Category: Nation World News Wires

FNIDEQ, Morocco — It started with Instagram posts that suggested Spain’s border with Morocco was opening up. Then came Facebook users tracking coast guard patrols and TikTok videos showing where to swim.

After many shares and comments, thousands of Moroccans became convinced that Europe was suddenly within reach.

Within hours, young people began heading toward the border with the Spanish territory of Ceuta in North Africa. Packed buses rolled into the neighboring Moroccan city of Fnideq. Regional trains filled up. Taxis did too.

By the time authorities reacted, some 72,000 people had reached Ceuta in just a few days, the largest migration surge between Morocco and Spain in years. More than 80 migrants died on both sides of the border, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede, authorities said.

Nearly all of the surviving migrants soon returned, but the fallout from last week’s events will linger.

Rumors started online

In the northern Moroccan city of Larache, about 93 miles from Ceuta, three friends watched a video posted by an Instagram account called Haraga Ceuta claiming the border would be open. Haraga refers in Moroccan dialect to young migrants who destroy their identification papers and try crossing illegally into Europe.

The post convinced Anas Amrani, Yahya Harak, and Ismail Atik that it was worth risking the journey.

For migrants hoping to reach Spanish territory, the most common route begins in Fnideq, where many attempt the roughly 3-mile swim around the border breakwater. Others leave from the nearby village of Belyounech.

One TikTok video mapped the exact route swimmers should follow.

On Facebook groups such as Fnideq Bab Sebta, users shared screenshots from vessel-tracking platforms to identify moments when coast guard patrols appeared lighter. Some sought advice on using inflatable boats. Others advertised wetsuits for sale.

“I saw online that the border was open, and I decided to go,” said 17-year-old Omar Danbor from Fnideq, walking back exhausted along the coast.

It’s unclear who was behind the claims that the border was open or who operated many of the social media accounts, several of which were deleted soon after the crossings. The Associated Press contacted several accounts but received no response.

The surge to Ceuta touched a political nerve in Europe, and the European Union is investigating what happened. The EU’s migration commissioner expressed concern Tuesday about online disinformation but didn’t identify a specific culprit.

Chaos unfolded at the breakwater

As migrants reached the shores of Ceuta, mass chaos erupted at a narrow concrete breakwater where many tried to climb onto land.

According to multiple migrants interviewed by AP, people rushed to scramble over the slick rocks at the same time, pushing and climbing over one another. Several said they saw people knocked back into the water and forced beneath others, leaving them unable to resurface as migrants sought to reach land.

“I stepped on the face of a dead man while I was climbing out. I hope God forgives me and all those whose bodies were found,” said Lahcen Kalouch, a Moroccan migrant who reached Ceuta before returning home distraught.

At least 72 people died on the Spanish side of the border. Another 11 died on the Moroccan side.

Tens of thousands of migrants have since returned to Morocco, either after being expelled or leaving by choice because of a lack of shelter, food, and water in Ceuta.

Some misinterpreted Spain’s new migration measures

Some migrants misunderstood recent legal developments in Spain, including Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s immigration regularization measures and a court ruling limiting authorities’ ability to immediately return migrants who swim into Ceuta.

Sánchez’s recent efforts to regularize migration were meant only for people already living in Spain prior to Jan. 1, the majority of whom hail from Latin America and entered Spain legally but overstayed their visas. But some in Morocco misinterpreted his policy, believing they would be allowed to stay. That belief spread online.

“Pedro Sánchez is a liar. He told us if we came, we would get jobs and papers, but they sent us back,” said Adam Assil, a migrant from Casablanca, even though Sánchez never made such a promise.

While attempts to reach Ceuta are common, migration activists said this episode was different because of the way rumors snowballed online, encouraging thousands of people to head toward the territory at the same time instead of in smaller, scattered groups.

Failures happened on both sides of the border

Moroccan authorities said the migration wave was not spontaneous. The Interior Ministry blamed the “exploitation of the digital sphere” and “the spread of misinformation.” Officials offered no evidence but said an investigation had been opened. Spain’s government made similar statements.

Ceuta officials said they had warned the Spanish government of a surge in arrivals before the massive crush on Thursday. The Spanish Interior Ministry said Monday that it had not received “any report or warning regarding the mass arrival of people in Ceuta,” and it praised cooperation with the Moroccan authorities in sending most of the migrants back.

“Nobody addressed how these individuals managed to breach the border,” said Mustapha Azaitraoui, a Moroccan geographer specializing in migration dynamics. “If a large group of people can cross the border under these circumstances, it suggests a broader security issue that has yet to be acknowledged publicly.”

Migrants reject government claims of smuggling

Both Morocco and Spain blamed the Ceuta crisis on human smugglers and trafficking networks, saying organized criminal groups encouraged the mass crossings.

But returning Moroccan migrants interviewed by AP largely rejected that explanation.

“No one smuggled me there. I wanted to go of my own free will, but that country is not worth all this sacrifice,” Kalouch said.

“There are no mafias. The border was open, and I crossed. But now I regret it,” said Danbor, his clothes still wet after making the journey back.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said investigations into smuggling networks are ongoing and noted that Spain and Morocco have carried out joint operations against trafficking groups. The Moroccan Interior Ministry did not respond to questions about smuggling networks.

Several politicians and experts have suggested it would be impossible for so many to cross without Moroccan complicity. A high-ranking Moroccan diplomat appeared to push back against that.

“It would be reductive to say that Morocco should have used force to stop the migrants,” said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue is highly sensitive in Morocco. “We are not Europe’s police.”

The lack of jobs is a key factor

Morocco’s economy is projected to grow by 4.5% this year, boasting major factories, advanced ports, and ambitions to become a regional hub for the car industry.

Yet for many young Moroccans, that transformation has not translated into stable work. Youth unemployment remains high, with 37% of people ages 15 to 24 out of work. Among university graduates, unemployment stands at nearly 20%. The dream of migration is often reinforced by stories of relatives who left and returned with cars, new clothes, and foreign currency.

One of those who breached the border was a 16-year-old who grew up a few dozen miles from Ceuta. Europe had always seemed a dream close enough to see, yet impossibly far.

So when he saw a post on Facebook suggesting the border was open and thousands were making it across, he joined the rush.

Days later, he was back in Morocco, crying as he asked strangers for money for a taxi home.

“They fired tear gas at me and beat me with batons. There’s nothing for me there,” said the teen, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of being stigmatized following his failed border crossing attempt.

“I just wanted to provide for my mom,” he said, wiping his tears.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza City — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israeli forces will not withdraw from their current lines in Gaza until Hamas has completely disarmed.

In remarks on social media, Netanyahu suggested there were differences between Israel and the Trump administration over a recent deal announced to disarm the militant group.

The agreement called for Hamas to begin disarming and for Israel to halt its strikes and begin withdrawing from Gaza. It was part of an October ceasefire agreement that ended major military operations but has stalled on other fronts. Netanyahu instead said disarmament should come first, and that Israeli forces would continue to “do whatever is necessary to protect themselves, our territory, and our citizens.”

The Trump administration “sent us a draft. We did not agree. It is not our draft. We sent our comments,” Netanyahu said. “This is our position. We stand firm on our interests, I believe both wisely and resolutely.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Palestinians gathered for a mass funeral of more than 100 bodies finally recovered from a deadly Israeli strike in Gaza in 2023. More than 300 people were killed on Nov. 22, 2023, weeks into the war with Hamas, when warplanes flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.

Around 40 bodies were recovered soon afterward in a frantic scramble of rough tools and bare hands, but most were buried deep beneath the rubble. Reports of the high number of victims in one of the war’s deadliest attacks took days to reach the public in the chaos just before its first ceasefire.

Over the weekend, first responders dug through the destroyed buildings and recovered remains of 112 victims, including 40 children, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

It said 157 bodies still have not been found.

“The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” one relative, Taysir al-Hassayna, told the Associated Press following the funeral prayers.

For the missing, it’s “as if their bodies had evaporated without a trace.”

The current ceasefire has allowed recovery of remains

Only now are some bodies of people killed in the war’s ferocious early months slowly being recovered, as a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October allows such efforts to push ahead in parts of devastated Gaza.

Those discoveries have contributed to the war’s rising toll. The Hamas-led militant attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killed around 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 73,377 Palestinians, including since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.

At least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives to still be under the rubble, Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the ministry’s records department, told the AP. The true number is likely thousands higher because in some cases entire families were killed in a single bombing, leaving no one to report the missing, al-Waheidi has said.

The people mourned on Tuesday were from a residential block belonging to the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, and many were related. The Associated Press has identified at least 60 families across Gaza who lost 25 or more family members during the first three months of war.

On Tuesday, the remains of the victims, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows on the ground. Many were marked with photos, and flower petals were scattered around all. Hundreds of people surrounded the bodies for funeral prayers, some standing on the rubble.

Following the prayers, people carried the bodies on stretchers along a narrow street lined by destroyed buildings and buried them in a nearby cemetery.

Gaza is struggling to rebuild amid ceasefire violations

The ceasefire halted much of the fighting, but at least 1,252 people have been killed in Gaza since it took effect, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants but says women and children make up most of the dead.

Israel says its strikes are against militants who endanger its soldiers, took part in the Oct. 7 attack, or carry out other violations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.

Gaza remains largely shattered. Most of its 2 million Palestinians are displaced, many living in tent camps where poor conditions and overcrowding have led to rodent infestations and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as chickenpox.

Each side has accused the other of violating the ceasefire, and negotiations on further steps have largely stalled. Hamas has held onto its weapons, despite agreements to disarm, and the Israeli military has refused to withdraw and controls over half the territory.

The Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s postwar transition, Nikolay Mladenov, on Monday met with Netanyahu, in part to discuss a new disarmament deal the U.S.-created board has reached with Hamas.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced an agreement that calls for Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza and for Hamas and its allies there to halt all militant activity. After the text of the agreement was released, Israel said it had “serious security concerns.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s proposed 250-foot-tall memorial arch could disrupt the historical significance of dozens of sites near its planned location, according to an assessment by the National Park Service.

Many of Washington’s monuments, buildings, and sites have been carefully planned over the decades to reflect significant moments in the nation’s history and evoke symbolism in being connected by sightline to other sites.

The proposed towering gilded arch, which last month received initial approval from a key federal commission, would impact the “integrity” of dozens of those historical properties because it would change “character-defining visual and spatial relationships” between them.

The NPS report, published Monday, said the immediate project area is located within the Memorial Avenue Corridor cultural landscape, “a nationally significant historic designed landscape extending between the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.”

One of the most obvious elements the report cited is that the arch would break alignment between the Lincoln Memorial, Memorial Bridge, and Arlington House that was formerly Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s home.

“The bridge alignment and associated ceremonial landscape were intended to physically and symbolically unite North and South through a coordinated monumental composition extending across the Potomac River,” the report said.

The report puts a snag in a project that has sailed through several steps of the approval process in front of planning bodies stocked with Trump appointees and allies.

The proposed arch is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing to leave his lasting imprint on Washington. With the potential to change the city’s sightlines, it has already sparked opposition, including through a lawsuit filed by a group of veterans and a historian.

The arch design, proposed by Trump, has already received early approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. The commissioners were all appointed by Trump. The National Capital Area Planning Commission approved the site and preliminary plans at its July meeting. The commission is expected to take up the matter again at its September meeting.

The arch is one of several projects Trump has proposed that are involved in litigation. The plaintiffs, three veterans and a historian, have challenged its construction, saying it requires Congressional approval.

“Our claim is essentially that none of this has any authorization to be happening in the first place,” said Nicolas Sansone, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group representing the plaintiffs. Authorization of the construction of a monument “in the core of Washington, D.C., on National Park Service land” requires an act of Congress, he said.

The National Park Service assessment confirms what the plaintiffs have said the construction will do to the symbolic and solemn area, he added.

“I think it’s very significant that the National Park Service itself understands that this is the effect that it’s going to have,” Sansone said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella” in moving to drop charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Speaking at an unrelated Oval Office event, Trump ducked questions about whether he’d fire Pirro, a former Fox News host and longtime ally he handpicked as top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. But the president kept up his drumbeat of sharp criticism, saying he remained disappointed by her assessment that damage to the Reflecting Pool was the result of shoddy construction, not vandalism.

“Frankly, I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department, and I guess she choked,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s question after he signed an executive order for military spouses. “I don’t know what the hell happened.”

The move to dismiss charges against David Hearn was an embarrassing setback for the Justice Department and marked a rare moment during Trump’s second term of an aide or political appointee openly defying him. After initially posting on social media over the weekend, “I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro,” Trump was still fuming two days later, insisting for several minutes that vandalism had marred the troubled project.

“I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed,” the president said Monday. “She folded like an umbrella.”

Pirro has not commented publicly since Trump’s initial social media post criticizing her.

Hearn has said he was on a bike ride June 19 when he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool. But he said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

The president also used the opportunity Monday to distance himself from the troubled project, which he had touted as part of his overarching efforts to spruce up the nation’s capital.

Trump said in April that he had consulted with a trio of firms that had worked on swimming pools at his properties and that the one he picked for the Reflecting Pool project had done work at his golf course in Northern Virginia. That firm was Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, which was awarded a $14.7 million no-bid contract to repaint and waterproof its concrete floor.

“I have a guy who’s unbelievable at doing swimming pools,” Trump said then. “He looked at it. He called me up. He said, ‘Sir, we can do something on it.’”

But Trump insisted Monday that “I didn’t know the contractor” and for the first time hinted that he wasn’t pleased by the work that was done to get the Reflecting Pool ready in time for Independence Day celebrations.

“I’m not saying I was 100% thrilled with the contractor, but the contractor was rushing. We wanted to get it open for July Fourth,” he said.

Crews drained the Reflecting Pool weeks ago to launch a new round of repairs. The White House hasn’t said when those might be finished or how much more they will cost, but the Trump administration did not seek new bids from other companies on the new round of repair work.

Trump also said Monday that the Reflecting Pool would be “fixed” and reopened in the next week and a half to two weeks — without providing further details.

BUNIA, Congo — Esther Lutula stopped going for prenatal checkups shortly after the current Ebola outbreak was declared in eastern Congo. Midway into her pregnancy, the 26-year-old feared being put into isolation simply for having a fever, a common misconception.

“That’s why I’m waiting until the disease is no longer widespread,” she told the Associated Press from her home in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and epicenter of the outbreak declared on May 15.

But that could be a deadly mistake.

Maternal mortality across Ituri soon doubled as news of the outbreak spread, with an average of about six women dying per week due to childbirth complication, according to Noemi Dalmonte, deputy country representative of the United Nations Population Fund in Congo.

While there was an average of 3.1 maternal deaths weekly this year before the outbreak, that jumped to 5.8 deaths from May 25 to July 19. Among those, the deaths outside health centers have also jumped from 9.1% to 17.4% within the same period, UNFPA data shows.

As Congo battles the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record, with more than 1,600 confirmed deaths, health and aid workers are warning of a shadow crisis as pregnant women avoid hospitals and the country’s already high maternal mortality rate climbs even more.

While it’s common for Africans to avoid health centers during public health emergencies because of safety concerns, “with Ebola, it is stronger because Ebola has a lot of rumors,” Dalmonte said in an interview.

With some wary residents questioning whether Ebola even exists, and health workers in one of Congo’s most remote and volatile regions struggling to respond to the outbreak with few supplies, pregnant women have less care than ever.

Congo is one of the world’s most dangerous places to give birth

Congo has among the world’s highest rates of both childbirths per woman and deaths around childbirth.

Women in the vast central African nation have almost six children on average. At least 19,000 women died from pregnancy complications in Congo in 2023, according to the latest U.N. data, tied with India and second only to Nigeria globally.

Now health workers in Ituri say they are seeing a decline in hospital visits as people worry about the risk of infection. This type of Ebola has no approved treatment or vaccine.

Women in need of care also fear being caught up in violence. Ebola treatment centers have been attacked by residents fueled by misinformation or anger over strict outbreak measures.

At the Bénédicte Clinic in Bunia, the number of women registered for prenatal care has dropped from 60 each month to around 10, said Sonny Mwembo, the medical director.

Even now, weeks into efforts to battle misinformation, some residents hold mistaken views of the outbreak.

“Right now, if you feel sick and go to the hospital, they say it’s Ebola and they put you in quarantine right away. That’s what scares people,” said Elodie Yabiri, a Bunia resident who is heavily pregnant.

Yabiri said she’s avoiding hospitals as much as she can.

As long as she still feels her unborn child moving, she believes everything is still OK.

Limited healthcare pivots to Ebola instead

The outbreak has strained Congo’s already overstretched healthcare system, complicating access for the pregnant women who still come for prenatal care or birth.

Health facilities in the five affected provinces are redirecting staff and supplies to the response, reducing access to essential maternal care services, according to aid groups.

At least 44 health infected workers have died. Many other health workers have walked off their jobs, protesting a lack of payment. At least 12 attacks have been recorded against health facilities and teams since the outbreak was declared in mid-May.

“We are doing everything we can to make the public understand how dangerous this disease is. We are working day and night without being paid,” said Ghislain Maneba, an epidemiologist and community investigator in Ituri’s Rwampara health zone.

All women are at higher risk in this outbreak

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and severe, often fatal. It spreads in the human population through contact with bodily fluids such as vomit, blood, or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.

Women are usually the primary caregivers when a loved one becomes ill. Many are among frontline health workers in this outbreak as well.

Associated Press journalists covering the outbreak have seen pregnant health workers among the responders.

“It is very important that they know how to protect themselves, that they have the right information,” Dalmonte said.

Pregnant women with Ebola are at an increased risk of problems including miscarriage, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said in its clinical guidance.

Meanwhile, pregnant women who delay care and avoid health facilities “could die not from Ebola itself but because the care that would have saved them was no longer accessible, trusted, or safe,” Dalmonte said.