked on research funded by the U.S. government.

President Donald Trump and House Republicans have stepped up scrutiny of Chinese students coming to the U.S. In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States would revoke visas from some Chinese students studying in “critical fields.” During his first term, Trump restricted visas for students affiliated with China’s “military-civil fusion strategy.”

Many U.S. universities acknowledge a need to improve research security but caution against treating Chinese scholars with hostility and suspicion, saying only small numbers have been involved in espionage.

China is the second-largest country of origin for foreign students in the U.S., behind only India. In the 2023-24 academic year, more than 270,000 international students were from China, making up roughly a quarter of all foreign students in the United States. For a majority of them, their college tuition is paid by their families, rather than by the Chinese government. Many stay to work in the U.S., while some return to China after graduation.

Moolenaar has made it a priority to end partnerships between U.S. universities and China. In May, he pressed Duke University to cut its ties with a Chinese university, saying it allowed Chinese students to gain access to federally funded research at Duke. Under pressure from the committee, Eastern Michigan University ended a partnership with two Chinese universities in June.

Last year, House Republicans issued a report finding that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding had gone toward research that ultimately boosted Chinese advancements in artificial intelligence, semiconductor technology and nuclear weapons. The report argued China’s academic collaborations served as a “Trojan horses for technology transfer,” accusing China of “insidious” exploitation of academic cooperation.

Associated Press writer Cheyanne Mumphrey in Phoenix contributed to this report.

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By SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A new lawsuit seeking to redraw Wisconsin’s congressional district boundary lines was filed on Tuesday, less than two weeks after the state Supreme Court declined to hear a pair of other lawsuits that asked for redistricting before the 2026 election.

The latest lawsuit brought by a bipartisan coalition of business leaders was filed in Dane County circuit court, rather than directly with the state Supreme Court as the rejected cases were. The justices did not give any reason for declining to hear those cases, but typically lawsuits start in a lower court and work their way up.

This new lawsuit’s more lengthy journey through the courts might not be resolved in time to order new maps before the 2026 midterms.

The Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy argue in the new lawsuit that Wisconsin’s congressional maps are unconstitutional because they are an anti-competitive gerrymander. The lawsuit notes that the median margin of victory for candidates in the eight districts since the maps were enacted is close to 30 percentage points.

“Anti‐competitive gerrymanders are every bit as antithetical to democracy, and to law, as partisan gerrymanders and racial gerrymanders,” the lawsuit argues. “This is because electoral competition is as vital to democracy as partisan fairness.”

The lawsuit alleges that an anti-competitive gerrymander violates the state constitution’s guarantees of equal protection to all citizens, the promise to maintain a free government and the right to vote.

The lawsuit was filed against the state’s bipartisan elections commission, which administers elections. Commission spokesperson Emilee Miklas declined to comment.

The Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy had attempted to intervene in one of the redistricting cases brought by Democrats with the state Supreme Court, but the justices dismissed the case without considering their arguments.

Members of the business coalition include Tom Florsheim, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Weyco Group, and Cory Nettles, the founder of a private equity fund and a former state commerce secretary.

Republicans hold six of the state’s eight U.S. House seats, but only two of those districts are considered competitive. In 2010, the year before Republicans redrew the congressional maps, Democrats held five seats compared with three for Republicans.

The current congressional maps, which were based on the previous ones, were approved by the state Supreme Court when it was controlled by conservative judges. The U.S. Supreme Court in March 2022 declined to block them from taking effect.

Democrats had wanted the justices to revisit congressional lines as well after the court ordered state legislative boundaries redrawn before last year’s election. Democrats then narrowed the Republican legislative majorities in November, leading to a bipartisan compromise to pass a state budget last week.

Now Democrats are pushing to have the current maps redrawn in ways that would put two of the six seats currently held by Republicans into play. One they hope to flip is the western Wisconsin seat of Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who won in 2022 after longtime Democratic Rep. Ron Kind retired. Von Orden won reelection in the 3rd District in 2024.

The other seat they are eyeing is southeastern Wisconsin’s 1st District, held by Republican Rep. Bryan Steil since 2019. The latest maps made that district more competitive while still favoring Republicans.

The two rejected lawsuits were filed by Elias Law Group, which represents Democratic groups and candidates, and the Campaign Legal Center on behalf of voters.

Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy are represented by Law Forward, a liberal Madison-based law firm, the Strafford Rosenbaum law firm in Madison and Election Law Clinic at Harvard Law School.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to allow Florida to enforce an immigration law making it a crime for people who are living in the U.S. illegally to enter the state.

The high court’s action will keep the law on hold while a legal challenge continues. The court did not explain its decision and no justice noted a dissent.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the legislation into law in February in support of Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration, though many of the Republican’s president efforts have been mired in legal battles.

Florida’s law made it a misdemeanor for people to enter the state if they don’t have legal status. The measure is similar to a Texas law that also has been blocked by a federal appeals court.

Immigrants rights groups filed lawsuits on behalf of two unnamed, Florida-based immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, arguing that immigration is a federal issue beyond the power of the states. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s appeal to the Supreme Court said the state has a right to use the law to protect itself from the “irreparable harm” of illegal immigration.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams barred the enforcement of the new law in April. Uthmeier’s office then unsuccessfully petitioned the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to override that decision.

Wednesday’s order is the latest blow for Uthmeier in a months-long battle. In June, Williams found the DeSantis appointee to be in contempt for instructing officers to continue enforcing the new law despite the judge’s orders to stop enforcement.

“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” Uthmeier said on social media.

Uthmeier, who DeSantis tapped for the position in February, has also been credited for championing a new state-run immigration detention facility dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” Environmental groups sued in June to block the facility from being built.