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  • From staunch critic to fierce ally: Graham’s long, strange and consequential friendship with Trump


    WASHINGTON (AP) — After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, Sen. Lindsey Graham said he had finally had enough of the man who was championed by the mob that stormed the pillar of American democracy: President Donald Trump.

    “Trump and I, we’ve had a hell of a journey. I hate it to end this way. Oh my God, I hate it. From my point of view, he’s been a consequential president,” an emotional Graham said once authorities cleared the rioters and allowed senators to reclaim their chamber. “All I can say is count me out. Enough is enough.”

    It wasn’t, of course.

    Graham, the South Carolina Republican who died unexpectedly on Saturday night at age 71, realized that his party’s future was inextricably tied to Trump and quickly reverted back to being a staunch defender. The shift made what had once seemed like a final rupture into just another twist in the topsy-turvy relationship between the powerful senator and the president who came to dominate their party.

    “Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no,” Graham said in May 2021, just four months after the Jan. 6 attack. “I’ve determined we can’t grow without him.”

    Trump, who called Graham a “true American Patriot” in a social media post Sunday, appeared shocked by the lawmaker’s sudden passing.

    “I just can’t believe it,” the president told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He was like a member of the family.”

    Graham often advised Trump on foreign affairs, particularly on matters pertaining to Israel, Ukraine and Iran. He was a frequent visitor at the White House.

    “At the end of a particularly thrilling and rollicking meeting in the Oval Office, Lindsey Graham turned to the room and said: ‘I’ve never had this much fun in my life,’” deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller wrote on X. He said such gatherings “were filled with camaraderie, kinship and uproarious laughter.”

    Trump recalled that during his last conversation with Graham, he told his friend, “We’ll see you soon, come over anytime you want.”

    Graham once said Trump’s candidacy was like ‘being shot in the head’

    The senator and Trump first clashed while competing for the 2016 presidential nomination.

    Graham described Trump as “unfit for office,” and was angered when Trump denigrated the military service of Graham’s close friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Trump suggested, “I like people that weren’t captured” when talking about McCain’s years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.

    Trump got mad enough at Graham to release the senator’s personal cellphone number. That prompted a viral video in which the senator dramatically destroyed a series of flip phones. He smashed one with a meat cleaver and another with a golf club, then used lighter fluid, a blender and toaster oven to pulverize others before tossing one off the roof.

    Graham eventually likened Trump’s winning the nomination to “being shot in the head” and said he refused to vote for Trump that November. But the pair later bonded over golf and what Graham described as a mutual and irreverent sense of humor.

    Trump and Graham began so frequently hitting the links together that the senator started seeing it as something of a career builder, leaning heavily into the kind of over-the-top flattery Trump relishes. In 2017, Graham joked that Trump had beaten him “like a drum” on the course — even worse than in the presidential primary.

    “Their true friendship could only be seen behind the curtain,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., told ABC’s “This Week.” Scott said that relationship was forged as political adversaries but also strengthened by spending 100-plus hours golfing together.

    During Trump’s first term, Graham helped advance Trump’s nominees to the Supreme Court, lent credibility to the White House’s legislative agenda and even at times became part of the president’s inner circle. He frequently said Trump was maturing in politics and growing on the job.

    Graham’s political divergence with McCain, who died in 2018, was never more clear than in 2017, when McCain voted against a Trump-backed plan to overturn Democratic President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. The effort had been co-sponsored by Graham.

    A split that was short-lived, an alliance reignited

    In his floor speech after the Capitol attack, Graham said “he’d never been so humiliated and embarrassed for the country.” But the break with Trump ended quickly.

    Weeks later, Trump invited Graham for golf and dinner at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, reigniting their alliance. During Trump’s 2024 campaign, Graham was a frequent Trump surrogate on television, promoting U.S. military strength that he said would advance “America First” policies.

    Graham never shed his more traditional Republican foreign policy views, including outspoken support for Ukraine during the Russian invasion. He was also a leading voice pushing the White House to more fully embrace Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and take a harder line against Iran.

    After the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, Graham remained hawkish, staunchly defending the action and working to counter many in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” base who thought “America First” meant avoiding such military conflicts.

    “To those who say Iran is stronger now than before, that is an insult to the American military and it is delusional thinking because the Iranian economy is in shambles,” Graham posted on social media June 19.

    But Graham’s admiration for Trump went far beyond Iran. When Graham clinched the South Carolina Republican primary last month, he suggested the president was just short of a deity.

    “I want to start with a bunch of thank yous. I want to thank the big guy, God. Trump comes later,” Graham laughed. “Mr. President, you’re not far behind God, but we’re gonna start with him.

    ”


  • Major Fire Engulfs Delta Fuel Headquarters in Downtown Natchez; Public Urged to Avoid Area

     Firefighters from across the region are battling a major commercial structure fire at the Delta Fuel Headquarters in downtown Natchez, prompting officials to urge the public to avoid the area as emergency crews work to contain the blaze.

    According to Adams County Sheriff Travis Patten, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office is assisting the Natchez Fire Department and numerous local and regional emergency response agencies at the fire, located at 360 Main Street.

    The incident began at approximately 4:58 a.m., when Adams County E911 received a 911 call reporting smoke and the smell of smoke in the downtown area. Firefighters were initially dispatched for a possible electrical fire. When crews arrived, they discovered a significant fire involving the Delta Fuel building that has since intensified.

    Officials said the fire remains active, and firefighters are working aggressively to prevent it from spreading to neighboring structures.

    Sheriff Patten said all known occupants of the affected buildings have been safely evacuated.

    A large number of agencies have responded to the scene, including Entergy, Atmos Energy, Natchez Water Works, the Concordia Fire Department, and multiple volunteer fire departments, alongside local law enforcement officers who are securing the area to ensure emergency crews can operate safely.

    Authorities are asking residents and visitors to stay away from downtown Natchez until further notice.

    Officials specifically urge motorists to avoid Main Street and surrounding downtown streets and not to drive around barricades. Keeping the area clear will allow firefighters, EMS personnel, utility crews, and law enforcement the space they need to safely battle the fire and protect nearby businesses.

  • Innovation, data fixes fuel Native American graduation gains at federally funded schools


    During his senior year of high school on the Puyallup Reservation, Gerald Dillon traded much of his academic coursework for career training. When he walked into the second grade classroom where he worked as a teaching assistant, students would rush from their seats for a fist bump or a hug.

    The 18-year-old, who once found classes boring and put in only enough effort to pass, found renewed purpose to come to school everyday.

    “It motivates me. I like making connections with the kids, I like helping them,” Dillon said.

    It began in his junior year when he enrolled in career training courses. Soon, Dillon said, his grades improved. He graduated in June from Chief Leschi Schools in Washington and is now considering going to college for a teaching degree.

    Administrators at the school say a shift in focus to technical training and career readiness is paying off, with more students not only staying in school but graduating on time.

    Those gains are emblematic of progress across the U.S. Bureau of Indian Education, which oversees 183 primary and secondary schools serving over 40,000 students. In 2015, just over half of high schoolers at BIE schools graduated within four years. That number soared to a record high of 79% by 2025.

    Some BIE educators attribute that surge to local innovations. Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland says they reflect the Trump administration’s commitment to Native American students, including efforts to strengthen teacher training. In addition, the way graduation rates are reported across BIE schools was changed to address flawed data collection that previously depressed the numbers.

    But concerns loom that changes reshaping the BIE under the Trump administration — including the planned dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and continued fallout from cuts instituted by DOGE — could undermine progress and prevent struggling schools from improving.

    Reporting standards net more accurate data

    The surge in graduation rates reflects, in part, more accurate reporting rather than a sudden leap in student academic improvement, according to agency officials.

    For years, school administrators across the system used flawed methods to track graduation rates, often counting students who had transferred to other schools as dropouts.

    “We had to come to a consensus and set an accountability framework for our schools,” said Carmelia Becenti, the agency’s chief academic officer.

    Beginning in 2018, BIE began standardizing data collection methods. In the years since, Becenti said, the data has painted a more accurate and encouraging picture.

    An AP analysis of BIE data found that graduation rates across the system are up 55% since new reporting standards began rolling out, with nine of its secondary schools reporting 100% growth or higher.

    New approaches help students connect

    Less than one-third of BIE schools are operated by the agency itself. The rest are run by tribes and receive federal funding. At some of those, educators say data collection is only part of the story.

    Don Brummett, superintendent of Chief Leschi Schools, said his staff has been working to correct a “disconnect” between the high school’s previous laser focus on getting students ready for college and many students’ goals of finding a job upon graduation.

    “We devalued the trades. That was a mistake,” Brummett said.

    The school launched its career and technical curriculum in 2020 with funding from the Puyallup Tribal Council. Since then, Brummett has seen students who might otherwise have dropped out instead enter health sciences, education and fisheries management and find new motivation to stay in school.

    Dillon, the recent graduate, said hands-on job training was a better match for his learning style.

    “It was kind of the first time I felt excited to go to school,” said Dillon, reflecting on his time helping second graders practice reading skills and learn the life cycle of a frog.

    Between 2019 and 2025, Chief Leschi Schools reported four-year graduation rates rose from 53% to 87%.

    A focus on trades is just one of the ways tribal-controlled BIE schools have innovated to keep students on track. At Choctaw Central High School, a BIE school operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw, administrators said a COVID-era experiment in virtual learning contributed to a surge in graduation rates from roughly 70% to 93%.

    “For certain kids that have more responsibilities at home, kids that need to work, we saw that (virtual learning) gave them a flexible schedule and an opportunity to earn their diploma,” said principal Alaric Keams.

    When pandemic lockdowns lifted, the district maintained a virtual learning option for all high schoolers.

    But not all tribal governments have the resources to pay for these kinds of programs or take over management of BIE schools.

    Peter Lengkeek, chairman of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, says the BIE-operated high school serving his community is chronically understaffed and crumbling under a backlog of deferred maintenance, including a gymnasium with sinking walls and a rodent infestation. It has reported graduating fewer than 60% of students on time in recent years.

    “If we were able to, we would step in and try to remedy a lot of these things,” said Lengkeek. “We have to rely on the government to fulfill its treaty promise.”

    Tribal leaders push back against education changes

    From the dismantling of the federal Department of Education to DOGE reductions that swept out longtime staffers, as well as repeated threats of deep funding cuts, tribal leaders fear the progress that has been made could be undermined.

    In November 2025, the Department of Education began handing off oversight of dozens of programs that serve Native students to BIE.

    At a tribal consultation session in February in Washington, D.C., dozens of tribal leaders spoke in opposition, saying the transition could overwhelm the already understaffed and stretched BIE with additional responsibilities. Several accused the department of ignoring its legal responsibility to seek their input before moving forward.

    “We are here too late,” said Herschel Gorham, lieutenant governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. “The ink was dry on the agreements before the tribes were ever notified. That should never, ever happen.”

    Jason Dropik, executive director of the National Indian Education Association, said turmoil at the agency’s Washington office trickles down to schools, pointing to a Trump administration executive order that aimed to turn the BIE into a school choice system but was scaled back after an outcry from tribes.

    “That caused some delays and disruptions to services,” Dropik said. “When drastic changes go into motion without tribal consultation, there can be unintended consequences for our students.”

    Lengkeek worries the BIE could be consumed by political upheaval while schools like the one serving his community continue to underperform.

    “This system holds the future of our nations in its hands,” Lengkeek said. “We need stability. We need increased funding. We need infrastructure.”

    ——

    This story is published through the Global Indigenous Reporting Network at The Associated Press.


  • Georgia teen charged in Apalachee High School shooting to appear in court for plea and sentencing


    ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has set a plea and sentencing hearing later this month for a teenager accused of killing four people in a September 2024 shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia.

    Colt Gray, 16, had pleaded not guilty to charges including murder in the shooting that killed two students and two teachers, and left several others wounded, at the high school northeast of Atlanta.

    In a court filing Friday, the judge overseeing his case set a “Non-Negotiated Plea and Sentencing Hearing” to begin July 24. The judge had previously said that if Gray wanted to plead guilty ahead of trial, he must notify the state and court by this coming Wednesday.

    A non-negotiated plea means that the state and the defense have not reached an agreement on a sentence. Unlike a negotiated plea, or plea deal, where a defendant reaches an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty in exchange for an agreed upon sentence and possibly reduced charges, this leaves sentencing entirely up to the judge who makes a decision after giving each side a chance to present a summary of the case and a sentencing recommendation.

    Colt Gray’s attorney did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Sunday.

    Gray’s trial had been set to begin in mid-October in Columbia County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from Barrow County where the shooting happened, after the judge agreed to a defense request to change the venue.

    Gray’s father, Colin Gray, was convicted by a jury in March on charges including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors said he gave his teenage son the assault-style rifle used to open fire at the school. The elder Gray is set to be sentenced later this month.

    The Sept. 4, 2024, shooting killed teachers Richard “Ricky” Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, and students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, seven of them hit by gunfire. Colt Gray, who was 14 at the time of the shooting, was charged as an adult with 55 total counts, including murder, cruelty to children and 25 counts of aggravated assault.

    Investigators testified that Colt Gray carried the rifle given to him by his father onto the school bus with the barrel wrapped in a poster board. They said the teenager left his second-period class and emerged from a bathroom with the rifle, shooting people in a classroom and hallway.

    Investigators have said the teenager carefully plotted the shooting at the high school of 1,900 students. A Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent testified that the boy left a notebook in his classroom with step-by-step instructions and a diagram to prepare for the assault, including an estimate that he could kill as many as 26 people and wound as many as 13 others.

    Colt and Colin Gray were interviewed by sheriff’s deputies about an online threat linked to Colt Gray in May 2023. Colt Gray denied making the threat at the time. He skipped 8th grade, enrolled as a freshman at Apalachee after the academic year began, and then skipped multiple days of school.

    Family members had been seeking psychological help for Colt Gray before the shooting, but it appeared he never saw a counselor.

    Colt’s mother, Marcee Gray, who was separated from Colin Gray, told investigators that she had argued with Colin Gray weeks before the shooting, asking him to secure his guns and restrict Colt’s access. Instead, over time, he bought the boy ammunition, a gun sight and other shooting accessories, records show.

    Colt Gray even created a shrine in his bedroom to Nikolas Cruz, the shooter in the 2018 massacre at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, prosecutors said.


  • Volkswagen CEO looks to avoid plant closures as automaker moves to cut costs


    BERLIN (AP) — Volkswagen’s CEO indicated in comments published Sunday that he’s trying to avoid closing plants as he seeks to turn around the automaker’s performance.

    The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company faces pressure to cut costs at home and increasingly intense competition in the lucrative Chinese market, in particular.

    Last week, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” over the past three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half.

    It didn’t provide specifics, and questions remain over how else it will cut costs. There has been renewed speculation about the future of several plants in Germany.

    “There are more intelligent solutions than closing plants,” CEO Oliver Blume told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

    He added that a cost-cutting program in Germany already is producing effects. “We were able to improve our factory costs in Germany by an average 20% last year alone,” he said, describing that as “strong progress.”

    Blume argued that Volkswagen’s products are very popular, but “we just earn too little money with them. So we must continue to reduce our costs. In all kinds of costs.”


  • US Sen. Lindsey Graham has died after a brief and unexpected illness, his office says


    WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress and a longtime advocate of direct confrontation with Iran, died Saturday evening after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said in statement posted on social media.

    The office did not provide any additional details about the South Carolina Republican, who was 71 years old.

    “Senator Graham’s family appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period,” the statement said.

    Graham was close with Trump

    Graham was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002 and was running for a fifth term. He briefly ran for president in 2016 and clashed with Trump, criticizing him as “unfit for office.”

    However, he later emerged as one of Trump’s top allies, speaking with him frequently and becoming a regular presence on the golf course alongside the president.

    Graham especially advised the president on foreign policy matters such as Iran and Russia, and had just announced an agreement on Friday with the Trump administration to move forward on a package of Russia sanctions.

    Graham had been in Ukraine to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who acknowledged the senator’s 10th visit to the country and thanked him for “recognizing our warriors.”

    As a member of the U.S. House in the 1990s, Graham backed policies aimed at isolating Iran and limiting its missile and nuclear programs.

    He also cheered on Trump’s decision to strike nuclear sites last year and had been a supporter of the latest conflict that started a few months ago.

    The Republican had a prominent career on Capitol Hill

    Graham had been serving as the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, giving him a central role during Trump’s second term as Republicans pushed major legislation on party-line votes with a slim majority in the chamber.

    His committee oversaw a process called reconciliation, a Senate procedure that allowed Republicans to pass significant policies such as last year’s tax law without the threat of a Democratic filibuster.

    He had previously led the Senate Judiciary Committee when Republicans confirmed Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in 2020, and was in line to regain that gavel if the party kept control of the Senate after this year’s midterms.

    Little explanation from Graham’s office

    The sparse statement by Graham’s office, which did not explain his death, comes during a stretch of concern about a lack of transparency about lawmakers’ health.

    Rep. Tom Kean Jr, a New Jersey Republican, was absent without explanation for months before returning to Congress and disclosing that he had been diagnosed with depression.

    Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, was hospitalized weeks ago for undisclosed health reasons.


  • Focus turns to building stronger institutions in Africa to speed shift to renewable energy


    NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa’s biggest clean energy challenge is shifting from building projects to building the institutions, markets and regulatory systems needed to deliver them at scale, experts say.

    That challenge is emerging even as clean energy reaches a historic milestone globally. Renewables generated 34% of the world’s electricity in 2025, overtaking coal’s 33% share. Together with nuclear power, renewables are expected to provide half of global electricity by 2030.

    As industrialization, artificial intelligence and electrification push demand higher, experts say the bottleneck in transitioning to cleaner energy has shifted from technology to the systems supporting it, including funding. Overcoming such obstacles is vital for securing access to power for the 600 million people in Africa who are yet to be connected.

    “Clean energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels in virtually every part of the world,” former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, said in late June while announcing a new $285 million Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative to strengthen clean energy industries in emerging and developing economies.

    “But fixable obstacles are still slowing down deployment, and with energy demand rising at an unprecedented speed, we can’t allow those obstacles to continue standing in the way,” he said.

    Rather than financing solar farms or wind projects directly, the initiative will invest in strengthening market design, regulatory capacity, technical expertise and industry institutions, areas increasingly viewed as essential for attracting private investment and accelerating use of renewable energy.

    It reflects a growing consensus that Africa’s energy transition is constrained less by a lack of renewable resources or viable technologies than by the institutional capacity needed to turn those advantages into financially viable projects and electricity on the grid.

    Many projects remain delayed by weak market design, limited grid planning, slow permitting processes and fragmented regulatory systems.

    “What has been missing is not the potential, but the institutional infrastructure and capabilities to unlock it,” said Saliem Fakir, executive director of the African Climate Foundation. “Philanthropy that targets those gaps directly is the kind of intervention that can shift the trajectory of a continent’s energy system.”

    Across Africa, renewable energy costs have fallen sharply while investment appetite continues to grow. However, investors say policy uncertainty, slow permitting processes and limited regulatory capacity are hindering projects.

    Wangari Muchiri, founder and chief executive of RE.Think Energy, said the commitment signals that “the next phase of the energy transition is not about proving clean energy works, it’s about removing the barriers preventing it from scaling fast enough.”

    The Bloomberg initiative is looking beyond ambitious renewable energy targets to focus on helping projects attract long-term investments and connect to national grids.

    “The next chapter of Africa’s renewable energy story will not be only by the projects it builds, but the institutions that make these projects possible,” Muchiri said.

    ___

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


  • ‘Ted Lasso’ stars bring World Cup fever to Kansas City as Argentina faces Switzerland


    KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lionel Messi and reigning World Cup champion Argentina playing for a semifinal spot in Ted Lasso’s hometown?

    You’d better BELIEVE he’s paying attention.

    The fictional coach of soccer club AFC Richmond — or rather, Jason Sudeikis, who plays the title character on the Apple TV series — was hosting a watch party at CPKC Stadium near downtown Kansas City on Saturday night, when La Albiceleste were playing upstart Switzerland at Arrowhead Stadium in their quest for back-to-back championships.

    The fourth season of the comedy-drama, which has been on hiatus since May 31, 2023, is due to premiere on Aug. 5.

    “As much as we’ve loved football before we got started, I’ve grown to love it more as we got more immersed in the soccer culture,” said Sudeikis, who grew up in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, and still has a deep affinity for the city.

    In fact, many of the scenes in the new season of “Ted Lasso” were shot around Kansas City.

    That includes riverfront CPKC Stadium, the home of the National Women’s Soccer League club Kansas City Current. It’s the first of its size built specifically for a women’s professional club, and a fitting locale for several thousand people to attend a watch party, given that the new season of “Ted Lasso” will focus on the newly formed AFC Richmond women’s team.

    It was a concept that the character Keeley Jones — played by the award-winning Juno Temple — subtly pitched at the end of the third season, when it was still unclear whether “Ted Lasso” would return for another run.

    “It feels like a perfect moment to be talking about women’s football, and representing it — not that I play, obviously,” said Temple, who sported a teal Kansas City Current jersey Saturday. “So that’s first and foremost. I hope that’s something people really treasure. And I also hope people enjoy the journey each of the characters are going on.”

    As for the World Cup, the cast hopes fans of the show have become fans of the game over the years. That has certainly been the case in the Sudeikis household; he played a little soccer as a kid before realizing basketball was more his game.

    “I’ve certainly heard from some people that didn’t care about soccer at all until they started to watch ‘Ted Lasso,’” said Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard and is one of the show’s writers, and who reflected on the last time the U.S. hosted the World Cup in 1994.

    “As opposed to 1994 when we had the World Cup and people knew even less about soccer, including me, people were ready for it,” Hunt said. “Yes, the world has come with this great energy, but we were more ready to be aware of their presence, and reciprocate energy. And we’re not as far behind as far as the sport’s popularity as it’s made out to be, and this World Cup is showing it.”

    The fact that Argentina and Switzerland were playing a World Cup quarterfinal on Saturday night? In Kansas City?

    “Luck of the draw,” Hunt said with a wry, bearded smile. “The actual show about to come out after the World Cup? I think someone manipulated that. Might have been a corporate choice.”

    ___

    See more of AP’s World Cup coverage here


  • Amid criticism, Meta reins in new AI tool that automatically accessed public Instagram images


    Meta has pulled the plug on a feature of a recently launched AI tool following criticism that it made Instagram accounts fodder for use in creating AI-generated images.

    The move on Friday came less than a week after the parent of Instagram and Facebook rolled out Muse Image, its first image-generation model available through the company’s artificial intelligence assistant, Meta AI.

    “Our intent was to provide a useful creative tool and to give people control over whether their public content could be referenced in this way,” Meta said in a statement. “We’ve heard the feedback that this feature missed the mark, so it’s no longer available.”

    Like other AI apps with image-generating capabilities, Muse Image creates images based on users’ suggestions. But its also automatically made photos posted on all public Instagram accounts usable by the AI tool as a reference when creating new images.

    That led to a flurry of social media posts flagging privacy concerns and instructing Instagram users how to opt out of having their accounts accessed by Muse Image.

    Hollywood also was quick to raise concerns about the image-generation feature.

    The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists urged its members to change the settings on their Instagram account to protect their likeness.

    In a statement on X, SAG-AFTRA applauded Meta’s decision to shut off the feature.

    “With the dangers of nonconsensual digital replicas well known to all, a feature that encouraged that behavior is unwise,” the union said. “We appreciate its discontinuance. It is the right thing to do.”


  • More than 200 people at a summer camp helicoptered to safe as Missouri faces flooding


    One person remains missing in Missouri after heavy rainfall battered parts of the state on Friday, forcing numerous emergency rescues and evacuations, including at a summer camp with more than 200 children.

    Several other states also face the potential for severe thunderstorms and flash flooding warning on Saturday as the slow moving storms move southward.

    The National Weather Service said the severe weather impacts a wide region stretching from the Ozark mountains in southern Missouri eastward into much of the Ohio and Tennessee river valleys.

    The service said the storms could bring damaging winds, heavy rainfall and scattered flash flooding to the multistate region, with some places seeing impacts into Sunday.

    Missouri’s Emergency Management Agency warned that while the storms are moving south and out of the state, further thunderstorms could still bring additional flash flooding, especially in areas that have already received 6 and 12 inches (15 and 30 centimeters) of rain.

    Summer campers rescued as flood waters rose.

    Friday’s drenching rains washed away roads around Camp Taum Sauk, trapping children and staff at the site in the small southeastern community of Lesterville, according Sgt. Eddie Young, with the state’s highway patrol. The Army National Guard used Black Hawk helicopters to fly them to a nearby elementary school and reunite them with their families, he said.

    The camp thanked emergency crews late Friday in a post on Instagram, saying, “We are beyond thankful for your help keeping our camp community safe.”

    Meanwhile, the campers at the Bearcat Getaway campground near the Black River, about 85 miles (136 kilometers) south of St. Louis, had climbed onto a building to get away from the raging waters when it collapsed, Young said.

    “Between the weight and the constant waters underneath it, it just gave away on them,” he said.

    Three other people were trapped on trees on the Black River in Reynolds County and were rescued Friday evening, Young said.

    Search continues for Missouri woman swept away in floodwaters

    There have been no reports of major injuries or fatalities, but a woman in Crawford County was missing after a house she was in was swept from its foundation by the flooding.

    Young confirmed Saturday that the woman, Faith Gregory, remains the only person reported missing still unaccounted for in the county, which is about 71 miles (114 kilometers) southwest of St. Louis.

    Family and friends, on social media, said they had resumed their search and urged others to look out for Gregory and her dogs, who they say were also swept away.

    The weather service had issued flash flood warnings for the area as thunderstorms piled on one after another.

    “It’s very, very popular place for recreation,” Matt Beitscher, a lead meteorologist with the NWS office in St. Louis, said of the affected counties. “So there are campgrounds there. There are float trip locations there. A lot of vulnerable populations that would be susceptible to flash flooding.”

    Recovery efforts underway

    Gov. Mike Kehoe declared a state of emergency and activated one of the state’s search and rescue teams to assist. He said late Friday that hundreds of people had been saved from floodwaters, trees, rooftops and stranded vehicles.

    Several major roads were impassable due to flooding and damage, Kehoe said, warning that the Black River continues to rise and is expected to crest at more than 28 feet (8.5 meters) near Annapolis in southeastern Missouri, which would be a record for the waterway.

    “As recovery efforts continue and additional rain is expected, I urge everyone in flood-prone and low-lying areas to stay weather-aware, have multiple ways of receiving alerts, and be ready to take protective action,” Kehoe said in a statement.

    In Reynolds County, two rescue boats capsized in the flooding, but other emergency personnel safely recovered the responders, the sheriff’s office said.

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo contributed from East Meadow, New York.