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  • Actor and activist Danny Glover says he has Alzheimer’s disease


    NEW YORK (AP) — Actor and activist Danny Glover, best known for starring as an easygoing police officer in the “Lethal Weapon” franchise, has revealed he has Alzheimer’s disease.

    The four-time Emmy Award nominee, who turns 80 on July 22, told “Today” and People magazine that he was diagnosed with the progressive, memory-destroying disease three years ago.

    “I’m still not accepting in my mind all parts of it,” he told People magazine. “There are the moments that you keep remembering that validate the fact that you can remember stuff. And there are moments I’ll never forget.”

    More than 6 million people in the United States and millions more around the world have Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia.

    Glover earned four Emmy Award nominations and an honorary Oscar in 2022. Other awards came from the NAACP and Black Entertainment Television, and he received nominations from the Screen Actors Guild.

    Glover also served as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998 to 2004. It focuses on poverty, disease and economic development in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.


  • Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People and co-wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.,’ dies at 74


    NEW YORK (AP) — Victor Willis, who co-founded the Village People, co-wrote the disco group’s classic hits “Y.M.C.A.,” ″Macho Man” and “In the Navy,” and delighted crowds while dressed as the band’s helmeted and mustachioed police officer, has died. He was 74.

    “We are profoundly sad to announce the death of Victor Willis, lead singer of Village People,” the group posted on its official Facebook page. The cause was identified as “a short but aggressive illness.”

    Willis was a musician-actor who, among other things, had appeared on Broadway in “The Wiz” when he decided to cash in on the disco craze in 1977 by joining a group made up of beefy, macho-looking guys dressed as a biker, a construction worker, a cop, a cowboy and a Native American chief.

    With producer Jacques Morali and Henri Belolo, Morali’s business partner, Willis founded the six-member Village People. The idea came to them while partying at an after-hours gay nightclub in the West Village of Manhattan. The group’s self-titled debut album was released in 1977.

    In 1978, the group released two albums, “Macho Man” and “Cruisin’” — which featured the international hit “Y.M.C.A.,” a song that peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard chart. A year later, Village People released the album “Go West,” which included “In the Navy,” a song that peaked at No. 3 on the chart. “Macho Man” peaked at No. 25 in 1978.

    In 2020, Congress described “Y.M.C.A.” — with its infectious chorus of “It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.” and an accompanying dance spelling out the letters — as “an American phenomenon” and added the song to the National Recording Registry. In 2021, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

    Willis left the band before shooting started on the 1980 movie “Can’t Stop the Music,” a widely ridiculed comedy starring the Village People and Steve Guttenberg and directed by Nancy Walker.

    Village People music is the backbone of pool parties, high school dances, weddings, proms, bar mitzvahs, games and whenever an uplifting mood is needed. The songs also played at gay marches and the White House.

    “We will think of Victor every time ‘Y.M.C.A.’ is played, like today, and all throughout this July Fourth Birthday week,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media Wednesday. “My condolences to his wonderful family and group, Victor Willis will be sorely missed.”

    While musicians like Neil Young, John Fogerty, Phil Collins, Panic! At The Disco and the estates of Leonard Cohen, Tom Petty and Prince sent cease-and-desist letters to stop Trump from using their music, Willis said he didn’t feel he was endorsing Trump when the song played.

    Willis was born in Texas and grew up in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. When he moved to New York, he went to a YMCA on West 63rd Street in Manhattan, which inspired the hit song.

    The ownership of Village People’s songs came into doubt decades after the hits, and in 2015, a federal jury ruled that Willis was entitled to 50% copyright ownership in the United States of 13 of the group’s songs, including “Y.M.C.A.”

    After a series of arrests on drug-related charges that resulted in a rehab stint, Willis told The Associated Press in 2012 that his life had turned around. “Life is fine. I went through whatever I went through, but everything is going great now,” he said.

    In May, Willis and the Village People — he was the only original member — sang “Happy Birthday” and “Y.M.C.A.” for Secretary of State Marco Rubio during an event in India.

    ___

    This story has been corrected to reflect that Willis did not appear in the 1980 movie “Can’t Stop the Music.”


  • Trump administration lifts restrictions on Anthropic’s Claude models after cybersecurity alarm


    SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Trump administration has lifted restrictions on artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s latest versions of its Claude chatbot, ending a weekslong ban tied to cybersecurity concerns.

    Anthropic said Tuesday night that its AI model called Claude Fable 5 is now widely available. It’s also restoring access to its most powerful model, Mythos 5, but only to a select group of U.S.-based organizations approved by the federal government.

    The Commerce Department blocked foreign nationals from using both AI models on June 12, a move that San Francisco-based Anthropic said forced the company to immediately take the products down for all users just days after it unveiled them.

    Anthropic said in a blog post this week that the government’s concerns were sparked by a report from cybersecurity researchers at Amazon, Anthropic’s primary cloud computing provider. The company “had found a method of bypassing Fable 5’s safeguards” that enabled it to discover and potentially exploit software vulnerabilities, Anthropic said.

    Officials have grown increasingly concerned since Anthropic warned earlier this year that its Mythos model was adept at finding software flaws in a way that could be weaponized by malicious hackers and threaten critical computer networks around the world.

    Anthropic’s chief rival, ChatGPT maker OpenAI, also said Friday it is restricting the release of its new artificial intelligence model at the request of President Donald Trump’s administration.

    OpenAI said its new AI product, called GPT-5.6 Sol, would be accessible only to a select group of government-approved customers for a temporary period.

    Trump last month signed an executive order on AI oversight that established a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to 30 days before their public release. The order described participation by AI developers as voluntary, but the framework has not yet been fully developed.


  • Eurovision, eh? Canada will compete at the glitzy song contest in 2027


    LONDON (AP) — The Eurovision Song Contest is expanding across the Atlantic, with Canada set to compete at next year’s edition of the glitter-drenched pop music competition.

    Contest organizer the European Broadcasting Union and Canadian public broadcaster CBC announced that Canada will send an act to the 2027 contest in Bulgaria in May. Canada is the first new country to join Eurovision since Australia entered in 2015.

    The announcement was made on the Canada Day national holiday. It comes shortly after Canada joined the EBU, an association of national public broadcasters that oversees Eurovision.

    A campy, colorful contest that has been likened to the World Cup with songs instead of soccer, Eurovision has given the world the perfect pop of ABBA’s “Waterloo” – the winning song in 1974 – and a host of Euro-pop party anthems.

    CBC President Marie-Philippe Bouchard said participation “will allow Canadian talent to be showcased on one of the most storied music stages in the world.”

    Founded in 1956, Eurovision brings together musical acts from dozens of mostly European countries to compete for the votes of professional jurors and international viewers.

    Eurovision Director Martin Green said Canada’s accession is “a further sign that, while born in Europe, the Contest continues to welcome the world.”

    The CBC said it will announce details of how Canada’s entry will be selected later this year. Some Eurovision countries choose their competitors through televised national selections. In others, competitors are picked by the national broadcaster.

    Canadians have entered Eurovision before under different flags — most famously Quebecoise chanteuse Celine Dion, who won the 1988 contest competing for Switzerland.

    The 70th Eurovision contest in May featured 35 countries and was won by Bulgarian singer Dara, so next year’s competition will take place in the southeast European country.

    Eurovision has been roiled in recent years by protests over the participation of Israel, a competitor since 1973.

    Five longtime participants — Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, Iceland and Slovenia — boycotted this year after organizers declined to kick Israel out over its conduct of the war against Hamas in Gaza and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

    The 2026 Eurovision final was watched by 130 million viewers around the world, organizers say, down from 160 million in 2025.

    Despite the blows to Eurovision’s finances and viewership from the boycott, the contest is eyeing expansion, with a spinoff Eurovision Song Contest Asia due to take place in Bangkok in November.


  • Judge orders Pentagon to lift policy that New York Times journalists be accompanied by an escort


    A federal judge has ordered the Defense Department to temporarily halt its requirement that New York Times journalists be accompanied by an official escort, in another setback for the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict media access at the Pentagon.

    U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman in Washington said that policy violated the First Amendment and he issued a preliminary ruling Tuesday barring the requirement while The New York Times continues its legal battle against the department’s restrictions.

    The order did not specify whether journalists from other organizations would also get relief from that policy.

    The newspaper in May sued the Defense Department for the second time in five months. The lawsuits have played into an escalating tension between the U.S. media and the Republican administration, both in the public arena and the courts.

    The Times hailed Friedman’s ruling.

    “Today’s well-reasoned decision reaffirms the First Amendment rights of the press to cover the Pentagon without restrictions designed to prevent the public from knowing what the military is doing,” said Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson. “The court recognized that the Pentagon’s hastily implemented new policy was a clear violation of the Constitution.”

    Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted on X late Tuesday that the department “strongly disagrees” with Friedman’s decision. “This ruling strips away reasonable security measures and will make it easier for sensitive and classified information to reach our adversaries.”

    The Times first sued in December over rules imposed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth seeking to limit media access.

    The escort policy was implemented in March after a ruling by Friedman that had struck down earlier restrictions. He said they violated the rights of Times reporter Julian E. Barnes and the paper.

    The following month, the judge ruled that the interim policy violated his March order. But the escort policy remained in place when an appeals court stayed part of Friedman’s ruling while the government appealed. The appeals process is ongoing.

    The Times and other outlets walked out of the Pentagon in October rather than agree to Hegseth’s restrictions. They continue to cover the U.S. military from outside the building. A new press corps approved by the department currently occupies the Pentagon space.


  • Local roundup: Vidalia arson charges, UNO becomes LSU New Orleans, workforce Pell policy approved, conviction overturned


    A Vidalia man has been charged in connection with an intentionally set vehicle fire. Investigators determined that the March 30 incident was deliberately set, leading to charges against 48-year-old Keon Moore. The charges include criminal mischief, insurance fraud, and obstruction.

    The University of New Orleans has officially transitioned into the LSU system and is now known as LSU New Orleans. Interim Chancellor Jeanette Weiland said the move positions the institution to reclaim its role as the public research university for the New Orleans region. She emphasized the school’s academic quality, affordability, and goal of recruiting, retaining, and graduating more local students who plan to remain in the metro area.

    Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced that the State Workforce Investment Board has approved a state policy framework to guide Mississippi’s review and recommendation process for workforce Pell Grant programs. The new federal program will allow eligible Pell Grant recipients to use federal aid for approved short‑term workforce education programs offered by participating institutions. These programs may be as short as eight weeks and must prepare students for high‑skill, high‑wage, or in‑demand jobs. Students must meet federal Pell Grant eligibility requirements, enroll at a participating institution, and be accepted into an approved short‑term program.

    Following a ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, the first‑degree murder conviction of Jimmy Duncan, a West Monroe man, has been thrown out. Prosecutors originally relied on evidence that has since been discredited in the case involving the 1993 death of 23‑month‑old Haley Olivo. Duncan has said the child became unconscious after he briefly stepped away from a bathtub. His legal team notes that if prosecutors pursue a lesser charge such as negligent homicide, Duncan has already served nearly three times the maximum sentence for that offense. Prosecutors have one year to begin any new trial.

    The Mississippi River at Natchez‑Vidalia is at 39.62 feet and rising.

  • EU issues new steel and e-commerce regulations to reduce trade imbalance with China


    BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union rolled out two measures to protect its steel industry and limit e-commerce small parcels on Wednesday as the 27-nation bloc grapples with its staggering trade imbalance with China.

    “Today’s change is about restoring fairness for European businesses and better protecting our consumers,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in an online post praising a new 3 euro ($3.42) customs duty on small packages. “The surge in low-value online imports has put our retailers at an unfair disadvantage. Too many of these products also fail to meet EU safety standards, putting consumers at risk.”

    The Commission said new rules on steel imports are designed to protect EU plants and jobs from “the damaging impacts of global overcapacity” on “a strategically crucial European industry.” China’s subsidies for steel production have led critics in Brussels and beyond to charge that policy undercuts steel industries from Germany’s Ruhr valley to Kyushu Island in Japan.

    The EU’s trade deficit with China widened in 2025 to around 360 billion euros ($410 billion) — or roughly 1 billion euros a day — and is rising in 2026.

    China’s annual global trade surplus reached a near-record $1.2 trillion last year even after higher tariffs introduced by the Trump administration, and despite China’s dependency on Persian Gulf energy, the war in Iran has not destabilized China’s export-led economy with sales of high-tech goods and vehicles abroad having jumped.

    Flood of small packages has destabilized main street

    From Wednesday, the EU will remove an customs duty exemption called “de minimis” for parcels valued at under 150 euros. Chinese firms like the e-commerce giants Temu and Shien control about 90% of this type of trade, according to the Commission. The U.S. made a similar move last year.

    The Commission said 5.9 billion small packages were imported into the EU in 2025, compared with about 1.4 billion in 2022. At roughly 16 million a day, that’s 97% of the traffic, but represents just 2% of import value. A majority of the packages were said to have failed safety tests and triggered environmental concerns on overuse of plastic.

    “Europe finally shows teeth against flood of cheap package deals,” said Bernd Lange, the head of the European Parliament’s trade committee in a post online.

    Yet the 3 euro tax might “not affect the big picture” as it’s minimal compared to the price gap between Europe and China for goods like e-commerce, according to Gary Ng, a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies.

    While it may be effective in reducing small orders and impulse purchases, Ng said that customers and e-commerce platforms can still make group orders.

    EU steel under threat

    The new rules set tariff-free quotas at 18.3 million metric tons annually and imposes an out-of-quota duty of 50% on 26 types of steel imports. It also requires more transparency from importers to trace where the so-called “melt and pour” stage of production takes place to ensure countries like China will not circumvent protections by shipping products to the EU via third countries. The EU had put in new steel tariffs in October to protect the bloc from a flood of steel imports diverted by new U.S. trade policy under Trump.

    Europe’s steel industry is in crisis, with crude steel output falling to a “historic low” in 2026, according to the European Steel Association.

    “Europe’s steel production is shrinking while imports as a share of the EU market are rising,” said the trade group’s director-general Axel Eggert in March. “EU policymakers must therefore agree the new steel trade measure quickly without it being weakened otherwise Europe risks losing more industrial capacity.”

    While China producers more than half of the world’s steel, the EU imports mostly from trade partners like the U.K., Ukraine, India, Taiwan, Turkey, Japan and South Korea. The new tariffs could trigger penalties in free trade agreements with nations like Japan but some exemptions have been granted to Ukraine as it battles Russia.

    “We will remain open to engage — call it a club, call it an alliance, call it whatever you like — but the idea that we come together with like-minded partners on this global challenge of overcapacity in the market,” said a Commission official tasked with communicating policy but not authorized to be named. “In an ideal world there is fair competition and level playing fields. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to live in an ideal world.”

    Beijing will oppose the new rules even if they do not directly target China, said Alicia García-Herrero, a chief economist for Asia Pacific and Middle East at the French bank Natixis.

    “The Chinese do not want this instrument to work. This could be a springboard for more,” she said. “It opens the door to the overall overcapacity instruments to see how it works.”

    China’s Ministry of Commerce in May warned the EU against new steel import regulations and said China would firmly respond to “discriminatory measures” against its companies and products.

    ‘Wolf pack effect’

    Some experts in China have raised the alarm over growing backlash to mass exports.

    In a recent report, the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing identified “ China Shock 2.0 ” — a massive surge of highly subsidized, advanced Chinese manufacturing exports flooding global markets — as one of the top 10 perceived security risks for China. It warned that the EU would likely impose additional tariffs on China that, together with protectionist sentiment in the U.S., might inspire other nations to follow suit with “steep tariff hikes and investment screening” targeting Chinese firms.

    “What makes this risk distinctive is that it does not originate from a single adversary. It is the ‘wolf pack effect’ of multiple countries acting in concert, inflicting not only direct economic losses on China but, more profoundly, degrading its strategic environment and international business reputation,” the report stated.

    Beijing has hit back at the concept of “China Shock 2.0,” defending it instead as an “opportunity” which brings the world wider shared benefits from China’s tech innovations.

    While the EU has not been as combative with China as the Trump administration, “the direction of travel is clearly shifting in Brussels,” HSBC economists Frederic Neumann and Justin Feng wrote in a research note on Tuesday.

    In June, leaders from the Group of Seven nations issued a joint call to develop independent supply chains for critical minerals so crucial for defense and high-tech industries.

    ‘Status quo is not an option’

    “China and the EU are partners, not rivals,” Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Tuesday. “The root cause of the EU’s problems does not lie with China.”

    China’s recent success handling Trump’s escalated tariff threats last year suggests it “can withstand external pressure,” according to Neumann and Feng, who said Beijing leveraged its control of rare earth supply chains to forge a truce on trade with Washington.

    “If China managed a U.S. tariff ramp-up and the global energy shock during the U.S.-Iran conflict, it may show less inclination to make concessions to the EU,” the economists said. “The near-term outlook points to limited progress towards a comprehensive China-EU settlement.”

    García-Herrero said that despite the importance of the EU’s common market to China — 90% of battery and 60% of its electrical vehicles exports go to the bloc — there is a perception in Beijing that they can successfully dissuade common action by lobbying national capitals in the EU.

    “China thinks Europe has no leverage,” she said. “They do think they have the upper hand, by all means.”

    China’s Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with the EU’s trade representative Maroš Šefčovič in Brussels on Monday.

    “The EU remains open for business but we need to defend our industrial base and keep pushing for a level playing field globally, so our industries get a fair shot at competing,” Šefčovič said after the talks. “That is why today’s talks – and the ones to follow – matter.”

    He has set an October deadline for meaningful results in rebalancing trade during a visit to Beijing.

    “The status quo is not an option.”

    ___

    Chan reported from Hong Kong.


  • The US, Canada and Mexico begin bumpy negotiations to renew North American trade pact


    WASHINGTON (AP) — Tourists from Chattanooga check into beach resorts in Cancun. Canadian auto parts feed factories in the American Midwest – and vice versa. Happy hour revelers raise glasses of Mexican tequila and mezcal at bars in Seattle.

    It adds up. The United States trades $1.9 trillion a year — $5 billion a day — worth of goods and services with its neighbors, Canada and Mexico. They have supplanted China to become America’s top two trading partners.

    So the stakes are high when it comes to fiddling with the rules that govern trade between the three countries. And after a year of President Donald Trump’s chaotic tariff policies, many U.S., Canadian and Mexican businesses would welcome the return of stability across North America.

    They are not likely to get it.

    The regional trade pact — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement or USMCA — that Trump negotiated and boasted about came up for renewal Wednesday, starting a process that is likely to last months, maybe longer.

    And the path forward is lined with landmines.

    “There’s going to be a lot of drama this summer,” Diego Marroquín Bitar, a fellow in the America’s program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said last week at a USMCA forum sponsored by the Cato Institute.

    A bumpy road ahead for North American trade

    The U.S. is making demands that could effectively force Canada and Mexico to surrender some automaking production to the United States. That might bring more auto factory jobs to the United States. But it would also upend established supply chains and would push up U.S. prices for new cars that now average nearly $50,000 at a time when American consumers are already frustrated about the high cost of living.

    Trump, characteristically, has added to the tension by threatening to pull out of his own agreement altogether.

    In 2020, the USMCA replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, which tore down most trade barriers between the three North American countries.

    Trump and other critics had called NAFTA a job killer because it encouraged U.S. companies to move factories south of the border to take advantage of low-wage Mexican labor, then ship goods back to the United States duty free.

    His USMCA ended up being similar to NAFTA — though it pressured factories to pay higher wages and make sure that more of what they made originated in North America in an effort to prevent Chinese products from slipping across regional borders duty free.

    To renew or not to renew?

    The USMCA included a novel provision requiring the pact to be renewed every six years. That deadline was Wednesday.

    The three countries met virtually Wednesday, but U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the United States was not ready to renew the pact as it is for another 16 years — which would have been until 2042. The U.S. wants changes to the agreement to reduce its trade deficits with Canada and Mexico and to resolve specific disputes over issues such as Canada’s protection of its dairy industry.

    The USMCA remains in effect while the three countries continue to work on ways to resolve their differences; they have until the current term ends in 2036 to reach an agreement. Otherwise, the pact expires.

    Mexican Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard said in a video posted on his social media accounts that he was confident the review of the treaty could be concluded “within a reasonable time frame.”

    “We’re in no rush, but we also don’t want there to be any uncertainty, which is why we need to try to reach an agreement on many issues,” he said. “Our goal is for that review to have fewer outstanding issues each year.”

    Meantime, any USMCA country can pull out of the pact provided it gives its two partners six months’ notice — a red buzzer that Canada and Mexico, dependent on trade with the United States, fear Trump just might push.

    Trump, after all, said in June that he was “not looking to renew’’ the trade pact with Canada and Mexico. “We don’t need anything that they have,” he said.

    Canada is out in the cold — so far

    The United States and Mexico have held talks on renewing the trade agreement. But Canada has so far been stuck on the sidelines.

    Patrick Childress, a partner at the Holland & Knight law firm and a former U.S. trade negotiator, said: “The danger for Canada is this: that the U.S. government and the Mexican government reach agreement on changes to core provisions of the treaty and then show up in Ottawa and say: ‘Here’s what we’ve agreed to. You can take it or leave it.’’’

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the three trading partners plan to meet virtually on Wednesday, adding: “I’m not looking for my pen.”

    Carney later said in French his priority is to update the USMCA and that it is impossible for the U.S. to have a new agreement without the approval of Congress.

    Pushing production to the United States

    The U.S. wants a refreshed trade pact to do more to make sure that Chinese goods don’t get in through the back door. But the most contentious issue is a U.S. push to require that more products are made in North America — and specifically the United States.

    The USMCA included a requirement that automotive products must be 75% made in North America — up from 62.5% under NAFTA — to qualify for duty-free treatment.

    The U.S. wants to push the 75% threshold even higher but it won’t be easy. Automakers already “have been fine-tuning their supply chains for years to be able to hit that 75% mark,” Childress said. They would need time to meet the higher standard.

    The U.S. is also seeking a brand-new requirement: that 50% of cars be made in the United States, Carney confirmed in early June. Currently, none of the USMCA countries gets a guaranteed share of production. “It’s a red line for both Mexico and Canada, and it goes against the spirit and the letter of regional integration,” said Oscar Ocampo, director of economic development at the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness.

    Marcos Carias, an economist at the credit insurer Coface, said only 1 in 5 Mexican and Canadian cars imported into the United States would currently meet the 50% standard.

    Vehicle models likely to be hit with higher costs under the plan, he said, include Ford’s Maverick compact pickup truck, Chevrolet’s mid-size Equinox SUV and some Nissan sedans — all made in Mexico. Carias’ “back of the envelope” calculations suggest that prices could increase 5% to 7% on the most-affected models.

    Businesses want stability

    A lot of companies just want relief from Trump’s ever-changing tariffs. “My interest in this USMCA renewal is just consistency, right?” said Shawn Miller, co-founder of PKGD Group, which imports agave spirits (tequila, mezcal and raicilla) from family producers in Mexico. “If the rules change, the rules change. But we’d really like to know (what they’re going to be) and we’d like them to stay that way for a while.”

    Business is booming for PKGD. Sales at the Holland, Michigan-based firm are up 62% so far this year after surging 100% in 2025 and 300% in 2024.

    But last year was chaotic.

    Trump hit Mexican and Canadian goods with a 25% import tax in February only to turn around a month later and exempt products that were eligible for preferential USMCA treatment. The USMCA allows the Mexican spirits into the United States duty free.

    Amid the tumult, three truckloads of Mexican spirits imported by PKGD crossed the border into the United States and got hit with the 25% tariff. The cost came to $105,000. “For us, it was one unfortunate day!” Miller said.

    Not knowing what tariffs Trump might conjure up next, PKGD huddled with its Mexican producers to figure out how to respond. “What can we absorb? What can they absorb?” Miller said. “How can we mitigate this?”

    Miller said he and his Mexican suppliers “are not large multinational corporations with dedicated trade departments, teams of lawyers, or lobbyists focused on trade policy.”

    Kerry Mellin can sympathize.

    In 2014, the veteran Hollywood costume designer started a business in Ventura County, California, selling silicone grips that enable people with disabilities (such as cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s) to hold things — spoons, cups, pens, toothbrushes.

    But sales floundered when she introduced her EazyHold grips in Canada, where she has dual citizenship. She thinks it’s because the silicone she imports from Asia kept her grips from having enough North American content to qualify for USMCA’s duty-free treatment when they crossed the border from the United States.

    Mellin suspects EazyHold could meet the USMCA standards, “but the rules are complex and unpredictable enough that I genuinely can’t be sure without hiring a trade attorney.”

    Mellin believes the USMCA’s rules of origin should be loosened, not tightened, to help small businesses that can’t afford costlier raw materials from North America.

    “I do understand why the rule exists — to stop companies from routing Chinese goods through Mexico,” she said. “I just wish it could tell the difference between that and a small family business in California making grip aids for people who can’t hold a fork. I’m not the problem they were trying to solve.”

    ____

    AP Writers Maria Verza in Mexico City and Rob Gilles in Toronto contributed to this story.


  • Ship runs aground in Strait of Hormuz, Iranian state TV reports


    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A ship ran aground in the Strait of Hormuz after not running Iran’s approved route through the water, Iranian state television reported Wednesday. The report identified the affected vessel as a foreign container ship, but offered no other immediate details.

    The Iranian state TV report appeared aimed at underlining the claims Tehran has made since the U.S.-Iran war to control over the strait, which has long been considered by the world as an international waterway and saw a fifth of all oil and natural gas pass through it in peacetime.

    It also came as U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, were in Doha, Qatar, for talks over reaching a permanent end to the Iran war.

    Technical talks between diplomats began Wednesday in Qatar, said two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door discussions. Those discussions see negotiators aiming to nail down specifics to pave the way for top leaders to seal an agreement, though the differences over the strait and Lebanon still loom large.

    Iran offered no immediate acknowledgment of the negotiations starting.

    The Strait of Hormuz is a key sticking point in talks

    Iran and the United States agreed as part of an interim deal to allow ships to pass uncharged for 60 days, but Tehran insisted it must control the routes of the vessels and later charge fees for passage, upending decades of practice in the waterway. The U.S. and many Gulf Arab states say they won’t agree to the charges. An effort by Oman and a U.N. agency to launch a new route near Oman’s shore sparked attacks across the Mideast over last weekend, highlighting the tensions still gripping the Mideast.

    Iranian state TV said the ship “ran aground with its cargo because of shallow waters along the route it had chosen and was unable to continue sailing.” It said shippers needed to follow the instructions of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard in the strait.

    The Guard’s navy “has repeatedly warned captains, shipowners and officials of shipping companies around the world that any entry or exit through routes other than the ‘Route of Authority’ in the Persian Gulf could lead to irreparable incidents,” it said. The report did not mention the two ships Iran attacked in recent days for daring to head out through the strait without Tehran’s permission, including one that was carrying crude oil from Qatar.

    US negotiators are in Qatar and Iranians are expected

    Witkoff and Kushner arrived in Qatar on Tuesday ahead of talks with Qatar mediating. While Iran has insisted it planned no meetings with the Americans, their comments left open the possibility of so-called “indirect negotiations,” in which the two nations pass messages through Qatari officials. That has happened multiple times during negotiations in the second Trump administration.

    Qatar early Wednesday morning acknowledged a meeting between the Americans and its foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. A readout from Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said the men talked about the interim deal “along with the efforts aimed at promoting security and stability in the region through dialogue and diplomacy.” Lebanon also was discussed, another key point in a final deal as Iran has been insisted that all fighting between the Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and Israeli military forces end.

    Iran also has called for Israel to give up the land it occupies in southern Lebanon now. Israel insists it must hold the territory and have a free hand to attack Hezbollah, which has been launching attacks into northern Israel.

    Iran did not immediately acknowledge any talks on Wednesday. However, Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, a key negotiator, told Iranian state television overnight that work continues to try to reach a permanent end to the war.

    “We are engaged in dialogue, but if they refuse to implement what has been agreed through dialogue, we are prepared for war,” Qalibaf said.

    More ships get out of Strait of Hormuz

    While ship traffic in the strait dropped after this weekend’s attacks, more countries say their vessels have gotten out.

    Thailand’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that 10 out of 11 Thai-flagged vessels or vessels chartered by Thai operators have departed the Strait of Hormuz safely. South Korean officials say all but two of the country’s 26 vessels that were stranded have left safely.

    Iraq shoots down drone over Baghdad

    Also Wednesday, Iraqi authorities shot down a small drone over Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, where many embassies and government buildings are located, two Iraqi security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly. One of the officials said the drone was unarmed and likely was being used for surveillance. No group immediately claimed the drone as theirs.

    After the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran in late February, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias launched frequent attacks on U.S. military and diplomatic facilities in Iraq. The drone being shot down overnight Wednesday was the first security incident in Baghdad since the U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire.

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    Associated Press writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Najib Jobain in Doha, Qatar, Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok, Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad and Tong-hyung Kim in Seoul, South Korea, contributed to this report.


  • Trump to visit newly built Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in North Dakota’s Badlands


    BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — President Donald Trump will visit North Dakota on Wednesday to see the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, a massive facility exploring the 26th president’s life, built in the rugged, lonely landscape where the young easterner built his conservation values while ranching and hunting in the 1880s.

    The 96,000 square-foot library officially opens over the weekend on July 4, the pinnacle date of celebrations this year honoring the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But Trump is coming early to see the $450 million project, a push of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum from when he was governor of North Dakota, and bringing the official celebrations of the nation’s birth to a region synonymous with its westward expansion.

    All living presidents were invited to the grand opening of the library, which joins more than a dozen such libraries throughout the country examining the lives and legacies of U.S. presidents from Ronald Reagan in California, to Franklin D. Roosevelt in New York to Herbert Hoover in Iowa. The Obama Presidential Center recently opened in Chicago, bringing together four former presidents for the occasion.

    Trump will be the library’s first official visitor, Library Executive Director Robbie Lauf said, and will speak at a nearby Western-themed amphitheater at an event run by Freedom250, the Trump-created group billed as nonpartisan that he has tapped to organize the festivities he will participate in this week. On Friday, Trump also plans to visit South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore for Independence Day fireworks, as he did in 2020.

    The president has often praised, and even compared himself favorably, to Roosevelt, declaring in 2020 that he was, “The number one environmental president since Teddy Roosevelt.”

    Trump began his second term by trumpeting construction of the Panama Canal during the Roosevelt administration. He even suggested that the U.S. might seek to take back the waterway from Panama to curb influence from China — though that’s a goal that was overshadowed by his suggestions that Washington might seize control of Greenland or that Canada could become America’s 51st state.

    In the run-up to staging a UFC fight on the White House lawn for his 80th birthday, Trump said he was aware of Roosevelt holding far lower-key boxing matches in the White House — though he made no mention of Roosevelt having detached the retina of his left eye during one such sparring session.

    The trip also underscores the president’s esteem for Burgum, who has become a key face of and cheerleader for the president’s expansive renovation projects around Washington.

    Roosevelt was a New York native with a strong connection to North Dakota

    Roosevelt visited Dakota Territory in 1883 to hunt bison. On Valentine’s Day the next year, his mother and wife died hours apart in the same house.

    Devastated, the New York native came to Dakota where he ranched cattle and hunted big game in the West during visits mostly from 1884 to 1887.

    He underwent deep personal growth from his experiences, including chasing boat thieves down a river, standing up to a bully in a bar and working alongside cowboys who ridiculed him for wearing eyeglasses.

    Roosevelt, who served from 1901 to 1909, later said he never would have been president were it not for his experiences in North Dakota.

    Near the library is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Visitors can hike trails and drive a scenic route through the colorful, rugged Badlands where bison and wild horses roam.

    In 2019, Burgum championed the library to North Dakota’s Republican-led legislature when he was governor, touting its tourism potential. The legislature approved a $50 million operations endowment, requiring library planners to raise $100 million in private donations, a goal met in 2020. Donations total about $354 million as of early 2026.

    Donors include oil executive Harold Hamm, the Waltons of Walmart fame, Citadel founder and CEO Kenneth Griffin and Burgum himself.

    Burgum also has lobbied for Roosevelt’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, saying during an event previewing the Roosevelt library, “Keep your fingers crossed.”

    That’s a nod to Roosevelt — who had become alarmed at the number of injuries and deaths of college football players — convening a 1905 White House meeting featuring the presidents of Harvard, Yale and Princeton to urge safety improvements in the sport. The discussions eventually helped sparked the founding of the NCAA, college’s sports governing body.

    The library will showcase Roosevelt’s ideas and artifacts

    Visitors will learn about Roosevelt’s conservation ideas and his Rough Riders regiment of the Spanish-American War, but also his “horrific comments” about Native Americans and other issues “that have obviously aged poorly,” Lauf said.

    Artifacts, many of them out of public view for decades, will tell Roosevelt’s story. Visitors will see his Rough Riders uniform; the 1884 diary grieving his terrible loss; and the eyeglasses case, speech and shirt from the 1912 assassination attempt against him.

    Organizers hope the library draws families and thousands of school children from the region, as well as some of the millions of motorists who travel to Yellowstone National Park and the Black Hills.

    “It’s a feature, not a bug, that we are in a county of 1,000 people and a town of 120,” Lauf said. “TR came here for that purpose.”

    The Dakota Resource Council on Tuesday hosted several conservation leaders who criticized Burgum and Trump for policies they say contradict Roosevelt’s conservation principles, such as cutting staff and budgets and prioritizing energy development on public lands.

    Last year Burgum signed an order prioritizing the openness and accessibility of parks to the public amid the workforce cuts. He has compared America’s public lands and natural resources to “assets” that should be responsibly developed to exert “energy dominance.”

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    Associated Press writer Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.