LUY-Development

Category: National News Feed

  • US gas prices back up to an average of $4 a gallon again as the US and Iran launch attacks

    NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. gas prices jumped back to $4 a gallon on average Monday, as Washington’s latest fighting with Iran renews strain on the flow of fuel worldwide.

    According to motor club AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline is now just above the $4 mark. That’s about 13 cents more expensive than it was a week ago, and far higher than where prices at the pump stood at this time last year, when American drivers could fill up for about $3.14 a gallon on average.

    The U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran plunged the world into a global energy crisis, notably as the cost of crude oil — the main ingredient in gasoline — soared due to supply chain and production disruptions across the Middle East.

    Energy prices cooled last month when Washington and Tehran reached an interim agreement aimed at permanently ending their fighting and reviving traffic in the key Strait of Hormuz. But that peace deal has now crumbled — with the U.S. on Monday only intensifying airstrikes against Iran, which has responded by launching its own attacks on American allies in the region. And oil flows are largely stalling again.

    Many eyes are on the White House. Before co-launching the war in late February, President Donald Trump once bragged about keeping gas prices low — and expressed frustration about them not falling as quickly as the cost of crude oil last month. If prices continue to rebound, expensive gas will likely be at the top of voters’ minds during the midterm elections this November.

    Here’s what we know.

    Where gas prices stand today

    Again, U.S. gas prices are now back at the $4 mark. But that figure is a national average, meaning drivers in some states have been paying well over $4 a gallon for a while now, while others pay less.

    California on Monday continued to see the most expensive gas, with an average of nearly $5.50 a gallon — followed by almost $5.42 in Hawaii and $5.01 in Washington state, per AAA. Meanwhile, states like Indiana and Mississippi have averages closer to $3.35 and $3.57, respectively. Prices vary between due to factors ranging from nearby supply to differing tax rates.

    Crude oil is the main ingredient in gasoline, and its cost makes up the bulk of what consumers pay at the pump. There’s a bit of a delay because refineries buy crude in advance, and deliveries of that oil take time. But the latest gas prices follow an uptick in oil costs seen over recent weeks. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, swung between roughly $86 to $91 a barrel Monday — compared to closer to $72 at the start of July.

    Oil has been volatile throughout the course of the war, with prices soaring more rapidly in the conflict’s early days. In March, Brent climbed as high as nearly $120 per barrel. Meanwhile, U.S. gas prices hit a four-year record of more than $4.50 a gallon in May.

    The national average fell to as low as $3.79 a gallon earlier this month. And the latest turnaround is bringing whiplash to some drivers.

    “I am down to the last drops of gas,” said Litza Mavrothalasitis, a Chicago resident, when filling her tank on Monday, adding that she was shocked to see how high it had gone up again. “It was just unbelievable. I thought we were finally settling down.”

    Jacob Fisher, another Chicago resident who was buying gas on Monday, added that thinking about what’s behind these higher fuel costs “makes me angry.”

    “Senseless war in Iran, and our current administration is fueling a lot of this — and it’s terrible,” Fisher said. “It is not serving the American people. Nor does it serve anywhere in the entire world.”

    White House’s response and the road ahead

    White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement Monday that “oil and gas prices will plummet back to pre-conflict levels” as the U.S. military degrades Iran’s ability to attack vessels and disrupt trade in the Strait of Hormuz, where roughly a fifth of the world’s oil sailed through during peacetime.

    “President Trump remains committed to unleashing American energy dominance, cutting costs, and putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking American families,” Rogers added.

    Still, the escalation of attacks and confusion over future control of Hormuz has fueled uncertainty. All the while, traffic in the key waterway has stalled — with analysts from S&P Global Energy noting Monday that vessel crossings fell 50% last week compared to the week prior.

    “The continued predominance of Iran-linked and sanctioned vessels suggests mainstream shipowners remain cautious about transiting the waterway,” the analysts added.

    Even if fighting ends, experts have repeatedly warned it could take months, if not longer, for supply chains to return to prewar levels. Last month, S&P Global Energy said it did not expect Persian Gulf oil production to rebound fully until at least the first quarter of 2027.

    Gas isn’t the only necessity getting more expensive

    Beyond gasoline, fuel like diesel — which powers many freight and long-haul trucks — is also back on the rise. On Monday, diesel averaged at nearly $5.11 a gallon in the U.S., per AAA, up from $4.88 just a week ago.

    American households have already collectively paid nearly $71.1 billion in extra costs for gas and diesel alone since the war began, according to an online tracker from Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs.

    Beyond pain at the pump, higher fuel prices raise transportation costs across businesses. And shortages of other core necessities — like fertilizer — have also worsened amid the war. Groceries, airline tickets and even goods like condoms and shoes have gotten more expensive in recent months.

    Supply shocks have been even starker in places that rely more heavily on imports from the Middle East — notably countries across Asia and Africa.

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    AP journalists Laura Bargfeld in Chicago and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report.

  • Nolan Wells remembered for his gentle spirit as Rev. Al Sharpton demands truth about his death


    OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. (AP) — Family members and supporters of Nolan Xavier Wells filled a Mississippi church Monday to mourn and celebrate the 18-year-old, as the Rev. Al Sharpton pleaded for new evidence addressing the “many unanswered questions” around the teenager’s July 4 disappearance.

    The funeral opened with tearful remarks from Wells’ parents, who described their son as a warm and gentle presence, a role model to his younger siblings and a gifted athlete with NFL ambitions.

    “He had a way of making people feel seen, welcomed and valued,” said his mother, Christine Wonsley. “He could lift your confidence with just a few words and make you feel like you belong.”

    In a fiery eulogy, Sharpton then promised a $100,000 reward for any new information about the circumstances around Wells’ death, which came following a boat trip with friends to Horn Island, off the Gulf Coast.

    Half of the sum will be covered by the actor and producer Tyler Perry, who also paid for the funeral, Sharpton noted.

    “Somebody knows something,” Sharpton continued, drawing applause from the crowd that included the director Spike Lee, former NFL player Terrell Owens and many prominent Black clergy.

    “Let every stone be rolled back and every veil be torn asunder and let truth pop out of the ground like a flower,” he continued.

    Wells, who was Black, had traveled to Horn Island — a popular Fourth of July destination — with a group of friends from high school, all of whom are white. He did not return with them to the mainland that evening, officials said. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast.

    Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said initial interviews suggested Wells chose to stay on the island and that his friends believed he would get a ride with someone else. The friends were cooperating with investigators, according to the sheriff.

    But the still-unknown circumstances leading to Wells’ disappearance have fueled rampant online speculation and galvanized leaders in the Black community, including some who have expressed skepticism about the independence and transparency of the investigation.

    In his eulogy, Sharpton urged those following the case to withhold judgement until more information becomes available. But he also questioned why Wells’ phone and keys were found with his friends, why they had not immediately called police after realizing he was missing and why local officials appeared so quick to dismiss the possibility of foul play.

    Invoking the history of racist violence in Mississippi, including the lynching of Emmett Till and assassination of Medgar Evers, Sharpton continued, addressing the state’s law enforcement authorities: “Before we can medicate and heal today, we’ve got to look at your history.”

    The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, then led the crowd in a chant of “Nolan’s life mattered,” as Wells’ mother sobbed into the shoulder of her husband, Elmore Wonsley.

    At a news conference following the funeral, Crump said they were still waiting on the results of an independent autopsy. The official autopsy has also not been released.

    Crump had said he is working alongside the local prosecutor to inspect Wells’ phone. The prosecutor has agreed to present the results of the investigation to a grand jury once it is completed, according to Crump.

    “They went out on the boat, the boat came back, and Nolan washed up on the shore two days later dead,” he said at the funeral Monday. “Wouldn’t you want answers?”

    Wells, who would have turned 19 next month, played wide receiver on the football team at Southwest Mississippi Community College in Summit, Mississippi, and had aspirations of playing at a high-level Division I program.

    At the funeral, Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, recalled the hours the two spent studying game tape and running drills on the beach.

    “I nicknamed you Mr. Cool Hands because it seemed like you were catching a touchdown every game,” the father said through tears.

    “Our son meant a lot to a of people,” he concluded. “Today shows us how much he meant to the community, the country and the world.”

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    Associated Press video journalist Sophie Bates in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.


  • FDA still focused on lettuce supplier as source of parasite, despite faulty test result

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials said Monday they remain focused on lettuce from Taylor Farms as the source of a multistate outbreak of a diarrhea-causing parasite, despite inaccurate test results that the government briefly publicized over the weekend.

    Food and Drug Administration officials on Monday said a laboratory test incorrectly identified a positive result for cyclospora on a sample of lettuce from Taylor Farms. The FDA posted the finding to its website on Saturday but then said Sunday that the result had been a false positive.

    Federal and state authorities have been investigating a rise in cases of the parasite, initially linking the outbreak in five states to lettuce served at Taco Bell locations. On Saturday, Taylor Farms announced it was recalling 25 shredded lettuce and salad mix products sold under eight different brand codes. The products are used by a number of U.S. food chains and suppliers.

    “FDA’s traceback investigation and the outbreak data continue to converge on shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms’ locations in central Mexico,” FDA’s acting food chief, Donald Prater, told reporters on Monday.

    In addition to tracing the supply chain of lettuce, FDA staff have begun testing samples of produce coming across the U.S. border.

    FDA officials on Monday said the false positive result came from a rapid test used to screen for traces of cyclospora. The sample that initially appeared positive for the parasite came from Taylor Farms but was not part of the company’s lettuce recall. FDA officials said they felt compelled to alert the public to the finding.

    But a subsequent quality control check showed the positive finding was an error. FDA officials notified Taylor Farms of that on Sunday.

    The company touted the updated test results on social media and claimed “FDA apologized to us.” Agency officials said there was no official apology.

    Cyclospora is a microscopic parasite that infects food that has come into contact with human feces, most commonly when produce is irrigated or washed with contaminated water. When ingested, the parasite causes intestinal illness marked by “frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements,” according to the CDC.

    In 2026, cyclospora has sickened at least 1,645 people in the U.S. and hospitalized 141, according to the FDA and CDC. The agencies are investigating five separate clusters of illnesses, including the one traced to Taylor Farms.

    FDA’s acting commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, said health officials have continued to see new cases associated with the latest outbreak, including some as recent as last week.

    “Which means it’s imperative for us to take action to ensure that contaminated product is not making its way to the market,” Diamantas explained.

    As of Friday, foot traffic was down at a number of dining chains compared with the day-of-the-week averages between Jan. 1 and July 6, according to Placer.ai, which tracks people’s movements based on cellphone usage.

    Taco Bell suffered the biggest drop — an 18.9% decline — after federal health officials named the chain in its investigation of the cyclosporiasis outbreak. Foot traffic fell 14.3% at Chopt, Placer.ai said. Both Chipotle and Panera Bread had close to a 7% drop in traffic, while Cava’s drop was less — at 4.2% — according to the firm.

    Food safety investigators often cannot draw a direct biological connection between recalled produce and outbreaks of foodborne illness. Some common tests used to check for food poisoning have not been geared to detect cyclospora. Technicians aren’t able to grow the parasite in labs, making it hard to draw evidence from contaminated produce.

    Instead, investigators draw conclusions based on accounts of what people ate, the proximity and timing of cases and other patterns.

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    AP Business Writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed from New York.

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

  • Officials sought phone records of NYT journalists and their relatives in an effort to unmask sources


    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration sought phone records of several New York Times journalists and even those of some of their relatives, according to a motion unsealed Monday — an unusually aggressive attempt to unmask the confidential sources of reporters who wrote about Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.

    The efforts by the Republican president’s administration to compel the identity of sources in the form of additional subpoenas come at a time when the executive branch’s relationship with the press is increasingly contentious. The efforts, described in a letter-motion filed by the Times over the weekend, were more expansive than previously known, the newspaper noted. They also covered a time frame that exceeded the news articles in question.

    “Two of the subpoenas seek records beginning on January 1, 2026, long before the events that are purportedly the basis for the Department’s investigation,” lawyers for the Times wrote in the letter. “That timeframe strongly suggests that the Department is using this investigation not to focus on any purported concerns arising from the July 8 and 9 articles, but instead to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”

    Government has said reporters aren’t the target

    The phone records subpoenas come on top of grand jury subpoenas that were served July 10 on three journalists, seeking testimony about the identify of their sources. The Times has separately challenged those grand jury subpoenas, and a judge is scheduled to hear arguments on Thursday.

    Lawyers for the newspaper noted that some of the phone records subpoenas were issued on the same day as the grand jury ones, an additional one was issued the following day and another was issued on July 16 — after the Times had already moved to quash the grand jury subpoenas.

    The Times said the phone records subpoenas should be spiked, arguing that each instance demonstrated “bad faith” by the government. The lawyers argued that the Justice Department ignored its own guidelines by not giving the journalists advance notice that records were being sought and had issued subpoenas “without first conducting any serious investigation.”

    The newspaper’s lawyers said the additional subpoenas call “into question the accuracy” of testimony given last week by Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, where the grand jury subpoenas were issued. At his confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration’s director of national intelligence, Clayton said that “we followed the protocols” and that the government took “the least intrusive possible” steps.

    The Justice Department has justified the grand jury subpoenas by saying that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.” Asked about the phone records subpoenas, the department said Monday: “Any subpoena issued by the Department of Justice is done so in full compliance with federal law and internal Department policy.”

    The additional subpoenas included a request for phone records of one reporter’s mother and two of the journalists’ spouses. The motion noted that the mother in question is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships and that one of the two spouses is the general counsel of a law firm.

    “The disclosure of additional subpoenas for confidential newsgathering information of the Journalists is deeply concerning, revealing yet another instance of the alarming pattern of conduct detailed in the Motion to Quash,” the news organization’s lawyers wrote.

    “These actions demonstrate abuse of the grand jury process, continued bad faith attacks on the Journalists, violations of the Department’s own internal regulations and disregard for the law in this Circuit intended to protect critical First Amendment interests,” the motion stated.

    It’s part of an ongoing legal challenge

    The Times revealed the government’s actions as part of an ongoing legal challenge to quash subpoenas that the Justice Department served on three journalists who reported on security concerns involving the jet.

    The original subpoenas, delivered to reporters at their homes, marked a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration’s crackdown on media leaks that free press advocates swiftly condemned as a government effort to intimidate news organizations. It followed an FBI search earlier this year of a Washington Post reporter’s home and the seizure of her electronic devices.

    The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade, recently entered service. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.

    The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump denied security concerns.

    Trump’s administration has clashed with the press, from newspapers to TV networks to the Voice of America, on multiple fronts since he returned to office last year. The methods include lawsuits, administrative actions and public threats.

    The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the press’ ability to operate free of governmental restrictions.


  • Florida GOP lawmaker and governor candidate says AI data center legislation keeps utility costs down


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Byron Donalds, a Republican congressman running for Florida governor, on Monday announced legislation intended to prevent artificial intelligence data centers from driving up utility costs, the latest sign of a political backlash over the new technology.

    The proposal, if passed by Congress, would require data centers to obtain all their electricity and water needs from private sources, rather than the power grid or public water systems. The idea aligns with an earlier, voluntary initiative from President Donald Trump.

    “If you talk to these guys who are building these data centers, if it means that they have to pick up the utility costs, they’re more than willing to do it,” Donalds said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It’s in their interest to make sure that we can construct these centers, and I think the number one way you address and mitigate the concerns that people are having is to just ensure their utility bills aren’t going up in the process.”

    Donalds’ proposal is noteworthy coming from a candidate backed by pro-AI political action committees and Trump. The legislation comes during a rapid nationwide buildout of data centers to match growing demand for artificial intelligence systems. Major technology firms at the heart of the AI boom have quickly become some of the world’s most valuable and watched companies, while the Trump administration has aligned itself with the industry’s major players.

    Several major tech companies developing AI infrastructure have committed to agreements with the Trump administration to cover the expenses of building new power sources rather than shifting the burden to residential households. But given the expected increase in demand, it’s unclear if the voluntary agreement is legally enforceable.

    The furious pace of construction and high stakes of the technology have raised concerns among many Americans. In Florida, more than 20 counties and municipalities have voted to reject the construction of major data centers, while others have banned their construction for at least a year. Residents and local leaders often cite concerns over increased utility bills, disruption of local communities and environmental damage as major reasons for the pauses.

    “These companies have been a step behind and didn’t realize how quickly the ground was shifting under their feet,” said Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist. Gorman said that progressive climate activists and conservative populists have both seized on the data center issue, requiring tech firms to “tell a better story” and address concerns from across the political spectrum.

    “This is a full-court effort here,” Gorman said. “If you don’t tell that story, you’re going to have it mandated on you from lawmakers of both parties.”

    Donalds is running to succeed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a fellow Republican who in May signed legislation that required large-scale data centers to pay their own energy and water costs entirely. Donalds, should he be elected governor, said he’d focus on improving efficiency among data centers and moving the facilities away from population centers.

    “We just want to make sure that if they do get built, they’re being built efficiently while protecting ratepayers and protecting Florida’s water,” Donalds said. “The real public policy question for the country and for states is how are we going to generate baseload power for future energy demands, whether it’s for hyperscale data centers or for anything else.”

    James Fishback, a far-right Republican candidate for governor, has made opposition to data centers a center of his primary challenge to Donalds. And David Jolly, a former congressman and the leading Democratic gubernatorial candidate, this month called for a moratorium on the construction of data centers.

    Travis Fisher, a fellow at the Cato Institute, said public companies usually push for the best deals to access public utilities. He said any willingness to pick up a bigger tab for energy and water reflects the political pressure facing tech firms.

    “They are very afraid that they’re going to, I’d say, lose their social license to operate, as if they’re basically going to get run out of town or banned,” said Fisher.


  • EU hits AliExpress with a record 550 million-euro fine over unsafe and counterfeit goods


    THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The European Commission on Monday fined Chinese online marketplace AliExpress 550 million euros ($629 million) for failing to adequately crack down on the sale of unsafe and counterfeit products on its site.

    The fine, the biggest ever imposed for breaches of the 27-nation European Union’s Digital Services Act, comes just months after another online retailer, Temu, was fined 200 million euros for similar breaches. Last year, Brussels issued a $120 million penalty for Elon Musk’s social media site X.

    “The spread of counterfeit clothing, unsafe toys, dangerous cosmetics and other illegal and harmful products is not an unavoidable cost of shopping online — it is a failure by AliExpress to comply with its obligations under the Digital Services Act,” Henna Virkkunen, the commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy, said in a statement.

    “Scale is not an excuse; risks must be identified and addressed systematically to ensure consumers can safely shop online. Today, we are holding AliExpress to this standard and request it to take action,” she added.

    In a comment emailed to The Associated Press, AliExpress said that since the DSA came into force the company “has been, and continues to be, firmly committed to meeting our obligations and we have invested substantial resources in risk assessment and mitigation, product safety and consumer protection.”

    It said it disagreed with the “disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made. We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options.”

    The fine was for conduct by the company until at least June 2025, when the commission issued a preliminary ruling that found AliExpress was not doing enough to tackle the sale of illegal products under the DSA, and when it accepted commitments by AliExpress to improve its systems.

    The commission said that AliExpress now has until Oct. 20 to submit an action plan setting out measures to “remedy the breach of its obligations to assess and mitigate systemic risks.”

    The Digital Services Act is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that’s either illegal or violates a platform’s terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans’ fundamental rights like privacy and free speech.

    Monday’s announcement in Brussels also comes less than three weeks after AliExpress’ operator, Chinese tech giant Alibaba, said it will pay $600 million to resolve a dispute with the U.S. government over allegations that the Hangzhou-based firm sold and imported illegal pharmaceuticals, controlled substances, regulated chemicals and pill-making equipment into the U.S.


  • As defaults on student loans surge, millions are trying to get their lives back on track


    Life after college did not go as Ashley Dreahn planned.

    After starting out as a teacher, she went back to school — and took out more loans — in hopes of landing a higher-paying job in the chemical processing industry. It never materialized, and then came Hurricane Harvey, a job loss and a car breakdown. By 2022, she was so broke she filed for bankruptcy.

    She found work at a Texas prison and was rebuilding her life, saving up for weight-loss surgery, when this spring she heard from a credit-monitoring service. The student loans she thought had been discharged in bankruptcy had ballooned to $94,298 with interest, and she had to start making payments. She was in default.

    “I absolutely broke down,” said Dreahn, 40.

    Across the country, the number of borrowers with defaulted student loans jumped by more than 4.2 million from April 2025 to March 2026, according to an Associated Press analysis. The surge includes many who went off track in 2024, when loan payments started coming due again after a pandemic-era freeze.

    Hundreds of thousands more are months behind on payments, and another surge in defaults could be on the way. Millions of borrowers are facing higher monthly payments as the government dismantles its most affordable income-driven repayment option, the SAVE plan, one of several changes the Education Department says are intended to simplify a fragmented system.

    Borrowers enter default after missing payments for nine months, and the consequences can upend lives. It hurts credit ratings and can lead to the debt being sent to collections.

    “I am seeing despair and outrage and despondency and just a very wide mix of pretty extreme emotions, the likes of which I have not seen before,” said Alan Collinge, the founder of Student Loan Justice and the author of “The Student Loan Scam.”

    The federal government can garnish wages and Social Security payments from borrowers in default, but the Trump administration in January walked back plans to begin collections on their loans. A Moody’s Analytics report this spring said garnishments are likely to begin within the next year, warning of “an additional headwind in an increasingly fragile economy.”

    Taking out student loans was all too easy

    Dreahn enrolled at Texas Woman’s University in 2004 as the first in her family to go to college. She cobbled together jobs, babysitting and working at a call center and an automotive shop. But she still needed to borrow heavily.

    “There was one point where they were like, ‘If you don’t come up with the money, we’re dropping you from your classes,’” said Dreahn, who earned a degree in history with an emphasis on education and social studies. “And it was, ‘OK, what do I need to sign?’”

    She said no one explained what taking out loans truly meant.

    “You just kind of trust these advisers and trust these financial aid people that this is what you’re supposed to do,” Dreahn said.

    While teaching, she took out more student loans to earn a pair of associate degrees from a public community college in Texas. She received a job offer at a chemical refinery, but it was rescinded because she was over the weight limit for the company’s safety equipment.

    She filed for bankruptcy in 2022 in hopes that it would “erase everything.” She checked her online credit report afterward. For each student loan, the report read: “Nice! You’ve paid off 100% of this loan.” The message is sometimes shared with borrowers when student loans are consolidated or transferred to new companies — even when the person still owes money.

    Student loans are rarely discharged in bankruptcy. Borrowers must prove the loans pose an “undue hardship.” The process is cumbersome, and few qualify, advocates say.

    But Dreahn didn’t know any of that.

    “I was so relieved, like, ‘OK, now I can start life over,’” she said. “’I can save some money.’”

    She started working last year as a supervisor at a prison in Huntsville, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of Houston, and was living in an RV park to save money when she received the default notice.

    “I just feel like, where is that light at the end of the tunnel now that I thought I had?” Dreahn said.

    The wave of defaults started after the pandemic

    As a pandemic relief measure, the federal government allowed borrowers to suspend student loan payments until 2023, and President Joe Biden’s administration then provided a one-year grace period. That ended in fall 2024, allowing loans to enter into default after nine months of missed payments.

    A surge in defaults followed, and today around 9.5 million borrowers — over 1 in 5 — are in default, including those whose loans were well past due before the pandemic, according to the AP analysis. The previous record for borrowers in default had been 8 million in December 2019.

    There are also 870,000 borrowers with loans between 181 and 270 days late, on the edge of default, according to federal data.

    Meanwhile, 33% of borrowers at for-profit schools nationally were at least 90 days late on payments, more than twice the rate of borrowers at public schools, additional federal data shows.

    Most private colleges that offer traditional degrees are nonprofit. For-profit colleges generally offer career-focused degrees and credentials and often serve students of color. Career Education Colleges and Universities, an association of private trade schools, has created a task force to reach out to students about the importance of loan repayment, said Jason Altmire, the group’s president and CEO.

    “We take it seriously,” he said.

    Borrowers struggle to make sense of changes

    Some borrowers are so overwhelmed by their debt and changes to the federal student loan system that they’ve stopped paying.

    Barbara Howaniec, a 63-year-old psychiatric nurse practitioner from Auburn, Maine, already has defaulted. She borrowed around $62,000 for her master’s degree from New York University, graduating in 2001. But after two decades of payments, she still owes around $67,000 with interest. She had put her loans in deferment for short stints while her children were young, unaware that interest would continue to accumulate.

    Howaniec had hoped to have her loan forgiven after 25 years under an income-based repayment plan. But then came a letter saying the repayment schedule had changed and she owed 355 more payments. By the time she finished paying, she would be 91.

    She made call after call, but she said the advice varied by whoever picked up the phone. Last year, as she paid for her own children’s college, she quit paying her own loans.

    “I had already paid what I had borrowed. I’m like, no, I’m not going to pay anymore,” Howaniec said. As a self-employed person, she said she doesn’t have to worry about the government garnishing her wages.

    Shannon Khan, a 46-year-old mental health worker from Webster, Texas, hasn’t paid her student loan for two months as she investigates her options.

    She did not have to pay anything while enrolled in SAVE, but she was moved last fall to another income-driven repayment plan, with a required monthly payment of $847. She thought she was close to having her remaining balance forgiven, but she recently learned her payment will jump to $1,683 a month — an amount her loan servicer said she will need to pay for nearly a decade.

    She has spent hours on the phone trying to get answers.

    “It’s just a bunch of chaos and confusion,” Khan said.

    Some hunt pathways out of default

    Dreahn had never been entirely clear how much she was borrowing when she was a student. As an adult, the process remained opaque. She had multiple loans transferred to different loan servicers. And then her loans were deferred when she went back to school.

    “It’s a huge, huge mess,” Dreahn said. “It’s almost like it just gets sold off and you’re just lost in the system somewhere until you figure out that, ‘Oh, they want $700 this month. What?’”

    Now in default, she hopes she might one day qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. It requires borrowers to make 10 years of payments while working at a nonprofit or for the government.

    “I’m trying to figure out: One, how I’m going to make it work. And two, what do I give up?” Dreahn said. “How do I manage buying groceries as well as making sure the bills are covered and this payment never gets missed?”

    Lately, she thinks back on the chemical processing plant job she almost got.

    “That was a six-figure career that I lost due to my weight,” she said, her voice breaking. “The money that I’m trying to save now that was going to be for surgery is going to be paid to student loans instead.”

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    Associated Press reporter Adriana Morga contributed to this report.

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


  • Not Greek to them. Scholars question Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’


    NEW YORK (AP) — For Greek translator Emily Wilson, the release of director Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” has been gratifying in various ways. Her acclaimed 2017 edition of Homer’s epic has reached the top 5 on Amazon.com, leading a wave of similar books boosted by the movie. Nolan has even cited her translation, notably the opening line “Tell me about a complicated man,” as inspiration.

    But the film itself, which brought in more than $260 million worldwide during its opening weekend and has received raves from many critics, left her unsatisfied.

    “I want to celebrate the fact that so many more people are aware of ‘The Odyssey’ and were brought back to the poem,” she told The Associated Press. “But at the same time, I had the sense that Christopher Nolan was trying to pack everything in while missing themes that were essential to the poem.”

    One of the year’s most anticipated releases, “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as the returning warrior Odysseus, Anne Hathaway as his wife, Penelope, and Tom Holland as their son, Telemachus. Reviewers have praised the acting and the narrative drive, the grand scale of a movie shot entirely on IMAX film and how it weds the sensibilities of ancient Greece and the modern world, at least as Nolan perceives it.

    The divide between scholars and critics seems in part a matter of whether the balance should tilt toward Nolan or Homer. Wilson and fellow translator Daniel Mendelsohn both expressed admiration for Nolan’s cinematic flair and ambition, what Mendelsohn calls his “great visual panache.” Both speculated that his desire to make a “Christopher Nolan” movie led to unfortunate decisions.

    Mendelsohn is an author, critic and translator and his assessment appeared Friday in The New York Review of Books, where he is an editor-at-large.

    Mendelsohn had previously defended Nolan’s controversial decision to cast a Black actor, Lupita Nyong’o, as Helen of Troy, calling it a worthy way to “provoke, challenge and discomfit how we think about beauty and identity.” But he faulted the director for giving us an Odysseus with “no cleverness, no humor, no wily charm.” One of the Western canon’s formative tricksters has been transformed, he contended, into the kind of haunted protagonist featured in such previous Nolan movies as “Oppenheimer” and “Memento.”

    “This tormented, guilt-ridden Odysseus, stripped of humor and wit, seductiveness and cleverness, is a sibling of Memento’s anguished amnesiac, of Batman, of Oppenheimer, men tormented by pasts they wrestle with in different ways,” wrote Mendelsohn, whose “Odyssey” translation came out in 2025. “Nolan has merely remade Homer’s hero in his own image.”

    Author Gareth Hinds, whose graphic novel adaptation of “The Odyssey” has also received a sales bump from the movie, had a response similar to Mendelsohn’s about Nolan’s interpretation of Odysseus. The “wily trickster and smooth talker” is now an “everyman who appears to be honorable, except in select situations which then continue to haunt him.” For Hinds, Nolan’s film raises the question of how much you can change a story’s main character before the story itself is changed entirely.

    “That’s one of many interesting things Nolan has left us to ponder,” says Hinds, who credits the director for creating a “powerful film.”

    Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, said she didn’t want to come across as a “snobby,” nitpicking expert at odds with any deviation from the original text. But she questioned a range of omissions and other choices, from the absence on screen of the Gods Zeus and Poseidon (Athena is played by Zendaya ) to the “incoherent” messaging that condemns both war and physical cowardice. She found Penelope’s role so thinned out that it endangered “any possibility of believing in this marriage.” Wilson also that thought parts of the movie, notably the scenes with Odysseus’ dog, Argos, “catered towards modern sentimentality.”

    “Everybody’s a sucker for a dog,” she said.

    A spokesperson for Nolan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Wilson declined to offer a grade or ranking for the movie, but said she would recommend it for others, as long as they see it in a theater.

    “It was fun to be there with my kids. I didn’t feel it was pulling teeth to engage with it,” she said. “If you can see it on a big screen you should absolutely go.”


  • Cuban artist and dissident exiled from country after 5 years in prison arrives in US


    MIAMI (AP) — A famous Cuban dissident artist and musician, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, arrived in Miami on Saturday after being released from a five-year prison sentence on the condition that he leave his country.

    Alcántara, 38, was greeted at the airport by a crowd that was cheering, singing and holding their phones high in the air to get a photo of him. They draped him in a Cuban flag, printed with the words “Patria y Vida” — “Homeland and Life” — the title of a song he shared a Grammy for that became an anthem for Cuba’s political opposition against repression.

    The United States granted him parole into the country earlier this week, according to a social media page maintained by his friends and supporters. They wrote that he accepted exile as the only way to escape persecution and continue his art and activism.

    Alcántara co-founded a group of Havana artists, writers and musicians called the San Isidro Movement — named for the neighborhood where Alcántara lived.

    He was arrested on July 11, 2021, during a public protest. In 2022, a court sentenced him to five years in prison for public disorder, contempt and disrespect toward national symbols.

    His arrest and incarceration had long been denounced by human rights organizations and the U.S. government. Groups including Amnesty International called him a political prisoner, an allegation the Cuban government rejected.

    Alcántara was held in a maximum-security prison, he said, and was expected to be released last week. But for days, advocates said they still could not contact him and did not know where he was.

    The organization Cubalex, which legally advises dissidents and reports human rights violations from outside of the country, filed a habeas corpus petition on his behalf Monday.

    Until he boarded a plane Saturday, his advocates were not sure of his location, or if he was truly free.

    His said his first stop on American soil would be at the Shrine of Our Lady of Charity to make an offering.

    Other political prisoners remained imprisoned, including his fellow artist Maykel “Osorbo” Castillo Pérez, his advocates said, and they hoped Alcántara’s release would prompt insistence that Pérez also be set free.

    Alcántara brought from Cuba a broken statue of the Virgin Mary, which he described as a symbol of hope and healing, a chance to put back together something from fragments.


  • Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ storms the box office with a $264.1 million global debut


    NEW YORK (AP) — Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” launched with an estimated $124.5 million in domestic ticket sales and another $139.6 million from overseas, notching an even better debut than “Oppenheimer” and marking the filmmaker’s best opening since 2012’s “The Dark Knight Rises.”

    Nolan flexed his singular box-office might with a global debut unlike any other. Few filmmakers alive could pull off a starry, big-budget adaptation of Homer’s epic poem. But in a Hollywood where intellectual property rights rule most hits, Nolan turned one of the world’s oldest works of literature into an unlikely summer blockbuster.

    The Universal production was no small gamble on Nolan, coming off the 2023 best picture-winning “Oppenheimer.” With a production budget of $250 million, it’s among the most expensive R-rated movies ever made. Universal is spending some $125 million to market it.

    But no behind-the-camera name turns out audiences more than Nolan’s. So great was the hype on “The Odyssey” that IMAX put tickets on sale for some 70 mm showtimes a full year in advance. To satisfy the extraordinary demand for Nolan’s preferred format, IMAX 70 mm, some theaters added midnight and 3 a.m. screenings — and sold them out.

    “It’s incredibly rewarding to see the palpable excitement in theaters this weekend,” said Jim Orr, head of domestic distribution for Universal. “Nolan has crafted an epic adventure. It’s on a scale that audiences have responded to extraordinarily well.”

    IMAX drives ticket sales

    Billed as Nolan’s first feature shot entirely with IMAX cameras, the format drove a huge slice of ticket sales. That included $29.6 million domestically on IMAX and $51.8 million globally, leading to the company’s best weekend ever. IMAX is dedicating its screens entirely to “The Odyssey” for three weeks. Though only 41 IMAX screens can screen “The Odyssey” in 70 mm, they accounted for $6.3 million in ticket sales.

    “The IMAX of it all helped turn it from not only a blockbuster, but a global cultural event,” said Rich Gelfond, chief executive of IMAX. “We have tickets on sale for week five in some theaters and some of them have already sold out.”

    Since the pandemic, Nolan has been at the forefront of reviving cinemas. His “Tenet” was one of the first big releases to wade back into theaters in 2020. Three years later, “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” combined to create arguably the movies’ signature moment of the decade. “Oppenheimer” ultimately grossed $975 million worldwide.

    “The Odyssey” arrived in theaters during Hollywood’s best summer since 2019. Ticket sales are running 10.4% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. The industry is expecting the first $10 billion year at the domestic box office since the pandemic.

    Universal sees ‘The Odyssey’ playing into the fall

    The only question for “The Odyssey” will be how front-loaded it is, given that many moviegoers have had this weekend circled for months. The film faced no new-release competition over the weekend, and it won’t next weekend, either.

    Gelfond said that presales for the movie’s second weekend would rank among their 10 best presales, proof that many moviegoers are waiting to see the film in their preferred format. IMAX 70mm screenings, he said, are largely sold out for the next month, except for some front row seats.

    “Christopher Nolan and Tom Cruise may be the two most high-profile ambassadors for the big-screen experience,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak. “Nolan is a director who’s a star as much as any movie star in front of the camera.”

    The audience for “The Odyssey” was notably male, accounting for 59% of tickets sold. But Orr said moviegoers were otherwise “ridiculously broad,” playing across demographics and geography.

    “It’s delivering for a 17-year-old dude and it’s delivering for a female that’s 55 and up,” said Orr. “It points to what I’m convinced will be a very long, very successful run throughout not only the rest of the summer but into the fall, too.”

    The next movie to pose any competition, ironically, also stars Tom Holland and Zendaya: Sony’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” on July 31.

    Casting controversy has no apparent effect

    “The Odyssey” stars Matt Damon as Odysseus and features Holland as his son, Telemachus; Anne Hathaway as Penelope; Zendaya as Athena; Robert Pattinson as the suitor Antinous and Charlize Theron as the sea nymph Calypso.

    Nolan’s casting of “The Odyssey,” including Lupita Nyong’o as Helen and Elliot Page as a soldier, was controversial to some conservative commentators. Elon Musk called Nolan a “coward” over Nyong’o’s casting.

    But that criticism had little to no effect on “The Odyssey” becoming one of the big-screen cultural events of the year. Reviews (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) are among the best of Nolan’s career. Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore.

    PG-rated films followed in the wake of “The Odyssey.” The Walt Disney Co.’s “Moana” landed in a distant second place with $19 million in its third weekend. Following its disappointing $43 million launch, the live-action remake slid 56% on its second weekend. In two weeks it collected $178 million worldwide, a poor result for a film that cost $250 million to make.

    “Moana” was trailed by Universal’s “Minions & Monsters” and Disney’s “Toy Story 5,” both of which grossed about $15 million.

    Top 10 movies by domestic box office

    With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:

    1. “The Odyssey,” $124.5 million.

    2. “Moana,” $19 million.

    3. “Minions & Monsters,” $14.8 million.

    4. “Toy Story 5,” $14.8 million.

    5. “Evil Dead Burn,” $5 million.

    6. “The Invite,” $3.9 million.

    7. “Young Washington,” $3.7 million.

    8. “Obsession,” $2.5 million.

    9. “Supergirl,” $1.5 million.

    10. “Disclosure Day,” $1.5 million.