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  • A 7.1 magnitude quake hits Japan’s southern Kyushu island and dozens are injured or missing

    A 7.1 magnitude quake hits Japan’s southern Kyushu island and dozens are injured or missing

    TOKYO — A 7.1 magnitude earthquake shook Japan ‘s southern main island of Kyushu on Tuesday, leaving dozens of people injured or missing after part of a shopping center and a huge chimney at a paper factory collapsed, officials said. A tsunami advisory was issued but quickly lifted.

    There were fears that at least two people were dead.

    In Kashima Town, the quake collapsed the second floor of the Aeon Mall shopping center, trapping an unknown number of people there, according to the fire department in the prefectural capital of Kumamoto. Japan’s NHK national television said the collapse came after an explosion, believed to have been triggered by a gas leak at the building.

    Four people were pulled out with injuries and taken to a hospital, while 10 others were unaccounted for, the Kumamoto prefectural emergency response team said. It said the extent of the damage was still being investigated as the search and rescue effort continued.

    A 35-year-old male shopkeeper told Japan’s Asahi newspaper that he fled the building after the quake alert, and heard an explosion sounding like a bomb blast about an hour later. When he turned around, he saw enormous white smoke billowing from the mall.

    A female employee at the mall told Japanese broadcaster TBS television that she and her colleagues smelled gas when they returned to their shops after helping customers to evacuate out of the building, then heard the explosion.

    A man interviewed by Yomiuri newspaper said that his friend who works at the mall was missing, and he was praying for those who are unaccounted for to be safely rescued.

    At the Nippon Paper Industries Co.’s Yatsushiro factory, where a chimney collapsed and the building was damaged, 11 people were trapped underneath the debris, the Kumamoto emergency team said. Two of them were later found without vital signs, while the conditions of nine others were unknown, the team said.

    The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said more than 260,000 people were advised to evacuate, most of them in Kumamoto prefecture, but also in the neighboring Nagasaki prefecture.

    The affected area is about 900 kilometers (540 miles) southwest of Tokyo, the country’s capital.

    A tsunami advisory for the Ariake and Yatsushiro Seas on the western coasts of Kumamoto prefecture and three neighboring prefectures was lifted within two hours, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

    Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told journalists that there were reports of damage to roads, bridges and buildings, as well as blackouts and fires, though details were unclear.

    The Fire and Disaster Management Agency said major public facilities or infrastructure were not damaged. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority said no abnormalities were found at three nearby nuclear power plants. Kumamoto police have received more than 100 emergency calls following the quake, NHK said.

    Kyodo News said a hospital in the city of Yatsushiro took in about 40 people with injuries and about 50 others were taken to a hospital in Kumamoto city.

    The quake also affected a number of major manufacturers in Kyushu.

    Toyota Motor Corp. said it has suspended the operations at three of its factories in Kyushu in part because of safety issues, and that they will reopen on Wednesday. Toyota said there were no reports of injuries to people or damage at the plants, though the company was still assessing the situation.

    Honda Motor Co. and Nippon Paper also suspended operations, and Yamato Transport Co. has also stopped delivery services in and out of Kumamoto, the Nikkei business daily said.

    Shinkansen bullet trains and local trains in Kyushu were suspended for safety checks, and the runway at Aso Kumamoto Airport was closed, with “no prospect of resuming operations” anytime soon, according to a notice on the airport’s website. There were no details.

    The Japanese Defense Ministry said it dispatched military aircraft to the area to assess the situation.

    A train derailed and fell on its side at Yatsushiro station, and stone walls were damaged at Kumamoto Castle, a main tourist destination that was badly damaged in the 2016 quake and is still being repaired, Kyodo said.

    “The shaking reminded me of the Kumamoto quake (10 years ago) and I was frightened,” said Hiroki Shimoda, an official at Mifune town hall, who saw roof tiles of nearby homes crash to the ground. Kumamoto was hit with a deadly quake in 2016 that killed at least 50 people.

    Shinji Kiyomoto with the Japan Meteorological Agency urged residents to be cautious over the next two to three days.

    U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ deputy spokesperson extended sympathy to those in danger and the people of Japan.

    “Our hearts go out to the people affected by this earthquake,” said Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson. “The national authorities are leading the response, but we stand ready to support if needed.”

  • Judge rules singer D4vd must stand trial in killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez

    Judge rules singer D4vd must stand trial in killing of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez

    LOS ANGELES — A judge ruled Monday that there is enough evidence to put D4vd on trial in the killing and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who authorities said had threatened to expose their relationship and crater the indie-pop singer’s rising career just a few days before his debut album dropped.

    “i will end ur career and ur life,” she told him in a text message sent the night before her death.

    Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo decided that evidence presented during a preliminary hearing provided probable cause for a trial on charges of murder, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, and unlawful mutilation of human remains.

    The dark and disturbing details presented over five days brought tears, gasps, and horror to the courtroom. The evidence included grisly autopsy photos, explicit descriptions and depictions of sexual abuse, and a stark picture of the final texts she sent minutes before she died and her phone went permanently silent.

    The ruling was a major step in the 10-month investigation and prosecution of D4vd that began when the dismembered and decomposing body of a girl was found in the trunk of his Tesla in the Hollywood Hills in September while he was on tour.

    D4vd shows no emotion as decision is read, and now heads to trial

    D4vd, the 21-year-old whose legal name is David Burke, showed no emotion when the judge issued her ruling, watching calmly and intently in his orange jail clothes and glasses as he had throughout the proceedings.

    He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argued that the murder evidence was insufficient, but did not argue against the other two charges. They declined to comment outside court.

    Prosecutors argued that the evidence was overwhelming.

    “Based on the mountains of evidence presented,” Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said, “all of the allegations have been proved way beyond the standard required.”

    Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said outside court that prosecutors presented only a “small fraction” of the evidence they have. They are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty, but Burke is eligible for it after Olmedo also found probable cause for lying in wait, killing for financial gain, and killing a potential witness, special circumstances in a crime that allow for a death sentence.

    Olmedo ordered that Burke continue to be held without bail. An arraignment is to be held on Aug. 31, and a trial could happen as soon as 60 days later.

    The last night of Celeste Rivas Hernandez

    Before the decision, prosecutors gave a moment-by-moment account of Rivas Hernandez’s last night.

    As she neared his Hollywood home shortly after 10 p.m. on April 23, 2025, in an Uber he had sent to pick her up, she sent her final text: “girly pop i’m almost there open ur door if ur home.”

    Prosecutors allege Burke stabbed her to death when she came through the door.

    The night before, the two argued via text about his relationship with a woman. She sent him an angry and profanity-riddled text saying she will tell her dad so many lies about him and that she would “end ur career and ur life.” She had sent several similar messages around the same time.

    Prosecutors said that Burke met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, and began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18. A year before her death, the pair also exchanged messages about how she had become pregnant — she assured him the baby was his — and that she had an abortion.

    During the preliminary hearing, prosecutors introduced photos of the two of them kissing and lying in bed. The pictures showed that she had “David” tattooed in red ink on a finger — one of two that had been cut off when her body was found.

    Prosecutors said they have records showing Burke ordered chain saws and wading pools that he used to dismember her body in his garage, and that her DNA was found there on blood stains.

    They said he then drove around for weeks and even months with the body in his trunk before the seemingly abandoned Tesla was towed from the Hollywood Hills.

    Defense argues there’s insufficient evidence for murder

    The defense argued that the evidence didn’t show the kind of malice that was required for murder.

    “There’s no evidence that Mr. Burke harbored a deliberate intent to kill Miss Hernandez,” said Burke’s attorney, Marilyn Bednarski.

    She said the communications between Burke and Rivas Hernandez showed “no threat, no evidence of a history of violence” and that he had “the opposite of homicidal malice” toward her.

    She argued that a medical examiner ruling that her death was a homicide from two puncture wounds was too vague and inconclusive to be evidence of murder. The defense did not directly give an alternative theory on how she died and isn’t required to.

    The defense also established that she had asked seven times to come to see him in the days before her death, and he reluctantly agreed only after she demanded it, and that she had threatened to kill Burke and to mutilate him.

    Silverman told the judge that “the defense tried numerous times throughout these proceedings to dirty up the victim” despite her being a child.

    Farrell, the detective, also said under defense questioning that the parents of both Burke and Rivas Hernandez knew about their relationship, that he had attended church with members of her family, and that her parents had given their consent for her to go to London with him for a week.

    Patrick Steinfeld, an attorney for Rivas Hernandez’s family, said after the hearing that they were “horrified that the defense attorneys brought up evidence to put the blame on a 14-year-old girl.”

    Her parents sat in the front row through most of the hearing, but sat out some of the more graphic parts and left in the middle of the sexual testimony after her mother began crying.

    D4vd’s career was reaching new heights at time of killing

    D4vd (pronounced “David”) became an online musical phenomenon as a teen with a blend of indie rock, R&B, and lo-fi pop. He had huge followings on TikTok, Soundcloud, and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays.

    In 2024 he played the Coachella music festival and released his first full-length album, Withered, two days after authorities say Rivas Hernandez was killed.

  • FIFA plan for Kushner-backed $20 billion operation to run World Cup meets fury from Europe’s UEFA

    FIFA plan for Kushner-backed $20 billion operation to run World Cup meets fury from Europe’s UEFA

    GENEVA — FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s plan to create a $20 billion company running the World Cup with private investors including the Kushner family was announced Tuesday — and immediately attacked by European soccer body UEFA.

    “It is not FIFA’s to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “None of us are the owners of football.”

    Infantino’s plans to form a commercial subsidiary, which would be called FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), running competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup was first reported by The Times of London.

    FIFA said in a statement FFE would raise up to $4.2 billion later this year to help fund development programs “based on an initial equity valuation of $20 billion by carefully selecting long-term investors who will purchase minority, non-controlling interests.”

    FIFA is working with J.P. Morgan while intended investors include Thrive Eternal launched by Joshua Kushner, whose brother Jared Kushner is a son-in-law of U.S. President Donald Trump.

    The men’s World Cup that finished this month only deepened the political and personal ties between Trump and Infantino, and fueled concerns about those ties including from UEFA.

    “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” UEFA said Tuesday, responding to the reports of selling stakes in FIFA competitions.

    FIFA is currently a Swiss-based not-for-profit association of its 211 national member federations worldwide.

    Those members must approve any plan and would get the chance “to access up to $20 million in one-off capital,” FIFA said.

    “This is about the democratization of football worldwide,” Infantino said in a FIFA statement, which added that “a consultation process has begun.”

    UEFA, however, said it took reports of the project “extremely seriously. So should every national Football Association.”

    “This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” said UEFA, which comprises 55 of the FIFA members.

    FIFA’s $20M offer to member federations

    The outline of Tuesday’s surprise announcement was, FIFA said, detailed by Infantino to members who met in Manhattan on July 18 ahead of the World Cup final. There, Infantino promised to “unleash the commercial potential and opportunity that FIFA has.”

    FIFA’s statement Tuesday about its proposed project led on how much money each of its 211 members could get through 2038 in the “FIFA Fast-Forward Program.”

    Instead of the currently promised $8 million each in development funds through the 2027-30 World Cup commercial cycle, it would be $20 million, then $22 million and $24 million in the following cycles.

    FIFA banked record World Cup income of about $12 billion from the 2026 tournament which had unprecedented high prices for tickets and hospitality across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It already was unclear how that money could be matched from Spain, Portugal and Morocco co-hosting the 2030 men’s edition.

    Member federations could choose if they wanted to take part in the new financial opportunities, FIFA said.

    “FIFA would retain sole control of FFE and exclusive authority over football governance, competitions, match calendar, and all regulatory and sporting decisions,” the soccer body said.

    FIFA’s integrity standards were called into question during the World Cup, including by team coaches, Norway’s soccer federation and a top European public body, the Council of Europe.

    FIFA’s previous attempt to privatize assets

    The project announced Tuesday is the second time in Infantino’s increasingly controversial 11-year presidency he has tried to push through a multi-billion dollar deal with private backers.

    In 2018, Infantino proposed a secretive $25 billion offer over 12 years with SoftBank of Japan to create new global competitions, including an expanded men’s Club World Cup, seemingly backed by Saudi Arabian money.

    That ultimately failed after meeting fierce resistance from UEFA, which saw threats to its prize assets: the Champions League and the European Championship.

    Infantino still built closer ties to Saudi soccer and the kingdom’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Saudi Arabia will host the 2034 World Cup and largely funded the revamped men’s Club World Cup hosted in the U.S. last year.

    Infantino’s future?

    The financial success of the just-ended World Cup has looked likely to ensure Infantino is re-elected next year unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031.

    At his re-election by acclaim in 2023 in Rwanda, Infantino suggested any CEO delivering similar financial results would be kept in the job forever.

    Speculation has swirled for years Infantino might want a different global role in soccer beyond his FIFA presidency, which is due to end when he is 61.

    The Times reported Tuesday that a CEO-like commissioner role of the new FFE operation could be created for Infantino.

    “This has never been discussed,” FIFA said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the FIFA president and the FIFA administration will and must have leading roles in this entity — if approved.”

    There was no timetable suggested Tuesday for debate and decisions by FIFA, its ruling Council chaired by Infantino, and the 211 members.

    FIFA is scheduled to hold an online congress on Nov. 23 to confirm hosts of the Women’s World Cup editions in 2031 and 2035.

  • Ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool sees ‘irregularities’ in grand jury proceedings

    Ex-Olympian charged with damaging Reflecting Pool sees ‘irregularities’ in grand jury proceedings

    WASHINGTON — A former Olympian charged with deliberately damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is seeking access to all of the closed-door testimony that led to his indictment, pointing to “irregularities” in those grand jury proceedings.

    In a court filing Monday, David Hearn’s attorneys requested an order for the government to turn over a complete transcript of all grand jury proceedings. They also want prosecutors to disclose the legal instructions they gave to grand jurors about the elements of Hearn’s alleged crime.

    Hearn pleaded not guilty earlier this month to one felony count of property destruction and has a trial scheduled to start Sept. 28 in D.C. Superior Court. The charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years upon conviction, accuses Hearn of causing at least $1,000 in damage to the pool.

    But his lawyers question whether prosecutors properly presented the grand jury with adequate evidence to support the amount of damage alleged in Hearn’s indictment. A National Park Service official testified that the pool already was damaged before Hearn allegedly touched it, couldn’t quantify any damage attributable to Hearn and said the same repairs would have been required regardless of his conduct, defense attorneys said.

    “The witness’s testimony established that the pool had substantial preexisting damage requiring repair before any alleged conduct by Mr. Hearn,” his lawyers wrote. “According to the witness, the pool was leaking more than one million gallons of water per week; its expansion joints had exceeded their service life; and the liner already contained a rip.”

    Hearn’s attorneys are basing those arguments on their limited review of grand jury testimony. They want court-ordered access to all the proceedings.

    A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office in Washington didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Hearn’s arguments.

    Hearn previously asked the court to dismiss the case, which stems from the troubled multimillion-dollar renovation project championed by President Donald Trump. His attorneys argued the government has failed to properly preserve important physical evidence from the Reflecting Pool.

    Trump, a Republican, has claimed that vandals have damaged the pool, but administration critics attribute the problems to shoddy repair work. During a speech Monday at General Motors in Michigan, Trump claimed a “sick” person cut the liner in the pool but said the attraction is receiving treatment.

    “It’s in the hospital now, but it’s going to get better very soon,” Trump said. “It’s almost ready to open.”

    Hearn and his supporters claim his prosecution is a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to deflect blame and scapegoat others.

    Hearn told The Associated Press he was detained by National Guard troops and U.S. Park Police for five hours after stopping by the pool during a bike ride on June 19. He said he reached in to examine the pool’s newly peeled coating and briefly touched a chunk attached to the side of the pool, but said he obeyed a park worker who told him to let go of it.

    Hearn, 67, of Bethesda, Maryland, competed in three Summer Olympics, earning his best finish, ninth, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee says on its website.

    At least three other people have been charged in the same court with misdemeanors for allegedly removing pieces of paint from the pool.

  • 15-year-old arrested at Seattle food festival shooting was armed with a ghost gun, police say

    15-year-old arrested at Seattle food festival shooting was armed with a ghost gun, police say

    SEATTLE — The 15-year-old arrested after a shootout at a food festival near Seattle’s Space Needle over the weekend was armed with a ghost gun with an extended magazine, police said Tuesday.

    Police Chief Shon Barnes told a news conference that the weapon was a 9 mm gun from Polymer80 — a now-defunct company that was once a leading manufacturer of ghost gun parts.

    Investigators also recovered two other weapons and 14 shell casings that had been fired by weapons of two different calibers, he said.

    Shooting killed 3 people and injured 4, including a toddler

    The shooting in the waning hours of the three-day Bite of Seattle festival left three people dead, including a 19-year-old gunman, and at least four people injured, including a toddler. Authorities say they believe the violence was gang-related, and they are reviewing any available surveillance video and interviewing victims and witnesses in an effort to identify others who may have been involved.

    An eighth person with a possible gunshot wound checked themself into a Seattle hospital after the shooting, but checked out before investigators could conduct an interview, Barnes said. Legal obstacles have prevented detectives from obtaining the patient’s identity, he added. It’s unclear if the injury was related to the festival shooting or whether the person might have been involved in it, but Barnes asked for the person to come forward and speak with investigators.

    Ghost guns lack serial numbers law enforcement can use to trace them

    Ghost guns are privately made — often homemade — firearms that lack serial numbers used to trace them. They have often been purchased without a background check. Law enforcement officials say ghost guns, including those made with 3D printers, have been used in violent crimes across the U.S.

    Lawsuits and state-level bans eventually pushed Polymer80 out of business in 2024, and last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a rule adopted under former President Joe Biden requiring companies to treat gun kits like other firearms by adding serial numbers, running background checks, and verifying that buyers are 21 or older.

    The weapon the 15-year-old had been shooting when he surrendered to police was equipped with an extended 33-round magazine, Barnes said. The magazine still had 19 rounds in it.

    At the scene Sunday night, police also recovered a 9 mm handgun that they do not believe was used in the shooting.

    And on Monday, as food vendors were allowed to return to the area to clean up and collect their equipment, a third weapon was discovered: a Glock 45 model 9 mm with a switch allowing it to fire fully automatically, Barnes said. Police believe that gun was fired during the shooting. It had an extended 40-round magazine, with 21 rounds remaining in it.

    Police believe there were at least 3 shooters

    In a document filed in juvenile court in Seattle on Monday, police said they believed there were at least three shooters: the 15-year-old, an acquaintance who died at the scene, and “at least one other unknown suspect.” Authorities had earlier said they believed there were two.

    A judge on Monday ordered the 15-year-old to be held in juvenile detention for investigation of assault and firearms charges pending further hearings. The King County prosecutor’s office said it expected to receive the case from police on Wednesday for a charging decision. Hong Tran, a public defender assigned to the teen’s case, declined to comment in an email to the Associated Press on Tuesday.

    The King County Medical Examiner’s Office on Monday identified the dead as Carlos Israel Sanchez Villalba, 44; Ashley Whitehead, 56; and Junior Cee Niko Semo, 19.

    Victims remembered as a kind man, and a ‘free spirit’

    Villalba was a husband and father of three known for his kindness and willingness to help others, according to a GoFundMe campaign launched Monday to help his family with funeral expenses. He died from a gunshot wound to his torso, while Whitehead died from a gunshot to her pelvis, and Semo died from multiple gunshot wounds, according to the medical examiner’s office.

    Whitehead had just moved to Washington from Alabama a year ago and was enjoying the festival with one of her adult daughters when she was shot, her cousin Michelle Whitehead told the Associated Press. She was taken to the hospital and died in surgery, she said.

    Ashley Whitehead adored her two adult daughters, and also loved nature and arts and crafts, her cousin said.

    “I would consider her just a free spirit. She had the best sense of humor, the best gorgeous smile,” she said.

    During a vigil Monday night at the center, Michelle Whitehead stood among dozens of others with a sign that said “Whitehead Strong” as the group held a moment of silence and raised up flashlights on their phones to honor those that had been killed. Candles and flowers were arranged around them.

    The four wounded included a 2-year-old boy, two men, ages 23 and 27, and a woman, 39, all of whom were discharged, a hospital spokesperson said.

    One of the victims was walking a bicycle when struck, the court document said. The toddler was with his mother.

  • Zelensky has a ‘good meeting’ with Trump at the White House as he seeks more cooperation with U.S.

    Zelensky has a ‘good meeting’ with Trump at the White House as he seeks more cooperation with U.S.

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Tuesday ahead of Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and “other ideas that could help” in its ongoing war against Russia.

    The sit-down in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the NATO summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where Trump announced that the U.S. will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defense systems — a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks.

    In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelensky thanked Trump for the “good meeting” and the Republican administration’s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war, which began more than four years ago when Russia invaded Ukraine.

    “The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help,” said Zelensky, who also noted that he offered condolences to Trump for the death of Graham, a close ally. “We also spoke about diplomacy – it’s important that the diplomatic process be reinvigorated.”

    White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said both the Zelensky meeting and a separate, later sit-down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were “positive and productive.”

    Trump welcomed Zelensky to the White House as the Ukrainian leader traveled to Washington to honor Graham, whose final act as a public official was visiting Kyiv and securing an agreement on a package of sanctions that seek to punish countries that purchase Russian oil, gas, and other exports.

    In a Fox News Channel interview on Tuesday, Trump recalled Graham’s hawkishness and said the Republican South Carolina senator’s support for Ukraine never wavered. Trump said Graham had suggested it was time to make a deal with Iran but had no similar suggestion for the Russia-Ukraine war.

    “Ukraine, he’s very militant about,” Trump said on Fox & Friends. “I mean, Lindsey liked war, to be honest with you.”

    The Trump administration’s embrace of Zelensky comes as a far-right activist with the U.S. president’s ear had a recent, widely publicized change of heart on Russia’s war against Ukraine.

    Laura Loomer, known primarily for her incendiary social media posts and her influence with Trump, has been traveling through Ukraine, witnessing Moscow’s barrage firsthand, and interviewing Zelensky while admitting she was “bamboozled by Russian propaganda.”

    Loomer said she spoke to Trump after she met with Zelensky in Ukraine last week and she expects to meet with the U.S. president once she returns from her trip.

    “It’s looking good for Ukraine, right?” Loomer said during an interview with the Associated Press. “Going into this meeting next week at the Oval Office is looking pretty good.”

    Ahead of the meeting, Zelensky also warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of U.S. bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran. The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a “clear correlation” between Russia’s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.

    “The purpose is clear,” Zelensky said earlier this month. “None of us in the world should turn a blind eye to one very simple fact: Evil always seeks ways to make things worse and spread further.”

    But on Monday, Trump downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran.

    “I don’t think they’ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled to Michigan. “And if they have, it has been very un-impactful.”

    Still, he said he would raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

    Zelensky has a busy itinerary during his latest visit to Washington. Besides his White House meeting, Zelensky was to head to the Capitol to meet with senators on Tuesday evening after Graham’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

    Republican leadership is hoping to advance Graham’s sanctions legislation this week, although the Senate is juggling several other priorities before lawmakers leave Washington for their August recess.

    The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world’s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.

    The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.

  • Lawmakers seek ban on using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims

    Lawmakers seek ban on using campaign funds to fight sexual harassment claims

    Federal politicians would be barred from using campaign contributions to fight or settle sexual misconduct allegations under a bill announced Tuesday by two House members from opposite sides of the political spectrum.

    The proposal, from Reps. Ro Khanna (D-California) and Anna Paulina Luna (R-Florida), aims to further shape the debate over how Congress should move forward from a spate of sexual misconduct scandals this spring, which prompted the creation of a bipartisan working group to revise the policies protecting Capitol Hill staffers. Both Khanna and Luna have been active on the issue.

    Khanna said politicians would behave better if they had to rely on their own financial resources when they get into trouble rather than being able to dip into campaign accounts or legal-defense funds.

    “That creates this culture of impunity where people think they’re untouchable,” Khanna said in an interview.

    “There’s such a power asymmetry,” he said, because of “the extraordinary legal advantage that elected officials have.”

    The progressive Khanna came into national prominence last fall as he helped force the release of federal investigative files related to financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, over the objections of President Donald Trump.

    Khanna is collaborating on the bill with the conservative Luna, one of several Republican women lawmakers who have begun demanding more consequences for alleged sexual misconduct by their colleagues. She led the charge in April against Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), filing a complaint with the Senate that was dismissed last month with no findings that he violated federal law or broke Senate rules.

    The bill would prohibit elected officials and candidates for federal office from using campaign donations or a legal-defense fund to cover legal fees related to claims of sexual assault, sexual abuse or sexual harassment. If they are not held liable, they could be reimbursed for expenses.

    Luna said the proposed change is overdue and would serve as a “massive deterrent” amid a culture of sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill that has gotten out of hand.

    “It is not what the Founding Fathers intended for members of Congress,” she said. “It’s a perversion of the system.”

    The proposal would also make campaign contributions off-limits for paying settlements or court-ordered judgments for sexual misconduct claims, as well as for private investigators and other research into the accusers.

    Khanna said that politicians would still be able to tap into their savings to defend themselves like most other Americans but that they should not be allowed to fundraise for what frequently amounts to public relations activities more than actual legal work.

    “In most of the cases, they’re being used to smear survivors,” he said.

    The bill emerged from conversations with activists supporting women who have come forward in recent months with accusations of sexual misconduct by politicians, including former congressman Eric Swalwell (D-California).

    In April, the San Francisco Chronicle spoke to a former Swalwell staffer who said he sexually assaulted her. CNN reported more allegations of inappropriate behavior, and a second woman accused Swalwell of raping her. He has categorically denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, calling them a political hit job, though he acknowledged some “mistakes in judgment.”

    Swalwell dropped out of the race for California governor and then resigned from office within days. But he has since spent $50,000 from an old congressional campaign account, as well as hundreds of thousands from contributions to his gubernatorial bid, on prominent defense attorney Sara Azari. Her firm hired a private investigator to look into the allegations, according to NOTUS.

    “Many of those women were forced back into hiding, and this ordeal is still not over for them,” said Cheyenne Hunt, an influencer who worked with some of the accusers and subsequently launched the advocacy group Reckoning Action.

    That’s retaliation, Hunt said, and a “bad-faith use” of campaign funds.

    “No donor gives to a campaign thinking, ‘Yes, I want my money to go toward harassing a survivor,’” she said. “This truly feels like such a no-brainer.”

    Despite bipartisan support for the bill, its prospects are uncertain. Congress has struggled to pass major legislative priorities this year, and only two months of floor time remain for the rest of the session.

    Other ideas for improving how Capitol Hill handles sexual misconduct complaints are also circulating. A group that says it represents more than 1,500 congressional staffers released a letter this month calling to expand legal representation for employees, make independent investigations easier to trigger, and provide more time to file workplace claims.

    With the blessing of congressional leadership, the Republican and Democratic women’s caucuses united in the spring to develop recommendations for making Congress a safer work environment. Their proposed solutions are forthcoming.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) recently said he would support banning lawmakers from having sexual relationships with any congressional staffers, not just their own subordinates.

  • Kentucky governor demands that McConnell prove he is fit to serve or resign

    Kentucky governor demands that McConnell prove he is fit to serve or resign

    WASHINGTON — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a rising national figure in the Democratic Party, is calling on the state’s Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell to either prove that he is fit to continue serving after his lengthy hospital stay or resign from office.

    Beshear made the demand in a letter after McConnell’s office said Monday that the 84-year-old senator had not yet been medically cleared to leave the rehabilitation facility where he has been undergoing physical therapy. The office said he would miss a major Kentucky political event and upcoming Senate votes. McConnell was hospitalized June 14 and disclosed weeks later that it was the result of a fall.

    Beshear, who is widely viewed as a potential presidential candidate in 2028, first urged McConnell in early July to release more information about his condition after weeks of public silence. His letter Tuesday marked a significant escalation.

    “I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Beshear wrote to McConnell.

    Beshear also sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging him to investigate McConnell’s condition if the senator does not demonstrate that he is capable of continuing to serve.

    McConnell and Thune’s offices did not provide comment on the letter.

    McConnell, who led Senate Republicans for nearly two decades, has long guarded his personal life. Since he was hospitalized last month, his office has issued major updates on July 12 and July 27, each accompanied by a single photograph.

    But public scrutiny of aging elected officials has intensified after several recent health episodes and deaths in office, including the deaths of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein in 2023 and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham earlier this month, as well as President Joe Biden’s decision not to seek reelection after concerns about his age and health became a dominant political issue.

    In the absence of regular public updates from McConnell himself, speculation about his condition has grown online.

    “All of this speculation and even this letter could have been avoided with a minimal amount of transparency,” Beshear wrote to Thune.

  • Workplaces look for cheaper AI as ‘tokenmaxxing’ fades as a corporate fad

    Workplaces look for cheaper AI as ‘tokenmaxxing’ fades as a corporate fad

    A corporate fad of “tokenmaxxing” on artificial intelligence technology is hitting its limits as workplaces throwing AI at everything are seeing the costs rise without a similar spike in productivity.

    What started as tech industry-fueled springtime hype over squeezing as much AI-generated work as possible out of products like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude has shifted to a summertime backlash.

    “It’s very easy to create something you don’t need with AI,” said Vincent Gusdorf, head of AI analytics at Moody’s Ratings and author of a new report that recommends a more disciplined approach.

    “Tokenmaxxing” refers to maximizing usage of tokens — the building blocks of generative AI that correspond to small pieces of text that an AI system reads or writes. Each token is about three quarters of a word. And there’s typically a limit to how many you can use, with pricier versions of AI products offering higher caps.

    “As bills started to pile in, people realized that those new tools are quite expensive and you need to use them wisely,” Gusdorf said.

    Tech executives cast high AI usage as a badge of honor

    Just a few months ago, Silicon Valley executives were promoting high token consumption as a signal of high-performing employees. The stereotypical tokenmaxxer was staying up late — perhaps ignoring their significant other — while orchestrating an army of 24-hour AI agents performing work on their behalf.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in May he was “excited to see what will happen with tokenmaxxing startups, both for how they work internally and the products they can build.”

    Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said “if your $500K engineer isn’t burning $250K in tokens, something is wrong.” Facebook parent Meta had an internal competition rewarding token usage.

    The trend boosted revenue for leading AI large language model developers like Anthropic and OpenAI, but it fizzled as it became apparent it wasn’t necessarily the best strategy for everyone else.

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has admitted that tokenmaxxing can be addictive but warned in a recent blog post that customers of those models are paying twice for AI, first in spending on tokens and second by feeding all their proprietary data to them. While promoting Microsoft’s own approach, Nadella’s comments were unusual in the way he raised doubts about the data protection assurances of leading AI providers.

    Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies speaks during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 20.Markus Schreiber

    Palantir CEO Alex Karp went further, telling CNBC earlier this month that something had gone “completely wrong.” He said he was channeling the voice of American businesses privately “livid” about paying so much for tokens that create no value.

    “The basic view among enterprises in this country is, ‘I’m going to chillax and waste my time with tokens. I’m going to get no value and they’re going to get my IP,” said, a Haverford College graduate with ties to the Philadelphia area.

    Workplaces look more for better ‘routing’ of their AI work

    Bain & Company management consultant Jue Wang said many of the big businesses her firm advises have been taking a closer look at returns on their AI investments.

    “The token cost for them has been doubling, almost every other month,” she said. “Let’s say $200 per developer per month. Multiply that by 20,000 developers, which is often what we’re dealing with at these companies, and that quickly gets you to a number that is not a line item that any general manager has planned for.”

    Sometimes that just means not using the AI equivalent of a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

    “Not everything needs a Claude Opus 4.6,” she said of one of Anthropic’s more capable models suited to software engineering or deep research. “And yet you see so many companies, so many users, default to using Opus for everything, including generating emails.”

    That’s led to a search for tools that do AI “model routing” — in which easier queries get automatically sent to cheaper and more efficient AI systems and more complex tasks go to more powerful models.

    Open-source AI models built in China offer less costly alternatives

    Software developer Hassan El Mghari said companies’ sticker shock over the “ridiculous amount of money” spent on subscriptions to AI products from leading U.S. companies has led many away from rewarding high usage.

    “It’s better to kind of just empower employees on how to use this stuff and let them use AI when and however much they need to,” said El Mghari, who leads developer experience at the startup Together AI, which supplies developers with a variety of “open-source” AI models.

    At the same time, those who favor racking up as many tokens as possible are having a field day with new open-source models from Chinese startups like Moonshot’s Kimi or Zhipu’s GLM, which nearly match the capabilities of top U.S. models at a fraction of the price.

    “There is some validity to the theory that this could push tokenmaxxing a little bit further,” said Raffi Krikorian, the chief technology officer at Mozilla. “But if we look at the industry overall, I think it’s realizing that tokenmaxxing is a dumb thing.”

    It’s similar, Krikorian said, to how software companies once considered how many lines of code a programmer wrote to be a good metric of productivity. That later fell out of favor.

    “I think tokenmaxxing is moving through the exact same pattern,” he said. “I think this is going to be an interesting blip that we’re all going to look back to laugh at in a year.”

  • Joe Biden interviews with memoir ghostwriter reveal him discussing sensitive information

    Joe Biden interviews with memoir ghostwriter reveal him discussing sensitive information

    Newly released audio tapes, disclosed by a conservative activist group, appear to show Joe Biden sharing classified information with a biographer and sometimes claiming memory lapses during interviews that occurred before his election to the presidency in 2020.

    About three hours of audio and 117 pages of transcripts — with many redactions — were released by the Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation, after Biden lost a prolonged legal fight to keep his conversations with his memoir ghostwriter, Mark Lewis Zwonitzer, private.

    “They didn’t even know I had this,” Biden told Zwonitzer in October 2016, near the end of his second term as Barack Obama’s vice president, as he talked about sensitive foreign policy matters handled by the administration.

    In one 2017 session, after Biden had left the West Wing and before he’d launched his own presidential campaign, he appeared to admit retaining classified information from his time as vice president.

    “I just found all the classified stuff downstairs,” Biden said. “I wrote the President a handwritten 40-page memorandum arguing against deploying additional troops to Iraq — I mean, to Afghanistan on the grounds that it wouldn’t matter, that the day we left would be like the day before we arrived.”

    The potentially classified information itself is redacted in both the audio and transcripts that the Oversight Project released.

    The right-wing group first sued to obtain the tapes after Special Counsel Robert Hur decided in 2024 not to charge Biden for how he handled classified information. Biden cooperated with Hur’s inquiry and told the special prosecutor during his presidency that he did not intentionally mishandle any classified material.

    Hur, who obtained the tapes as part of his inquiry, said in announcing his decision that he believed a jury would find Biden a sympathetic figure because of his age and what Hur described as a “poor memory” — a statement that became a flashpoint in public debate about Biden’s age and fitness for the presidency.

    Biden was 74 when the interviews began. He was 81 and seeking reelection when Hur released his report in early 2024, though Biden later ended his campaign for a second term after a halting debate performance against Republican Donald Trump.

    The tapes contain instances of Biden being unable to recall some dates and details of topics he was discussing with Zwonitzer. Biden also showed a command of many details, recalling meetings and details of conversations referenced in the notes he shared.

    At the Oversight Project, vice president of litigation Jeff Clark insisted the tapes prove Biden’s decline.

    “The tapes have always belonged to the American People, the Oversight Project just delivered them to their rightful owner,” Clark said in a statement. “The knowledge of his deterioration was well-established.”

    A Biden spokesperson blasted the release as politically motivated.

    “President Biden’s conversations for a book a decade ago that discussed his late son are private, and were provided to the Department of Justice on the express condition they stay that way,” said TJ Ducklo. “Reversing course and making them public is just the latest example of this Administration weaponizing the DOJ for political retribution.”

    Biden initially sued to stop the Department of Justice from releasing the material, claiming the conversations were private. But he dropped his suit after a divided panel of appeals court judges rejected his bid. Biden could have petitioned the Supreme Court to intervene or asked for a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

    In a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel from the circuit court found a “substantial” public interest in disclosing the material.