Striking members of the Writers Guild of America have said they will not picket next month’s Tony Award telecast, clearing a thorny issue facing show organizers and opening the door for some sort of Broadway razzle-dazzle on TV.  

The union last week denied a request by Tony organizers to have a waiver for their June 11 glitzy live telecast. It reiterated that in a statement late Monday, saying the guild “will not negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the Tony Awards.” 

But the guild gave some hope that some sort of Tony show might go on, saying organizers “are altering this year’s show to conform with specific requests from the WGA, and therefore the WGA will not be picketing the show.” What is being altered was not clear, but it may be to allow a non-scripted version of the Tonys to go on.  

The strike, which has already darkened late-night TV shows like “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert “and “Saturday Night Live” and delayed the making of scripted TV shows, was jeopardizing theater’s biggest night, one that many Broadway shows rely on to attract interest with millions of people watching. 

The union — representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms — has been on strike since May 2, primarily over royalties from streaming media. While the guild doesn’t represent Broadway writers, it does represent writers who work on the Tonys telecast. 

Tony organizers faced a stark choice after the request for a waiver was rejected: either postpone the ceremony until the strike ends or announce winners in a non-televised reception that would ask nominees to cross picket lines. The decision Monday means the possibility of a third way: A non-scripted show that leans heavily on performances.  

That is largely what happened during the 1988 awards, which were broadcast during a Writers Guild of America walkout. Host Angela Lansbury and presenters speaking impromptu and with performances from such shows as “A Chorus Line” and “Anything Goes.” 

Before the Writers Guild of America decision, a two-part Tony ceremony had been planned, with a pre-show of performances streaming live on Pluto, and the main awards ceremony broadcasting live on CBS and streaming live to premium-level Peacock members. 

The big first awards show during the current strike was the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which had no host and relied on recycled clips and a smattering of pre-recorded acceptance speeches.  

The strike has also disrupted the PEN America Gala. The Peabody Awards, which celebrate broadcasting and streaming media, on Monday canceled its June 11 awards show. 
…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs, addressing a concern of conservatives ahead of the Republican governor’s expected presidential candidacy. 

The law, which DeSantis proposed earlier this year, comes as Republicans across the country target programs on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. 

The signing builds on the governor’s larger push to shape Florida’s education system through regulating how schools deal with subjects such as race and gender, with DeSantis arguing that he is challenging inappropriate liberal ideology in the classroom. 

DeSantis, who is expected to announce his presidential run in the coming weeks, has focused heavily on divisive cultural issues as he moves to win over the conservative voters who typically decide Republican primary elections. 

Diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education often spearhead services tailored to students of various races, genders, sexual orientations, cultures and abilities. Some college administrators also consider so-called DEI factors when admitting students, providing scholarships or deciding which faculty to hire and promote. 

The law blocks public universities from diverting state or federal funds toward programs or campus activities that advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion or promote political or social activism. 

“In reality what this concept of DEI has been is to attempt to impose orthodoxy on the university,” DeSantis said at a bill signing ceremony in Sarasota. “This has basically been used as a veneer to impose an ideological agenda, and that is wrong.” 

The measure also bars curriculums that teach “identity politics” or “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.” The provision is aimed at curtailing education about critical race theory, a way of thinking about U.S. history through the lens of racism. 

In a signal of DeSantis’ reach on education, he chose to sign the bill at New College of Florida, a small, traditionally progressive school that became nationally known this year after the governor appointed a group of conservatives to its board of trustees. Among the DeSantis appointees’ first moves was to eliminate the New College’s diversity, equity and inclusion office. 

The takeover has led to pushback among students at New College, long known for its progressive thought and creative course offerings that don’t use traditional grades. 

On Monday, a small group of protestors gathered outside the signing ceremony. DeSantis, as well as most of the speakers at the event, ridiculed them. 

“You know, I saw some of the protestors out there. I was a little disappointed. I was hoping for more,” DeSantis said with a smile as his supporters clapped. 

Sen. Shevrin Jones, a Democrat, issued a statement after the signing that said the law continues DeSantis’ “overreach” into education. 

“Education ought to be about teaching kids how to think through issues, not what to think about issues,” Jones said. “The exposure to wide-ranging experiences and fresh perspectives encourages understanding and creativity. By restricting what students can learn, the state is actively suppressing students’ academic and intellectual freedom.” 
…

A man with a metal baseball bat walked into the northern Virginia office of U.S. Representative Gerry Connolly on Monday, asked for him and struck two of his workers with the bat, including an intern during her first day on the job, police and the congressman said.

The attack marked the latest in a sharp uptick in violence aimed at lawmakers or those close to them.

Fairfax City Police said officers arrived within minutes and took the man into custody without incident and that the two staff members were being treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.

Connolly, who wasn’t in the office at the time, said he knew of no motive for the attack, calling it in a Twitter post “unconscionable and devastating.”

The Democratic congressman said in an interview that the suspect was known to police in Fairfax, adding, “He’s never made threats to us, so it was unprovoked, unexpected and inexplicable.”

“I have no reason to believe that his motivation was politically motivated, but it is possible that the sort of toxic political environment we all live in, you know, set him off. And I would just hope all of us would take a little more time to be careful about what we say and how we say it.”

Connolly said the intern was struck in the side, and his outreach director was hit on the head.

“Both of them are conscious and talking. They both are in shock. Their families were with them, too,” Connolly said.

The U.S. Capitol Police and Fairfax City Police identified the suspect as Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax. He was being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center on charges of malicious wounding and aggravated malicious wounding.

It was not immediately clear if the man had an attorney who could speak for him.

“At this time, it is not clear what the suspect’s motivation may have been,” Capitol Police said in a news release announcing a joint investigation with the Fairfax City Police Department.

Special agents with the Capitol Police Threat Assessment Section have been sent to Fairfax.

Fairfax City Police spokesperson Sergeant Lisa Gardner said police received a call about the attack at Connolly’s district office in the Virginia suburb of the nation’s capital at about 10:50 a.m.

“You could absolutely tell that the people inside were scared. They were hiding. Someone swinging a bat around, I would be scared, as well,” Gardner said.

Police arrived in about five minutes and located the suspect in the office, quickly detaining him without further incident, Gardner said.

Police said in a news release that one police officer required treatment for a minor injury.

Last month, United States Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger testified about the heightened threat climate across the country.

“One of the biggest challenges we face today is dealing with the sheer increase in the number of threats against members of Congress — approximately 400% over the past six years,” Manger said. “Over the course of the last year, the world has continuously changed, becoming more violent and uncertain.”

Connolly, currently serving his eighth term in Congress, represents Virginia’s Fairfax County-based 11th District in the Washington suburbs. He told CNN that his office sustained damage, including broken windows.

Other elected officials from Virginia swiftly condemned the violence.

U.S. Senator Mark Warner retweeted Connolly’s statement, calling the attack an “extraordinarily disturbing development.”

“Intimidation and violence — especially against public servants — has no place in our society,” he said.

“The coward who did this should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” tweeted Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican.

Since the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, threats to lawmakers and their families have increased sharply. The U.S. Capitol Police investigated around 7,500 cases of potential threats against members of Congress in 2022. The year before, they investigated around 10,000 threats to members, more than twice the number from four years earlier.

In October, a man broke into the San Francisco home of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanding to speak with her before he smashed her husband, Paul, over the head with a hammer.

In July, a man accosted New York Representative Lee Zeldin, a Republican who was running for governor of New York, as he spoke at a campaign event. The man told Zeldin, “You’re done.” Zeldin wrestled him to the ground and escaped with only a minor scrape.

“Violence does not belong in our political system, and my prayers are with Representative Gerry Connolly’s staff for a speedy recovery,” said Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican. “We’ve seen this against our judiciary. We’ve seen this against our legislative branch, and it has no place in our Commonwealth.”
…

President Joe Biden said he will resume talks with congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday as a standoff over the debt limit pushes the country closer to its legal borrowing limit with no agreement in sight.

The meeting was initially supposed to be Friday but was abruptly postponed so staff-level talks could continue before Biden and the four congressional leaders huddled for a second time.

Biden, who was in Philadelphia on Monday to attend granddaughter Maisy’s graduation from the University of Pennsylvania, told reporters the meeting was on for Tuesday but did not elaborate on prospects for a deal.

Biden was returning to Washington later Monday and is scheduled to leave for the Group of Seven summit in Japan on Wednesday. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that so far, “we are still planning to leave as scheduled.”

Biden on Sunday did not detail much progress in the talks but said he remained hopeful that an agreement could be reached with Republicans to avoid what would be an unprecedented debt default, which could trigger a financial catastrophe.

“I remain optimistic because I’m a congenital optimist,” Biden told reporters while out for a bike ride in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “But I really think there’s a desire on their part as well as ours to reach an agreement. I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Aides said talks had continued throughout the weekend. But at least publicly, there was little indication that either the White House or House Republicans had budged from their initial positions. Biden has called on lawmakers to lift the debt limit without preconditions, warning that the nation’s borrowing authority should not be used to impose deep spending cuts and other conservative policy demands.

“We’ve not reached the crunch point yet,” Biden told reporters Saturday before flying to his beach home. “There’s real discussion about some changes we all could make. We’re not there yet.”

Biden did signal over the weekend that he could be open to tougher work requirements for certain government aid programs, which Republicans are proposing as part of the ongoing discussion. He has said he will not accept anything that takes away people’s health care coverage.

“I voted for tougher aid programs that’s in the law now, but for Medicaid it’s a different story,” he said. “And so I’m waiting to hear what their exact proposal is.”

Administration officials said the talks among staff had so far been productive after Biden and the leaders — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell — ended their first meeting last Tuesday without a breakthrough.

The president described that Oval Office session as “productive,” even though McCarthy said later he “didn’t see any new movement” toward resolving the stalemate. White House and congressional aides have been in talks since Wednesday.

“The staff is very engaged. I would characterize the engagement as serious, as constructive,” Lael Brainard, head of the White House’s National Economic Council, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

McCarthy has insisted on using the threat of defaulting on the nation’s debts to wrangle spending changes, arguing that the federal government can’t continue to spend money at the pace it is now. The national debt now stands at $31.4 trillion.

An increase in the debt limit would not authorize new federal spending. It would only allow for borrowing to pay for what Congress has already approved.

The Treasury Department has said the government could exhaust the ability to pay its bills as early as June 1. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office gave a similar warning Friday, saying there was a “significant risk” of default sometime in the first two weeks of next month.

But federal estimates still remain in flux.

The CBO noted Friday that if the cash flow at the Treasury and the “extraordinary measures” that the department is now using can continue to pay for bills through June 15, the government can probably finance its operations through the end of July. That’s because the expected tax revenues that will come in mid-June and other measures will give the federal government enough cash for at least a few more weeks.

“Ultimately the stakes are, the United States has never defaulted on its debt,” Wally Adeyemo, the deputy treasury secretary, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “And we can’t.”

And Republican Representative Michael McCaul told ABC’s “This Week”: “I think defaulting is not the right path to go down. So I am an eternal optimist.”

He added, “This is always a game we play, every Congress, you know, in daring each other to jump off the cliff. It’s a dangerous game.”
…

The Philadelphia Inquirer is experiencing the largest disruption to its operations in 27 years due to what the daily newspaper called a cyberattack that was first detected Saturday morning.

The attack has prompted Pennsylvania’s largest news organization to close its office through at least Tuesday, meaning Inquirer reporters will be unable to use their newsroom on Tuesday night to cover the city’s Democratic primary for the city’s 100th mayoral election.

This incident has caused the greatest publication disruption to the paper since a massive blizzard in January 1996, the paper reported.

The newspaper is working to restore print operations after the apparent cyberattack prevented it from printing its Sunday edition.

The Inquirer’s website was still operational on Sunday, but the paper reported that updates were slower than normal. Online publication has not been interrupted.

The attack was first detected when employees on Saturday morning found the newspaper’s content management system was not working.

The Inquirer “discovered anomalous activity on select computer systems and immediately took those systems off-line,” the paper’s publisher, Lisa Hughes, said in a statement on Saturday.

She said the outlet was “first alerted to the anomalous activity on Thursday, May 11, by Cynet, a vendor that manages our network security.”

This is far from the first time a news outlet has faced a cyberattack. Last December, The Guardian suffered a ransomware attack that forced the British daily newspaper to take certain IT systems offline for weeks.

Hughes said Sunday, “We are currently unable to provide an exact time line” for full restoration of the paper’s systems.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding as we work to fully restore systems and complete this investigation as soon as possible,” Hughes said in an email responding to questions from the paper’s newsroom.

Hughes said the operational disruption will not affect coverage of the upcoming election and that the company was looking into co-working arrangements for Tuesday.

The newspaper has hired the risk advisory firm Kroll to restore systems and investigate the incident.

The company has also contacted the FBI about the incident.

A spokesperson for the FBI’s Philadelphia office told the Inquirer it was aware of the incident and declined to comment as a matter of standard practice. She said that “when the FBI learns about potential cyberattacks, it’s customary that we offer our assistance in these matters.”
…

Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election. 

The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or two away. 

No more. 

Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially taking campaign dirty tricks to a new low. 

The implications for the 2024 campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubling: Generative AI can not only rapidly produce targeted campaign emails, texts or videos, it also could be used to mislead voters, impersonate candidates and undermine elections on a scale and at a speed not yet seen. 

“We’re not prepared for this,” warned A.J. Nash, vice president of intelligence at the cybersecurity firm ZeroFox. “To me, the big leap forward is the audio and video capabilities that have emerged. When you can do that on a large scale, and distribute it on social platforms, well, it’s going to have a major impact.” 

AI experts can quickly rattle off a number of alarming scenarios in which generative AI is used to create synthetic media for the purposes of confusing voters, slandering a candidate or even inciting violence. 

Here are a few: Automated robocall messages, in a candidate’s voice, instructing voters to cast ballots on the wrong date; audio recordings of a candidate supposedly confessing to a crime or expressing racist views; video footage showing someone giving a speech or interview they never gave. Fake images designed to look like local news reports, falsely claiming a candidate dropped out of the race. 

“What if Elon Musk personally calls you and tells you to vote for a certain candidate?” said Oren Etzioni, the founding CEO of the Allen Institute for AI, who stepped down last year to start the nonprofit AI2. “A lot of people would listen. But it’s not him.” 

Former President Donald Trump, who is running in 2024, has shared AI-generated content with his followers on social media. A manipulated video of CNN host Anderson Cooper that Trump shared on his Truth Social platform on Friday, which distorted Cooper’s reaction to the CNN town hall this past week with Trump, was created using an AI voice-cloning tool. 

A dystopian campaign ad released last month by the Republican National Committee offers another glimpse of this digitally manipulated future. The online ad, which came after President Joe Biden announced his reelection campaign, and starts with a strange, slightly warped image of Biden and the text “What if the weakest president we’ve ever had was re-elected?” 

A series of AI-generated images follows: Taiwan under attack; boarded up storefronts in the United States as the economy crumbles; soldiers and armored military vehicles patrolling local streets as tattooed criminals and waves of immigrants create panic. 

“An AI-generated look into the country’s possible future if Joe Biden is re-elected in 2024,” reads the ad’s description from the RNC. 

The RNC acknowledged its use of AI, but others, including nefarious political campaigns and foreign adversaries, will not, said Petko Stoyanov, global chief technology officer at Forcepoint, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas. Stoyanov predicted that groups looking to meddle with U.S. democracy will employ AI and synthetic media as a way to erode trust. 

“What happens if an international entity — a cybercriminal or a nation state — impersonates someone. What is the impact? Do we have any recourse?” Stoyanov said. “We’re going to see a lot more misinformation from international sources.” 

AI-generated political disinformation already has gone viral online ahead of the 2024 election, from a doctored video of Biden appearing to give a speech attacking transgender people to AI-generated images of children supposedly learning satanism in libraries. 

AI images appearing to show Trump’s mug shot also fooled some social media users even though the former president didn’t take one when he was booked and arraigned in a Manhattan criminal court for falsifying business records. Other AI-generated images showed Trump resisting arrest, though their creator was quick to acknowledge their origin. 

Legislation that would require candidates to label campaign advertisements created with AI has been introduced in the House by Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who has also sponsored legislation that would require anyone creating synthetic images to add a watermark indicating the fact. 

Some states have offered their own proposals for addressing concerns about deepfakes. 

Clarke said her greatest fear is that generative AI could be used before the 2024 election to create a video or audio that incites violence and turns Americans against each other. 

“It’s important that we keep up with the technology,” Clarke told The Associated Press. “We’ve got to set up some guardrails. People can be deceived, and it only takes a split second. People are busy with their lives and they don’t have the time to check every piece of information. AI being weaponized, in a political season, it could be extremely disruptive.” 

Earlier this month, a trade association for political consultants in Washington condemned the use of deepfakes in political advertising, calling them “a deception” with “no place in legitimate, ethical campaigns.” 

Other forms of artificial intelligence have for years been a feature of political campaigning, using data and algorithms to automate tasks such as targeting voters on social media or tracking down donors. Campaign strategists and tech entrepreneurs hope the most recent innovations will offer some positives in 2024, too. 

Mike Nellis, CEO of the progressive digital agency Authentic, said he uses ChatGPT “every single day” and encourages his staff to use it, too, as long as any content drafted with the tool is reviewed by human eyes afterward. 

Nellis’ newest project, in partnership with Higher Ground Labs, is an AI tool called Quiller. It will write, send and evaluate the effectiveness of fundraising emails — all typically tedious tasks on campaigns. 

“The idea is every Democratic strategist, every Democratic candidate will have a copilot in their pocket,” he said. 
…

Holed up at home during the pandemic lockdown three years ago, 13-year-old Shreya Nallamothu was scrolling through social media when she noticed a pattern: Children even younger than her were the stars — dancing, cracking one-liners and being generally adorable. 

“It seemed innocuous to me at first,” Nallamothu said. 

But as she watched more and more posts of kids pushing products or their mishaps going viral, she started to wonder: Who is looking out for them? 

“I realized that there’s a lot of exploitation that can happen within the world of ‘kidfluencing,'” said Nallamothu, referring to the monetization of social media content featuring children. “And I realized that there was absolutely zero legislation in place to protect them.” 

Illinois lawmakers aim to change that by making their state what they say will be the first in the country to create protections for child social media influencers. Nallamothu, now 15, raised her concerns to Illinois state Sen. David Koehler of Peoria, who then set the legislation in motion. 

The Illinois bill would entitle child influencers under the age of 16 to a percentage of earnings based on how often they appear on video blogs or online content that generates at least 10 cents per view. To qualify, the content must be created in Illinois, and kids would have to be featured in at least 30% of the content in a 30-day-period. 

Video bloggers — or vloggers — would be responsible for maintaining records of kids’ appearances and must set aside gross earnings for the child in a trust account for when they turn 18, otherwise the child can sue. 

The bill passed the state Senate unanimously in March and is scheduled to be considered by the House this week. If it wins approval, the bill will go back to the Senate for a final vote before it makes its way to Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said he intends to sign it in the coming months. 

Family-style vlogs can feature children as early as birth and recount milestones and family events — the wholesome clips that Nallamothu had been initially scrolling through. 

But experts say the commercialized “sharenthood” industry, which can earn content creators tens of thousands of dollars per brand deal, is underregulated and can even cause harm. 

“As we see influencers and content creators becoming more and more of a viable career path for young people, we have to remember that this is a place where the law has not caught up to practice,” said Jessica Maddox, a University of Alabama professor who studies social media platforms. 

She added that child influencers “are in desperate need of the same protections that have been afforded to other child workers and entertainers.” 

The Illinois bill is modeled largely after California’s 1939 Jackie Coogan law, named for the silent film-era child actor who sued his parents for squandering his earnings. Coogan laws now exist in several states and require parents to set aside a portion of child entertainers’ earnings for when they reach adulthood. 

Other states have tried to pass laws to regulate against potential child exploitation on social media without success. A 2018 California child labor bill included a social media advertising provision that was removed by the time it was passed, and Washington’s 2023 bill stalled in committee. 

Across the Atlantic, France passed a law in 2020 that entitles child influencers under 16 to a portion of their revenue, as well as “the right to forget,” which means video platforms must withdraw the images of the child at the minor’s request. Parental consent is not needed. 

Illinois’ own bill underwent several changes during the legislative session that watered down its reach, including stripping out a provision allowing child influencers to request deletion of content once they reached the age of 18, and requiring family vloggers to register their channels. 

Still, Chicago-based Tyler Diers, the Midwest executive director of technology trade association Technet, which opposed the bill before the changes but is now neutral, said that when one state legislature takes up an issue, others tend to follow, “and oftentimes perfect what the first state did.” 

Nallamothu emphasized that the Illinois bill isn’t aimed at “parents posting their kids on Facebook for their close family and friends,” or even a funny clip that went viral. 

“This is for families who make their income off of child vlogging and family vlogging,” she said. 

Many social media platforms — including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — don’t allow children to have accounts until they’re at least 13 years old. But that hasn’t stopped them from appearing on social media. And the internet is littered with examples of children being showcased for financial gain — and the harm it has caused as a consequence. 

In 2019, an Arizona mother was accused of torturing her seven adopted children for subpar performances in their popular YouTube series, Fantastic Adventures; a Maryland couple who posted “prank” videos of themselves screaming at their children and breaking their toys lost custody and were sentenced to five years of probation for child neglect. 

Another YouTube couple filmed every step of their family’s process of adopting a young child from China with autism, only to eventually place him in a new home. 

Chris McCarty, an 18-year-old college student who founded Quit Clicking Kids, an advocacy organization focused on protecting minors being monetized online, and who was the force behind the bill in Washington, noted that “this issue is not going away.” 

“Once these kids start growing up, the true extent of the damage inflicted by monetized family channels will be realized,” McCarty said at a hearing for the Washington bill in February. 

TikToker Bobbi Althoff is the mother of two little girls she lovingly refers to as “Richard” and “Concrete” to her 3.7 million followers. Althoff used to share her older daughter’s face and real name online but stopped after people made rude comments about her. 

“I kept thinking about my daughter growing up to read these things, and it really upset me because I hate reading things like that about myself,” she said. 

When she shared her decision on Instagram, she lost thousands of followers and received backlash. 

“A lot of people were supportive, but there were definitely a lot of people that were very strange about it,” Althoff said, describing how some viewers seemed to feel like “they had a relationship with my daughter… and wanted to keep seeing her grow.” 

Although TikTok-famous tots are not quite old enough to reflect on their experiences, child reality TV stars of the last decade can offer comparable insight on how it feels to be on the other side of the camera. 

Ohio-based Jason Welage enjoyed his time as a preteen on TruTV’s 2015 reality show Kart Life, which followed families in the world of go-kart racing. Now 20, Welage says some of the less pleasant aspects have followed him into adulthood. 

“When you Google the show, the first clip that comes up on YouTube is me coming off the track and crying,” he said. “I still hear about it to this day.” 

His parents funneled the $10,000 he earned on the show back into his racing, which can cost families up to $150,000 a year, according to his mother, Meghan, who, like her son, supports the child influencer legislation in Illinois and hopes similar laws will be implemented in other states or even federally. 

For children appearing on social media or TV, “it’s definitely work for them,” she said. Her son “wanted to go play, but instead he had to go sit on a stool in our motorhome and do interviews.” 

“There should be something to compensate the child for what they are going through or what they have to do,” she said. 
…

A bell chimed 13 times after people paused for a moment of silence Sunday to remember the 10 people killed and three wounded in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket one year ago.

Mayor Byron Brown read the names of the victims outside the Tops Friendly Market, where a gunman opened fire on May 14, 2022. Top New York politicians, including Gov. Kathy Hochul and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, attended the remembrance on Mother’s Day.

“It’s a beautiful day. It’s Mother’s Day,” Hochul said. “And the cruel irony behind the fact is a day we celebrate a life that comes into this world, making someone a mother, is also a day we’re here to think about those who are no longer with us. It’s hard. It’s been a really hard year.”

Earlier in the week, panelists discussed ways to combat racism and social media radicalization and residents were invited to reflect at an outdoor community gathering.

In the year since the shooting, relatives of the victims have spoken before Congress about white supremacy and gun reform and organized events to address food insecurity that worsened when the market, the neighborhood’s only grocery store, was inaccessible for two months.

President Joe Biden honored the lives of those killed in Buffalo in an op-ed published Sunday in USA Today. He called on Congress and state legislative leaders to act by banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, requiring background checks for all gun sales, and repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability. His administration passed a landmark gun measure in June following a series of mass shootings.

New York state law already bans the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

Gun control organizations and advocates including Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action held nearly 200 events across the country over the weekend, calling on Congress to reinstate a bipartisan assault weapons ban.

In Buffalo, Wayne Jones, whose mother Celestine Chaney, 65, died in the attack, urged the city and its institutions to keep on investing in the area and its residents even after the anniversary events are over.

That’s why he is willing, he said, “to keep opening up this wound that I have” and talk about it.

The son of 63-year-old shooting victim Geraldine Talley on Sunday released a book that he said describes what he went through after losing his mother. He titled it: “5/14 : The Day the Devil Came to Buffalo.”

“I definitely know that she wouldn’t want me to be consumed by sadness and anger,” Talley said of his mother, speaking outside of the store as the anniversary approached, “so I will definitely try to find strength in her memory and use it to fight injustice and racism for the rest of my life in her name.”

Inside the remodeled store, fountains flank a poem dedicated to the victims. A commission is at work designing a permanent memorial for outside. In the meantime, a hand-painted mural overlooking the parking lot promotes unity, with a Black hand and white hand meeting together in prayer.

The store was closed Sunday in remembrance of the shooting.

An 18-year-old white supremacist carried out the attack after driving more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) from his home in rural Conklin, New York.

Besides Chaney and Talley, the dead included Andre Mackneil, who was buying a cake for his son’s third birthday; church deacon Heyward Patterson; community advocate Katherine Massey; Ruth Whitfield, whose son was a Buffalo fire commissioner; Roberta Drury, who had moved back to Buffalo to help a brother diagnosed with cancer; church missionary Pearl Young; Margus Morrison, who was buying dinner for a family movie night; and Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer who was working as a security guard.

The gunman pleaded guilty to murder and other charges and was sentenced to life in prison without parole in February. A federal case against him is pending.
…

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas denied the U.S. has imposed a ban on asylum-seekers, but he also emphasized that there is a lawful and orderly way to reach the U.S. VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias has the details.
…

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday that the number of migrants trying to cross into the United States from Mexico since border entry rules were changed late last week has dropped nearly in half but that it was “too early” to know whether the surge in migration has peaked.

U.S. immigration officials had been expecting a huge surge in the number of migrants walking across the border when it ended a three-year policy late Thursday that called for the automatic expulsion back to Mexico based on fears of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Watch related video by Veronica Balderas Iglesias:

Now the U.S. has adopted a system requiring migrants to seek U.S. asylum before arriving at the border, either through an internet connection that has proved less than fully reliable or at migration centers in other countries they have passed through to get to the U.S.

Mayorkas told CNN’s “State of the Union” show that about 10,000 migrants a day had been crossing the border before the rule change, and in many cases were quickly expelled. But he said border agents only encountered 6,300 on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday.

Still, immigration officials say thousands more are encamped in northern Mexico and could try to enter the U.S. in the coming days or weeks.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” show, “I do think there are caravans [of migrants] going up. I think they still want to get in.”

McCaul said that in the last two and a half years, “We’ve had 5 million people enter this country illegally, 5.1 [million] get-a-ways. It’s unsustainable.”

Mayorkas credited the smaller numbers of migrants trying to enter the U.S. so far to warnings that the U.S. border was not open and that there was a lawful, if time-consuming, way to enter the U.S., by filing papers for asylum in the U.S., even though relatively few migrants could eventually win approval.

“We have communicated very clearly, a vitally important message to the individuals who are thinking of arriving at our southern border,” he said. “There is a lawful, safe and orderly way to arrive in the United States that is through the [asylum] pathways that President [Joe] Biden has expanded in an unprecedented way.”

“And then there’s a consequence if one does not use those lawful pathways,” he said. “And that consequence is removal from the United States, a deportation and encountering a five-year ban on reentry and possible criminal prosecution.”

Mayorkas contended that by setting clear asylum rules, the U.S. will “cut out” migration smugglers charging migrants thousands of dollars to try to reach the U.S. He called it “not only a security imperative, but a humanitarian responsibility.”

With the end to immediate expulsions related to the concerns over the spread of the coronavirus, the Biden administration has drawn attacks from Republicans that the new response is too weak and from some Democrats that it is too cumbersome and inhumane in that too few asylum requests are likely to be granted.

Republicans in the House of Representatives, with no Democratic support, last week approved immigration legislation calling for completion of a U.S.-Mexico border wall that was started by former President Donald Trump but abandoned by Biden. The Democratic-controlled Senate, however, is unlikely to even consider the measure.

Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Kent Wetherell in Florida last week blocked the Biden administration from releasing migrants it has detained into the general U.S. population if detention facilities at the border are overcrowded. Mayorkas said the ruling is being appealed.
…

Footage of a plump snapping turtle relaxing along a Chicago waterway has gone viral after the man who filmed the well-fed reptile marveled at its size and nicknamed it “Chonkosaurus.”

Joey Santore was kayaking with a friend along the Chicago River last weekend when they spotted the large snapping turtle sitting atop a large chain draped over what appear to be rotting logs.

He posted a jumpy video of the turtle on Twitter, labeling it the “Chicago River Snapper aka Chonkosaurus.”

In the video, Santore can be heard sounding stunned by the size of the turtle, which was displaying folds of flesh extending well beyond its shell.

“Look at this guy. We got a picture of this most beautiful sight. Look at the size of that … thing,” he says, using an expletive. “Look at that beast. Hey, how ya doing guy? You look good. You’re healthy.”

Chris Anchor, the chief wildlife biologist with Forest Preserves of Cook County, said the snapping turtle Santore filmed is quite rare, considering its apparent size. He said it’s also unusual for the reptiles to be seen basking along rivers, but it probably recently emerged from hibernation.

“So my guess is that this animal had crawled out of the river to try and gather as much heat as it could in the sunshine,” Anchor told WMAQ-TV.

While it’s difficult to determine exactly how large the turtle is from the video alone, Anchor called it “a very large individual.” And he noted that snapping turtles are not picky eaters.

“Turtles this big will consume anything they can get their mouth around,” he said, adding that anyone encountering a snapping turtle should not disturb it or try to catch it.

“Enjoy it. Leave it alone,” Anchor said.
…

Lupita, a 36-year-old Mexican woman from the state of Michoacan, has spent three months in a shelter, waiting to apply for asylum in the United States. She wears some of the evidence for her case: bullet wounds about her arms, shoulder and abdomen.

Since March 2020, when broad COVID-era restrictions went into effect at the southwest border, Mexicans like Lupita were largely barred from seeking U.S. refuge and instead were quickly expelled back to Mexico.

On Friday, that changed when the administration of President Joe Biden ended Title 42, a COVID-inspired provision that allowed the U.S. government to turn away asylum-seekers for public health reasons.

Immigration attorneys at the Tijuana shelter, across the border from San Diego, California, were advising migrants they should sign up for an appointment to approach a port of entry on a new government app known as CBP One if they wanted to have a chance at winning asylum.

At the same time Title 42 expired, the Biden administration implemented a new regulation that presumes most migrants will be ineligible for asylum if they failed to use legal pathways for U.S. entry like CBP One.

Lupita, now attempting to get an appointment through CBP One, said she fled her home after her husband was killed by cartel gunfire last year, during which she said she was wounded.

Pointing her elbows toward the ceiling, she revealed the suture scars where she was patched up. The outline of a colostomy bag — which she said was the result of a gut shot — is visible through her clothes.

Lupita, who asked not to publish her last name or be photographed for fear of reprisals, said prosecutors told her the attack was a case of mistaken identity, but she fears that being a witness to her husband’s murder endangers her and her children. Reuters was not able to independently confirm her account.

“This is mostly for my children,” Lupita said. “I can’t go back home.”

Mexicans have made up about a third of all the migrants caught by U.S. Border Patrol in recent years but in 2021 and 2022 they were expelled under Title 42 more than 90% of the time.

Place of safety

Also at the shelter, where children played on bicycles and scooters around tents pitched on the floor, were families from Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador and Nicaragua in addition to Mexico. It was at capacity with nearly 60 people Friday.

Many migrant families are fleeing political violence or domestic abuse at home, trauma that is often made worse during the overland journey through Central America and Mexico, where they are preyed on by all manner of security forces and criminal groups, said Judith Cabrera de la Rocha, co-director of the Tijuana shelter.

“They arrive here malnourished, dehydrated, including pregnant women, and with severe consequences for their mental health. And that’s in addition to the reason why they left was traumatizing,” Cabrera said.

“I like to think of this as a place to get healthy,” she said of the shelter. “We provide a place that’s a little safer.”

The new regulation also bars most migrants from asylum if they passed through other countries without first seeking protection elsewhere, which would apply to most people who are not from Mexico but who traveled through there to get to the border.

Immigration advocates have filed a legal challenge against the new asylum bars, claiming they violate U.S. and international laws and that they resemble restrictions imposed by Biden’s Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, that were blocked in court.

Tens of thousands of migrants rushed to the border last week trying to enter the country before the new asylum rules took effect. In the scramble to the border Mexico’s national migration agency said one 29-year-old Cuban migrant died trying to swim across the Rio Grande River into Texas early Friday.

The spike in recent arrivals strained U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. The Justice Department asked a federal judge in Florida to temporarily halt an order he issued on Friday that prevents border agents from releasing migrants from custody without first giving them formal notices to appear in immigration court. The government says the practice is needed to prevent overcrowding in U.S. detention centers.
…

The Group of Seven (G-7) rich nations is set to agree on establishing a new program to distribute vaccines to developing countries at next week’s summit of leaders, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper said Saturday.

In addition to the G-7, G-20 nations such as India and international groups such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank will participate, it added, citing Japanese government sources.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the COVAX facility, backed by WHO and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), delivered nearly 2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccine to 146 countries.

However, COVAX faced setbacks in ensuring equitable access, as wealthy nations prioritized shots for their citizens while insufficient storage facilities in poorer nations caused supply delays and disposal of millions of close-to-expiry doses.

The new program aims to pool rainy-day funds for vaccine production and purchases, as well as investment in low-temperature storages and training of health workers to prepare for the next global pandemic, the Yomiuri said.

Japan, this year’s chair of the G-7 meetings, looks to build support from emerging nations on wide-ranging issues such as supply chains, food security and climate change to counter the growing influence of China and Russia.

Saturday’s meeting of G-7 finance ministers agreed to offer aid to low- and middle-income countries to help increase their role in supply chains for energy-related products.

At a meeting Saturday, G-7 finance and health ministers called for a new global financing framework to “deploy necessary funds quickly and efficiently in response to outbreaks without accumulating idle cash,” they said in a statement.

The G-7 will collaborate with the WHO and the World Bank, which manages an international pandemic fund, to explore the new funding scheme ahead of an August meeting of G-20 finance and health ministers in India, they said.

The G-7 grouping of Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, is considering whether to issue a statement on a global pandemic response at the May 19-21 summit in Japan’s city of Hiroshima, the Yomiuri said.  
…

For four hours, Raymond V. Buelna, a cultural leader for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, sat on a metal bench in a concrete holding space at the U.S.-Mexico border, separated from the two people he was taking to an Easter ceremony on tribal land in Arizona and wondering when they might be released.

It was February 2022 and Buelna, a U.S. citizen, was driving the pair — both from the sovereign Native American nation’s related tribal community in northwestern Mexico — from their home to the reservation southwest of Tucson. They’d been authorized by U.S. officials to cross the border. But when Buelna asked an agent why they were detained, he was told to wait for the officer who brought him in.

“They know that we’re coming,” said Buelna, who has made the trip for a variety of ceremonies for 20 years. “We did all this work and then we’re still sitting there.”

Now, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe is trying to change this — for themselves and potentially dozens of other tribes in the U.S.

‘Something that will help everybody’

Tribal officials have drafted regulations to formalize the border-crossing process, working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s recently formed Tribal Homeland Security Advisory Council, made up of 15 Native officials across the U.S.

Their work could provide a template for dozens of Native American nations whose homelands, like those of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, were sliced in two by modern-day U.S. borders.

If approved, the rules would become the first clearly established U.S. border crossing procedures specific to a Native American tribe that could then be used by other tribes, according to Christina Leza, associate professor of anthropology at Colorado College.

The regulations would last five years, to be renewed and amended as needed, and require training local U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents and consular personnel on the tribe’s cultural heritage, language and traditions. It would require a Yaqui interpreter to be available when needed. It also would require close coordination with the tribe, so border crossings are prompt.

“This is just something that will help everybody,” said Fred Urbina, attorney general for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. “It will make things more efficient.”

Regulations would bring ‘peace of mind’

Urbina said the tribe has met with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the proposal. DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment by phone and email on the status of the regulations.

When family members, deer dancers or musicians living in Sonora, Mexico, make the trip into the U.S. for ceremonies, tribal recognition celebrations or family events, they are typically issued an ID card from the tribe and a visitor visa or parole permit from the U.S. government. But they can still face border officials who they say lack the cultural awareness to process them without problems.

In the last two years, Buelna said, he has made the roundtrip about 18 times and was detained on four of them. He said border officials question the people he’s escorting, whose first language is Yaqui, without an interpreter, and cultural objects, such as deer and pig hooves, have been confiscated. Officials have touched ceremonial objects, despite only certain people being permitted by the tribe to do so.

As a sovereignty issue, Native American nations should be able to determine their people’s ability to cross the border to preserve the ceremonial life of their communities, Leza said.

“If the federal government is saying our particular priorities, our interests in terms of securing our borders, trump your interests as a sovereign nation, then that’s not really a recognition of the sovereignty of those tribal nations,” she said.

Tribes along the U.S.-Canada border face similar problems.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians is headquartered in Michigan, but 173 of its more than 49,000 enrolled members live in Canada. Kimberly Hampton, the tribe’s officer-secretary and vice chair of the Tribal Homeland Security Advisory Council, said those members cross the border for powwows, fasting and to visit with traditional healers and family, but border officials have rifled through eagle feathers and other cultural objects they are carrying.

Hampton wants an agreement that includes having tribal liaisons at border crossings and training developed by the tribe for border personnel.

Members of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, which has about 8,000 members in the U.S. and about 8,000 in Canada, said they have also been asked at the border to prove that they possess at least 50% “blood of the American Indian race.” That stems from a requirement under the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act.

Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe Chief Michael L. Conners wants to eliminate the requirement and boost education for border agents on local and national tribal issues. Drafting regulations specific to the tribe, like the ones the Pascua Yaqui are doing, “would bring a lot of peace of mind to our whole community,” he said.

Meanwhile, in that concrete holding space, Buelna was reunited with the two tribal members only after he told a border official that he thought they’d been overlooked following a shift change, he said.

“Why can’t there be a system?” Buelna asked. “Why can’t there be already a line for us where we can present the proper paperwork, everything that we need and go about our way?”
…

One outcome is clear as Washington reaches for a budget deal in the debt ceiling standoff: The ambitious COVID-19 era of government spending to cope with the pandemic and rebuild is giving way to a new focus on tailored investments and stemming deficits. 

President Joe Biden has said recouping unspent coronavirus money is “on the table” in budget talks with Congress. While the White House has threatened to veto Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling bill with its “devastating cuts” to federal programs, the administration has signaled a willingness to consider other budget caps. 

The end result is a turnaround from just a few years ago, when Congress passed and then-president Donald Trump signed the historic $2.2 trillion CARES Act at the start of the public health crisis in 2020. It’s a dramatic realignment even as Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act are now investing billions of dollars into paving streets, shoring up the federal safety net and restructuring the U.S. economy. 

“The appetite to throw a lot more money at major problems right now is significantly diminished, given what we’ve seen over the past several years,” said Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonpartisan organization in Washington. 

The Treasury Department has warned it will begin running out of money to pay the nation’s bills as soon as June 1, though an estimate Friday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office put the deadline at the first two weeks of June, potentially buying the negotiators time. 

“We’ve not reached the crunch point yet,” Biden told reporters Saturday before flying to Delaware for the weekend. “There’s real discussion about some changes we all could make. We’re not there yet.” 

The contours of an agreement between the White House and Congress are within reach even if the political will to end the standoff is uncertain. Negotiators are considering clawing back some $30 billion in unused COVID-19 funds, imposing spending caps over the next several years and approving permitting reforms to ease construction of energy projects and other developments, according to those familiar with the closed-door staff discussions. They were not authorized to discuss the private deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity. 

The White House has been hesitant to engage in talks, insisting it is only willing to negotiate over the annual budget, not the debt ceiling, and Biden’s team is skeptical that McCarthy can cut any deal with his far-right House majority. 

“There’s no deal to be had on the debt ceiling. There’s no negotiation to be had on the debt ceiling,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

McCarthy’s allies say the White House has fundamentally underestimated what the new Republican leader has been able to accomplish — first in the grueling fight to become House speaker and now in having passed the House bill with $4.5 trillion in savings as an opening offer in negotiations. Both have emboldened McCarthy to push hard for a deal. 

“The White House has been wrong every single time with understanding where we are with the House,” said Russ Vought, president of Center for American Renewal and Trump’s former director of the Office of Management and Budget. “They’re dealing with a new animal.” 

The nation’s debt load has ballooned in recent years to $31 trillion. That’s virtually double what it was during the last major debt ceiling showdown a decade ago, when Biden, as vice president to President Barack Obama, faced the new class of tea party Republicans demanding spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit. 

Much of the COVID-19 spending approved at the start of the pandemic has run its course and government spending is back to its typical levels, experts said. That includes the free vaccines, small business payroll funds, emergency payments to individuals, monthly child tax credits and supplemental food aid that protected Americans and the economy. 

“Most of the big things we did are done — and they did an enormous amount of good,” said Sharon Parrott, president of the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. 

Last year, Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law over Republican opposition, was largely paid for with savings and new revenues elsewhere. 

The popularity of some spending, particularly the child tax credits in the COVID-19 relief and the Inflation Reduction Act’s efforts to tackle climate change, shows the political hunger in the country for the kinds of investments that some Americans believe will help push the U.S. fully into a 21st century economy. 

As McCarthy’s House Republicans now demand budget reductions in exchange for raising the debt limit, they have a harder time saying what government programs and services, in fact, they plan to cut. 

House Republicans pushed back strenuously against Biden’s claims their bill would slash veterans and other services. 

McCarthy, in his meeting with the president, went so far as to tell Biden that’s “a lie.” 

The Republicans promise they will exempt the Defense Department and veterans’ health care once they draft the actual spending bills to match up with the House debt ceiling proposal, but there are no written guarantees those programs would not face cuts. 

In fact, Democrats say if Republicans spare defense and veterans from reductions, the cuts on the other departments would be as high as 22%. 

Budget watchers often reiterate that the debt problem is not necessarily the amount of the debt load, approaching 100% of the nation’s gross domestic product, but whether the federal government can continue making the payments on the debt, especially as interest rates rise. 
…

The U.S.-Mexico border was relatively calm as the United States ended its pandemic-era immigration restrictions and migrants adapted to new asylum rules and legal pathways meant to discourage illegal crossings.

A full day after the rules known as Title 42 were lifted, migrants and government officials on Friday were still assessing the effects of new regulations adopted by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration in hope of stabilizing the Southwest border region and undercutting smugglers who charge migrants to get there.

Migrants are now essentially barred from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not first apply online or seek protection in the countries they traveled through. Families allowed in as their immigration cases progress will face curfews and GPS monitoring. Those expelled can now be barred from reentry for five years and face possible criminal prosecution.

Across the river from El Paso, Texas, in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, many migrants watched their cellphones in hopes of getting a coveted appointment to seek entry. The official app to register to enter the U.S. underwent changes this week, as it offers appointments for migrants to enter through land crossings.

Many migrants in northern Mexico resigned themselves to waiting for an appointment rather than approaching the border without authorization.

“I hope it’s a little better and that the appointments are streamlined a little more,” said Yeremy Depablos, 21, a Venezuelan traveling with seven cousins who has been waiting in Ciudad Juarez for a month. Fearing deportation, Depablos did not want to cross illegally. “We have to do it the legal way.”

The U.S. Homeland Security Department said it has not witnessed any substantial increase in immigration.

Migrants still coming via south

But in southern Mexico, migrants including children still flocked to railways at Huehuetoca on Friday, desperate to clamor aboard freight trains heading north toward the U.S.

The legal pathways touted by the Biden administration consist of a program that permits up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport.

About 100 processing centers are opening in Guatemala, Colombia and elsewhere for migrants to apply to go to the U.S., Spain or Canada. Up to 1,000 can enter daily through land crossings with Mexico if they secure an appointment on the app.

If it works, the system could fundamentally alter how migrants come to the southern border. But Biden, who is running for reelection, faces withering criticism from migrant advocates, who say he’s abandoning more humanitarian methods, and from Republicans, who claim he’s soft on border security. Two legal challenges already loom over the new asylum restrictions.

Title 42 was initiated in March 2020 and allowed border officials to quickly deport asylum seekers on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. But with the national emergency officially over, the restrictions have ended.

Fears of deportation

While Title 42 prevented many from seeking asylum, it carried no legal consequences for expulsion like those under the new rules.

In El Paso on Friday, a few dozen migrants lingered outside Sacred Heart Catholic Church and shelter, on streets where nearly 2,000 migrants were camped as recently as Tuesday.

The Rev. Daniel Mora said most of the migrants took heed of flyers distributed by U.S. immigration authorities offering a “last chance” to submit to processing and left. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said that 1,800 migrants turned themselves over to Customs and Border Protection on Thursday.

Melissa Lopez, executive director for Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services at El Paso, said many migrants have been willing to follow the legal pathway created by the federal government, but there are fears about deportation and possible criminal penalties for crossing the border illegally.

Border holding facilities in the U.S. were already far beyond capacity in the run-up to Title 42’s expiration.

In Florida, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has temporarily halted the administration’s plans to release people into the U.S.

Customs and Border Protection said it would comply but called it a “harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding” at migrant processing and detention facilities.

A court date has been scheduled on whether to extend the ruling.

Migrant-rights groups also sued the Biden administration on allegations that its new policy is no different than one adopted by Trump — and rejected by the same court.

The Biden administration says its policy is different, arguing that it’s not an outright ban but imposes a higher burden of proof to get asylum and that it pairs restrictions with newly opened legal pathways.

At the Chaparral port of entry in Tijuana on Friday, a few migrants approached U.S. authorities after not being able to access the appointment app. One of them, a Salvadoran man named Jairo, said he was fleeing death threats back home.

“We are truly afraid,” said Jairo who was traveling with his partner and their 3-year-old son and declined to share his last name. “We can’t remain any longer in Mexico and we can’t go back to Guatemala or El Salvador. If the U.S. can’t take us, we hope they can direct us to another country that can.”
…

Dutton and Wrenlee are on the rise but they’re no match for champs Liam and Olivia as the top baby names in the U.S. last year.

The Social Security Administration released the annual list Friday. The agency tracks baby names in each state based on applications for Social Security cards, with names dating to 1880.

It’s Liam’s sixth straight year as No. 1. Olivia has reigned since the name unseated Emma four years ago. Emma is No. 2.

Coming in third for girls’ names is Charlotte, followed by Amelia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava, Mia, Evelyn and Luna. For boys’ names, Liam is followed by Noah, Oliver, James, Elijah, William, Henry, Lucas, Benjamin and Theodore.

Luna is the only newcomer in the Top 10, booting Harper.

The agency has been compiling the list since 1997, often revealing the impact pop culture has on baby naming trends. The smash hit “Yellowstone” has clearly influenced new parents. The neo-Western starring Kevin Costner debuted in 2018, with characters surfacing among baby names ever since.

Dutton moved up the Social Security list to 835, a change of 986 spots from 2021. It’s the last name of the fictional family featured on the series, and it counts Costner’s John Dutton in its ranks. Dutton is the fastest rising name in the Social Security rankings.

Another Dutton name follows actual Dutton as a star with a bullet among baby names. Kayce, as in Kayce John Dutton on the show, moved to the 587th most popular name, up from 1,077 the year before. Luke Grimes plays Kayce.

Rip, also from “Yellowstone,” has grabbed some naming attention, but it didn’t crack Social Security’s top 1,000. Cole Hauser’s Rip Wheeler is Dutton adjacent as the son-in-law of John.

Other names rising fast for boys: Chosen, Khaza, Eithan. For girls, Wrenlee is followed by Neriah, Arlet, Georgina and Amiri.

The Social Security Administration’s latest data shows 3.64 million babies in the U.S. were issued Social Security cards last year, up slightly from 2021.
…

The mother of a 17-year-old who died this week in U.S. immigration custody demanded answers from U.S. officials Friday, saying her son had no known illnesses and had not shown any signs of being sick before his death.

The teenager was identified as Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, according to a tweet from Honduras’ foreign relations minister, Enrique Reina. Maradiaga was detained at a facility in Safety Harbor, Florida, Reina said, and died Wednesday. His death underscored concerns about a strained immigration system as the Biden administration manages the end of asylum restrictions known as Title 42.

His mother, Norma Saraí Espinoza Maradiaga, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her son “wanted to live the American Dream.”

Ángel Eduardo left his hometown of Olanchito, Honduras, on April 25, his mother said. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border some days later and on May 5 was referred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which operates longer-term facilities for children who cross the border without a parent.

That same day, he spoke to his mother for the last time, she said Friday.

“He told me he was in a shelter and not to worry because he was in the best hands,” she said. “We only spoke two minutes. I told him goodbye and wished him the best.”

This week, someone who identified himself only as one of her son’s friends at the shelter called her to say that when he had awakened for breakfast, Ángel Eduardo didn’t respond and was dead.

His mother then called a person in the U.S. who was supposed to have received Ángel Eduardo, asking for help verifying the information. Hours later, that person called her back saying it was true that her son was dead.

“I want to clear up my son’s real cause of death,” she said. He didn’t suffer from any illnesses and hadn’t been sick as far as she knew.

“No one tells me anything. The anguish is killing me,” she said. “They say they are awaiting the autopsy results and don’t give me any other answer.”

No cause of death was immediately available nor were circumstances of any illness or medical treatment.

HHS said in a statement Friday that it “is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our heart goes out to the family, with whom we are in touch.” A review of health care records was under way, as was an investigation by a medical examiner, the department said.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the news “devastating” and referred questions about the investigation to HHS.

This was the first known death of an immigrant child in custody during the Biden administration. At least six immigrant children died in U.S. custody during the administration of former President Donald Trump, during which the U.S. at times detained thousands of children above the system’s capacity.

HHS operates long-term facilities to hold children who cross the border without a parent until they can be placed with a sponsor. HHS facilities generally have beds and facilities as well as schooling and other activities for minors, unlike Border Patrol stations and detention sites in which detainees sometimes sleep on the floor in cells.

Advocates who oppose the detention of immigrant children say HHS facilities are not suited to hold minors for weeks or months, as sometimes happens.

More than 8,600 children are currently in HHS custody. That number may rise sharply in the coming weeks amid the shift in border policies as well as sharply rising trends of migration across the Western Hemisphere and the traditional spike in crossings during spring and summer.

Ángel Eduardo had studied until eighth grade before leaving school to work. Most recently he had been working as a mechanic’s assistant. He had been a standout soccer player in Olanchito in northern Honduras since he was 7 years old, his mother said.

The teenager had hopes of reuniting with his father, who left Honduras for the U.S. years ago, and earning money to support her and two younger siblings still in Honduras, his mother said.

He had migrated with his mother’s approval and financial support from his father in the United States, she said.
…

The threat of the United States defaulting on its obligations looms over the upcoming G-7 summit in Japan that President Joe Biden is scheduled to attend before continuing to a summit with the so-called Quad leaders in Australia and one with Pacific Island leaders in Papua New Guinea. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has the story.
…

A heat wave this weekend could surpass daily records in parts of the Pacific Northwest and worsen wildfires already burning in western Canada, a historically temperate region that has grappled with scorching summer temperatures and unprecedented wildfires fueled by climate change in recent years.

“We’re looking at record-breaking temperatures,” said Miles Higa, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Portland office, describing the warmth as “unusual for this time of year.”

The unseasonal high temperatures could further fuel the dozens of fires burning in Canada’s western Alberta province, where officials have ordered evacuations and declared a state of emergency. Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer, hotter heat waves following the deadly “heat dome ” weather phenomenon in 2021 that prompted record temperatures and deaths across the region.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory Friday lasting from Saturday through Monday for much of the western parts of both Oregon and Washington state. It said the temperatures could raise the risk of heat-related illness, particularly for those who are dehydrated or don’t have effective cooling.

Temperatures in Portland, Oregon, are expected to hover around (94 degrees Fahrenheit) (34.4 degrees Celsius) throughout the weekend, according to the website of the National Weather Service office there. The current daily temperature records for May 13 and 14 stand at 92 F (33.3 C) and 91 F (32.8 C), dating from 1973 and 2014, respectively.

Air-conditioned buses free

Temperatures in the Seattle area could also meet or surpass daily records, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Jacob DeFlitch. The mercury could near 85 F (29.4 C) Saturday and reach into the low 90s F (32.2 C) Sunday, he said.

King County, home to Seattle, directed transportation operators such as bus drivers to let people ride for free if they’re seeking respite from the heat or heading to a cooling center. The city’s regional homeless authority said several cooling and day centers will be open across the county.

Authorities also urged people to be wary of cold-water temperatures, should they be tempted to take a river or lake swim to cool off.

“Rivers are still running cold. We have snow melting and temperatures … probably in the low- to mid-40s (4.4 to 7.2 C) right now,” National Weather Service meteorologist Higa said. “You’re nice and warm and jump into the cold water — that could pose a risk to getting cold water shock.”

Outreach to vulnerable

Residents and officials in the Pacific Northwest have become more vigilant about heat wave preparations after some 800 people died in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia during the heat dome weather event in late June and early July 2021. The temperature at the time soared to an all-time high of 116 F (46.7 C) in Portland and smashed heat records in cities and towns across the region. Many of those who died were older people who lived alone.

In response, Oregon passed a law requiring all new housing built after April 2024 to have air conditioning installed in at least one room. The law already prohibits landlords in most cases from restricting tenants from installing cooling devices in their rental units.

Last summer, Portland launched a heat response program with the goal of installing portable heat pump and cooling units in low-income households, prioritizing residents who are older and live alone, as well as those with underlying health conditions. Local nonprofits participating in the program installed more than 3,000 units last year, according to the city’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability.

One of those nonprofits, Verde, said interest in the units has been high. Verde has installed roughly 180 units so far this year, and their waitlist last year was nearly 500 people long, said Ricardo Moreno, a project manager for the group who oversees its heat response program.

“People we’ve talked to, mostly elderly people with some health conditions, they all shared that having these units have made a world of difference and definitely improved the quality of their lives through the summer,” Moreno said.

Another local nonprofit, the African American Alliance for Homeownership, installed 1,200 units last year and 75 units so far this year, program manager Richard Hines-Norwood said.

Officials in Multnomah County, home to Portland, said they weren’t planning on opening special cooling centers for now but are monitoring the forecast and can do so if needed.

“This is the first significant event … and it is early for us,” said Chris Voss, the county’s director of emergency management. “We’re not seeing a situation where we are hearing that this is extremely dangerous. That being said, we don’t know if it’s going to drift.”

Outreach teams have started visiting homeless encampments to let them know about the resources available to them, Voss said. Air-conditioned libraries are an example of a public place where people can cool off, he added.
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The Los Angeles Public Library evolved from donated space over a saloon to a sprawling system with an imposing central library downtown. An exhibition looks back at the drama surrounding the library through its 150-year history. Mike O’Sullivan reports.
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Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Sudan’s generals agree to guidelines on allowing humanitarian aid and protection

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed Thursday’s signing by Sudan’s warring parties of a declaration of commitment to protect civilians and guarantee the safe passage of humanitarian aid in the country. The negotiations took place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. However, a cease-fire remained beyond reach. More than 700,000 Sudanese have fled their homes since the violence broke out April 15, and hundreds more have been killed and wounded.

Sudan’s Warring Sides Sign Commitment to Secure Humanitarian Aid

In Geneva on Thursday, the U.N. Human Rights Council adopted a resolution at an emergency session condemning the human rights violations committed after the October 25, 2021, military coup in Sudan and the conflict that erupted in April. The resolution calls for the U.N.-designated expert on human rights in Sudan to monitor and document all allegations of human rights abuses since the 2021 military takeover.

UN Experts Urge Accountability for Atrocities Against Sudanese

Black Sea grain deal could expire May 18

The United Nations says it has no backup plan if Russia pulls out of the deal that allows Ukraine to export grain to international markets and helps facilitate Moscow’s grain and fertilizer exports. Russia has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative on May 18, claiming it is not benefiting enough, which U.S. officials say is “farcical.” The United Nations says the 10-month-old deal has helped bring global food prices down and allowed grain and other foodstuffs to reach developing nations.

UN: No Plan B if Russia Withdraws from Grain Deal

Record number of internally displaced persons worldwide

The number of internally displaced people globally hit a record 71.1 million at the end of last year, according to a report released Thursday by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center — a 20% increase from 2021. Nearly three-quarters of internally displaced people around the world were in 10 countries: Syria, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, Colombia, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan.

Number of Internally Displaced People Hits Record High

In brief

— The United Nations Children’s Fund said Thursday that violence in Haiti is driving up severe acute malnutrition in children. This year, more than 115,000 Haitian children are expected to suffer from the deadliest form of malnutrition, also known as severe wasting, compared to 87,000 last year. Gang violence has made moving about the Caribbean Island nation extremely dangerous — the U.N. says more than 600 people were killed in April alone — making it difficult for families to access food and health care. The children’s agency is appealing for $17 million to scale up its operations in Haiti.

— The U.N. Human Rights office said in a new report Friday that “there are strong indications” that more than 500 people were killed — most summarily executed — by Malian troops and foreign military personnel during a five-day military operation in the village of Moura in the Mopti region of central Mali in March 2022. U.N. investigators were denied access to Moura by Malian officials during the months-long investigation. The U.N. team documented at least 238 victims and said at least 58 women and girls were raped. Read the full report in French.

— Floods and landslides in the Congo’s South Kivu Kalehe Territory have killed at least 420 people and local authorities say as many as 5,000 more could be missing. At least 3,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. The U.N. and partners have mobilized emergency teams to support the government’s response efforts. The World Health Organization and UNICEF have provided medical supplies, equipment, clean water and sanitation kits. The World Food Program began distributing eight tons of food on Wednesday. Humanitarians say access is challenging as the main road leading to the area is damaged from the floods.

— The U.N. Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration called Friday for “a collaborative approach” to better respond to the movement of refugees and migrants throughout the Americas. Their joint statement comes as the United States lifted coronavirus restrictions on asylum seekers. Title 42, as it is known, allowed the U.S. to turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border since 2020 under the auspices of protecting public health. UNHCR and IOM expressed concern that new U.S. restrictions on access for asylum-seekers who arrive irregularly after transiting through another country is incompatible with principles of international refugee law. The agencies said, “returns should only be conducted following due process and necessary safeguards, and in accordance with States’ obligations under international law.”

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi was at the State Department on Thursday to discuss the Sudan crisis, forced displacement and other issues with Richard Verman, deputy secretary for management and resources.

— The cash-strapped WFP said Thursday that it will have to end food assistance to 200,000 Palestinians by June. Without a funding infusion, the agency says by August it will be forced to completely suspend operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. WFP is appealing for $51 million to continue its food and cash assistance for Palestinians until the end of the year. The appeal comes as Israel and the Palestinians are in yet another cycle of violence. The U.N. Security Council met in a closed meeting Wednesday to discuss the latest deadly Israeli air strikes on Gaza and a raid on the West Bank town of Nablus as well as Palestinian rocket fire at Israel.

— Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba traveled to Ukraine on Wednesday through May 13, to meet with government officials to discuss the impact of the war on children, including how to enhance the protection of boys and girls in Ukraine and prevent grave violations.

Quote of note

“Peace must never be underestimated or taken for granted. We must work to make peace and to keep it, every day, tirelessly. In a world that is tearing itself apart, we must heal divisions, prevent escalation, and listen to grievances. Instead of bullets, we need diplomatic arsenals.”

— Secretary-General Guterres in his acceptance speech of the Carlos V European Award on May 9 at the Yuste Monastery in Spain. The award is given to people, organizations, or initiatives that have contributed to the general knowledge and the enhancement of Europe’s cultural and historical values or EU integration.

What we are watching next week

The Black Sea Grain Initiative could expire on May 18 if Russia withdraws from the deal. An earlier brief suspension on Moscow’s part in late October was essentially ignored by Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations. But it remains to be seen if Russia will make it impossible to allow ships to pass safely through the Black Sea to the Bosporus Straits if it unilaterally decides the deal should end.
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The emergency health order used during the pandemic at the U.S.-Mexico border to quickly expel migrants back to Mexico or to their home countries has ended. VOA’s immigration correspondent Aline Barros reports on how the situation is unfolding along the South Texas border.
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The Midwestern state of Illinois is one of the top producers of corn and soybeans in the United States, and it’s where Wendell Shauman farms land that his family has owned for several generations near the city of Galesburg.

While planting crops this spring, he’s been worried about Chinese investors purchasing farmland like his.  

Between 2019 and 2020, companies with shareholders connected to China increased their overall U.S. land holdings by nearly 30%, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department.

“It’s uncomfortable having your major competitor — an outfit that is shaking their saber at you all the time — to own land here. That makes you nervous,” Shauman told VOA. 

But he acknowledges he doesn’t know of any farms nearby connected to China. 

“I don’t know of any in this area,” he said.

In Jacksonville, Illinois, Luke Worrell’s company manages land transactions throughout the region. 

“In 15 years, I’ve never even had communication with an investment group that I’ve known to be Chinese,” he says. 

Most of the transactions he’s involved with stay local. 

“In my 15-year career, I’ve never sold a farm to any international buyer.”

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers calling Chinese ownership of American farms a threat.  

“If you add up all of the acres of Chinese-owned farmland, it is nearly the size of my home state of Iowa,” she told reporters during a press conference on Capitol Hill in March. “The Chinese are everywhere,” she said, “and we need to be wary of what they are doing here in the United States.”

While lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle consider legislation aimed to curb sales of U.S. agricultural land to some foreign entities, China ranks 18th out of 109 countries with investment in U.S. land.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports Chinese-connected investors own less than 162,000 total hectares (400,000 acres) of land in the U.S. — only a fraction of which is farmland. That is 1.12% of the total area of Iowa.

“China owns almost no farmland in the United States,” said Bruce Sherrick, professor of agriculture and consumer economics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Of the millions of hectares of U.S. agricultural lands owned by foreign entities, Sherrick says Chinese ownership barely registers.

Recent efforts by Chinese-connected investors to buy land near military installations in Texas and North Dakota have fueled concerns about national security risks. But Sherrick says foreign-owned properties are typically managed or tended to by local entities, often American farmers.

“The land producing things doesn’t know who owns it,” Sherrick said to VOA during a recent interview in his campus office. “So, I think as a matter of agriculture policy, it’s probably not a big deal who owns it.”

Sherrick says farmland remains an attractive investment for any potential buyer. 

“It’s positively correlated returns with inflation no matter how we parse up the data through time. A very high average returns through time, and very low systemic risk.”

In Streator, Illinois, farmer David Isermann also doesn’t know of any land near him owned by foreign investors.

“For me, it’s a nonissue,” he says. 

While he’d prefer local ownership over Chinese investment, Isermann doesn’t see a need for new legislation.

“I think the whole issue is made to make us feel good. You know, it’s something that both sides of the aisle can agree on,” he said.

Shauman has no plans to sell any of his land, which will one day become his granddaughter’s, as she helps him manage the farming business. He welcomes legislation curbing Chinese land acquisitions in the U.S.

“In rural America, I think there would be a lot of support for this,” he says. “I just as soon not have China come in and throw money around and who knows doing whatever else.  I’m not a fan of China.”

In addition to Congress, a number of state legislatures are also considering new restrictions on foreign ownership of U.S. land.
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