Category: National News Feed

BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China.

The news came in a company blog post late Monday, which stated that the U.S. government had “assured” Nvidia that licenses would be granted — and that the company “hopes to start deliveries soon.” Shares of the California-based chipmaker were up over 4% by midday Tuesday.

Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run CGTN television network, in remarks shown on X.

“Today, I’m announcing that the U.S. government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s,” Huang told reporters in Beijing.

He added that half of the world’s AI researchers are in China. “It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here,” he said.

Huang recently met with President Donald Trump and other U.S. policymakers — and is in Beijing this week to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials. The broadcast showed Huang meeting with Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, host of the China International Supply Chain Expo, which Huang was attending. Nvidia is an exhibitor.

Nvidia has profited enormously from the rapid adoption of AI, becoming the first company to have its market value surpass $4 trillion last week. However, the trade rivalry between the U.S. and China has been weighing heavily on the industry.

Here’s what we know.

What is Nvidia’s H20 chip?

The H20 graphics processing unit, or GPU, is an advanced AI chip — a type of device used to build and update a range of AI systems. But it’s less powerful than Nvidia’s top semiconductors today.

That’s because the H20 chip was developed to specifically comply with U.S. restrictions for exports of AI chips to China. Nvidia’s most advanced chips, which carry more computing power, are off-limits to the Chinese market.

Washington has been tightening controls on exports of advanced technology to China for years, citing concerns that know-how meant for civilian use could be deployed for military purposes. And in January, before Trump began his second term in office, President Joe Biden’s administration launched a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used to develop AI — in an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries.

Restrictions on sales of advanced chips to China have been central to the AI race between the world’s two largest economic powers, but such controls are also controversial. Proponents argue that these restrictions are necessary to slow China down enough to allow U.S. companies to keep their lead. Meanwhile, opponents say the export controls have loopholes — and could still spur innovation. The emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot in January particularly renewed concerns over how China might use advanced chips to help develop its own AI capabilities.

What’s happened since Trump took office?

In April, just months after Trump took office, the White House announced that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips to China — as well as MI308 chips from rival chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices.

At the time, the Trump administration again cited national security. But Nvidia said these tighter export controls would cost the company an extra $5.5 billion — and Huang and other technology leaders have been lobbying Trump to reverse the restrictions since. They’ve argued that such limits hinder U.S. competition in a sector in one of the world’s largest markets for technology, and have also warned that U.S. export controls could end up pushing other countries toward China’s AI technology.

Monday’s announcement from Nvidia signals that its lobbyingefforts paid off — although the Trump administration has yet to publicly comment on the future of H20 chip sales in China. And the exact timing remains unknown overall. It’s also unclear whether AMD will similarly see restrictions lifted for its MI308 chips. AMD didn’t immediately return an emailed request for comment Tuesday about how Trump’s policies would affect its chip sales in China.

On top of export controls, California-based Nvidia — like other tech giants today — has been caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s tariff wars abroad, particularly amid America’s tit-for-tat levies with China. But Nvidia and its CEO have garnered Trump’s favor in recent months. In April, the company announced that it would be producing its AI chips in the U.S. for the first time, starting with more than one million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test its specialized Blackwell chips in Arizona and AI supercomputers in Texas.

Trump was quick to applaud Nvidia’s move. He introduced Huang as a “smart cookie” who was helping bring jobs to the U.S. at an “Investing in America” event held at the White House later that month.

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Grantham-Philips reported from New York. AP Writers Didi Tang in Washington, D.C., Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island and AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed.

FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts assisted-living center where nine residents died in a fire was cited for failing to immediately report more than two dozen health and safety incidents, according to regulators’ most recent review of the facility.

Five men and four women were killed and at least 30 others were injured Sunday night at Gabriel House in Fall River, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boston. Some of the 70 residents were rescued by ladder after screaming for help from the windows of the three-story building. Investigators have not determined the cause of the blaze, which was the state’s deadliest fire in more than four decades.

The 100-unit facility, which opened in 1999 in a former motel built decades earlier, was last inspected by the state on Oct. 31, 2023, according to a report from the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs.

The report cited the facility for seven deficiencies, four of which were repeat problems. After the facility responded with a corrective action plan, it was re-certified through November 2025.

Most of the issues involved missing documentation. For example, seven resident files that were reviewed were missing documents to indicate that their service plans were reassessed within 30 days of moving in, as required. The plans outline the services each resident receives, including whether they need help with medication and meals.

The review also found problems with the reporting of safety incidents. Facilities are supposed to submit reports of incidents that could have a significant negative effect on residents’ health, safety or welfare within 24 hours, but the review found 26 reports that were sent later than that between May 5, 2022, and Oct. 31, 2023.

The report did not specify the total number of incidents, or provide any details about what they involved.

The state also watched two staffers provide medication assistance to seven residents and found several problems, including failure to document when eye drops were opened, loose tablets in medication storage areas and partially opened medication.

Advocates question staff size and other issues

Some residents said only two or three staffers were working at the time of the fire, and they offered little help.

“They left us alone and ran out into the parking lot,” said Lorraine Ferrara. “I was hanging out the window — ‘Help! Help!’ and they just kept running.”

Paul Lanzikos, a former Massachusetts secretary of elder affairs and co-founder of the advocacy group Dignity Alliance, said the group was concerned about reports on the lack of fire drills, the small number of staff members for a highly dependent population and safety issues such as a broken elevator and air conditioners in the windows.

“It’s a terrible tragedy that should have never happened,” Lanzikos said.

Richard Moore, another co-founder of Dignity Alliance, has asked the attorney general to investigate based on similar concerns as well as the facility owner’s history. Dennis Etzkorn, owner of Gabriel Care LLC, was indicted on medical assistance fraud and kickback charges in 2012, though the charges were dismissed three years later.

“The fact that it happened in the past and that this now happened suggests that there should be a more thorough investigation of that,” said Moore, former head of the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association and a former state senator.

He said the assisted-living industry overall needs more rigorous regulation and oversight. And while it’s too early to say what went wrong at Gabriel House, he said the staffing levels and training appear to have been inadequate.

Regulations require emergency plans

Current regulations do not require a specific number of staff members, but the rules say facilities “shall have a plan to secure staffing necessary” to respond to emergencies.

“There should have been more staff. They should have been trained in the case of fire or other emergency,” Moore said. “They should have been doing fire drills. It seemed like residents didn’t know what to do.”

Etzkorn declined to comment to The Associated Press. He told the Boston Globe in a statement Monday that he and his family were “devastated by the tragedy” and that he will continue to cooperate with authorities.

Meanwhile, a state commission working to improve long-term care in Massachusetts held a moment of silence Tuesday “for the lives that were lost and the lives that were put on the line” in Fall River.

The Assisted Living Residences Commission, created by lawmakers last year as part of a broader effort, faces an Aug. 1 deadline to recommend policies to ensure facilities meet the health and safety needs of residents. But members said they may seek more time given the fire.

“We need to do a deep dive based on the investigation results with this facility, but also the facilities like this one,” state Rep. Thomas Stanley said.

Some residents still homeless

By Tuesday morning, the facility’s broken windows had been boarded up, and bouquets of flowers and a rosary were set on the ground against a post wrapped with yellow police tape. A steady stream of cars pulled up to the Catholic Charities Diocese of Fall River to drop off donated items for the displaced residents, and the city is working with multiple organizations to collect money.

“There’s a lot of generosity and love being shared with the city of Fall River and the people who suffered so much the other night,” Fire Chief Jeffrey Bacon said.

Ann O’Neil-Souza, chief of staff for the mayor, said city officials expect to find homes for the survivors from Gabriel House by the end of Tuesday. She said most were being placed with other facilities in the city and with family, and hospitals have been asked to work with social workers to ensure patients find housing when they are discharged.

The dead ranged in age from 61 to 86, authorities said. The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office identified seven of the deceased as Rui Albernaz, 64; Ronald Codega, 61; Margaret Duddy, 69; Robert King, 78; Kim Mackin, 71; Richard Rochon, 78; and Eleanor Willett, 86. The office said the names of a 70-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man had not been released pending notification of family.

___ Ramer reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Smith reported from Providence, Rhode Island. Associated Press Writers Michael Casey in Boston and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks are falling on Tuesday after an update on inflation hurt Wall Street’s hopes for lower interest rates. But indexes are staying close to their records thanks to Nvidia, the market’s most influential stock.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading and just a bit below its all-time high, even as more than four out of every five stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 253 points, or 0.6%, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher and on track to set another record.

Stocks felt pressure from a report showing inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.4% in May. Economists pointed to increases in prices for clothes, toys and other things that tend to get imported from other countries. Their prices could be rising because of the tariffs that President Donald Trump has imposed on countries worldwide in hopes of getting them to open their markets further to U.S. products.

“Inflation has begun to show the first signs of tariff pass-through,” according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management.

To be sure, the inflation rate reported on Tuesday morning wasn’t far from what economists expected. And an underlying measure of inflation that economists think is a better predictor of future trends accelerated by less than feared.

Altogether, the data helped caused Treasury yields to yo-yo a few times in the bond market before they began rising.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 4.47% from 4.43% late Monday. The yield on the two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do with short-term interest rates, rose to 3.94% from 3.90%.

A further acceleration in inflation could tie the hands of the Fed, which has kept interest rates on hold so far this year, because lower rates can give inflation more fuel, along with a boost for the economy. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they goose prices higher for stocks and other investments, and Trump himself has been clamoring for the Fed to cut more quickly.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell, though, has been adamant that he wants to wait for more data about how tariffs affect the economy and inflation. Following Tuesday’s inflation report, traders are still overwhelmingly betting that the Fed will cut its main interest rate by the end of the year. But they pulled back their bets on the number of potential cuts, compared with a day before, according to data from CME Group.

On Wall Street, tech stocks were the outliers and rose after Nvidia said the U.S. government assured it that licenses will be granted for its H20 chip again and that deliveries will hopefully begin soon. Nvidia’s 4.4% gain was by far the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500.

Earlier this year, Nvidia said that U.S. restrictions on the chips used in artificial-intelligence development chiseled billions of dollars off its results for the first quarter of the year.

Stocks of big U.S. banks, meanwhile, were mixed following their latest profit reports.

JPMorgan Chase slipped 0.4% despite reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected, as CEO Jamie Dimon warned of risks to the economy because of tariffs and other concerns.

Citigroup rose 3% following its better-than-expected profit report. But Wells Fargo fell 5.4% following its own, as it trimmed its forecast for an important way that it makes money.

In stock markets abroad, indexes slipped in Europe after a mixed session in Asia. Indexes rose 1.6% in Hong Kong but fell 0.4% in Shanghai after a report said China’s economic growth slowed only slightly last quarter despite pressure from Trump’s tariffs.

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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two people in New Jersey were killed after their vehicle was swept up in flood waters during a storm that moved across the U.S. Northeast overnight, authorities said Tuesday.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, noted the deaths occurred in the northern New Jersey city of Plainfield where there were two storm-related deaths July 3. A third person was killed in North Plainfield during that previous storm.

“We’re not unique, but we’re in one of these sort of high humidity, high temperature, high storm intensity patterns right now,” Murphy told reporters after touring storm damage in Berkeley Heights. “Everybody needs to stay alert.”

The names of the two latest victims were not immediately released Tuesday. Local officials said the vehicle they were riding in was swept into a brook during the height of the storm.

“Emergency personnel responded quickly, but tragically, both individuals were pronounced dead at the scene,” according to a statement the city posted online.

The heavy rains also caused flash floods in New York and south-central Pennsylvania on Monday night into early Tuesday, prompting road closures and snarling some service on the New York City subway.

Flooding in the New York subway

At one stop in Manhattan, viral videos posted online showed water flooding down into a Manhattan subway station, submerging the platform while passengers inside a train watch. Another photo appears to show passengers standing on a train’s seats to avoid the water beginning to soak the floor.

Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, told ABC 7 in New York the city’s sewer system got overwhelmed by the rain and backed up into the subway tunnels and to the stations. In several cases, he said, the backup “popped a manhole,” creating the dramatic “geyser” seen in some videos.

“What happened last night is something that is, you know, a reality in our system,” he told the TV station, noting the backup happens when more than 1 3/4 inches of rain falls in an hour. “We’ve been working with the city of New York to try to get them to increase the capacity of the system at these key locations.”

Lieber said there was now full subway service, as well as full Long Island Railroad and Metro North commuter rail service after hundreds of people worked overnight to restore operations.

Flooding has proven to be a stubborn problem for New York’s subway system, despite years and billions of dollars’ worth of efforts to waterproof them.

Superstorm Sandy in 2012 prompted years of subway repairs and flood-fighting ideas, and some have been put into practice. In some places, transit officials have installed or are installing storm barriers at subway station entrances, seals beneath subway air vents and curbs to raise the vents and entrances above sidewalk level.

Meanwhile, summer thunderstorms and the remains of hurricanes have repeatedly flooded parts of the subway system anew. In 2021, the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed more than a dozen New York City residents, largely in basement apartments, and sent water cascading again into subways, renewing attention to resiliency proposals.

The storm’s effects in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

This latest storm prompted multiple water rescues in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where streets and basements flooded after roughly 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain fell. Some roads remained closed in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Tuesday. Murphy said the pavement buckled in some locations and state and local officials were assessing the level of damage in several counties, noting the White House had reached out to his office.

A major east-to-west highway in New Jersey was closed to make emergency repairs while dozens of flights were delayed or canceled at area airports Tuesday, including at least 173 total cancellations at Newark Liberty Airport, according to FlightAware data.

Most flash flood watches and warnings had expired in parts of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as the rain moved on.

In one flooded North Plainfield, New Jersey, neighborhood, a house caught on fire and collapsed. Murphy said there was an explosion at the house but the family was not home and there were no injuries. The cause was under investigation.

New York City officials said their venerable sewer system worked as well as it could but simply was not built to handle rain that fell at the second-highest rate ever recorded in Central Park, surpassed only by the remnants of 2021’s Hurricane Ida.

“Imagine putting a two-liter bottle of water into a one-liter bottle. Some of it’s going to spill,” Environmental Protection Commissioner Rohit Aggarwala said at a virtual news briefing Tuesday.

The city doesn’t run the subway system — it’s under the separate Metropolitan Transportation Authority — but Aggarwala said the two entities have been collaborating to clean sewers near 45 flood-prone subway stations. The city also has sketched out plans to upgrade sewers to handle more water, estimating it would take $30 billion to do so in about 80 areas that need it most. The city currently spends about $1 billion a year on stormwater management.

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Haigh reported from Connecticut.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs push up the cost of everything from groceries and clothes to furniture and appliances.

Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.

Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for Trump, who as a candidate promised to immediately lower costs, but instead has engaged in a whipsawed frenzy of tariffs that have jolted businesses and consumers. Trump insists that the U.S. effectively has no inflation as he has attempted to pressure Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell into cutting short-term interest rates.

Yet the new inflation numbers make it more likely that the central bank will leave rates where they are. Powell has said that he wants to gauge the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs before reducing borrowing costs.

Excluding volatile food and energy, core inflation increased 2.9% in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2% from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed.

The uptick in inflation was driven by a range of higher prices. The cost of gasoline rose 1% just from May to June, while grocery prices increased 0.3%. Appliance prices jumped for the third straight month. Toys, clothes, audio equipment, shoes, and sporting goods all got more expensive, and are all heavily imported.

“You are starting to see scattered bits of the tariff inflation regime filter in,” said Eric Winograd, chief economist at asset management firm AllianceBernstein, who added that the cost of long-lasting goods rose last month, compared with a year ago, for the first time in about three years.

Winograd also noted that housing costs, a big inflation driver since the pandemic, have continued to cool, actually holding down broader inflation. The cost of rent rose 3.8% in June compared with a year ago, the smallest yearly increase since late 2021.

“Were it not for the tariff uncertainty, the Fed would already be cutting rates,” Winograd said. “The question is whether there is more to come, and the Fed clearly thinks there is,” along with most economists.

Some items got cheaper last month, including new and used cars, hotel rooms, and airfares. Travel prices have generally declined in recent months as fewer international tourists visit the U.S.

A broader political battle over Trump’s tariffs is emerging, a fight that will ultimately be determined by how the U.S. public feels about their cost of living and whether the president is making good on his 2024 promise to help the middle class.

The White House pushed back on claims that the report showed a negative impact from tariffs, since the cost of new cars fell despite the 25% tariffs on autos and 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum. The administration also noted that despite the June bump in apparel prices, clothing prices are still cheaper than three months ago.

“Consumer Prices LOW,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Bring down the Fed Rate, NOW!!!”

For Democratic lawmakers, the inflation report confirmed their warnings over the past several months that Trump’s tariffs could reignite inflation. They said Tuesday that it will only become more painful given the size of the tariff rates in the letters that Trump posted over the past week.

“For those saying we have not seen the impact of Trump’s tariff wars, look at today’s data. Americans continue to struggle with the costs of groceries and rent — and now prices of food and appliances are rising,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

Many businesses built up a stockpile of goods this spring and were able to delay price hikes, while others likely waited to see if the duties would become permanent.

More businesses now appear to be throwing in the towel and passing on costs to consumers, including Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, which has said it raised prices in June. Automaker Mitsubishi said last month that it was lifting prices by an average of 2.1% in response to the duties, and Nike has said it would implement “surgical” price hikes.

Powell said last month that companies up and down the supply chain would seek to avoid paying tariffs, but that ultimately some combination of businesses and consumers would bear the cost.

“There’s the manufacturer, the exporter, the importer, the retailer, and the consumer, and each one of those is going to be trying not to be the one to pay for the tariff,” the Fed chair said. “But together, they will all pay for it together—or maybe one party will pay it all. But that process is very hard to predict, and we haven’t been through a situation like this.”

Trump has imposed sweeping duties of 10% on all imports plus 30% on goods from China. Last week the president threatened to hit the European Union with a new 30% tariff starting Aug. 1.

He has also threatened to slap 50% duties on Brazil, which would push up the cost of orange juice and coffee. Orange prices leaped 3.5% just from May to June, and are 3.4% higher than a year ago, the government said Tuesday.

Overall, grocery prices rose 0.3% last month and are up 2.4% from a year earlier. While that is a much smaller increase than after the pandemic, when inflation surged, it is slightly bigger than the pre-pandemic pace. The Trump administration has also placed a 17% duty on Mexican tomatoes.

Families have cut spending on food as prices rise. Cassidy Grom, 29, her husband, and his mother are eating out less and try to stretch grocery store rotisserie chickens as far as possible, using them in salads and the bones for soup.

“It feels like a miracle if I’m able to leave the grocery store without spending $100,” the Edison, New Jersey resident said. “We’re trying to save for a house, we’re trying to save for a family, so prices are really on our mind.”

Accelerated inflation could provide a respite for Powell, who has come under withering fire from the White House over interest rates.

The Fed chair has said that the duties could both push up prices and slow the economy, a tricky combination for the central bank since higher costs would typically lead the Fed to hike rates while a weaker economy often spurs it to reduce them.

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s subway system was fully operational for the Tuesday morning commute, however some roads remained closed in sections of New York and New Jersey after heavy rain swept across the U.S. Northeast overnight, causing flash floods.

Dozens of flights were delayed or canceled at area airports Tuesday, including 159 total cancelations at Newark Liberty Airport, according to FlightAware data.

Most flash flood watches and warnings had expired in parts of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania as the rain moved on, but a state of emergency declared by Gov. Phil Murphy remained in New Jersey, where video on social media showed cars still partially inundated in some parts of the state as residents worked to clean up.

Delays were reported on part of the state’s commuter rail line due to the severe weather.

In New York, however, Janno Lieber, chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, told ABC 7 in New York there was now full subway service, as well as full Long Island Railroad and Metro North commuter rail service after hundreds of people worked overnight to restore operations.

Video posted on social media appeared to show water flooding down into a Manhattan subway station, submerging the platform while passengers inside a train watch. Another photo appears to show passengers standing on a train’s seats to avoid the water beginning to soak the floor.

Lieber said the city’s sewer system got overwhelmed by the rain and backed up into the subway tunnels and to the stations. In several cases, he said, the backup “popped a manhole,” creating the dramatic “geyser” seen in some videos.

“What happened last night is something that is, you know, a reality in our system,” he told the TV station, noting the backup happens when more than 1 3/4 inches of rain falls in an hour. “We’ve been working with the city of New York to try to get them to increase the capacity of the system at these key locations.”

In one flooded neighborhood in North Plainfield, New Jersey, authorities were investigating why a house caught on fire and collapsed and whether it was due to a possible explosion. It occurred not long after the family inside had evacuated, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

KLAMATH, Calif. (AP) — As bright-colored kayaks push through a thick wall of fog, voices and the beats of drums build as kayakers approach a crowd that has formed on the beach. Applause erupts as the boats land on the sandy spit that partially separates the Klamath River from the Pacific Ocean in northern California.

Native American teenagers from tribes across the river basin push themselves up and out of the kayaks and begin to cross the sand, some breaking into a sprint. They kick playfully at the cold waves of the ocean they’ve been paddling toward over the last month — the ocean that’s seen fewer and fewer salmon return to it over the last century as four hydropower dams blocked their ideal spawning grounds upstream.

“I think our ancestors would be proud because this is what they’ve been fighting for,” said Tasia Linwood, a 15-year-old member of the Karuk Tribe, on Thursday night, ahead of the group’s final push to the end on Friday.

The Klamath River is newly navigable after a decades-long effort to remove its four hydropower dams to help restore the salmon run — an ancient source of life, food and culture for these paddlers’ tribes who have lived alongside the river for millennia. Youth primarily from the Yurok, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, Karuk, Quartz Valley and Warm Springs tribes paddled 310 miles (499 kilometers) over a month from the headwaters of the Wood River, a tributary to the Klamath that some tribes consider sacred, to the Pacific Ocean.

The teens spent several years learning to navigate white water through Paddle Tribal Waters, a program set up by the nonprofit Rios to Rivers, to prepare local Native youth for the day this would be possible.

During their last days on the water, the group of several dozen swelled to more than 100, joined by some family members and Indigenous people from Bolivia, Chile and New Zealand who face similar challenges on their home rivers.

Dams built decades ago for electricity

Starting in the early 1900s, power company PacifiCorp built the dams over several decades to generate electricity. But the structures, which provided 2% of the utility’s power, halted the natural flow of a waterway that was once known as the third-largest salmon-producing river on the West Coast.

With the dams in place, tribes lost access to a reliable source of food. The dams blocked the path to hundreds of miles of cool freshwater streams, ideal for salmon returning from the ocean to lay their eggs. Salmon numbers declined dramatically along with the water quality.

In 2002, a bacterial outbreak caused by low water and warm temperatures killed more than 34,000 fish, mostly Chinook salmon. That galvanized decades of advocacy by tribes and environmental groups, culminating in 2022 when federal regulators approved a plan to remove the dams.

Through protests, testimony and lawsuits, the tribes showcased the environmental devastation caused by the dams, especially to salmon. From 2023 to 2024, the four dams were dynamited and removed, freeing hundreds of miles of the Klamath.

The renewable electricity lost by removing the hydropower dams was enough to power the equivalent of 70,000 homes, although PacifiCorp has since expanded its renewable sources through wind and solar projects.

Two dams used for irrigation and flood control remain on the upper stretch of the river. They have “ladders” that allow some fish to pass through, although their efficacy for adult salmon is questionable. On the journey, the paddlers got out of the river and carried their kayaks around the dams.

For teens, a month of paddling and making memories

The journey began June 12 with ceremonial blessings and kayaks gathered in a circle above a natural pool of springs where fresh water bubbles to the surface at the headwater of the Wood River, just upstream of the Klamath River.

The youth camped in tents as they made their way across Upper Klamath Lake and down the Klamath River, jumping in the water or doing flips in their kayaks to cool down in the summer heat. A few kayakers came down with swimmer’s ear, but overall everybody on the trip remained healthy.

Nearly everyone had a story to share of a family’s fishing cabin or a favorite swimming hole while passing through ancestral territory of the Klamath, Modoc, Shasta, Karuk and Yurok.

More than 2,200 dams were removed from rivers in the United States from 1912 through 2024, most in the last couple of decades as momentum grows to restore the natural flow of rivers and the wildlife they support, according to the conservation group American Rivers.

“I believe that it was kind of symbolic of a bigger issue,” said John Acuna, member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe and a leader on the trip.

Removal of dams represents end of long fight with federal government

The federal government signed treaties with these tribes outlining their right to govern themselves, which is violated when they can’t rely on their traditional food from the river. Acuna said these violations are familiar to many tribal communities, and included when his great-grandmother was sent to boarding school as part of a national strategy to strip culture and language from Native Americans.

That history “comes with generational trauma,” he said.

Their treaty-enshrined right to fish was also blatantly disregarded by regional authorities in the 1970s but later upheld by various court decisions, said Yurok council member Phillip Williams.

Standing on a fog-shrouded boat ramp in the town of Requa awaiting the arrival of the youth, Williams recounted the time when it was illegal to fish here using the tribes’ traditional nets. As a child, his elders were arrested and even killed for daring to defy authorities and fish in broad daylight.

Fifty years later, with the hydropower dams now gone, large numbers of salmon are beginning to return and youth are paddling the length of the Klamath.

“If there’s a heaviness that I feel it’s because there’s a lot of people that lived all in these places, all these little houses here that are no longer here no more,” said Williams. “They don’t get to see what’s happening today. And that’s a heavy, heavy, feeling.”

Even as a teen, Linwood says she feels both the pleasure of a month-long river trip with her friends and the weight of the past.

“I kind of feel guilty, like I haven’t done enough to be fighting,” she said. “I gotta remember that’s what our ancestors fought for. They fought for that — so that we could feel this joy with the river.”

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation rose last month to its highest level in four months as the cost of gas, food, and groceries rose, reversing several months of cooling price pressures.

Consumer prices rose 2.7% in June from a year earlier, the Labor Department said Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3% from May to June, after rising just 0.1% the previous month.

Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for President Donald Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. The sharp inflation spike of 2022-2023 was the worst in four decades and soured most Americans on former president Joe Biden’s handling of the economy. Higher inflation will also likely heighten the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation increased 2.9% in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8% in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2% from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation likely accelerated in June as sweeping tariffs on nearly all imports may have pushed up prices for electronics, appliances, and other goods, economists forecast.

Consumer prices probably rose 2.6% last month from a year ago, up from an annual increase of 2.4% in May, according to data provider FactSet. The Labor Department will issue its inflation report at 8:30 a.m. eastern. On a monthly basis, prices likely rose 0.3% from May to June, the largest increase since January, economists project.

Worsening inflation could pose a political challenge for President Donald Trump, who promised during last year’s presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. The sharp inflation spike of 2022-2023 was the worst in four decades and soured most Americans on former president Joe Biden’s handling of the economy.

Faster price increases would also likely underscore the Federal Reserve’s reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding.

Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, inflation is forecast to have risen 3% in June from a year earlier, up from a 2.8% rise in May. On a monthly basis, it is also expected to have picked up 0.3% from May to June, according to FactSet. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed.

Trump has imposed sweeping duties of 10% on all imports, plus 50% levies on steel and aluminum, 30% on goods from China, and 25% on imported cars. Just last week the president threatened to hit the European Union with a new 30% tariff starting Aug. 1.

So far, the tariffs haven’t noticeably pushed up inflation, which has been mild for the past four months. Core inflation has fallen from 3.3% in January to 2.8% in May, though that is still above the Fed’s 2% target. If inflation in June is much weaker than economists forecast, Trump will likely renew his demands that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell immediately reduce borrowing costs.

Powell and other Fed officials have emphasized that they want to see how the economy evolves as the tariffs take effect before cutting their key short-term rate. The Fed chair has said that the duties could both push up prices and slow the economy, a tricky combination for the central bank since higher costs would typically lead the Fed to hike rates while a weaker economy often spurs it to reduce them.

Trump on Monday said that Powell has been “terrible” and “doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” The president added that the economy was doing well despite Powell’s refusal to reduce rates, but it would be “nice” if there were rate cuts “because people would be able to buy housing a lot easier.”

Last week, White House officials also attacked Powell for cost overruns on the years-long renovation of two Fed buildings, which are now slated to cost $2.5 billion, roughly one-third more than originally budgeted. While Trump legally can’t fire Powell just because he disagrees with his interest rate decisions, the Supreme Court has signaled, he may be able to do so “for cause,” such as misconduct or mismanagement.

While inflation was mild in May, there were already signs in last month’s report that tariffs were starting to have some impact. The cost of furniture, appliances, toys, and tools rose, though those increases were offset by falling prices for airfares, hotels, and muted rises in rental costs.

Some companies have said they have or plan to raise prices as a result of the tariffs, including Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. Automaker Mitsubishi said last month that it was lifting prices by an average of 2.1% in response to the duties, and Nike has said it would implement “surgical” price hikes to offset tariff costs.

But many companies have been able to postpone or avoid price increases, after building up their stockpiles of goods this spring to get ahead of the duties. Other companies may have refrained from lifting prices while they wait to see whether the U.S. is able to reach trade deals with other countries that lower the duties.

BANGKOK (AP) — Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence to China.

The news came in a company blog post late Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run CGTN television network in remarks shown on X.

“The U.S. government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said.

“Today, I’m announcing that the U.S. government has approved for us filing licenses to start shipping H20s,” Huang told reporters in Beijing. He noted that half of the world’s AI researchers are in China.

“It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here in China,” he said.

Huang recently met with Trump and other U.S. policymakers and this week is in Beijing to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials.

The broadcast showed Huang meeting with Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade, host of the China International Supply Chain Expo, which Huang was attending. Nvidia is an exhibitor.

Nvidia has profited enormously from rapid adoption of AI, becoming the first company to have its market value surpass $4 trillion last week. However, the trade rivalry between the U.S. and China has been weighing heavily on the industry.

Washington has been tightening controls on exports of advanced technology to China for years, citing concerns that know-how meant for civilian use could be deployed for military purposes. The emergence of China’s DeepSeek AI chatbot in January renewed concerns over how China might use the advanced chips to help develop its own AI capabilities.

In January, before Trump began his second term in office, the administration of President Joe Biden launched a new framework for exporting advanced computer chips used to develop artificial intelligence, an attempt to balance national security concerns about the technology with the economic interests of producers and other countries.

The White House announced in April that it would restrict sales of Nvidia’s H20 chips and AMD’s MI308 chips to China.

Nvidia had said the tighter export controls would cost the company an extra $5.5 billion, and Huang and other technology leaders have been lobbying President Donald Trump to reverse the restrictions. They argue that such limits hinder U.S. competition in a leading edge sector in one of the world’s largest markets for technology.

They’ve also warned that U.S. export controls could end up pushing other countries toward China’s AI technology.

Nvidia’s U.S. traded shares slipped 0.5% in afterhours trading Monday, but its shares traded in Frankfurt, Germany, jumped 3.2% early Tuesday.

___

AP researcher Yu Bing in Beijing contributed.

NAPLES, Fla. (AP) — When an emergency happens in Collier County, Florida, the 911 calls go to one of the most high-tech communications centers in the U.S., where callers can send text and video from the scene to dispatchers.

Moving to what’s known as an NG911 — or Next Generation 911 — system is a journey Sheriff Kevin Rambosk and Bob Finney, the county’s director of communication, have been on for much of the past decade.

It’s a long way from Feb. 16, 1968, when Alabama’s then-House Speaker Rankin Fite made the nation’s very first 911 call in Haleyville, Alabama, on a bright red, rotary-style landline telephone. That ceremonial call came just 35 days after AT&T announced plans to use 911 as a nationwide emergency number.

Today, most calls to 911 originate with cellphones, with dispatchers in upgraded centers using geo tracking to get accurate geographic locations from callers.

But the response time in an emergency depends on the type of technology being used at any of the 6,000 emergency communications centers in the U.S. that receive 911 calls. There is no uniform emergency system in the U.S., so individual cities, counties, states or geographic regions are responsible for operating their own 911 call centers.

While some states have fully updated to NG911 systems, others are still using legacy 911 systems that rely on antiquated equipment.

“We’re just reminded in these last two weeks, with the flooding in Texas, just how important the work of 911 is,” said Michael Martin, CEO of RapidSOS, which provides infrastructure that passes critical data to emergency centers across the United States.

The future is now for 911

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office covers 911 calls from an area of about 2,030 square miles (5,258 square kilometers) that stretches from sandy beaches at the southernmost tip of the Gulf Coast on Florida’s peninsula inland to the Everglades.

It’s a region that has been ravaged by hurricanes this century, including Hurricane Irma in 2017 and Hurricanes Ian and Milton most recently.

That’s why Sheriff Rambosk wanted a high-tech emergency operations center.

“We just believe that when we can reduce the response time using technology, it will improve safety and survivability of those calling in,” said Rambosk, who has been sheriff since 2009. “And that’s really what we’re all about, keeping people safe and rescuing them when they need it.”

Today 61 full-time employees and three part-timers staff two emergency operations centers around the clock.

They rely on data that RapidSOS collects from connected buildings, devices, vehicles and even smart watches to send first responders to emergency scenes. The baseline data is provide free of charge to all 911 centers, Martin said.

Mixing technology with emergency response

As Hurricane Helene was tracking toward north Florida last September, forecasters were predicting it could hit Tallahassee as a major Category 3 storm. Officials in Leon County, which serves the state’s Capitol and nearby counties on legacy 911 equipment, reached out to Collier County, some 430 miles (692 kilometers) to the southeast, to see if they could take over emergency calls if the storm knocked their center out.

Helene moved to the east of Tallahassee, but Collier County was prepared to help if needed.

“Because of the partnership with Rapid SOS, they were able to create a map to where not only did we see our own calls, but we could see exactly where the calls were coming in Tallahassee,” Finney said.

Collier County has also partnered with Charleston, South Carolina, as a backup 911 center. Each region is fully prepared to take on 911 calls for the other in case their emergency system goes down for any reason.

It’s a similar story in North Carolina, where legislation in 2017 helped establish funding for a next generation 911 system, said Pokey Harris, who serves as president of the National Association of State 911 Administrators and executive director of the North Carolina 911 Board.

Harris said Hurricane Helene provided validation for the upgraded system by being able to direct 911 calls from areas that were devastated by the storm to other parts of North Carolina that were not affected.

“During Helene, if a citizen could reach a dial tone, even though their local 911 center may have been impacted because of infrastructure devastation, another center somewhere in the state could answer their call,” Harris said.

No federal funding for next-generation systems

Next Generation 911 systems aren’t cheap.

“There has been no federal funding for 911,” Martin, of RapidSOS said. “It has been in various draft formats as long as I’ve been doing this and it’s never gotten through Congress.”

There is also no federal oversight of 911, he said.

“It’s really quite remarkable how well 911 works despite those challenges,” Martin said. “I think it’s a testament to the people of 911, not the technology.”