LUY-Development

Category: AP News Feed

  • Rugby league international Kane Evans comes out as gay in a TV interview


    BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Ex-rugby league international Kane Evans won’t have to worry about the extortion threats any more or be concerned about his family finding out about his sexuality before he’s ready to tell them.

    In a television interview Monday with Channel Nine’s “100% Footy,” Evans said he was gay and that he felt like a weight had lifted off him when he finally could talk about it publicly.

    Evans is the first high-level rugby league player in Australia to come out as gay since Ian Roberts in 1995.

    Evans played 131 games in the elite National Rugby League from 2014-2021 for clubs including the Sydney Roosters, Parramatta and the New Zealand-based Warriors before finishing off his professional career in England in 2023. He played 13 international games for Fiji.

    “I had three goals in life: It was to play NRL, to buy my parents a house, and then I wanted to top myself, because I was living in denial from a young age,” the 34-year-old Evans said in the television interview. “I know that I’m gay. But I went down every other avenue to sort of build up these walls … to escape who I am.”

    After struggling with addiction and suicidal thoughts as he dealt with his sexuality as a younger man and professional footballer, and then experiencing homelessness after a business collapse in his post-rugby league career, Evans finally got the support he needed.

    Helping out

    Evans said it was only after talking to Joe Galuvao, a former player who works with the Rugby League Players’ Association, that he realized help was so close.

    “I thank God that he came and visited me and got me into rehab with the help of the RLPA,” Evans said.

    Others in the football fraternity reached out, Evans said. Like Sydney Roosters head coach Trent Robinson, who helped pay the bills while Evans was in rehabilitation and invited him back into the club.

    “He called me just to let me know that the Roosters are still my home and they’ve got my back, whatever I’m facing,” Evans said. “That meant the world to me. He took me, my best friend, and one of my mentors to Roosters HQ a week after I got out of rehab.”

    Evans had planned to come out to his family before the television interview aired.

    “I’ve been fighting a war within since I was about 15 years old and it’s not sustainable,” he said. “I’m here today to show people that you don’t have to live like that. Even now I feel a bit more free, just by saying it out loud, I’ve brought it to the light.”

    Evans said he’d had “people blackmail me … I’ve had people try to deflect their problems by trying to out me. And it just built up a lot of shame, and fear and guilt within myself.”

    “Now I’ve spoken about it, I’ve shattered all those chains. They’ve lost their power,” he added. “I feel like coming and speaking to you today, fear, shame, guilt — all of that, I’ve cut ties with all that. I feel peace within.”

    Great support

    Roberts, who played for Australia in the 1990s, described Evans’ interview as an “extraordinary moment” and “I was in tears watching.”

    “I am so proud of him,” Roberts told News Corp. “Everything he was saying … I thought ‘this poor kid,’ I know exactly where he is in his head, what he is going through, the extremes of uncertainty of your own sense of self and your sense of other people.”

    Andrew Johns, one of rugby league’s greatest players, said the bravery Evans had shown would be encouraging for other people.

    “To come out and tell the world, especially the rugby league world, it’s incredibly strong,” Johns told the Nine network. “There’s going to be so much love for him in the rugby league — he’s going to save a lot of lives.”

    Johns said there were a lot of young people struggling with their sexuality and when “they see someone like Kane and the pain he’s gone through, and the strength he’s shown, it’ll help them stand up and talk to parents, or people close to them.”

    “So Kane, well done mate,” he added. “We all love you. Incredibly proud of you.”

    ___

    AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports


  • Caitlin Clark answers critics with some ‘noise’ of her own: a last-second 3-pointer for the win


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Caitlin Clark was alone with the ball, right in the front of the logo with the game on the line.

    As frustrating as this season has been at times for her and the Indiana Fever, this was Clark’s comfort zone — and the shot hit nothing but net.

    Clark’s 3-pointer with 1.2 seconds remaining gave Indiana a 78-76 victory over the Washington Mystics on Monday night — and gave the 24-year-old star a signature moment following a rocky stretch at the start of her third season.

    “I think sometimes we take great players, and certainly generational talent, for granted,” Indiana coach Stephanie White said. “What she did was incredible for us. She’s going to have many more moments like that. I know she is. And we needed this one tonight.”

    Indiana was just 5-5 entering the game. Clark was filling up the stat sheet but had not been shooting the ball well. As always, she’s been under a microscope, having to answer for a feisty sideline exchange with White and receiving criticism by national columnists for her occasional histrionics on the court.

    The online conversation around her feels almost tribal at times, but in front of a packed crowd at Washington’s CareFirst Arena, she contributed to another electric atmosphere. White was asked if this game-winning 3 might quiet the “noise” around Clark, but that may be impossible.

    “I don’t know that the noise is ever going to be quiet,” White said. “This is what Caitlin does. She makes big shots, and she has big moments.”

    After scoring 10 points in the first quarter, Clark was derailed for a bit because of foul trouble. Her four-point play in the third pushed Indiana’s lead to 17, but the Mystics rallied.

    Down by one with 36 seconds left, Clark missed two straight free throws, but before another round of discourse could even get started, Washington turned the ball over and Clark patiently found Kelsey Mitchell in transition for a layup to give the Fever the lead.

    Then Sonia Citron made two free throws with 4.3 seconds to play, putting the Mystics up 76-75. Indiana called timeout, and Sophie Cunningham’s inbound pass sailed across the court toward Clark, who was all alone after Washington’s Cotie McMahon tried for the steal and missed. It was perhaps the biggest shot of her WNBA career.

    “You better make this,” Clark said she was thinking at the time. “Because I missed my free throws. All those plays are plays we work on after practice, so everybody knows their role, everybody knows what they’re going to do.

    “Cotie almost got a fingertip on it,” Clark added. “It kind of worked out perfectly that she went for the steal. Honestly probably the most wide-open shot I had all night. My hands got a little clammy, but still went in, I guess.”

    Teammate Lexie Hull was in the opposite corner, pretty open in her own right, but it was no surprise the ball went to Clark.

    “From my view, I thought Cotie was going to get it,” Hull said. “Then it slipped through, and still holding my breath. I have complete confidence that it’s going to go in, but to see it go in and put us in the lead, that was one of the biggest moments we’ve had this season, so very excited.

    “And just for Caitlin, very happy to see it go through for her.”

    ___

    AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball


  • US appeals court raises concerns about Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas for executions


    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama’s use of nitrogen gas to put people to death needs more study of whether it violates a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment, a federal appeals court decided Monday.

    The state first used nitrogen for capital punishment in 2024, and the ruling could upend Alabama’s next scheduled execution on Thursday. The method involves strapping a respirator to the person’s face and replacing breathable air with pure nitrogen, causing death from lack of oxygen.

    The three-judge panel on Monday night reversed a judge’s May finding that the nitrogen method does not violate the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and remanded the case for additional consideration. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed last year by Jeffery Lee, a man on death row who is scheduled to be executed with nitrogen on Thursday at a south Alabama prison.

    The panel stopped short of staying Lee’s planned execution. However, the panel asked the judge to consider whether his proposed alternative of a firing squad was feasible.

    The U.S. Supreme Court requires a two-prong test for people challenging the constitutionality of an execution method. They must show the method provides a substantial risk of superadded pain and that a feasible alternative method is available. The appeals court said Lee met the first test but sent it back to the trial court to consider the second.

    The appeals panel raised concerns about the nitrogen method and how long it might take the subject to lose awareness.

    “In our view, the overall suffering described by the district court, which lasts for one to three minutes, presents a substantial risk of serious harm over and above death itself,” the panel wrote. “Counting to 60 or 180 seconds is not a quick exercise, and constitutionally speaking, that timeframe is intolerable given the suffering that would likely take place under Alabama’s nitrogen hypoxia protocol.”

    The Alabama Attorney General’s Office did not immediately issue a comment on the decision. The state has maintained the method is constitutional.

    Opponents of the method cheered the decision.

    “For the first time a court has acknowledged what I and so many others have seen with our own eyes. Nitrogen executions are a unique form of horror,” said the Rev. Jeff Hood, who was the spiritual adviser at two nitrogen executions.

    Nitrogen has been used in eight executions nationally — seven times in Alabama and once in Louisiana. Lee’s attorneys argued it causes excessive suffering. Alabama’s last nitrogen execution took more than 30 minutes to complete.

    Lee was convicted of two counts of capital murder for killing Jimmy Ellis and Elaine Thompson while robbing a pawn shop on Dec. 12, 1998. Prosecutors said Lee entered Jimmy’s Pawnshop with a sawed-off shotgun and shot Ellis, the owner of the store, and Thompson, a store employee.

    A jury voted 7-5 that Lee should receive a sentence of life imprisonment. However, a judge overrode that recommendation and sentenced Lee to death. Alabama in 2017 ended the practice of judicial override and no longer allows a judge to disregard a jury’s sentencing decision in death penalty cases.

    The ruling came several hours after a vigil was held at the Alabama Capitol urging the governor to reduce Lee’s sentence to life imprisonment.

    Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he opposed the clemency request.

    “The people of Alabama have not forgotten Jimmy and Elaine. I have not forgotten them,” Marshall said. “Anything short of carrying out the sentence imposed by the court falls short of justice for the victims, and that is not what victims of this state deserve.”


  • Miles Russell qualifies for the US Open at age 17 with Tiger Woods’ son on the bag


    Miles Russell was among two 17-year-olds who earned a spot in the U.S. Open on Monday. Still to be determined was whether Russell brings his caddie from the 36-hole qualifier — the son of three-time champion Tiger Woods — to Shinnecock Hills next week.

    Russell, the No. 10 amateur in the world, survived a bogey on the first playoff hole and grabbed the fourth and final spot from the Florida qualifier. Charlie Woods is one of his close friends who has the same commercial agent and is following Russell to Florida State.

    “It kept it so light,” Russell said. “It’s the first time I’ve had a buddy on the bag. I really like it, not talking much golf, just having a good time.”

    Russell smiled when asked if he would have Woods at Shinnecock Hills, saying only, “We’ll see what he’s doing. To be determined.”

    The medalist from the Florida qualifier was Giuseppe Puebla, who ranks second behind Russell in the American Junior Golf Association ranking.

    They were among 715 players at 10 sites from coast-to-coast and into Canada, all of them vying for 43 spots available for the 126th U.S. Open.

    Previous qualifiers were held in England, Japan and Dallas.

    Vaughn Harber, who just finished his sophomore year at Ohio State, played his final five holes at The Lakes in 5-under par — including an eagle — and then advanced in the 4-for-3 playoff in one of the two Ohio qualifiers. Jackson Van Paris birdied his last two holes to qualify without extra holes.

    That qualifier also produced the first player from Iceland to play in the U.S. Open, Arni Sveinsson, who plays for LSU.

    In the other Ohio qualifier, Billy Horschel found a happy note in an otherwise tough season when he was among five who made it through. Tony Finau missed out by two shots and will not be at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2017.

    Here’s how the other qualifiers looked (a-amateur):

    Ohio-Springfield

    QUALIFIERS: Neal Shipley, Zac Blair, Dylan Wu, Billy Horschel, Nick Hardy.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Brandt Snedeker, Tony Finau, Cam Davis.

    DIVOTS: Shipley, who finished his college career at nearby Ohio State, has missed the cut in nine of his 12 starts in his rookie year on the PGA Tour. … Snedeker was the first alternate.

    Florida

    QUALIFIERS: a-Giuseppe Puebla, Ben Silverman, a-Ryder Cowan, a-Miles Russell.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Matt Kuchar, Matthieu Pavon, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Luke Clanton, Luke Poulter.

    NOTEWORTHY: Three of the four qualifiers are amateurs. … Kuchar hasn’t played in any major since the 2024 U.S. Open.

    Canada

    QUALIFIERS: Emiliano Grillo, Alejandro Tosti, Marcelo Rozo, William Mouw, John Parry, Max McGreevy.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Max Homa, Matt Wallace, Garrick Higgo, Seamus Power.

    NOTEWORTHY: The final three spots were determined by an eight-man playoff. … Homa missed out in a playoff for the second straight year in U.S. Open qualifying.

    Maryland

    QUALIFIERS: Jackson Suber, Ben Kohles, a-Logan Reilly, Jake Sollon.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Blades Brown, Michael Thorbjornsen, Karl Vilips.

    NOTEWORTHY: Sollon earned the final spot in a playoff over Bryan Lee. He was scheduled to leave for Bogota, Colombia, for a PGA Tour Americas event. … Kohles was coming off a victory Sunday on the Korn Ferry Tour.

    Ohio-Columbus

    QUALIFIERS: Davis Thompson, J.B. Holmes, a-Vaughn Harber, a-Arni Sveinsson.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Lucas Glover, Jhonattan Vegas, Bud Cauley, Austin Eckroat, Denny McCarthy, Erik van Rooyen.

    NOTEWORTHY: Sam Udovich bogeyed his last two holes and was the odd man out in a 4-for-3 playoff. He will be the first alternate. … What used to be the main qualifier for PGA Tour players only had a 51-man field.

    North Carolina

    QUALIFIERS: a-Jackson Ormond, Carl Yuan, Jackson Van Paris, Brandon Wu, Cole Hammer.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Aaron Wise, Ryo Ishikawa, Bill Haas, Troy Merritt.

    NOTEWORTHY: Ormond, an 18-year-old who will play at Florida next year, birdied five of his last seven holes for a 63 to go from outside the number to be the medalist. … Haas, the son of Jay Haas, had his son caddying for him.

    New York

    QUALIFIERS: Kevin Roy, Max Greyserman, Ben James, James Nicholas.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Matt Jones.

    NOTEWORTHY: James makes his pro debut this week in the Canadian Open. He finished atop the PGA Tour University ranking. … Roy makes his U.S. Open debut in his native New York.

    Georgia

    QUALIFIERS: Chris Kirk, Jake Peacock, Keith Mitchell, Robbie Higgins, a-Chase Keys.

    NOTABLE PLAYERS MISSING: Aldrich Potgieter, Stephan Jaeger, Jason Dufner, Patton Kizzire.

    NOTEWORTHY: Keys birdied the last hole in near darkness to avoid a 3-for-1 playoff for the final spot. … Potgieter can still get in the U.S. Open if he wins the Canadian Open this week, which would give him two PGA Tour victories since the last U.S. Open.

    ___

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf


  • OpenAI files confidential SEC paperwork for IPO, opening the door to a Wall Street debut


    ChatGPT maker OpenAI filed preliminary paperwork that would open the door to it becoming a publicly traded company, the third in a powerhouse trio of artificial intelligence companies racing to Wall Street debuts.

    The San Francisco-based company said Monday it has filed confidential paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

    “We expect it to leak so we’re just announcing it,” the company said in a statement. “We have not decided on timing yet; it may be a while because there are things we want to do that are likely easier as a private company. But it’s a complicated set of tradeoffs and this gives us the option to go public sooner if that ends up being best.”

    OpenAI’s move follows its rival Anthropic’s June 1 disclosure that it is also moving toward an initial public offering of shares. Both are now following Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, which has started an IPO roadshow pitching itself as an AI-focused space company.

    OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first publicly floated the possibility of an IPO last fall, describing it as the “most likely path” for the company given its size and the need for vast amounts of capital to advance its technology.

    OpenAI began in 2015 as a nonprofit dedicated to developing AI for the common good and is now a company valued at $852 billion.

    The filing comes at a “precarious moment” for OpenAI as it appears to be losing ChatGPT’s strong early leads with consumers and businesses to Google and Anthropic, said Emarketer analyst Nate Elliott.

    “But OpenAI doesn’t have a lot of other places to look for the enormous capital required to support its costs,” Elliott said.

    Paving the way for going public was OpenAI’s decision last year to reorganize its business structure and convert itself into a public benefit corporation even as it remains technically under the control of a nonprofit.

    OpenAI cleared another obstacle last month with its victory against Musk in a federal jury trial. Musk, an OpenAI co-founder and early donor, had sued the company seeking to oust Altman from its leadership and unravel its conversion to a for-profit business. A judge dismissed the case after the jury found Musk filed his lawsuit too late.

    OpenAI has not yet publicly disclosed how much money it is making or when it plans to turn a profit. Much like Anthropic and SpaceX, the company has been losing more money than it makes because of the huge costs of building out the venture. OpenAI faces fierce competition from Anthropic, maker of the increasingly popular chatbot Claude, and Google’s AI assistant Gemini.

    In an April interview, OpenAI’s chief financial officer Sarah Friar declined to give a timeline for a potential IPO but said the company was already “acting with the good hygiene of a public company,” such as by measuring its revenue in the way a publicly traded firm would have to report earnings to the SEC.

    “I want us to be ready,” she told The Associated Press. “I think it’s good to be able to tap the public markets. They’re much bigger than the private markets.”

    She said OpenAI’s current valuation would make it one of the 15 biggest companies in the S&P 500.

    She also said there is a “credentializing moment of being a public company.”

    “At that point, people are checking your balance sheet, the SEC is governing you and so on,” she said.

    In a separate statement Monday published around the same time as the announcement of the confidential filing, Altman outlined a broad vision for OpenAI including three big goals: building an automated AI researcher, accelerating economic growth and giving “everyone on Earth a personal AGI,” which stands for artificial general intelligence or a form of AI that surpasses humans at many tasks.

    Altman said OpenAI started out in AI research and moved into commercial product development but is now moving into its third phase involving a “broad distribution of power” as the economy reshapes around AI technology.

    He said OpenAI is “working to ensure the gains are widely shared. Everyone should have an opportunity for a meaningful share in the prosperity AI creates.”

    The remarks follow Altman’s visit last week with Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is pushing a plan for the public to take a 50% ownership stake in AI companies such as OpenAI, as well as comments from President Donald Trump embracing giving the public a stake in AI’s growth.

    ___

    AP Technology Writer Kaitlyn Huamani contributed to this report.


  • In a California Chinese enclave, a mayor’s guilty plea stokes fears of Beijing’s influence


    LOS ANGELES (AP) — In 2024, voters in the Southern California city of Arcadia elected the first all-Asian city council in the city’s history.

    Now, one of those politicians has pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang’s plea, entered in federal court Friday, continues a saga that some residents of the area worry could bring unfair scrutiny on the broader Chinese and Asian American community.

    Arcadia has gone under rapid demographic change in the last two decades as immigrants from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong flocked to the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. After Wang’s case was made public May 11, the news made national headlines and filled the unassuming suburban city with anger, disappointment and murmurs of quiet concern. On social media, fears about spies and Chinese Communist Party influence abounded.

    “We cannot allow this moment to become an excuse for people to paint entire communities with one brush or weaponize ethnicity for political gain,” acting Mayor Paul Cheng said in a statement.

    Shock in heavily Chinese community

    Wang agreed in April to plead guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favorable of Beijing on a news website she ran, without notifying the U.S. government as required by law.

    The 56-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person City Council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. She was born in Chengdu, China, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1995.

    The San Gabriel Valley is home to the largest concentration of residents of Chinese and Taiwanese descent in the United States. Beginning in the 1970s, real estate developers marketed the region as “Chinese Beverly Hills” to woo affluent immigrants. As the population grew, it became a haven for newer immigrants who could go about life without needing English, access business opportunities, and avoid putting their children through China’s intensely competitive education system. Arcadia’s population of about 53,000 is majority Asian, like many other cities in the region.

    Ted Tseng, 52, arrived in Arcadia from Taiwan nearly 40 years ago with his parents, who emigrated because they feared potential conflict between Taiwan and China.

    Tseng was concerned Wang’s indictment would deepen animosity against Asian Americans and discredit their contributions to the region. Fears of anti-Asian racism, though hate crimes are down since the COVID-19 pandemic, still linger.

    “I’m just worried our image has been damaged,” Tseng said.

    Feds crack down on Chinese espionage

    The U.S. Department of Justice has escalated efforts in recent years to combat Chinese espionage. In April, a man accused of running a secret Chinese spy outpost in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood was convicted of acting as an illegal foreign agent.

    Wang has suggested that she was misled by her former fiance, Yaoning “Mike” Sun, who pleaded guilty to the same charge last year and is now serving a four-year prison sentence. Sun was the treasurer for Wang’s 2022 election campaign.

    A statement shared by Wang’s lawyers references her “trust and love for apparently the wrong person who ultimately led her astray.”

    April Verlato, a former City Council member who served with Wang, said Wang and Sun lived together, and Sun accompanied Wang wherever she went.

    Verlato said Wang should have stepped down as soon as she came under investigation.

    “She was being selfish, getting sworn in as mayor and not resigning when she knew she was going to be pleading guilty to something,” Verlato said.

    Gene Sun, a long-time lawyer in Arcadia, agreed.

    “I don’t understand how she could have continued being a City Council member,” he said.

    Beijing seeks influence overseas

    It is not surprising that the Chinese government would attempt to exert political influence in the region, especially given the increased political tension and economic rivalry between China and the U.S. in recent years, said Wei Li, a professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University.

    “A lot of countries, if they have the will and if they have the means, will try to influence their diaspora,” Li said.

    According to his federal criminal complaint, Sun was in contact with John Chen, who also pleaded guilty to being an illegal agent of the Chinese government, regarding local politicians that Beijing could influence. In reports to Chinese officials, Sun and Chen called Wang a “New Political Star” and bragged about her contacts with mainstream U.S. politicians.

    They also wrote of combatting “anti-China forces” such as Taiwan independence and the Falun Gong, an exiled anti-communist spiritual movement.

    In a January 2023 message from Chen to Wang referenced in Sun’s criminal complaint, Chen said: “You are doing a good job, I hope you can continue the good work, make Chinese people proud.”

    Some fear political repercussions for Asian Americans

    Not only was the news of her guilty plea like a “slap in the face,” the reaction from some community members has also been painful, said Cheng, the acting mayor.

    Some residents at a May 19 City Council meeting blamed remaining council members for enabling Wang and called for their resignations.

    “I’ve been called more names, been told to go back to China although that’s not where I’m from,” said Cheng, who came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age 2.

    For many Arcadia residents and workers, life was as usual the day after the news broke. Many smiled apologetically when asked about the issue, saying they don’t pay attention to politics.

    Aliza Mo, who emigrated from China six years ago for her children’s education, said she first thought the headlines must be exaggerated.

    “A lot of people wondered if it was discrimination,” she said.

    When she learned what Wang pleaded guilty to, she changed her mind.

    “I think it would be improper for anyone to be doing something like that,” she said.


  • Attorneys urge release of mosque leader, saying he’s been denied diabetes care in ICE custody


    Attorneys for the president of Wisconsin’s largest mosque say he is being denied basic medical care for diabetes and has lost 30 pounds in the two months since he was detained by immigration officers.

    Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in April. His attorneys say he is being detained on baseless claims that he is a foreign policy threat, but they believe he was actually targeted for speaking out against Israel and for a conviction as a minor by Israeli military courts.

    He has no criminal record in the U.S., where he has lived for more than 30 years.

    Sarsour has Type 2 diabetes and his blood sugar levels aren’t being consistently checked, putting him at risk of organ failure or death if left untreated, his attorneys told a federal judge on Monday. Sarsour is being held in an Indiana county jail while his immigration case is pending.

    “We had the opportunity to make a direct, urgent appeal to the court about the need for Salah’s release, including being able to report that he has lost a staggering 30 pounds while in detention,” Luna Droubi, an attorney for Sarsour, said in a press release. “The Judge raised questions about the medical care Salah is receiving, and we will continue to press this case.”

    Officials with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Court documents filed by attorneys representing DHS and ICE all appeared to be sealed in the online federal court files, so any legal response to the allegations raised by Sarsour’s attorneys was not immediately available to view.

    An investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found that hundreds of detainees in at least 33 states have filed federal lawsuits with similar allegations of medical neglect. Those lawsuits include other detainees who say they were denied medication or had treatment delayed for conditions including cancer, high blood pressure, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, HIV, diabetes, infections, depression and more.

    Sarsour’s attorneys offered more details about his detention conditions in a letter sent late last month to U.S. District Judge James Patrick Hanlon. They are asking the judge to release Sarsour while his case moves forward.

    “Mr. Sarsour’s health continues to deteriorate,” they wrote. “Though he recently developed severe abdominal pain, he was told by officials in the jail that they could not help him and that he must purchase his own medication. His blood sugar levels are not being consistently checked.”

    Sarsour is also being tormented by jail guards who denied him access to a Quran and who repeatedly interrupt him when he is trying to pray in accordance with his Muslim faith, his attorneys said. When Sarsour asked for an adequate diet to stabilize his blood sugar levels, he was told to purchase BBQ pork rinds from the commissary, even though that food would violate his religious beliefs and dietary restrictions, his attorneys said.

    “Just over two months ago, my dad would have been starting his day as usual by checking in on my grandmother and heading to work,” said Kareem Sarsour, Salah’s son. “We’re not only fighting now for my dad’s legal right to be here, but also for his health — and basic due process guaranteed by his constitutional rights to speak up about injustice.”

    ___

    Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.


  • Pentagon labels tech giant Alibaba and electric car maker BYD as aiding Chinese military


    WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon has added several prominent Chinese businesses, including the tech giant Alibaba, electric car maker BYD and search engine Baidu, to its list of Chinese military companies, preventing them from getting U.S. defense contracts.

    The list, updated and published Monday by the Pentagon, now sanctions well-known, non-state-owned Chinese companies that are not traditionally considered to be in the defense or security sector. It reflects growing wariness of Beijing’s strategy of tapping the strength of non-state businesses for military purposes.

    Created in 2021 by a congressional mandate, the list seeks to identify Chinese companies that the Pentagon considers to have links to the Chinese military — not only those directly controlled by the Chinese military and security forces but also those contributing to the country’s defense industrial base.

    When updating the list last year, the Pentagon said the Chinese military sought to acquire advanced technologies and expertise developed by Chinese companies, universities and research programs that “appear to be civilian entities.”

    The Chinese Embassy on Monday accused the U.S. of “overstretching the concept of national security and making discriminatory lists to go after Chinese companies.” It said Chinese companies observe the laws and regulations of the countries where they do business. “The U.S. should stop its wrong practice and create a fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies,” the embassy said in a statement.

    Alibaba, BYD and Baidu said there is no basis for including them on the list. “Alibaba is not a Chinese military company nor part of any military-civil fusion strategy,” a statement from the leading e-commerce company said. Baidu, which has expanded into artificial intelligence and self-driving taxis, said the suggestion that it is a military company is “entirely baseless.”

    BYD said in a statement it is “not a military enterprise” and that the determination “seriously contradicts the facts.” It also said it “will actively safeguard its legitimate rights and interests through all feasible administrative and legal means.”

    This year’s list has grown to 188 Chinese entities, up from last year’s roughly 130 named by the Pentagon. It already had covered companies such as DJI, a major maker of consumer drones. While a company on the list can still do business in the U.S., it faces reputational damage and could be subject to more restrictions.

    After the Pentagon released the updated list, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party called it “a warning to American businesses, all levels of government, and the American people.” It said the companies on the list that are traded publicly on U.S. exchanges should be delisted and no American company should do business with those on the list, “otherwise they are enabling China’s military ascendance.”

    In naming Alibaba, the Pentagon said the tech giant helps boost China’s defense industrial base because it is affiliated with the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Alibaba is traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

    The Pentagon said BYD and Baidu are affiliated with the same ministry, which oversees China’s technology and industrial policies. BYD is dominant in the global electric vehicle market, and President Donald Trump said in January that he would welcome Chinese carmakers such as BYD if they built plants in the U.S. and hired American workers.

    However, a number of U.S. lawmakers have said they will seek a ban on Chinese electric vehicles.

    Another addition is the Chinese robotics company Unitree, whose dancing robots impressed Simon Cowell on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” The Pentagon said the company “knowingly received assistance” from the Chinese government through its designation as a small or medium-sized company that is highly innovative, highly competitive globally and critical to the country’s supply chain. Unitree did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


  • Federal judge strikes down Trump’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas


    BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday struck down the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, contradicting an earlier federal court ruling upholding the fee hike.

    The administration announced the much-higher fee as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs.

    But U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston sided with 20 states and struck down the visa policy, concluding that the executive branch exceeded its authority and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how federal agencies develop and issue regulations.

    “The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” Sorokin wrote.

    H-1B visas are meant for high-skilled jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. Deep-pocketed technology companies are the biggest users, with nearly three-quarters of approvals going to workers from India. The states argued that using the H-1B program to fill vacancies for much-needed doctors and teachers was already difficult before the higher fee.

    Most H-1B visa applications cost several thousand dollars before the announced increase set off a wave of panic among confused employers, students and workers in the United States and abroad and led to several lawsuits, including in Boston.

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also sued, in federal court in Washington, D.C., and has appealed a denial of a summary judgment against the fee hike. That left the higher fee in effect, at least until September 2026, when it is scheduled to expire. Monday’s ruling is also a summary judgment, to the opposite effect. Still another lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco, by religious groups and labor organizations, setting up the possibility of divided rulings in three appellate court circuits.

    In the Boston case, the states argued that the policy impedes their ability to hire primary and secondary school educators and to staff public colleges and universities, will stymie academic research and will lead to a decline in medical workers.

    “Today’s victory protects the integrity of the H-1B visa program as a tool to address severe labor shortages in vital industries like education, healthcare, and medical research,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. “In Massachusetts, this win will ensure we can fill critical vacancies and hire world-class faculty and researchers at colleges and universities across the Commonwealth.”

    Bobby Mukkamala, the president of the American Medical Association, called the ruling “a victory for patients.”

    “At a time when communities across the country face physician shortages and growing barriers to care, we should be removing obstacles — not creating new ones — to attract talented physicians and other highly skilled professionals,” Mukkamala said. “International medical graduates play a vital role in caring for patients, particularly in underserved and rural areas.”

    A Department of Homeland Security statement said the agency disagrees with “this blatant judicial activism dismantling President Trump’s historic efforts for immigration reform.”

    “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, our immigration system is being reformed to serve American citizens, American workers, and American families and to preserve our national identity — not to rapidly import foreigners who take American jobs, commit crimes, burden our welfare system, and erode our cultural and social fabric,” the statement said, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

    In a separate statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said the administration “is confident this order will be reversed on appeal.”


  • Somali referee won’t officiate in World Cup after being denied entry into the United States


    Somali referee Omar Artan won’t officiate in the World Cup after being denied entry into the United States.

    U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday that a Somali national who was planning to referee in the World Cup had been denied entry after arriving to Miami International Airport from Istanbul on Saturday. While the CBP statement didn’t mention the person by name, Artan is the only World Cup referee from Somalia.

    FIFA confirmed later Monday that Artan wouldn’t be able to train and officiate at the World Cup, then released a statement on the referee’s behalf.

    “Despite the circumstances, I am in a positive mood and I am focused on the next challenges in my refereeing career,” Artan said in the statement. “I would like to thank FIFA and (the African federation) for all their support and I promise to keep my refereeing levels up as I concentrate on the future. I want to thank the football family for their messages and wish my colleagues all the best success during the World Cup and I look forward to joining them again in future competitions.”

    In its own statement, FIFA said it was not involved in the immigration processes and was informed by authorities that Artan’s “status will not be changed at present.”

    “In line with previous FIFA events, a host government ultimately determines who receives a visa and who is admitted into their country,” soccer’s governing body said.

    CBP issued a release explaining why Artan was denied entry.

    “During processing, the traveler underwent additional inspection, a routine part of CBP’s inspection process when officers need to verify information or determine admissibility,” CBP said in its statement. “Following inspection, the traveler, a referee for the FIFA World Cup, was determined to be inadmissible due to vetting concerns and was denied entry.”

    CBP noted that all travelers seeking entry into the U.S. — including athletes, coaches and staff — are subject to CBP inspection and vetting.

    “Admissibility determinations are made on a case-by-case basis using law enforcement, national security, and immigration information available at the time of inspection,” the CBP statement said. “CBP officers have the authority to question travelers, conduct inspections, and determine admissibility consistent with U.S. law.”

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    AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup