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  • Turkish authorities launch crackdown on LGBTQ+ and HIV support groups

    Turkish authorities launch crackdown on LGBTQ+ and HIV support groups

    ISTANBUL — Turkish authorities cracked down on multiple LGBTQ+ groups and individuals early Sunday morning, detaining dozens of members, breaking into association offices, and raiding popular hangouts.

    In an escalation of decade-long hostility toward LGBTQ+ groups, particularly in the lead-up to elections, simultaneous police raids beginning at 1 a.m. took place in the major cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Aydin, and Mersin.

    Justice Minister Akin Gurlek announced on social media that the investigation into 162 suspects, nine associations, and 13 businesses was to “protect children, the institution of the family, and public order” in line with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 10-year executive order relating to families and children.

    “As per the duty to protect families and children given to the state by the constitution, no criminal organization, abuse network, or illegal activity which targets children, youths, or families will be tolerated!” Gurlek said.

    The raids targeted both current and former members of multiple prominent LGBTQ+ rights and HIV awareness groups. The organizations’ websites were also blocked.

    Gurlek also noted that such associations were found to receive significant funding from international sources and agencies.

    The Human Rights Association condemned the raids. “This is not a judicial investigation; it is a political operation aimed at forcing society into a monolithic family model and purging LGBTI+ and independent civil society under the guise of protecting the family and children,” it said.

    “To include unrelated charges such as ‘forming a criminal organization,’ ‘drugs,’ ‘prostitution’ and ‘obscenity’ serves not to reveal the truth but to incriminate the entire community.”

    The religious conservative Justice and Development Party has been increasingly vocal against LGBTQ+ groups to play up to the more conservative elements of its base. In 2015, it banned Istanbul Pride, which had tens of thousands of attendees in previous years. Since then, authorities have violently dispersed any attempted gatherings for Pride.

    This summer, an LGBTQ+ cruise ship that tours the Mediterranean and has docked in Turkey multiple times in the past was refused permission to dock there.

    The Ottoman Empire, predecessor to the modern republic of Turkey, decriminalized homosexuality in 1858; however, there is still significant social discrimination.

  • At BRICS, India’s Modi warns geopolitical tensions and supply chain shocks threaten global stability

    At BRICS, India’s Modi warns geopolitical tensions and supply chain shocks threaten global stability

    NEW DELHI — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday warned that rising geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and climate crises are increasingly affecting people worldwide and called for strengthened cooperation and support across the Global South.

    Addressing the BRICS summit of leading developing nations on its second day in New Delhi, Modi also warned that the “weaponization of technology and critical minerals” could hinder global development and shared prosperity.

    Founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, BRICS has expanded to 11 members representing about half the world’s population and a significant share of global economic output. It has sought greater representation for developing countries in global institutions and promoted alternatives to Western-dominated financial systems.

    “The number of conflicts and tensions in the world is continuously increasing, and this is having an increasingly negative and far-reaching impact on the lives of ordinary people,” Modi said, alongside bloc leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

    “Pandemics, climate disasters, and supply-chain disruptions have shown that in today’s interconnected world, no crisis remains confined to a single region,” Modi said, while announcing that the bloc agreed to establish an integrated early warning system for infectious diseases, aimed at boosting preparedness and response to future outbreaks.

    In his closing remarks at the summit, Modi urged the bloc nations to convert the summit’s agreements into tangible and time-bound action and move them from “files to real-life impact.”

    The discussions over the past two days, he said, reinforced the belief that “BRICS is not merely a group of countries, but an ecosystem of solutions.” He wished China success as it takes over the BRICS chair for the next term.

    The group in a joint declaration Saturday had expressed concern over escalating tensions in the Middle East and Sudan, and called for disputes to be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.

    The bloc reiterated support for a multipolar world order and reforms to the United Nations, including its Security Council, as well as global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

    The leaders opposed unilateral sanctions and coercive economic measures and criticized sanctions not authorized by the U.N. They also criticized rising tariffs and nontariff barriers, saying they undermine global trade and supply chains.

    The bloc backed greater use of local currencies in trade and stronger cross-border payment systems, while calling for cooperation on food security, energy, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and climate action.

    The declaration was a significant breakthrough, as forging consensus among Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — which hold competing positions on key regional and geopolitical issues — posed a complex diplomatic challenge amid ongoing conflicts and heightened tensions.

  • Fighting in Yemen intensifies, and Houthis launch more attacks on Saudi Arabia

    Fighting in Yemen intensifies, and Houthis launch more attacks on Saudi Arabia

    ADEN, Yemen — The conflict in Yemen intensified on Sunday, as government forces launched attacks against Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea and Houthis fired into neighboring Saudi Arabia, which supports Yemen’s government.

    The Yemeni government vowed to send more forces to the Red Sea coast after conceding a “painful” defeat last week when Houthis captured the port city of Mokha and an island on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a crucial shipping alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.

    The escalation — especially Houthi attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure and its shipping in the Red Sea — adds pressure on global oil supplies and prices, and that could give Iran leverage in its war with the United States.

    As Yemen risks descending into another civil war, the United Nations estimated that more than 80,000 people in the impoverished country have been displaced by the fighting since the start of September.

    One woman said a mortar shell fell nearby as she fled in the middle of the night from the town of Khawkha in Hodeida province along the Red Sea, shortly before it was captured by Houthis.

    “I saw with my own eyes cars and buses burning, and bodies of children and women were lying on the road in a horrific scene,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for her and her family’s safety.

    Houthis claim attacks against Saudi Arabia

    Saudi authorities sounded sirens Sunday afternoon in the southern city of Abha and Khamis Mushait province, warning residents to take shelter from potential incoming fire. Both areas were repeatedly attacked by the Houthis in recent weeks.

    The Houthis claimed to have used drones and missiles to target Saudi Arabia, including a military base just over the border with Yemen. Houthi military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree didn’t provide evidence or say when the attack occurred.

    The Saudi civil defense overnight said a projectile fell in a different area near the border with Yemen along the Red Sea, injuring two people and damaging a mosque and several other buildings. The statement blamed the Houthis.

    Saudi Arabia did not announce any new attacks targeting the Houthis.

    The Houthis are targeting Saudi oil infrastructure and shipping as part of a recently declared blockade. While the Houthis have said they do not intend to threaten other countries’ commercial shipping, markets remain wary and oil prices have risen again.

    Yemen says 500 soldiers killed, vows to fight back

    The National Resistance, a government-allied force that had controlled coastal areas, said more than 500 government fighters were killed on the west coast over the past four weeks — its first comprehensive toll. It said about 1,500 others had been wounded in the fighting since Aug. 9.

    Its statement said more than 1,000 Houthis had been killed in Hodeida and Taiz provinces. A spokesperson for the Houthis didn’t respond to a request for comment.

    Yemen is home to over 40 million people who fear a return to the civil war that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine in one of the world’s most sprawling humanitarian crises. Yemen’s internationally recognized government and Saudi Arabia have been battling the Houthis for 12 years. A ceasefire that began in 2022 had mostly halted the fighting.

    A senior government official in Yemen said its forces will return to the Red Sea coast and fight back. People fleeing the Houthi advance told the Associated Press they saw forces withdrawing and urging people to run.

    Sultan al-Arada, a member of the ruling presidential council, described the collapse of government forces in the port city of Mokha and elsewhere on Yemen’s west coast as “painful and regrettable.”

    Al-Arada said in the televised interview aired late Saturday that forces “are currently regrouping and will return to the battle in one form or another.”

    On Sunday, the Yemeni military said it launched airstrikes on Houthi positions in Mokha and the coastal town of Dhubab, and elsewhere in Taiz province. The rebels also reported strikes by the Saudi-backed forces in the province as well as artillery shelling in the province of Saada, the Houthi stronghold on Yemen’s northern borders with Saudi Arabia.

    Advance puts Houthis closer to a major U.S. base in Djibouti

    The Houthis’ advance puts them just 20 miles from the U.S. military base in Djibouti, on the other side of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It’s the main U.S. base in Africa and one of several foreign military bases in Djibouti, including those of China, France, and Japan.

    The small Horn of Africa nation is already seeing the arrival of displaced Yemenis making the perilous water crossing. More than 2,000 Yemenis have reached Djibouti, the International Organization for Migration said Sunday.

    Djibouti’s Economy and Finance Minister Ilyas M. Dawaleh said on X that the country’s navy, coast guard, and other specialized agencies were conducting rescue operations and providing emergency assistance.

    Yemenis displaced by fighting worry about survival

    The U.N. migration agency said Sunday that more than 82,000 people in Yemen have been displaced since the beginning of September.

    “The displaced people are in a very bad condition,” said Ahmad al-Masawi, the director of the Al Salam camp in the southern port city of Aden, who appealed to international organizations for assistance. “They left their homes quickly without any clothing or anything. They are crammed in camps, houses, and even on roads.”

    Hussein Haydara sat outside a shelter at the camp in a white undershirt, as his children waited to be assigned to a tent. He worried about how far the shelter is from schools, hospitals, and markets, and wondered how they will survive the next weeks or months.

    Haydara had fled his home in Hodeida once before, when the Houthis took it over in 2015. But this time feels more precarious.

    “With the first displacement, we had time to plan things but this time we were forced to escape all of a sudden. One could hardly take their children and the lightest stuff possible,” he said.

  • Russian drone hits train near Ukraine-Poland border soon after visiting dignitaries passed through

    Russian drone hits train near Ukraine-Poland border soon after visiting dignitaries passed through

    KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian drone struck a train near the Ukraine- Poland border on Sunday shortly after senior visiting officials — including the former prime ministers of the U.K. and Sweden — passed through, Ukraine’s state rail operator said.

    According to Ukrzaliznytsia, a diplomatic train carrying Boris Johnson, Carl Bildt, and security advisers from several European Union states had purposely left the station at Yahodyn ahead of schedule. The visitors were on their way back from a security conference in Kyiv.

    “It is highly probable that the Russian drone‘s intended target was in fact the diplomatic train, which had departed the station earlier than scheduled,” the company said in a Telegram post.

    Bildt, the former Swedish PM, shared a video on X of the attack at Yahodyn station, near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk border crossing with Poland.

    “This wasn’t our train, but the one just minutes after us by the Polish border crossing,” Bildt said. “It was evacuated as the Russian drone approached and no one was hurt. Very good safety system. Our train just had an evacuation warning.”

    Bildt, Johnson, and fellow passengers had been in Kyiv for the Yalta European Strategy conference, which is an annual gathering of leaders and experts across politics, business, security, and media.

    Another train, with former CIA Director David Petraeus on board, was still at Yahodyn station when the drone struck, according to Ukrzaliznytsia.

    There were no immediate reports of casualties on any of the trains.

    Ukrzaliznytsia said it “constantly adjusts train schedules” to guard against strikes.

    “I don’t know what warped logic drove Putin to blow up a stationary Ukrainian locomotive on the Polish border this morning,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

    “What we can say for sure is that this is the kind of random and senseless attack Ukrainians are enduring every day — even on civilian railways,” he added.

    Earlier on Sunday, a Russian drone hit a truck less than a mile from Polish territory, according to border guards, forcing the temporary closure of the Yahodyn-Dorohusk crossing.

  • GOP congressman from Wisconsin swims to safety after plane makes emergency landing in a lake

    GOP congressman from Wisconsin swims to safety after plane makes emergency landing in a lake

    WAUSAU, Wis. — A Republican congressman and candidate for governor said he had to swim to safety after a plane he was traveling in made an emergency landing in a lake late Saturday.

    U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany says he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the light aircraft lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau. Tiffany and the pilot ended up in the water and swam to safety.

    “After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat,” he wrote on X.

    The Marathon County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the emergency landing happened just before 9 p.m. Saturday. Tiffany and the pilot, Leonard Boltz, got out of the plane and called 911. They were rescued by emergency responders in a fire department airboat just after 9 p.m.

    Both men were taken to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries and released. Tiffany suffered a cut above his right eye that required stitches, his campaign said in an emailed statement.

    A no-wake buoy was placed near the plane, which remained in the lake, and boaters were being asked to avoid the area until the plane can be removed, the sheriff’s office said. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson said the agency would investigate the incident. A National Transportation Safety Board spokesperson said that agency is waiting for the FAA to assess the plane as to whether the damage was substantial enough for it to get involved.

    Tiffany is running for governor on the Republican ticket in Wisconsin and has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

    David Crowley, the Democratic candidate, wished Tiffany a “quick recovery” in a post on X and lauded the “heroism of the pilot.”

    The plane Tiffany was traveling in was a single-engine, four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft.

  • Psychedelic ‘Furthur’ bus rolls back into San Francisco for new Grateful Dead exhibit

    Psychedelic ‘Furthur’ bus rolls back into San Francisco for new Grateful Dead exhibit

    SAN FRANCISCO — Ken Kesey’s school bus — once painted in bright, swirly colors and driven across the country on a psychedelic journey — is back in San Francisco after 60 years as the centerpiece of a new exhibition celebrating the legacy of the Grateful Dead, a band that rose from the city’s famed hippie movement.

    “Forever Grateful/Golden Gate Park” opened Sept. 5 and also features the Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia‘s BMW, which remains in mint condition and has never been displayed publicly.

    The two iconic artifacts anchor an exhibition that immerses visitors in the colors, sounds, and sights of the counterculture that flourished in San Francisco in the 1960s.

    Kesey rode the bus dubbed “Furthur” during the cross-country trip by the late author and his Merry Band of Pranksters to expand human consciousness through art, music, and mind-altering drugs.

    “This invites people to communicate and connect around art, music, and activism,” said Kelly Harris, executive director of the Haight Street Art Center, which organized the exhibition. “In this day and age, when we need something to bridge community, we know that this space allows for that to happen, and Furthur is the portal.”

    A celebration of hippie love, activism

    The exhibition aims to celebrate the city’s history of hippie love and activism at a time when San Francisco is grappling with widening economic inequality fueled by an AI-driven technology boom, and the nation confronts deepening political divisions and collective fatigue.

    Formed in 1965, the Grateful Dead is synonymous with San Francisco and its counterculture. Members lived in a dirt-cheap Victorian in the Haight and later became a significant part of 1967’s Summer of Love.

    And it all started with the bus.

    Kesey bought the bus with the proceeds from his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In 1964, the writer and his friends drove it on a marijuana- and LSD-fueled journey from coast to coast, helping introduce Americans to the emerging psychedelic scene.

    That history-making road trip was later recounted in Tom Wolfe’s 1968 bestseller, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

    Upon their return to California, Kesey, who as a student had been a guinea pig for government tests of the mind-altering drug, shared his experiences at a series of parties at his home in the hills above Stanford University that became known as the “acid tests.”

    The parties featured a local bar band called the Warlocks, which turned into the Grateful Dead. The bus became a defining feature of the “acid tests” as Kesey and his friends took the parties on the road, mainly around the Bay Area.

    “This entire exhibit, it’s a very layered story of the Grateful Dead and their influence, their phenomenon, and their impact on communities, on society, on people, and how their legacy still lives on,” said Renee de Cossio, director of exhibitions at the Haight Street Art Center.

    Deadheads can recite why they fell in love with the music, how it happened, and the moment it all clicked. They embrace something just as important as the music itself — the community that comes together at a Dead show.

    Exhibit immerses visitors in counterculture

    Visitors are be invited to record their first encounter with the counterculture — whether it was becoming a Deadhead, as the band’s fans are called, while Garcia was still alive, discovering the band after his death, or experiencing the Grateful Dead for the first time through the exhibition.

    Actors with the Third Rail Projects, a New York-based experiential performance company, guide visitors through part of the exhibit, including a dark tunnel full of mirrors that leads into booths where they will start conversations with the audience.

    They will then lead small groups to experience a liquid light show, a 1960s art form that mixes liquids of different densities in watch glasses and projects colorful, shifting psychedelic patterns onto every space of a room, creating the sensation of being inside a giant, multicolor lava lamp.

    “You might go with the people that you came with, or you might get packaged with a couple other folks that you didn’t know, and you’ll then unpack the experience with each other and have a conversation with a stranger that you wouldn’t have had otherwise,” said Edward Rice, associate managing director at Third Rail Projects.

    The exhibit, which runs through Oct. 25, also features photographs from the band’s many concerts in Golden Gate Park and a screen-printing station where visitors can create their own art.

    It will also help launch an effort to restore the now-dilapidated “Furthur” bus, which got its name after a typo on its destination sign. The bus was kept on the Kesey family farm in Pleasant Hill, Ore., and was last seen in public at Woodstock in 1969.

    “The focal point is the Furthur bus. And Furthur is a call to action. Never stop creating, never stop exploring, keep going further,” Harris said.

  • Police say more arrests coming in death of Mississippi woman found hanging from tree

    Police say more arrests coming in death of Mississippi woman found hanging from tree

    Mississippi police said Saturday they were still investigating the death of Tasia Fortune, a Black woman found hanging from a tree last month, a day after a man was arrested in connection with the killing.

    Loved ones painted a picture of Fortune as a mother, athlete, and woman of faith who they hoped would not solely be remembered for her horrific death.

    Additional arrests are expected in the case, Jackson Police Chief RaShall Brackney said Friday. Police sought and arrested 51-year-old Jarques Ratliff, who is Black, when they encountered him walking on the street, authorities said. Ratliff should appear in Jackson Municipal Court no later than Monday morning, said André de Gruy, Mississippi’s state defender.

    Brackney said Ratliff had an “association” with Fortune but would not elaborate on their relationship. She called Ratliff’s arrest on a murder charge “an important development” in the investigation.

    “But it is not the conclusion. This case remains active, and additional arrests will be pending as our investigators continue to follow the evidence wherever it leads,” Brackney said Friday. “We understand that this case has received media attention from across the globe, and across this community.”

    Police provide little new information on Saturday

    The state medical examiner’s office determined Thursday evening that the death was a homicide, Brackney said, allowing police to execute the warrants they already had on hand.

    Police did not respond to calls and messages from the Associated Press on Saturday about potential updates to the investigation beyond confirming it was still going on.

    Ratliff was charged with murder, Hinds County jail records stated Saturday. The jail report stated that Ratliff was a resident of Jackson and contained little other information.

    It couldn’t immediately be determined if he had a lawyer, and a message was left for the public defender’s office. If represented by a public defender, it would be the Hinds County public defender, de Gruy said.

    Fortune’s mother said she is grateful to police

    Christy Spivey, Fortune’s mother, said Friday after police told her of the arrest, “I just started crying and told them ‘thank you, thank you, thank you.’”

    Spivey said police did not share a motive or whether DNA led them to the arrest. Spivey said she did not know the man who had been arrested, but she was asking her daughter’s friends if they knew him. Spivey described the family as “in disbelief” and “shock.”

    “We still don’t have a lot of answers,” Spivey said.

    Police discovered Fortune’s body hanging in the backyard of an abandoned home in Jackson on Aug. 3.

    Spivey said she was certain that her daughter, 29, would not have killed herself.

    “Absolutely not. Even if she could climb that tree, no, no, she would never, ever, ever,” Spivey said.

    Fortune was a mother, an athlete, and a deeply religious person

    An obituary about Fortune posted on the website of Tucker Funeral Home in Central City, Ky., in August stated that Fortune’s “path was not always easy, and there were highs and lows.” It also stated that she skipped her junior year of high school, was a star cross-country runner, and had a strong faith in God. Services were held last month in Kentucky.

    “She leaves behind a powerful legacy of resilience, rooted deeply in her unwavering faith. Even in her darkest hours, she never stopped believing in her Savior,” the obituary stated.

    Fortune was also the mother of four children, but she rarely saw two of them, Spivey said. The last time Spivey saw her daughter was in late July for a planned family reunion in Kentucky that was canceled, but her daughter came to see her anyway.

    “When she was there, there was this pull, like a spiritual pull to her. I needed her. I guess God knew that was going to be it,” Spivey said.

    Spivey said she and Fortune’s father faced racism and violence as a mixed-race couple in Crittenden County, Ky., before Fortune was born.

    Fortune was taken from her parents and placed in foster care as a child. During her high school years, she moved around among group homes and eventually ran away to Mississippi. The obituary stated that she had lived in Jackson for 10 years.

    Spivey wasn’t sure where Fortune was living at the time of her death but said her daughter had been struggling with homelessness in recent years. Fortune had two sisters and was close with them. The father of one of her children was verbally and physically abusive to Fortune, Spivey said.

    Before she died, Fortune had talked about starting a cleaning business and was trying to get her life in order.

    “Say her name. Keep it going,” Spivey said. “Because I’m not going to stop until I get answers.”

  • GOP and Democratic officials in Nashville unite over renaming airport for Dolly Parton

    GOP and Democratic officials in Nashville unite over renaming airport for Dolly Parton

    NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In Nashville, Tenn., the Republican-dominated state government and Democrat-controlled city government are engaged in an ugly battle for control of the city’s airport.

    But there’s one thing the two sides can agree on: Nashville International Airport should be renamed to honor Tennessee’s favorite daughter, Dolly Parton. The change would make Parton the first woman whose name adorns one of America’s 50 busiest airports.

    Lydia Popovich, a Parton superfan who started a petition for the name change in 2025, said on Friday that Parton had gracefully batted down the idea of naming the airport after her, as she did with many other proposed honors during her lifetime. That includes a bill brought by Tennessee lawmakers in 2021 to place a statue of her on the Capitol grounds.

    Parton asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill but expressed a hope that it might happen “somewhere down the road several years from now or perhaps after I’m gone if you still feel I deserve it.”

    Effort to rename airport gained steam after Parton’s death

    After Parton’s death two weeks ago, the airport naming idea seemingly caught fire, with Popovich’s petition reaching more than 175,000 signatures — not that the officials competing to run the airport needed the push.

    At a meeting Friday of the state-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority, a motion directing the airport CEO to begin the renaming process was unanimously approved by board members praising Parton to the heavens. Airport officials said the change could take a year or more and involves working with Parton’s estate to determine how they might split profits from merchandise sales, among other things.

    Bipartisan agreement on name change is a departure

    There are two Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authorities: one run by the state and the other controlled by the city, a bifurcated regulatory system that was created in 2023 amid a partisan dispute between the GOP-run state and the Democratic-run city. Who actually controls the airport has been in dispute ever since, with competing boards taking the reins only to be deposed as courts rule and are overturned.

    Despite the acrimony, Nashville’s Democratic Mayor Freddie O’Connell and the competing, city-controlled Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority are also in support of the name change, according to O’Connell spokesperson Alex Apple.

    “The FAA’s going to get two votes from two boards, both in favor,” Apple said.

    Stuart McWhorter, a member of the state-controlled board and deputy to Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee, briefly mentioned the dispute at the Friday meeting. He suggested that in the spirit of Parton, “We can get beyond the litigation and get back to working together.”

    Supporter of name change: ‘She’s the best of Tennessee’

    Born in poverty in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Parton became an icon whose popularity crossed generational, geographic, and political boundaries. In addition to writing and recording hit songs such as “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” she starred in Hollywood films including 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias.

    Popovich, who attended the Friday meeting and spoke in favor of the proposal, was in tears after the unanimous vote in favor.

    “It’s been a really beautiful experience, especially as you’re grieving someone that was such a great loss,” she told the Associated Press. “She’s the best of Tennessee. She’s the best of the humans on the planet. She was this magical person that provided light and guidance to all of us.

    “Unfortunately she’s left us, but now we get to celebrate her and get to tell the world how much Tennessee loved her.”

  • Trump touches a nerve while in Ireland by saying reunification would be ‘fantastic’

    Trump touches a nerve while in Ireland by saying reunification would be ‘fantastic’

    DUBLIN — U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday that a unified Ireland would be “fantastic” as he waded into a complex and politically charged subject during a weekend visit to a tournament at his Irish golf course.

    At a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin, Trump said he would love to see the reunification of the Republic of Ireland with the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland.

    “I don’t want to cause any problems but I’d love to see it unified,” Trump told a reporter who sought his opinion on the issue. ”It’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.

    “I think it would be a fantastic thing,” the Republican president said, adding that ”the U.K. will have something to say about it, obviously.”

    At his next stop, Trump acknowledged there is “no good answer” to the reunification question as he addressed business leaders from both countries gathered at the U.S. ambassador’s residence.

    The Irish unity debate is heated

    Competing visions of Northern Ireland — whether Irish or British — drove decades of violence in the six-county region that has a Protestant majority and has remained part of the U.K.

    Previous American presidents, including Democrat Joe Biden, who has strong emotional ties to Ireland, have avoided commenting directly on the subject.

    Ireland, long dominated by its bigger neighbor Britain, became a self-governing Catholic-majority country a century ago. Northern Ireland was split between two main communities: nationalists, most of them Catholic, who desired union with the rest of Ireland, and largely Protestant unionists, who wanted to stay British. Tensions eventually exploded in the Troubles involving paramilitary groups on both sides and British troops.

    A 1998 peace accord that the United States was instrumental in negotiating largely ended the violence, but left Northern Ireland’s ultimate status unresolved. That agreement allows for a vote on unification if it appears likely a majority of people would vote for it. U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Wednesday that the U.K. would only consider allowing a referendum “when public opinion has changed to the point where the call has to be considered.” Burnham’s office referred back to that comment when asked about Trump’s statement.

    Trump’s comments Saturday, along with recent statements about the Falkland Islands, a small British overseas territory in the South Atlantic Ocean that Argentina calls Las Malvinas, could also be viewed as a dig at Britain, given his anger over London’s refusal to be drawn into the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran.

    Trump also talked about the Falkland Islands

    Trump once more raised the prospect of conflict between the U.K. and Argentina over the Falklands. Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a Trump ally, has recently restated his country’s claim to the territory of about 3,500 people, which is about 300 miles east of the southeast coast of Argentina.

    Trump has previously said Washington could reconsider its neutral stance on the islands’ sovereignty. On Saturday, he expressed skepticism that Britain would be able to retake the Falklands as it did after Argentina invaded in 1982.

    “I’m sure I’ll be called into that potential disaster, but if they do, I’ll probably be able to settle, settle it out,” he said.

    A meeting with the Irish president who criticized Trump

    Trump also held talks in Dublin with Irish President Catherine Connolly, a left-wing politician who joined protesters when Trump visited Ireland in 2019 during his first term in office. She is now Ireland’s elected, largely ceremonial head of state. A supporter of the Palestinian cause, Connolly in the past has criticized U.S. policy in the Middle East and called Trump a “bully.”

    Connolly said in a statement after the meeting that she conveyed to Trump “the strong view of the Irish people that the normalization of war and genocide can never be accepted.” She gave Trump several gifts, among them a collection by the late Irish poet Michael Longley that includes the sonnet “Ceasefire.”

    Asked about the meeting, Trump first had his protocol chief, Monica Crowley, answer before he was pressed and said it was “very nice.” “We discussed a lot of things, quickly,” Trump said.

    Trump’s presence irks some Dubliners

    Police put up a cordon around Dublin’s 1,750-acre Phoenix Park, where Connolly, Martin, and U.S. Ambassador Edward Walsh have residences and welcomed Trump.

    A protest march drew thousands to central Dublin. Trump had left the city and was on the way to his Doonbeg golf course on the country’s Atlantic coast by the time the demonstration began.

    Many in the crowd waved Irish or Palestinian flags and chanted “Donald Trump not welcome here” and “Irish government, shame on you!”

    Paula Butler said she came with a contingent from the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre to oppose the American president’s “attitude to women, to refugees, to migrants.”

    She was unimpressed by Trump’s support for Irish unity, a popular cause in Ireland.

    “What he knows about Irish unity, I’d say I know more on my little finger,” Butler said.

    Kim Mathis, who moved from Florida to Dublin last year with her partner, said, “Part of the reason we moved to Ireland was to get away from Trump and all of his horrific policies.”

    She said dealing with Trump is “a global conundrum” for governments. “It would be really nice if politicians would just say, ‘Stay home.’”

    Eric Trump defends family’s presence in Ireland

    Speaking to Irish national broadcaster RTE on Friday in Doonbeg, Trump’s son Eric said the course is the largest employer in the area.

    “Go down to Morrissey’s tavern in Doonbeg and hear from a real Irish person as to whether or not they like President Trump and the Trump family, go have them attest to what we’ve done for the country and what we’ve invested in the country and the love and respect that our family has always shown them,” he said.

    Trump’s visit is the latest example of blending his official duties and personal interests.

    He spends most weekends playing golf at his clubs in Florida, New Jersey, and Virginia. His attendance at the Irish Open continues his trend of appearing at high-profile sporting events and having a hand in organizing some of them in ways that benefit his family business. His clubs in Doral, Fla., and Bedminster, N.J., have hosted professional golf tournaments this year.

    Last year, Trump went to Scotland for five days to play golf at his club in Turnberry and later inaugurated a Trump golf course in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire. During that visit, he held talks with the British prime minister and the president of the European Commission.

    Asked if he would return to Ireland next year for the Ryder Cup, Trump said, “I will. Absolutely.”

  • US stocks jump after oil prices ease and an inflation update comes in near expectations

    US stocks jump after oil prices ease and an inflation update comes in near expectations

    NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rebounded Friday and regained much of their losses for the week after oil prices eased off their recent spurt. An update on inflation across the United States that came in close to economists’ expectations, even if prices are still rising too quickly for everyone’s liking, also helped calm the market.

    The S&P 500 climbed 0.9% and snapped a four-day losing streak, its longest since June. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 509 points, or 1%, and the Nasdaq composite rose 1%.

    They got help from a pullback in oil prices, which had jumped to their highest levels since May because of the ongoing war with Iran. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 2.8% to settle at $104.61 after getting near $110 overnight.

    That took a bit of pressure off inflation, which remains stubbornly high. A report on Friday showed that U.S. consumers had to pay prices for gasoline, food, and other costs of living that were 3.4% higher last month than a year earlier.

    While still high, that was close to what economists expected and what Wall Street was prepared for. The data also strengthened expectations among traders that the Federal Reserve will feel compelled to hike its main interest rate at its meeting next week.

    Such moves are the typical way the Fed tries to rein in high inflation, and they work by filtering through the bond market, making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money, slowing the economy, and hopefully removing fuel for further inflation.

    The rising expectations for an upcoming hike to rates drove up the yield of the two-year Treasury, which moves with guesses for upcoming Fed action, to 4.62% from 4.56% late Thursday.

    Longer-term Treasury yields held steadier, though. That could be a signal that investors in the bond market see upcoming hikes by the Fed as helping to keep control of inflation over the longer term. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose more modestly to 4.97% from 4.95% late Thursday, while the 30-year yield eased to 5.36% from 5.37%.

    Economists say hikes could quiet questions about the Fed’s commitment to keeping inflation under control. Worries had risen earlier in the summer about its credibility and whether it would do what’s needed to bring inflation down, even if it causes pain for the economy in the near term.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh has been adamant about not giving hints about where the Fed may take interest rates, though he did calm some concerns among investors at a speech late last month. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has been pushing for interest rates to go lower rather than higher.

    “Symbolism can trump substance, even when it comes to monetary policy,” according to Brian Jacobsen, chief economic strategist at Annex Wealth Management.

    It’s all coming at a moment when confidence among Americans continues to sour. A preliminary report from the University of Michigan on Friday said U.S. consumer sentiment is falling, with declines for both Democrats and Republicans.

    Their expectations for inflation coming in the year ahead jumped to 4.6% from 4% last month. That’s the highest reading since June, and it’s concerning for the Fed and for economists because it can trigger a vicious cycle of behavior that worsens inflation.

    On Wall Street, Kroger rose 2.7% after the grocer reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also held firm on its forecast for profit over the fiscal year, even though it trimmed its forecast for an important underlying measure of revenue growth.

    ACV Auctions, whose digital marketplace connects wholesale buyers and sellers of vehicles, soared 44.2% after Copart said it would pay $10.50 in cash for each of the company’s shares. Copart, whose online vehicle auctions sold more than 4 million units in the last year, fell 2.6%.

    An early jump for Oracle faded as trading progressed after the tech giant reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. After initially leaping 8.5%, its stock swiveled between gains and losses and finished with a loss of 1.7%.

    Stocks closely tied to the artificial-intelligence industry broadly became shaky this summer on worries that the AI frenzy may have sent prices too high.

    All told, the S&P 500 rose 65.28 points to 7,656.98. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 509.19 to 52,573.29, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 251.31 to 26,333.04.

    In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in Europe as oil prices eased. London’s FTSE 100 added 0.4% after a report said the U.K. economy was stronger in July than economists expected.

    Stock markets were weaker in Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 1.9% and South Korea’s Kospi fell 1.8%.

    AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.