NEW YORK — Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter opened the 50th anniversary special celebrating “Saturday Night Live” with a duet of his song “Homeward Bound.”

The 83-year-old Simon has been a constant on “SNL” since its earliest episodes in 1975 and performed on the first show after the 9/11 attack. He was joined by the 25-year-old pop sensation of the moment, Carpenter.

“I sang this song with George Harrison on ‘Saturday Night Live’ in 1976,” Simon said.

“I was not born then,” Carpenter said, getting a laugh. “And neither were my parents,” she added, getting a bigger laugh.

Fifty seasons of “Saturday Night Live” sketches, songs and special guests are being celebrated for the special’s landmark anniversary in a Sunday night special.

The pop culture juggernaut has launched the careers of generations of comedians, from Bill Murray to Eddie Murphy and Tina Fey to Kristen Wiig.

Many of those stars were on hand for “SNL50: The Anniversary Celebration,” airing live from New York, of course.

“I grew up with the show, you know, and I was born in 1971, and it’s lived with me my whole life,” Amy Poehler, who was a cast member from 2001 to 2008,” said on Sunday ahead of the show’s start. “We have a show to do in just under two hours, and being back is an amazing privilege.”

The three-hour extravaganza comes after months of celebrations of “Saturday Night Live,” which premiered Oct. 11, 1975, with an original cast that included John Belushi, Chevy Chase and Gilda Radner.

“After the original cast, we were just going, Those guys just did it all for us,” Adam Sandler, a cast member from 1990-1995, said before the show. “They crushed it. We watched them at home. They made their movies. We worshiped their movies. And that’s all. What we wanted to do is just kind of continue that sort of stuff.”

It’s become appointment television over the years as the show has skewered presidents, politics and pop culture and been a platform for the biggest musical stars of the moment. As streaming has altered television viewing, “SNL” sketches, host monologues and short comedy films remain popular on social media and routinely rack up millions of views on YouTube.

While NBC has revealed some of the stars expected to appear, many of the special’s moments, cameos and music performances remain a surprise.

On Sunday, NBC announced more guest appearances including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Leslie Jones, Billy Crystal, Cher, Mike Myers and Alec Baldwin, who holds the title of the person who’s hosted “SNL” the most times.

 
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Los Angeles — On a recent Sunday, Tracy Quinn drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to assess damage wrought upon the coastline by the Palisades Fire.

The water line was darkened by ash. Burnt remnants of washing machines and dryers and metal appliances were strewn about the shoreline. Sludge carpeted the water’s edge. Waves during high tide lapped onto charred homes, pulling debris and potentially toxic ash into the ocean as they receded.

“It was just heartbreaking,” said Quinn, president and CEO of the environmental group Heal the Bay, whose team has reported ash and debris some 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of the Palisades burn area west of Los Angeles.

As crews work to remove potentially hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous materials from the Los Angeles wildfires, researchers and officials are trying to understand how the fires on land have impacted the sea. The Palisades and Eaton fires scorched thousands of homes, businesses, cars and electronics, turning everyday items into hazardous ash made of pesticides, asbestos, plastics, lead, heavy metals and more.

Since much of it could end up in the Pacific Ocean, there are concerns and many unknowns about how the fires could affect life under the sea.

“We haven’t seen a concentration of homes and buildings burned so close to the water,” Quinn said.

Fire debris and potentially toxic ash could make the water unsafe for surfers and swimmers, especially after rainfall that can transport chemicals, trash and other hazards into the sea. Longer term, scientists worry if and how charred urban contaminants will affect the food supply.

The atmospheric river and mudslides that pummeled the Los Angeles region last week exacerbated some of those fears.

When the fires broke out in January, one of Mara Dias’ first concerns was ocean water contamination. Strong winds were carrying smoke and ash far beyond the blazes before settling at sea, said the water quality manager for the Surfrider Foundation, an environmental nonprofit.

Scientists on board a research vessel during the fires detected ash and waste on the water as far as 100 miles (161 kilometers) offshore, said marine ecologist Julie Dinasquet with the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Things like twigs and shard. They described the smell as electronics burning, she recalled, “not like a nice campfire.”

Runoff from rain also is a huge and immediate concern. Rainfall picks up contaminants and trash while flushing toward the sea through a network of drains and rivers. That runoff could contain “a lot of nutrients, nitrogen and phosphate that end up in the ash of the burn material that can get into the water,” said Dias, as well as “heavy metals, something called PAHs, which are given off when you burn different types of fuel.”

Mudslides and debris flows in the Palisades Fire burn zone also can dump more hazardous waste into the ocean. After fires, the soil in burn scars is less able to absorb rainfall and can develop a layer that repels water from the remains of seared organic material. When there is less organic material to hold the soil in place, the risks of mudslides and debris flows increase.

Los Angeles County officials, with help from other agencies, have set thousands of feet of concrete barriers, sandbags, silt socks and more to prevent debris from reaching beaches. The LA County Board of Supervisors also recently passed a motion seeking state and federal help to expand beach clean ups, prepare for storm runoff and test ocean water for potential toxins and chemicals, among other things.

Beyond the usual samples, state water officials and others are testing for total and dissolved metals such as arsenic, lead and aluminum and volatile organic compounds.

They also are sampling for microplastics, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs, that are harmful to human and aquatic life, and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a group of man-made chemicals shown to cause cancer in animals and other serious health effects. Now banned from being manufactured, they were used in products like pigments, paints and electrical equipment.

County public health officials said chemical tests of water samples last month did not raise health concerns, so they downgraded one beach closure to an ocean water advisory. Beachgoers were still advised to stay out of the water.

Dinasquet and colleagues are working to understand how far potentially toxic ash and debris dispersed across the ocean, how deep and how fast they sunk and, over time, where it ends up.

Forest fires can deposit important nutrients like iron and nitrogen into the ocean ecosystem, boosting the growth of phytoplankton, which can create a positive, cascading effect across the ecosystem. But the potentially toxic ash from urban coastal fires could have dire consequences, Dinasquet said.

“Reports are already showing that there was a lot of lead and asbestos in the ash,” she added. “This is really bad for people so it’s probably also very bad for the marine organisms.”
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Kyiv, Ukraine — A Ukrainian delegation has arrived in Saudi Arabia for meetings in preparation for a possible visit by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a Ukrainian minister said Sunday, at a time of intense speculation over planned U.S.-Russia talks in the kingdom to end Moscow’s war on its neighbor.

It also comes as a top U.S. envoy revealed that he and a fellow negotiator appointed by U.S. President Donald Trump were heading to Saudi Arabia.

Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who also serves as first deputy prime minister, didn’t clarify whether there is a link between Zelenskyy’s possible trip and the previously announced U.S.-Russia talks. In a Facebook post, she said that the Ukrainian delegation’s focus is on strengthening economic ties, as Kyiv “prepares to sign important economic agreements with countries in the region.”

Svyrydenko didn’t say anything about when Zelenskyy might go to Saudi Arabia and who he might meet with. No further details were immediately available.

Andriy Yermak, a top adviser to Zelenskyy, said earlier Sunday that there was no possibility of Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting directly in the immediate future. In a Telegram post, Yermak said the Ukrainians weren’t planning to do so “until we develop a plan” to end the war and bring about a “just peace.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, another Zelenskyy adviser, on Saturday denied that Ukraine will participate in any planned U.S.-Russia meetings in Saudi Arabia.

“There is nothing on the negotiating table that would be worth discussing,” Podolyak said on Ukrainian television.

But Svyrydenko’s remarks came within hours of an announcement by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s close ally and special envoy to the Middle East, that high-level meetings were imminent in Saudi Arabia to discuss a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine.

Speaking to Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Witkoff said that he and national security adviser Mike Waltz will be “having meetings at the direction of the president,” and hope to make “some really good progress with regard to Russia-Ukraine.”

Witkoff didn’t specify who they would be meeting and what they would discuss, but he said that he was leaving for Saudi Arabia on Sunday evening.

Following a lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Trump noted that they “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” on ending the fighting. The president appointed Witkoff and Waltz to lead those talks, alongside U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Earlier this week, Russian officials and state media took a triumphant tone after Trump jettisoned three years of U.S. policy and announced that he would likely meet soon with Putin to negotiate a peace deal in the almost three-year war in Ukraine.

Trump’s announcement created a major diplomatic upheaval that could herald a watershed moment for Ukraine and Europe.

Zelenskyy said that he wouldn’t accept any negotiations about Ukraine that don’t include his country. European governments have also demanded a seat at the table.

Putin has been ostracized by the West since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader.

Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy, didn’t directly respond to the question about whether Ukraine would have to give up a “significant portion” of its territory as part of any negotiated settlement.

“Those are details, and I’m not dismissive of the details, they’re important. But I think the beginning here is trust-building. It’s getting everybody to understand that this war does not belong continuing, that it should end. That’s what the president has directed us to do,” he said.
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PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA — Some white South Africans showed support for President Donald Trump on Saturday and gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria to claim they are victims of racism by their own government.

Hundreds of protesters held placards that read “Thank God for President Trump” and displayed other messages criticizing what they see as racist laws instituted by the South African government that discriminate against the white minority.

Many were from the Afrikaner community that Trump focused on in an executive order a week ago that cut aid and assistance to the Black-led South African government. In the order, Trump said South Africa’s Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a new law that allows the government to expropriate private land. 

The South African government has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump’s claims over the country and the law have been full of misinformation and distortions. 

Trump said land was being expropriated from Afrikaners — which the order referred to as “racially disfavored landowners” — when no land has been taken under the law. Trump also announced a plan to offer Afrikaners refugee status in the U.S. They are only one part of South Africa’s white minority. 

In a speech to Parliament this week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the forced removal of any people from their land will never be allowed in South Africa again after millions of Blacks were dispossessed of property under the apartheid system of white minority rule and hundreds of years of colonialism before that. 

“The people of this country know the pain of forced removals,” Ramaphosa said. He said the land law does not allow any arbitrary taking of land and only refers to land that can be redistributed for the public good. 

The Trump administration’s criticism and punishment of South Africa has elevated a long-standing dilemma in the country over moves to address the wrongs of centuries of white minority rule that oppressed the Black majority. 

According to the government, the land law aims to fairly address the inequality that the majority of farmland in South Africa is owned by whites, even though they make up just 7% of the country’s population. 

White protesters on Saturday held banners referencing the expropriation law but also other affirmative action policies put in place by the government since the end of apartheid in 1994 to advance opportunities for Blacks. Those laws, known as Black Economic Empowerment, have been a source of frustration for some white people.

Influential Trump adviser Elon Musk — who was raised in South Africa — has also criticized South Africa’s government and claimed it is anti-white for years, although some have questioned his motivations. He has recently failed to get a license for his Starlink satellite internet service in South Africa because it doesn’t meet the country’s affirmative action criteria.

While race has long framed South African politics, the country has been largely successful in reconciling its racially diverse people in the years after apartheid. The current government is made up of a coalition of 10 Black-led and white-led political parties that are working together. 
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MUNICH — The United States, Japan and South Korea renewed their “resolute” pledge to seek the “complete denuclearization” of North Korea, according to a joint statement from the three allies released Saturday.

The statement came after new U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio held his first meetings with South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and Japan’s top diplomat Takeshi Iwaya on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

“The Secretary and Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in accordance with the United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs),” it said.

“They expressed their serious concerns over and the need to address together the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs, malicious cyber activities including cryptocurrency thefts, and increasing military cooperation with Russia,” it added.

The three sent a “strong warning” that they “will not tolerate any provocations or threats to their homelands,” and vowed to maintain and strengthen international sanctions against Pyongyang.

They also said they were committed to “the immediate resolution of the issues of abductees, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war as well as the issue of separated families.”

Largely cut off from the world diplomatically and economically, and under a bevy of sanctions, North Korea with its ongoing nuclear weapons program has been a major thorn in the side of the United States for years.

President Donald Trump, who had a rare series of meetings with Kim Jong Un during his first term in office, has said he will reach out again to the North Korean leader, calling Kim a “smart guy.”

Despite Trump’s diplomatic overtures, North Korea said in January that its nuclear program would continue “indefinitely.”

Pyongyang also said earlier this month it would not tolerate any “provocation” by the United States after Rubio called it a “rogue state” in a radio interview.

It has also slammed a visit by a U.S. nuclear submarine to a naval base in South Korea this month as a “hostile military act.”

A summit between Trump and Kim in Hanoi collapsed in 2019 over talks on sanctions relief and what Pyongyang would be willing to give up in return. 
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MOSCOW — A Moscow court has ordered a U.S. citizen suspected of drug smuggling held in pre-trial detention for 30 days, the Moscow courts press service said Saturday, days after a Moscow-Washington prisoner swap that the White House called a diplomatic thaw and a step toward ending the fighting in Ukraine. 

The U.S. citizen, whom Saturday’s statement named as Kalob Wayne Byers, was detained after airport customs officials found cannabis-laced marmalade in his baggage. 

Russian police said the 28-year-old American had attempted to smuggle a “significant amount” of drugs into the country, the Interfax agency reported, citing Russia’s Federal Customs Service. The agency said the American was detained at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after flying in from Istanbul on February 7. 

Mash, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the U.S. citizen faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. 

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department. 

The Washington-Moscow prisoner exchange this month saw Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States, returned to Russia in exchange for American Marc Fogel, a teacher from Pennsylvania who was detained in 2021 when traveling to Russia to work at a school. 

Fogel had been serving a 14-year sentence for having what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana. President Joe Biden’s administration designated Fogel as wrongfully detained in December. 

President Donald Trump on Wednesday upended three years of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, saying he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the conflict following a lengthy direct phone call. 
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NEW YORK — The U.S. Justice Department asked a court Friday to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, with a top official from Washington intervening after federal prosecutors in Manhattan rebuffed his demands to drop the case and some quit in protest.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the department’s second-in-command, and lawyers from the public integrity section and criminal division filed paperwork asking to end the case. They contend that it was marred by appearances of impropriety and that letting it continue would interfere with the mayor’s reelection bid.

A judge must still approve the request.

The filing came hours after Bove convened a call with the prosecutors in the Justice Department’s public integrity section — which handles corruption cases — and gave them an hour to pick two people to sign onto the motion to dismiss, saying those who did so could be promoted, according to a person familiar with the matter.

After prosecutors got off the call with Bove, the consensus among the group was that they would all resign. But a veteran prosecutor stepped up out of concern for the jobs of the younger people in the unit, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the private meeting.

The three-page dismissal motion bore Bove’s signature and the names of Edward Sullivan, the public integrity section’s senior litigation counsel, and Antoinette Bacon, a supervisory official in the department’s criminal division. No one from the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, which brought the Adams case, signed the document.

The move came five days into a showdown between Justice Department leadership in Washington and its Manhattan office, which has long prided itself on its independence as it has taken on Wall Street malfeasance, political corruption and international terrorism. At least seven prosecutors in Manhattan and Washington quit rather than carry out Bove’s directive to halt the case, including interim Manhattan U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon and the acting chief of the public integrity section in Washington.

The Justice Department said in its motion to Judge Dale E. Ho that it was seeking to dismiss Adams’ charges with the option of refiling them later. Ho had yet to act on the request as of Friday evening.

“I imagine the judge is going to want to explore what his role is under the rules,” said Joshua Naftalis, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who is not involved in Adams’ case. “I would expect the court to either ask the parties to come in person to court or to file papers, or both.”

Bove said earlier this week that U.S. President Donald Trump’s permanent, appointed Manhattan U.S. attorney, who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate, can decide whether to refile the charges after the November election.

Adams faces a Democratic primary in June, with several challengers lined up. His trial had been on track to be held in the spring. Bove said that continuing the prosecution would interfere with Adams’ ability to govern, posing “unacceptable threats to public safety, national security, and related federal immigration initiatives and policies,” the dismissal motion said.

Among other things, it said, the case caused Adams to be denied access to sensitive information necessary to help protect the city.

Adams pleaded not guilty in September to charges he accepted more than $100,000 in illegal campaign contributions and lavish travel perks from foreign nationals looking to buy his influence while he was Brooklyn borough president campaigning to be mayor. Although critical in the past, Adams has bonded at times with Trump recently and visited him at his Florida golf club last month.

The president has criticized the case against Adams and said he was open to giving the mayor, who was a registered Republican in the 1990s, a pardon.

Bove sent a memo Monday directing Sassoon, a Republican, to drop the case. He argued the mayor was needed in Trump’s immigration crackdown and echoed Adams’ claims that the case was retaliation for his criticism of Biden administration immigration policies.

Instead of complying, Sassoon resigned Thursday, along with five high-ranking Justice Department officials in Washington. A day earlier, she sent a letter to Trump’s new attorney general, Pam Bondi, asking her to meet and reconsider the directive to drop the case.

Sassoon suggested in her letter that Ho “appears likely to conduct a searching inquiry” as to why the case should be dismissed. She noted that in at least one instance, a judge has rejected such a request as contrary to the public interest.

“A rigorous inquiry here would be consistent with precedent and practice in this and other districts,” she wrote.

Seven former Manhattan U.S. attorneys, including James Comey, Geoffrey S. Berman and Mary Jo White, issued a statement lauding Sassoon’s “commitment to integrity and the rule of law.”

On Friday, Hagan Scotten, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan who worked for Sassoon and had a leading role in Adams’ case, became the seventh prosecutor to resign — and blasted Bove in the process. Scotten wrote in a resignation letter to Bove that it would take a “fool” or a “coward” to meet his demand to drop the charges, “But it was never going to be me.” He told Bove he was “entirely in agreement” with Sassoon’s decision.

Scotten and other Adams case prosecutors were suspended with pay on Thursday by Bove, who launched a probe of the prosecutors that he said would determine whether they kept their jobs.

Scotten is an Army veteran who earned two Bronze medals serving in Iraq as a Special Forces troop commander. He graduated from Harvard Law School at the top of his class in 2010 and clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts.

In her letter to Bondi, Sassoon accused Adams’ lawyers of offering what amounted to a “quid pro quo” — his help on immigration in exchange for dropping the case — when they met with Justice Department officials in Washington last month. Adams’ lawyer Alex Spiro said Thursday that the allegation of a quid pro quo was a “total lie.”

“We were asked if the case had any bearing on national security and immigration enforcement and we truthfully answered it did,” Spiro said in an email to reporters.

On Friday, Adams added: “I never offered — nor did anyone offer on my behalf — any trade of my authority as your mayor for an end to my case. Never.”

Scotten seconded Sassoon’s objections in his letter, writing: “No system of ordered liberty can allow the Government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again, to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives.”

The prosecutor, who appeared in court for various hearings in the case, said he was following “a tradition in public service of resigning in a last-ditch effort to head off a serious mistake.” He said he could see how a president such as Trump, with a background in business and politics, “might see the contemplated dismissal-with-leverage as a good, if distasteful, deal.” But he said any prosecutor “would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way.”
…

Ukraine would have a “very, very difficult” time surviving without U.S. military support to fend off Russia’s invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a interview broadcast the night before he is scheduled to address the Munich Security Conference.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, you know in all the difficult situations, you have a chance,” he told NBC News. “But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine has increased its war production but not enough to make up for what it would lose if it did not have U.S. backing.

Zelenskyy on Feb. 14 took part in a day of meetings and news briefings at the Munich Security Conference as efforts to seek a resolution to the war ramp up. The Ukrainian president is scheduled to deliver a speech on diplomacy and prospects for Ukraine’s future at the conference on Feb. 15.

He will take the spotlight after meeting with top U.S. officials, including Vice President JD Vance, who stressed the need for a “durable, lasting peace” in Ukraine in his speech to the conference on Feb. 14. Zelenskyy told Vance that Ukraine wants “security guarantees” from Washington before any negotiations with Russia on ending almost three years of war.

Zelenskyy said in the interview that he doesn’t want to think about Ukraine not being a strategic partner of the United States because it would damage Ukrainian morale, but added, “We have to think about it.”

The United States has sent mixed signals on its strategy, sparking worry in Kyiv that Ukraine could be forced into a bad deal that leaves Putin emboldened.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO defense ministers earlier this week that it’s “unrealistic” to expect Ukraine’s borders to return to their pre-2014 positions and said NATO membership is not seen by the White House as part of the solution to the conflict.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Speaking in Warsaw on Feb. 14, he again warned that America’s European NATO partners would have to do far more for their own defense and to secure a future Ukraine peace.

Hegseth also argued that you “don’t have to trust” President Vladimir Putin to negotiate with Russia.

Two days earlier U.S. President Donald Trump said he had a “lengthy and highly productive” phone call with Putin and said they agreed that their teams should begin negotiations immediately.

Zelenskyy responded by saying he wouldn’t accept any deals made without Ukraine’s involvement.

Asked in the interview if he believed that Ukraine would be vulnerable in another few years if a cease-fire were reached, Zelenskyy said: “Yes, I think this can be.”

He said Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to get a cease-fire deal to lift some sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions, because of ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said.

Vance, who is representing Trump at the high-profile gathering of world leaders and foreign policy experts, said the United States wants “the kind of peace that’s going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road.”

There have been a number of “good conversations” with Ukraine, and more would follow “in the days, weeks and months to come,” Vance said.

Zelenskyy agreed, calling the meeting with Vance “a good conversation” and said Kyiv wants to work toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, but added that “we need real security guarantees.”

Some information for this report came from NBC News. 
…

After days of heavy rain, the strongest storm of the year brought dangerous debris flows and rock- and mudslides across Southern California on Friday, including in several areas that last month were ablaze with devastating fires.

Some areas in the region received as much as 12 centimeters of rain this week, the National Weather Service said.

“There are plenty of reports of debris flow,” meteorologist Scott Kleebauer of the weather service said Friday.

The scorched earth left behind by the fires is now particularly vulnerable to the water-fueled rock- and mudslides, as the vegetation that once anchored the soil was burned away.

While this week’s rain is beginning to ease, that does not mean the slides will stop. The drenched soil can continue to move even after the rain subsides.

Parts of the iconic Pacific Coast Highway were shut down Thursday because of flooding and mudslides.

In Pacific Palisades, a highway intersection was under a meter of sludge.

Photographs posted on social media showed parked cars in Pacific Palisades covered in mud up to their windows. Bulldozers have been assigned to the area to clean up the muck.

In one harrowing experience Thursday, a member of the Los Angeles Fire Department was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway when a debris flow swept his vehicle into the ocean. Erik Scott, a spokesperson for the fire department, said the driver was able to get out of his vehicle and reportedly suffered only minor injuries.

In Sierra Madre, a city of 10,000 that was the site of last month’s Eaton Fire, a boulder-strewn mudslide damaged several homes.

“It happened very quickly but it was very loud, and you could even hear the ground or feel the ground shaking,” Bull Duvall, who has lived in Sierra Madre for 28 years, told The Associated Press. City officials issued an evacuation order warning residents that emergency responders would not enter locations with active mud and debris flows.

The National Weather Service confirmed Friday that a weak tornado hit a mobile home community Thursday in Oxnard, California. There were no reports of deaths or injuries at Country Club Mobile Estates, but property damage included ripped roofs and downed power lines.

The rain was badly needed in the region, much of which is still suffering from drought.

In nearby Nevada, Las Vegas was glad to see rain Thursday, after enduring more than 200 days without precipitation. A National Weather Service Las Vegas post said, “Las Vegas has officially measured 0.01 inch of rainfall this morning, effectively ending our dry streak of 214 days without measurable rain.”
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U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned European leaders at the security conference in Munich, Germany, of the “threat from within,” arguing that their governments are censoring far-right speech and failing to control migration. His remarks came amid allies’ alarm over President Donald Trump’s decision to begin peace talks with Russia. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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The tragic deaths of Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov in a plane crash late last month in Washington have shone a spotlight on the role of Russian- or Soviet-born coaches in the world of competitive figure skating. Their influence has shaped a generation of American skaters, raising the question: Why have these coaches been so successful in the U.S.? Maxim Adams has the story. Video editor: Serge Sokolov, Anna Rice  
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TAIPEI — Taiwan President Lai Ching-te pledged on Friday to talk with the United States about President Donald Trump’s concerns over the chip industry and to increase U.S. investment and buy more from the country, while also spending more on defense.

Trump spoke critically about Taiwan on Thursday, saying he aimed to restore U.S. manufacturing of semiconductor chips and repeating claims about Taiwan having taken away the industry he wanted back in the United States.

Speaking to reporters after holding a meeting of the National Security Council at the presidential office, Lai said that the global semiconductor supply chain is an ecosystem in which the division of work among various countries is important.

“We of course are aware of President Trump’s concerns,” Lai said.

“Taiwan’s government will communicate and discuss with the semiconductor industry and come up with good strategies. Then we will come up with good proposals and engage in further discussions with the United States,” he added.

Democratic countries including the United States should come together to build a global alliance for AI chips and a “democratic supply chain” for advanced chips, Lai said.

“While admittedly we have the advantage in semiconductors, we also see it as Taiwan’s responsibility to contribute to the prosperity of the international community.”

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC, a major supplier to companies including Apple and Nvidia, and a crucial part of the developing AI industry.

TSMC is investing $65 billion in new factories in the U.S. state of Arizona, a project begun in 2020 under Trump’s first administration.

TSMC’s Taipei-listed shares closed down 2.8% on Friday, underperforming the broader market, which ended off 1.1%.

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity in order to speak more freely, said if TSMC judged it was feasible to increase its U.S. investment, Taiwan’s government would help in talks with the United States.

TSMC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The official added that communications between Taiwan and U.S. economic, security and defense officials at present was “quite good” and “strong support from the United States can be felt”.

US support

The United States, like most countries, has no formal diplomatic ties with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, but is the democratically governed island’s most important international backer and arms supplier.

Trump cheered Taiwan last week after a joint U.S.-Japan statement following Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s visit to Washington called for “maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait” and voiced support for “Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations.”

But Taiwan also runs a large trade surplus with the United States, which surged 83% last year, with the island’s exports to the U.S. hitting a record $111.4 billion, driven by demand for high-tech products such as semiconductors.

Lai said that the United States is Taiwan’s largest foreign investment destination, and that Taiwan is the United States’ most reliable trade partner.

Trump has also previously criticized Taiwan, which faces a growing military threat from China, for not spending enough on defense, a criticism he has made of many U.S. allies.

“Taiwan must demonstrate our determination to defend ourselves,” Lai said, adding his government is working to propose a special budget this year to boost defense spending from 2.5% of its GDP to 3%.

His government is involved in a standoff with parliament, where opposition parties hold a majority, over cuts to the budget, including defense spending.

“Certainly, more and more friends and allies have expressed concern to us, worried whether Taiwan’s determination for its self-defense has weakened,” Lai said.

 
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US President Donald Trump on Thursday made a range of energy and defense agreements with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to the White House in Trump’s second term. But the gains were offset by Trump’s threat to impose reciprocal tariffs on trading partners, something India sought to evade. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from the White House.
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BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children who allege their health care has been compromised by the president’s order. A national group for family of LGBTQ+ people and a doctors organization are also plaintiffs in the court challenge, one of many lawsuits opposing one of the many executive orders Trump has issued.

Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by former President Joe Biden, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order following a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The ruling, in effect for 14 days, essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds. The restraining order could also be extended.

Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing federally run insurance programs to exclude coverage for gender-affirming care. That includes Medicaid, which covers such services in some states, and TRICARE for military families. Trump’s order also called on the Department of Justice to vigorously pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice.

The lawsuit includes several accounts from families of appointments being canceled as medical institutions react to the new directive.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argue Trump’s executive order is “unlawful and unconstitutional” because it seeks to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress and because it violates anti-discrimination laws while infringing on the rights of parents.

Like legal challenges to state bans on gender-affirming care, the lawsuit also alleges the policy is discriminatory because it allows federal funds to cover the same treatments when they’re not used for gender transition.

Some hospitals immediately paused gender-affirming care, including prescriptions for puberty blockers and hormone therapy, while they assess how the order affects them.

Trump’s approach on the issue represents an abrupt change from the Biden administration, which sought to explicitly extend civil rights protections to transgender people. Trump has used strong language in opposing gender-affirming care, asserting falsely that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex.”

Major medical groups such as the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to gender-affirming care.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth are first evaluated by a team of professionals. Some may try a social transition, involving changing a hairstyle or pronouns. Some may later also receive puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.
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WASHINGTON — The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman was involved in a collision at sea with a merchant vessel near Port Said, Egypt, the Navy said Thursday.

The collision occurred late Wednesday while both ships were moving. It did not result in flooding or injuries aboard the carrier, and there was no damage to the ship’s propulsion systems, the Navy said in a statement.

None of the crew on the merchant ship, the Besiktas-M, were injured either, according to a defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not yet been made public.

The Truman, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, deployed in September to the Mediterranean and the Middle East. It had just completed a port call in Souda Bay, Greece.
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Seoul — As a high school junior in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, Daneel Kutsenko never gave much thought to China.

Last month, though, as the U.S. government prepared to ban TikTok – citing national security concerns about its Chinese ownership – Kutsenko downloaded RedNote, another Chinese video-sharing app, which he felt gave him a new perspective on China.

“It just seems like people who live their life and have fun,” Kutsenko told VOA of RedNote, which reportedly attracted hundreds of thousands of U.S. users in the leadup to the now-paused TikTok ban.

Kutsenko’s move is part of a larger trend. Even as U.S. policymakers grow louder in their warnings about Chinese-owned apps, they have become a central part of American life.

TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, boasts 170 million U.S. users. China’s AI chatbot DeepSeek surged to the top of Apple’s App Store rankings, including those in the United States, for several days after its release last month.

Another major shift has come in online shopping, where Americans are flocking to digital Chinese marketplaces such as Temu and Shein in search of ultra-low prices on clothes, home goods, and other items.

According to a 2024 survey by Omnisend, an e-commerce marketing company, 70% of Americans shopped on Chinese platforms during the past year, with 20% doing so at least once a week.

Multifaceted threat

U.S. officials warn that Chinese apps pose a broad range of threats – whether to national security, privacy, human rights, or the economy.

TikTok has been the biggest target. Members of Congress attempting to ban the app cited concerns that China’s government could use TikTok as an intelligence-gathering tool or manipulate its algorithms to push narratives favorable to Beijing.

Meanwhile, Chinese commerce apps face scrutiny for their rock-bottom prices, which raise concerns about ethical sourcing and potential links to forced labor, Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based research organization, said in an email conversation with VOA.

“It raises questions of how sustainably these products are made,” Havrén, who focuses on China’s foreign policy and great power competition, said. Moreover, he said, “the pricing simply kills local manufacturers and businesses.”

Many U.S. policymakers also warn Chinese apps pose greater privacy risks, since Chinese law requires companies to share data with the government on request.

‘Curiosity and defiance’

Still, a growing number of Americans appear unfazed. Many young people in particular seem to shrug off the privacy concerns, arguing that their personal data is already widely exposed.

“They could get all the data they want. And anyway, I’m 16 – what are they going to find? Oh my gosh, he goes to school? There’s not much,” Kutsenko said.

Ivy Yang, an expert on U.S.-China digital interaction, told VOA many young Americans also find it unlikely that they would ever be caught up in a Chinese national security investigation.

“What they’re chasing is a dopamine peak. They’re not thinking about whether or not the dance videos or the cat tax pictures they swipe on RedNote are going to be a national security threat,” Yang, who founded the New York-based consulting company Wavelet Strategy, said.

Yang said the TikTok ban backlash and surge in RedNote downloads may reflect a shift in how young Americans see China – not just as a geopolitical rival, but as a source of apps they use in daily life.

She also attributes their skepticism to a broader cultural mindset – one shaped by a mix of curiosity, defiance, and a growing distrust of institutions, including conventional media.

Jeremy Goldkorn, a longtime analyst of U.S.-China digital trends and an editorial fellow at the online magazine ChinaFile, said growing disillusionment with America’s political turmoil and economic uncertainty has intensified these shifts.

“It makes it much more difficult for, particularly, young people to get worked up about what China’s doing when they feel so horrified about their own country,” Goldkorn said during a recent episode of the Sinica podcast, which focuses on current affairs in China.

Polling reflects this divide. A 2024 Pew survey found 81% of Americans view China unfavorably, but younger adults are less critical – only 27% of those under 30 have strongly negative views, compared to 61% of those 65 and older.

Digital barrier

While Chinese apps are expanding in the United States, in many ways the digital divide remains as impenetrable as ever.

China blocks nearly all major Western platforms and tightly controls its own apps, while the U.S. weighs new restrictions on Chinese tech.

Though President Donald Trump paused the TikTok ban, his administration has signaled broader efforts to curb China’s tech influence.

Trump officials have hinted they could take steps to regulate DeepSeek, the Chinese digital chatbot.

The Trump administration also recently signaled it intends to close a trade loophole that lets Chinese retailers bypass import duties and customs checks.

Broader challenges

Even as Washington debates how to handle the rise of Chinese apps, some analysts say the conversation risks obscuring the deeper issue of the broader role of social media itself.

Rogier Creemers, a specialist in digital governance at Leiden University, told VOA that while Chinese apps may raise valid concerns for Western countries, they are just one part of a larger, unaddressed problem.

“There’s a whole range of social ills that emerge from these social media that I think are far more important than anything the Chinese Communist Party could do,” he said, pointing to issues like digital addiction, declining attention spans, and the way social media amplifies misinformation and political unseriousness.

“And that would apply whether these apps are Chinese-owned or American-owned or Tajikistani-owned, as far as I’m concerned,” he added.

The United States, Creemer said, has taken a more hands-off approach to regulating online platforms, in part due to strong free speech protections and pushback by the tech industry.

Apps or influence?

For millions of Americans, the bigger debates about China and digital influence barely register when they open TikTok.

Kutsenko said neither he nor his friends have strong opinions about U.S.-China tensions. They just wanted an alternative to TikTok – one that felt fun, familiar, and easy to use.

It’s a sign that while policymakers see Chinese apps as part of a growing tech rivalry, for many Americans they’re just another way to scroll, shop, and stay entertained, no matter where they come from.
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U.S. Democratic lawmakers said Wednesday the Trump administration’s freeze of U.S. foreign assistance might permanently damage America’s security and standing abroad. Republicans counter that the review of U.S. Agency for International Development programs is necessary to combat waste and fraud. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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washington — The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking access to dozens of migrants flown to a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying they were being denied the right to an attorney. 

ACLU filed the complaint on behalf of families of detainees, who say the detainees themselves cannot sue because they are being held without the ability to communicate with the outside world. The suit seeks immediate phone and video access to detainees, as well as in-person visitation. 

President Donald Trump, a Republican, kicked off a wide-ranging immigration crackdown after taking office on Jan. 20, including the transfer of dozens of migrants to a detention site on Guantanamo Bay, which is best known for the separate high-security U.S. prison used for suspected foreign terrorists. 

The lawsuit follows a letter sent by ACLU and other civil and immigrant rights groups to top Trump officials last week, demanding a way to speak to detainees. 

“Shipping immigrants off to Guantanamo without access to lawyers or the outside world cannot be reconciled with our country’s laws or principles,” said Lee Gelernt, ACLU lawyer and lead counsel on the case. “It will now be up to the courts to reaffirm that the rule of law governs our nation.” 

The lawsuit cites the cases of three Venezuelan men believed to be detained at Guantanamo. 

Angela Carolina Sequera, one of the plaintiffs, said she was in almost daily contact with her son while he was in a Texas immigration detention center and last spoke to him on Saturday, the complaint stated. On Sunday, she received a call from the detention center saying her son would be sent to Guantanamo. 

“Ms. Sequera has made numerous calls to try to locate her son and speak to him, to no avail,” the complaint said. “She is distraught over the lack of information, and she desires that her son be provided with the ability to communicate with legal counsel regarding his detention at Guantanamo.” 

The plaintiffs also include four nonprofit legal service providers who said they were unable to represent migrants shuttled to the naval base. The providers have clients in Texas and Florida.

The Trump administration has provided few specifics about the detainees sent to Guantanamo Bay but said the first flight carried alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.  

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said there is a system at the Guantanamo detention site for migrants to phone lawyers. She questioned the ACLU raising concerns about “highly dangerous criminal aliens including murderers and vicious gang members” rather than U.S. citizens.  

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who visited the base on Friday, said in a social media post that some of the detainees had allegedly been charged or convicted of homicide, robbery and other crimes.  

The ACLU lawsuit said the U.S. had never before moved migrants held on civil immigration charges from the U.S. to the Guantanamo Bay base and now held them “incommunicado, without access to attorneys, family or the outside world.” 

The complaint said that despite significant public concern, the Trump administration had offered no explanation of its legal authority to move the detainees.
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President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he and Russia’s leader agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine’s leader to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict.  

“We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” Trump said on his social media platform Truth Social. “I have asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of the CIA John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, and Ambassador and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, to lead the negotiations which, I feel strongly, will be successful.”

Trump did not specify what the terms might be to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in Germany Wednesday for a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, ruled out a key demand by Ukraine’s: eventual membership in NATO.

“The United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement,” Hegseth said.  

Trump’s top hostage negotiator on Wednesday credited Trump’s “great friendship” with Russia’s leader and with Saudi Arabia’s prince as key in releasing American teacher Marc Fogel from Russian custody late Tuesday.  

“I think that getting Mark Fogel out was critical and the Russians were very, very helpful in that effort and very accommodating,” Witkoff said, speaking to reporters at the White House. “And I think that’s maybe a sign about how that working relationship between President Trump and President Putin will be in the future and what that may portend for the world at large for conflict and so forth. I think they had a great friendship. And I think now it’s going to continue and it’s a really good thing for the world.”

Trump welcomed Fogel to the White House late Tuesday. He had been detained since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country.  

“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to Trump at the White House late Tuesday.

Trump said he appreciated what Russia did in letting Fogel go home but declined to specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond calling it “very fair” and very reasonable.”  

Trump also said another hostage release would be announced Wednesday.  

Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said earlier Tuesday the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.  

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.  

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office January 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.  

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.  

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained. 
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Russian-born fashion designer Dasha Pomeranz tells stories with the clothing she creates. Her latest collection is a tribute to women who were forced to leave their native countries and start new lives in the United States. Karina Bafradzhian has the story. (Videographer: Sergii Dogotar ; Produced by: Sergii Dogotar, Anna Rice   ) 
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NEW YORK — A giant schnauzer named Monty won the top prize at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show Tuesday night.

Monty bested six other finalists to take best in show at Madison Square Garden. The award is considered the most prestigious prize in the U.S. dog show world.

Each dog is judged according to how closely it matches the ideal for its breed.

Winners get a trophy, ribbons and bragging rights, but no cash prize.

Other finalists included a bichon frisé called Neal, a Skye terrier named Archer, a whippet and repeat runner-up known as Bourbon, a shih tzu called Comet who’s been a finalist before, a German shepherd named Mercedes, who came in second last year, and an English springer spaniel called Freddie.

Monty made the finals for a third year in a row and won the huge American Kennel Club’s big show in December.

A Westminster win is considered the most prestigious award in the U.S. dog show world. Each dog is judged according to how closely it matches the ideal for its breed.

Winners get a trophy, ribbons and bragging rights, but no cash prize.

Every dog at Westminster is a titled champion, but they also are household pets. Some also do therapy work, search-and-rescue or other canine jobs.

“A good German shepherd is an all-purpose dog,” said co-breeder and co-owner Sheree Moses Combs of Wardensville, West Virginia. Some of her pups have become service dogs for wounded veterans, she said.

“Dog shows are fun, but that is what our breed is all about,” she said.

Big dogs had their day at Westminster on Tuesday, when “working” breeds had their turns in the ring. First-round competitor Brina, for instance, is a 71.6 kilogram Neapolitan mastiff.

“I’ve been struck by this breed since I was 12. … They’re so unique,” owner Yves Belmont, Ph.D., said as Brina napped in her crate, equipped with a 7.5-liter water bucket.

With their size, jowly heads and guard-dog history, the breed was developed to be imposing. But Belmont, who currently has several of them at his family’s Atlanta-area home, said he also is impressed by their intelligence.

A trip to Westminster is a reminder of dogs’ variety, even just among purebreds. The same day Brina competed, Tyra the miniature bull terrier also strutted her stuff. Formally called GCH CH Rnr’s Top Model, she’s named after fashion model Tyra Banks.

The hardy terrier breed is “a big dog in a small package, but they always keep you smiling,” said owner and co-breeder Jessica Harrison of Austin, Texas. Asked where the 2-year-old Tyra falls on the mischief meter, Harrison smiled, “like a nine, for sure.”

“You can’t be upset with them because they’re just so cute,” she said as Tyra rolled on her back to get a belly rub from a passerby at the Javits Center, the convention venue that hosted the first-round judging of each breed.

Regardless which dog gets the trophy at Westminster, others also have scored points with the crowd.

During two nights of semifinals, spectators shouted out breeds and names of canine competitors as if they played for one of the pro teams that call the Garden home, the NBA’s New York Knicks and NHL’s New York Rangers.

“Love you, Lumpy!” someone yelled to a Pekingese named Lumpy, who earned laughs for his ambling gait.

The arena erupted with cheers for a golden retriever named Tuffy, a representative of a popular breed that has never won. Calaco, a Xoloitzcuintli, got huge applause for a confident performance that also earned him some recognition from the judge. Xoloitzcuintlis, are hairless dogs with deep roots in Mexico.

A Doberman pinscher called Penny got whoops of approval from spectators, too. Despite her dignified, focused appearance, Penny can be “a mush,” breeder and co-owner Theresa Connors-Chan of Ontario, Canada, said earlier in the day.

Westminster also featured agility and obedience championships, held Saturday. The agility prize went to a border collie named Vanish, and an Australian shepherd called Willie triumphed in obedience.
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The latest offerings for electric vehicles take center stage at the 2025 Chicago Auto Show as some federal tax incentives could end. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh has more.
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The Trump administration last month paused funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development amid reports that it may be put under State Department control as the president seeks to align it with his “America First” policy. Britain’s recent similar move to restructure its foreign aid could offer lessons for Washington. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Paris — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Europeans on Tuesday their “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.”

The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant.

Vance, setting out the Trump administration’s America First agenda, said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach.

“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” Vance told an AI summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris.

“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” he added.

Vance criticized the “massive regulations” created by the EU’s Digital Services Act, as well as Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, which he said meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.

“Of course, we want to ensure the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation,” he said.

European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology.

Vance is leading the American delegation at the Paris summit.

Vance also appeared to take aim at China at a delicate moment for the U.S. technology sector.

Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek freely distributed a powerful AI reasoning model that some said challenged U.S. technology leadership. It sent shares of American chip designer Nvidia down 17%.

“From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes,” Vance said.

But he said that “partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure. Should a deal seem too good to be true? Just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley: if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.”

Vance did not mention DeepSeek by name. There has been no evidence of information being able to surreptitiously flow through the startup’s technology to China’s government, and the underlying code is freely available to use and view. However, some government organizations have reportedly banned DeepSeek’s use.

Speaking after Vance, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he was fully in favor of trimming red tape, but he stressed that regulation was still needed to ensure trust in AI, or people would end up rejecting it. “We need a trustworthy AI,” he said.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also said the EU would cut red tape and invest more in AI.

In a bilateral meeting, Vance and von der Leyen were also likely to discuss Trump’s substantial increase of tariffs on steel.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was expected to address the summit on Tuesday. A consortium led by Musk said on Monday it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit controlling OpenAI.

Altman promptly posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

The technology world has closely watched whether the Trump administration will ease recent antitrust enforcement that had seen the U.S. sue or investigate the industry’s biggest players.

Vance said the U.S. would champion American AI — which big players develop — he also said: “Our laws will keep Big Tech, little tech, and all other developers on a level playing field.”
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