Category: National News Feed

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Frank Caprio, a retired municipal judge in Rhode Island who found online fame as a caring jurist and host of ” Caught in Providence,” has died. He was 88.

His official social media accounts said Wednesday he “passed away peacefully” after “a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.”

Caprio billed his courtroom as a place “where people and cases are met with kindness and compassion.” He was known for dismissing tickets or showing kindness even when he handed out justice.

Last week, Caprio posted a short video on Facebook about how he had “a setback,” was back in the hospital and was asking that people “remember me in your prayers.”

Caprio’s show was filmed in his courtroom and featured his folksy humor and compassion. Clips from the show have had more than 1 billion views on social media.

During his time on the bench, Caprio developed a persona at odds with many TV judges — more sympathetic and less confrontational and judgmental.

In his bite-sized segments on YouTube, Caprio is often seen empathizing with those in his courtroom. Many of the infractions are also relatively minor, from failing to use a turn signal to a citation for a loud party.

Caprio also used his fame to address issues like unequal access to the judicial system.

“The phrase, ‘With liberty and justice for all’ represents the idea that justice should be accessible to everyone. However it is not,” Caprio said in one video. “Almost 90% of low-income Americans are forced to battle civil issues like health care, unjust evictions, veterans benefits and, yes, even traffic violations, alone.”

Caprio’s upbeat take on the job of a judge drew him millions of views. His most popular videos have been those where he calls children to the bench to help pass judgment on their parents. One shows him listening sympathetically to a woman whose son was killed and then dismissing her tickets and fines of $400.

In another clip, after dismissing a red-light violation for a bartender who was making $3.84 per hour, Caprio urged those watching the video not to duck out on their bills.

“If anyone’s watching I want them to know you better not eat and run because you’re going to get caught and the poor people who are working hard all day for three bucks an hour are going to have to pay your bill,” he said.

On social media, his family described Caprio “as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather and friend.”

“Beloved for his compassion, humility, and unwavering belief in the goodness of people, Judge Caprio touched the lives of millions through his work in the courtroom and beyond,” the family wrote. “His warmth, humor, and kindness left an indelible mark on all who knew him.”

State and local politicians mourned his passing and celebrated his life.

“Judge Caprio not only served the public well, but he connected with them in a meaningful way, and people could not help but respond to his warmth and compassion,” Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee said in a statement. “He was more than a jurist — he was a symbol of empathy on the bench, showing us what is possible when justice is tempered with humanity.”

Robert Leonard, who co-owned a restaurant with Caprio, said he was “going to be sorely missed” and was “all around wonderful.”

“There is nothing he wouldn’t do for you if he could do it,” Leonard said.

Caprio retired from Providence Municipal Court in 2023 after nearly four decades on the bench.

According to his biography, Caprio came from humble beginnings, the second of three boys growing up in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Providence, Rhode Island.

“I hope that people will take away that the institutions of government can function very well by exercising kindness, fairness, and compassion in their deliberations. We live in a very contentious society,” he said in 2017. “I would hope that people will see that we can dispense justice without being oppressive.”

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LeBlanc, an Associated Press journalist who retired in January, was the primary writer of this obituary. Associated Press writers Michael Casey in Boston and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed to this report.

 

Google on Wednesday unveiled a new line-up of Pixel smartphones injected with another dose of artificial intelligence that’s designed to do everything from fetch vital information stored on the devices to help improve photos as they’re being taken.

The AI expansion on the four Pixel 10 models amplifies Google’s efforts to broaden the use of a technology that is already starting to reshape society. At the same time, Google is taking a swipe at Apple’s Achilles’ heel on the iPhone.

Apple so far has only been able to introduce a few basic AI features on the iPhone while failing to deliver on last year’s promise to deliver a more conversational and versatile version of its often-blundering virtual assistant Siri.

Without mentioning the iPhone by name, Google has already been mocking Apple’s missteps in online ads promoting the four new Pixel models as smartphones loaded with AI technology that consumers won’t have to wait for more than a year to arrive.

Google, in contrast, has been steadily increasing the amount of AI that it began to implant on its Pixels since 2023, with this year’s models taking it to another level.

Taking advantage of a more advanced processor, Google is introducing a new AI feature on the Pixel 10 phones called “Magic Cue” that’s designed to serve as a digital mind reader that automatically fetches information stored on the devices and displays the data at the time it’s needed. For instance, if a Pixel 10 user is calling up an airline, Magic Cue is supposed to instantaneously recognize the phone number and display the flight information if it’s in Gmail or a Google Calendar.

The Pixel 10 phones will also come with a preview feature of a new AI tool called “Camera Coach” that will automatically suggest the best framing and lighting angle as the lens is being aimed at a subject. Camera Coach will also recommend the best lens mode to use for an optimal picture.

The premium models — Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 Pro XL — will also include a “Super Res” option that deploys a grab bag of software and AI tricks to zoom up to 100 times the resolution to capture the details of objects located miles away from the camera. The AI wizardry could happen without users even realizing it’s happening, making it even more difficult to know whether an image captured in a photo reflects how things really looked at the time a picture was taken or was modified by technology.

Google is also offering a free one-year subscription to its AI Pro plan to anyone who buys the more expensive Pixel 10 Pro or Pixel 10 Pro XL models in hopes of hooking more people on the Gemini toolkit it has assembled to compete against OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

The prices on all four Pixel 10 models will remain unchanged from last year’s Pixel 9 generation, with the basic starting at $800 and the Pro selling for $1,000, the Pro XL at $1,200 and a foldable version at $1,800. All the Pixel 10s expect the foldable model will be in stores on August 28. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold will be available starting October 9.

Although the Pixel smartphone remains a Lilliputian next to the Gulliverian stature of the iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy models, Google’s ongoing advances in AI while holding the line on its marquee devices raise the competitive stakes.

“In the age of AI, it is a true laboratory of innovation,” Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson said of the Pixel.

Apple, in particular, will be facing more pressure than usual when it introduces the next-generation iPhone next month. Although the company has already said the smarter Siri won’t be ready until next year at the earliest, Apple will still be expected to show some progress in AI to demonstrate the iPhone is adapting to technology’s AI evolution rather than tilting toward gradual obsolescence. Clinging to a once-successful formula eventually sank the BlackBerry and its physical keyboard when the iPhone and its touch screen came along nearly 20 years ago.

Apple’s pricing of the next iPhone will also be under the spotlight, given that the devices are made in China and India — two of the prime targets in President Donald Trump’s trade war.

But Apple appeared to gain a reprieve from Trump’s most onerous threats earlier this month by adding another $100 billion on top of an earlier $500 billion investment pledge to the U.S. The tariff relief may enable Apple to minimize or even avoid price increases for the iPhone, just as Google has done with the Pixel 10 models.

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Two of the three people killed in a bar shooting in the New York City borough of Brooklyn were among the four shooters who opened fire inside the building, the city’s police commissioner said Monday.

Jamel Childs, 35, and Marvin St. Louis, 19, both of Brooklyn, were seen on surveillance video arguing in the Taste of the City Lounge in Crown Heights shortly before 3:30 a.m. Sunday, Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. About 10 minutes later, St. Louis approached Childs and opened fire, and Childs and two other men fired back.

Both Childs and St. Louis were shot multiple times and were pronounced dead at a hospital a short time after the shooting. The third man killed, 27-year-old city resident Amadou Diallo, was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities said Diallo appears to have been an innocent bystander.

Two other men who also opened fire in the bar remained at large Monday, Tisch said, but she did not disclose further details about them. A possible motive for the shooting remains under investigation, but authorities have said it appears to be gang-related. Tisch said Monday that Childs had a lengthy police record and is listed in a police database as a member of Folk Nation, which she described as a “violent gang” that “terrorizes Brooklyn” and is responsible for six shootings this year. She said three people who survived the shooting also have ties to that gang, but St. Louis had no “relevant criminal history.”

Fourteen people were shot overall in the incident, but none of the survivors’ injuries are believed to be life-threatening, Mayor Eric Adams said Monday. Investigators found at least 42 shell casings from 9 mm and .45-caliber weapons and a firearm in a nearby street following the shooting.

The violence was the second mass shooting within weeks in New York City during a year that has otherwise seen declining gun violence. On July 29, a man stalked through a Manhattan office tower with a rifle, wounding one person and killing four others.

Didarul Islam, a New York City police officer, was among those who died in that shooting. His wife gave birth late Sunday night to a boy, their third child together.

Adams said Sunday that both shootings reinforce “why we do this work of going after guns off our streets.”

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This story has been updated to correct the total number of people who were shot. A total of 14 were shot, including those who were killed. Not 14 in addition to those killed.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Democrats ended a two-week walkout Monday that stalled Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts as part of a national partisan brawl over President Donald Trump’s desire to reshape U.S. House maps to his advantage.

Their return to the Texas Capitol will allow the Republican-run Legislature to proceed as California Democrats advance a countereffort to redraw their congressional boundaries in retaliation. The tit-for-tat puts the nation’s two most populous states at the center of an expanding fight over control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Dozens of Texas House Democrats left the state Aug. 3 to deny their Republican-majority colleagues the attendance necessary to vote on redrawn maps intended to send five more Texas Republicans to Washington.

They declared victory after Republicans adjourned their first special session on Friday and Democrats around the country rallied in opposition to the Trump-led gerrymandering effort. They pointed specifically to California’s release of proposed maps intended to increase Democrats’ U.S. House advantage by five seats, effectively neutralizing any Republican gains in Texas.

For the first time since Trump’s redistricting push accelerated into a national issue, the Texas House floor was near full capacity Monday afternoon.

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows did not mention redistricting on the floor Monday but promised swift action on the Legislature’s agenda.

“The majority has the right to prevail. The minority has the right to be heard,” the speaker said. “We are done waiting.”

Democrats were greeted by cheering supporters inside the Capitol before the House convened. The House met for a short session but did not take up any bills and was not scheduled to return until Wednesday.

“We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape,” Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu said in a written statement.

Wu has promised Democrats would challenge the new designs in court.

Trump has pressured other Republican-run states to consider redistricting, as well, while Democratic governors in multiple statehouses have indicated they would follow California’s lead in response. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that his state will hold a Nov. 4 special referendum on the redrawn districts.

The president wants to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority and avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms during his first presidency, when Democrats regained House control and used their majority to stymie his agenda and twice impeach him. On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing district lines puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. Of the 435 total House seats, only several dozen districts are competitive. So even slight changes in a few states could affect which party wins control.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott jumped to the president’s aid, adding redistricting to an initial special session agenda that included a number of issues, but most notably a package of bills responding to devastating floods that killed more than 130 people last month.

Abbott has blamed Democrats’ absence for delaying action on those measures. Democrats have answered that Abbott’s capitulation to Trump is responsible for the delay because he insisted on effectively linking the hyper-partisan matter to the nonpartisan flood relief.

Redistricting typically occurs once at the beginning of each decade to coincide with the census. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among those that empower independent commissions with the task.

California lawmakers were scheduled to convene later Monday.

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Barrow reported from Atlanta.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A gunman opened fire Monday in a Target store parking lot in the Texas capital, killing at least three people, then stole two cars during a getaway that ended with police using a Taser to detain him on the other side of the city, authorities said.

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said the suspect is a man in his 30s with “a mental health history.”

Davis said the suspect fled the scene in a stolen car, wrecked that car then stole another from a dealership. He was captured in south Austin, where he was taken into custody, she said during a news conference.

She said responding officers found three people who had been shot in the Target parking lot.

Austin-Travis County EMS Chief Robert Luckritz said two people were pronounced dead at the scene and one person was taken to a hospital where they were pronounced dead. He said another person was treated on the scene for unrelated injuries.

“This is a very sad day for Austin. It’s a very sad day for us all and my condolences go out to the families,” Davis said. She said she had no information to release about the victims.

The shooting came amid back-to-school shopping ahead of the upcoming school year. Target corporate has not responded to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.

“This is a devastating situation, and my heart is with the victims and their families,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said in a message on X. “While this remains an active and ongoing investigation, what I’ll say is that this was a sickening, cowardly act of gun violence.”

At a Jiffy Lube that shares its parking lot with the Target, employees hunkered down and locked the store doors as soon as they became aware a shooting was taking place. Paul Smith, an employee at the auto store, said he saw people running from their cars in the parking lot in a panic.

“I had just gotten back from the Target like a minute before,” Smith said.

The Target shooting comes just over two weeks after an attack at a Walmart store in Michigan. A man stabbed 11 people at the store in Traverse City on July 26 and has been charged with terrorism and multiple counts of attempted murder.

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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas; Jamie Stengle in Dallas; and Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, contributed.

CLAIRTON, Pa. (AP) — An explosion at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh left one person dead and sent at least 10 to hospitals Monday and heavily damaged the sprawling facility, with emergency workers still searching the badly charred rubble for a missing worker, officials said.

One worker was pulled from the wreckage hours after the explosion sent black smoke spiraling into the midday sky in the Mon Valley, a region of the state synonymous with steel for more than a century. Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51 a.m. A search and rescue effort was still active on Monday afternoon and officials said the cause of the explosion was under investigation.

The explosion, followed by several smaller blasts, could be felt in the nearby community and prompted county officials to warn residents to stay away from the scene so emergency workers could respond.

“It felt like thunder,” Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. “Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it’s like something bad happened.”

The search is ongoing for a missing worker

At a news conference, Scott Buckiso, U.S. Steel’s chief manufacturing officer, did not give details about the damage or casualties, and said they were still trying to determine what happened. U.S. Steel employees “did a great job” of going in and rescuing workers, shutting down gases and making sure the site was stable.

Buckiso said the company, now a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp., is working with authorities. He also said search teams were still looking for one person who was missing. They think they know the general location of that person, but weren’t sure, he said.

U.S. Steel CEO David B. Burritt said the company would thoroughly investigate the cause.

“I end every meeting and every message with the words, ‘Let’s get back to work safely.’ That commitment has never been more important, and we will honor it,” he said in a statement.

Allegheny Health Network said it treated seven patients from the plant, and discharged five within a few hours. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said it is treating three patients at UPMC Mercy, the region’s only level one trauma and burn center.

Clairton resident Amy Sowers was sitting on her porch, located less than a mile from the plant, and felt her house shake from the blast.

“I could see smoke from my driveway,” she said. “We heard ambulances and fire trucks from every direction.”

Sowers, 49, decided to leave the area after she said she smelled a faint smell in the air. Sowers, who grew up in Clairton, has seen several incidents at the plant over the years. Despite health concerns, Sowers said many residents cannot afford to leave.

A maintenance worker was killed in an explosion at the plant in September 2009. In July 2010, another explosion injured 14 employees and six contractors. According to online OSHA records of workplace fatalities, the last death at the plant was in 2014, when a worker was burned and died after falling into a trench.

After the 2010 explosion, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined U.S. Steel and a subcontractor $175,000 for safety violations. U.S. Steel appealed its citations and $143,500 in fines, which were later reduced under a settlement agreement.

“Lives were lost again,” Sowers said. “How many more lives are going to have to be lost until something happens?”

The Clairton coking plant continued to operate after the explosion, although two batteries that were the site of the explosion were shut down, officials said.

Air quality concerns and health warnings

The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in Pennsylvania.

The plant converts coal to coke, a key component in the steel-making process. To make coke, coal is baked in special ovens for hours at high temperatures to remove impurities that could otherwise weaken steel. The process creates what’s known as coke gas — made up of a lethal mix of methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

Clairton Mayor Richard Lattanzi said his heart goes out to the victims of Monday’s explosion.

“The mill is such a big part of Clairton,” he said. “It’s just a sad day for Clairton.”

The Allegheny County Health Department said it lifted an advisory it issued earlier in the day telling residents within 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) of the plant to remain indoors and close all windows and doors. It said its monitors have not detected levels of soot or sulfur dioxide above federal standards.

According to the company, the plant has approximately 1,400 workers.

The plant has a long history of pollution concerns

In recent years, the Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution.

In 2019, it agreed to settle an air pollution lawsuit for $8.5 million. Five years later, the company agreed to spend $19.5 million in equipment upgrades and $5 million on local clean air efforts and programs as part of settling a federal lawsuit filed by Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment and the Allegheny County Health Department.

The lawsuit stemmed from a Christmas Eve fire in 2018 that caused $40 million in damage. The fire damaged pollution control equipment and led to repeated releases of sulfur dioxide, according to a lawsuit. In the wake of the fire, Allegheny County warned residents to limit outdoor activities, with residents saying for weeks afterward that the air felt acidic, smelled like rotten eggs and was hard to breathe.

Dr. Deborah Gentile, the medical director of Community Partners in Asthma Care, studied asthma levels after the fire and found twice as many patients sought medical treatment. One of her colleagues found patients living near the plant had increased symptoms of asthma, including coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.

News of the latest explosion had Gentile questioning how well the facility was being maintained.

“I’m very concerned that they aren’t keeping their equipment up to date and in shape,” she said.

In February, a problem with a battery at the plant led to a “buildup of combustible material” that ignited, causing an audible “boom,” officials said. Two workers received first aid treatment at a local hospital but were not seriously injured.

Environmental group calls for an investigation

David Masur, executive director of PennEnvironment, an environmental group that has sued U.S. Steel over pollution, said there needed to be “a full, independent investigation into the causes of this latest catastrophe and a re-evaluation as to whether the Clairton plant is fit to keep operating.”

In June, U.S. Steel and Nippon Steel announced they had finalized a “historic partnership,” a deal that gives the U.S. government a say in some matters and comes a year and a half after the Japanese company first proposed its nearly $15 billion buyout of the iconic American steelmaker.

The pursuit by Nippon Steel for the Pittsburgh-based company was buffeted by national security concerns and presidential politics in a premier battleground state, dragging out the transaction for more than a year after U.S. Steel shareholders approved it.

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Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Casey reported from Boston and Whittle reported from Portland, Maine. Associated Press reporters Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Beatrice Dupuy in New York City contributed to this report.

MIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Erin formed Monday in the eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean and could become the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season later this week, forecasters say.

In the Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Henriette strengthened well away from Hawaii. But the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said no coastal watches or warnings are in effect for either storm.

By Monday afternoon, Erin was about 430 miles (690 kilometers) west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands and had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (72 kph), according to the hurricane center. It said Erin was moving westward at 20 mph (32 kph) and is expected to continue on that general path for several days.

Gradual strengthening was forecast over the next several days and forecasters said Erin could reach hurricane intensity by the latter part of the week. The hurricane center said it remains too early to determine possible impacts, if any, from Erin as it moves closer to the northern Leeward Islands.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Henriette was a Category 1 storm in the central Pacific on Monday and was expected to retain hurricane status for another day or two before weakening. Henriette had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph), the NHC said. The storm was located about 595 miles (945 kilometers) northwest of Honolulu.

Also in the Pacific, remnants of onetime Tropical Storm Ivo degenerated on Monday about 615 miles (990 kilometers) west of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California peninsula. Forecasters said the remains of Ivo pose no threat to land.

NEW YORK (AP) — The man who attacked the CDC headquarters in Atlanta on Friday fired more than 180 shots into the campus and broke about 150 windows, with bullets piercing “blast-resistant” windows and spattering glass shards into numerous rooms, according to information circulated internally at the agency.

It may take weeks or even months to replace windows and clean up the damage, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention personnel said.

A Georgia man who had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal opened fire late Friday, killing a police officer. No one at CDC was injured.

The shooter was stopped by CDC security guards before driving to a nearby pharmacy and opening fire late Friday afternoon, a law enforcement official has told the AP. The official wasn’t authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The 30-year-old man, Patrick Joseph White, later died, but authorities haven’t said whether he was killed by police or killed himself.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. toured the CDC campus on Monday. CDC security pointed out broken windows across multiple buildings, including the main guard booth, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statement.

HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill and CDC Director Susan Monarez accompanied him, according to the statement.

Kennedy also visited the DeKalb County Police Department, where he met with the police chief. Later. He also met privately with the widow of the fallen officer, David Rose.

Monarez posted a statement on social media Friday night that said at least four CDC buildings were hit in the attack.

The extent of the damage became more clear during a weekend CDC leadership meeting. Two CDC employees who were told about what was discussed at the meeting described details to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to reveal the information. Details also were also in an agency memo seen by an AP reporter.

Building 21, which houses Monarez’s office, was hit by the largest number of bullets. CDC officials did not say if her office was hit.

CDC employees were advised to work from home this week.

Kennedy issued a statement Saturday that said “no one should face violence while working to protect the health of others,” and that top federal health officials were ”actively supporting CDC staff.”

He did not speak to the media during his visit Monday.

In a call with the media on Monday night, some unionized CDC employees said they are calling for more heavily armed guards, bulletproof glass, a better alert system, and more extensive evacuation planning for disabled employees and other vulnerable staff.

A retired CDC official, Stephan Monroe, said he worried about the long-term impact the attack would have on young scientists’ willingness to go to work for the government.

“I’m concerned that this is this is going to be a generational hit,” said Monroe, speaking to a reporter near the corner where a poster had been set up in honor of Rose.

Kennedy was a leader in a national anti-vaccine movement before President Donald Trump selected him to oversee federal health agencies, and has made false and misleading statements about the safety and effectiveness of about COVID-19 shots and other vaccines.

Years of false rhetoric about vaccines and public health was bound to “take a toll on people’s mental health,” and “leads to violence,” said Tim Young, a CDC employee who retired in April.

Dr. Jerome Adams, the U.S. surgeon general during President Donald Trump’s first administration, said Sunday that health leaders should appreciate the weight of their words.

“We have to understand people are listening,” Adams told “Face the Nation” on CBS. “When you make claims that have been proven false time and time again about safety and efficacy of vaccines, that can cause unintended consequences.”

CDC employees are now taking steps to become less visible, including not wearing their public health service uniform to work, said Yolanda Jacobs, president of Local 2883 of the American Federation of Government Employees.

She recalled when CDC employees were happy to be approached by neighbors or others with public health questions. “Now it’s at the point we’re afraid to have those types of conversations with anybody, because we don’t know who they are and we don’t know what rhetoric they’ve ingested,” she said.

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AP reporters Alanna Durkin Richer and Charlotte Kramon contributed to this report.

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

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. will invest nearly $2 billion retooling a Kentucky factory to produce electric vehicles that it says will be more affordable, more profitable to build, and will outcompete rival models.

The automaker’s top executive unveiled the new EV strategy Monday at Ford’s Louisville Assembly Plant which, after producing gas-powered vehicles for 70 years, will be converted to manufacture electric vehicles.

“We took a radical approach to solve a very hard challenge: Create affordable vehicles that are breakthrough in every way that matters — design, technology, performance, space and cost of ownership — and do it with American workers,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a release.

The Big Detroit automakers have continued to transition from internal combustion engines to EV technology even as President Donald Trump’s administration unwinds incentives for automakers to go electric. Trump’s massive tax and spending law targets EV incentives, including the imminent removal of a credit that saves buyers up to $7,500 on a new electric car.

Yet Farley and other top executives in the auto industry say that electric vehicles are the future and there is no going back.

The first EV to roll off the revamped Louisville assembly line will be a midsize, four-door electric pickup truck in 2027 for domestic and international markets, the company said Monday.

The new electric trucks will be powered by lower-cost batteries made at a Ford factory in Michigan. The Detroit automaker previously announced a $3 billion investment to build the battery factory.

The automaker sees this as a “Model T moment” for its EV business — a reference to the mass-produced vehicle that launched the venerable automaker more than a century ago. But Ford says it’s also a nod to the future and the vastly different way Ford says it will build electric vehicles.

The company said it will use a universal platform and production system for its EVs, essentially the underpinning of a vehicle that can be applied across a wide range of models.

The Louisville factory — one of two Ford assembly plants in Kentucky’s largest city — will be revamped to cut production costs and make assembly time faster as it’s prepared to churn out electric vehicles.

The result will be “an affordable electric vehicle that we expect to be profitable,” Farley said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. “This is an example of us rejuvenating our U.S. plants with the most modern manufacturing techniques.”

The new platform enables a lineup of affordable vehicles to be produced at scale, Ford said. It will reduce parts by 20% versus a typical vehicle, with 25% fewer fasteners, 40% fewer workstations dock-to-dock in the plant and a 15% faster assembly time, Ford said. The traditional assembly line will be transformed into an “assembly tree” at the Louisville plant, it said. Instead of one long conveyor, three sub-assembly lines will operate simultaneously and then join together, it said.

“Nobody wants to see another good college try by a Detroit automaker to make an affordable vehicle that ends up with idled plants, layoffs and uncertainty,” Farley said in the release. “So, this has to be a good business. From Day 1, we knew there was no incremental path to success. … We reinvented the moving assembly line.”

Other specifications for the midsize electric truck – including its reveal date, starting price, EPA-estimated battery range, battery sizes and charge times — will be announced later, the company said. Ford revealed in its release that the truck will have a targeted starting price of about $30,000.

Ford said its investment in the Louisville plant will secure 2,200 hourly jobs.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday that the automaker’s plans for the Louisville plant will strengthen a more than century-old partnership between Ford and the Bluegrass State.

“This announcement not only represents one of the largest investments on record in our state, it also boosts Kentucky’s position at the center of EV-related innovation and solidifies Louisville Assembly Plant as an important part of Ford’s future,” Beshear said.

Ford said its combined investment of about $5 billion at the Kentucky assembly plant and Michigan battery plant is expected to create or secure nearly 4,000 direct jobs between the two plants while strengthening the domestic supply chain with dozens of new U.S.-based suppliers.

Ford previously forecast weaker earnings growth for this year and further losses in its electric vehicles business as it works to control costs. Model e, Ford’s electric vehicle business, posted a full-year loss of $5.08 billion for 2024 as revenue fell 35% to $3.9 billion.

Ford’s new EV strategy comes as Chinese automakers are quickly expanding across the globe, offering relatively affordable electric vehicles.

“We’re not in a race to build the most electric cars,” Farley told the AP when asked about competition from China. “We’re in a race to have a sustainable electric business that’s profitable, that customers love.

“And this new vehicle built in Louisville, Kentucky, is going to be a much better solution to anything that anyone can buy from China,” he added.