PHOENIX (AP) — Historically dry conditions have combined with gusty winds to make it harder for crews to get a handle on a wildfire burning along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, causing containment figures to plummet as the blaze nearly tripled in size in just a few days.

Crews had managed to contain about 26% of the Dragon Bravo Fire last week, but that dropped into single digits as unfavorable conditions helped the flames to spread across more than 110 square miles (about 285 kilometers) by Tuesday.

The fire made one of its biggest runs on Monday as it raced across 25 square miles of terrain.

The periods when the fire is most active is spanning longer durations of the day, leaving less time for firefighters to make up ground, fire spokesperson Lisa Jennings said.

“These record dry air masses are just the tip of the iceberg on what has created this fire weather, because it’s also been a dry season here and we haven’t got any of the monsoon moisture that usually comes in early July,” Jennings said.

She added that type of fuels — towering mixed conifers and ponderosa pines — along with the topography of the rim are contributing to the fire’s spread.

Crews on Tuesday continued work to reinforce protections near the Kaibab Lodge, which is surrounded by national forest land. Managers also were keeping an eye on a refuge for the state’s fish — the Apache trout — in the North Canyon and a bison herd in the House Rock Valley.

The fire was sparked by lightning on July 4 and initially was managed to clear out vegetation to improve forest conditions. It wasn’t until a week later that dry and windy conditions helped to fan the flames, prompting evacuations of visitors and employees at Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of cabins were destroyed. The rim remains closed for the season.

A bipartisan slate of Arizona’s elected officials has questioned the handling of the fire, suggesting more could have been done early on. Following an aerial tour of the damage, Gov. Katie Hobbs met with federal officials and said U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum committed to an independent review.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare public outburst on the Senate floor Tuesday, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker took his Democratic colleagues to task, declaring his party “needs a wake-up call!”

Angrily screaming at two of his shocked Democratic colleagues, his words all but reverberating off the chamber walls, Booker blocked the passage of several bipartisan bills that would fund police programs, arguing that President Donald Trump’s administration has been withholding law enforcement money from Democratic-leaning states.

“This is the problem with Democrats in America right now,” Booker bellowed. “Is we’re willing to be complicit with Donald Trump!”

The surprise Senate spat over bills that have broad bipartisan support — mental health resources and other help for police officers — strikes at the heart of the beleaguered Democratic party’s dilemma in the second Trump era as they try to find a way back to power, and also their frustration as Republicans have pushed through legislation and nominations that they vehemently disagree with. Do they cooperate where they can, or do they fight everything, and shut down governance in the process?

“A lot of us in this caucus want to f—— fight,” Booker said with an expletive as he left the Senate floor after the exchange.

Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, one of the two Democrats on the floor who tried to pass the law enforcement bills that raised Booker’s ire, said she had a different view.

“We can do both,” she said afterward. “Support our communities, keep them safe, and take on Donald Trump and his bad policies.”

Booker’s tirade began Tuesday afternoon when Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bipartisan bills by unanimous consent. But Booker objected to five of the seven bills, which would have directed resources to law enforcement agencies, arguing that the Trump administration is “weaponizing” public safety grants by canceling them in many Democratic-leaning states like New Jersey.

“Why would we do something today that’s playing into the president’s politics and is going to hurt the officers in states like mine?” Booker asked.

Things escalated from there, with Cortez Masto and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., saying that Booker should have objected when the bill was passed unanimously out of committee. “This is not the way to go about it,” Cortez Masto said.

Klobuchar said to Booker: “You can’t just do one thing on Police Week and not show up and not object and let these bills go through and then say another a few weeks later on the floor.”

“I like to show up at the markups and I like to make my case,” Klobuchar said.

Booker responded with a booming tirade. “The Democratic party needs a wake up call!” he yelled, walking away from his desk and out into the aisle. “I see law firms bending the knee to this president, not caring about the larger principles,” he said, along with “universities that should be bastions of free speech.”

He added: “You want to come at me that way, you will have to take it on with me because there’s too much on the line.”

The arguments points to the tensions below the surface of the Democratic caucus as they head into important moments — both this week, as Republicans push to quickly confirm dozens of Trump administration nominees before the August recess, and this fall when Congress will have to pass bipartisan spending bills to avoid a government shutdown.

Democrats suffered a swift backlash from their base in the spring when Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helped advance a Republican spending bill that kept the government open instead of forcing a shutdown. Schumer argued that shutting the government down would have been worse, and that they were both “terrible” options. It is unclear whether Schumer and Democrats will want to force a shutdown in the fall if Republicans don’t include some of their priorities in spending legislation.

Booker did not have specific advice for his colleagues beyond the need to fight harder. But other senators say they will have to find a balance.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut says he hears both things at home — “why can’t you all get along” and “thank you for fighting.”

“Both are absolutely necessary at this moment in history,” Blumenthal said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taiwanese government has called off a plan for its president to transit through the United States on his way to Latin America, The Associated Press has learned — a decision leading to conflicting accounts of the reason for the cancellation.

Amid speculation that the Trump administration had opposed a proposed stopover by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in New York, Taipei said Lai had no overseas travel plans due to domestic issues, including natural disasters and tariff negotiations with the United States. The other proposed stop on Lai’s itinerary was Dallas, Texas.

Whatever the reason, the cancellation is certain to hand a major diplomatic victory to Beijing and has drawn concerns from experts that the White House is setting a bad precedent for U.S.-China relations.

Details about the administration’s decision were scant, but one person with knowledge of the discussions told AP that the U.S. “had asked Taipei to rearrange the transit — not go through New York.”

Another person with knowledge of the discussions said Beijing had sensed that it could ask President Donald Trump not to allow Lai to transit through the U.S. because of the perceived “desperation” by Trump to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because they are in current sensitive discussions with administration officials. The White House said it had nothing to say on this matter. Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the State Department, said it was a “hypothetical” issue because Taiwan had not announced any travel plans for Lai.

“There are a lot of questions and a lot of suppositions that have happened,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “But I can say that it is a hypothetical at this point. There have been no plans.”

Discussions unfolded late last week

By the end of last week it was clear that the Trump administration was discussing the likely transit by Lai, though it was unclear if the administration had moved to block it, according to one of the people. It was also unclear if the Trump administration would be open to allowing Lai to transit through a city other than New York.

The United States is obligated by its own laws to give military support to Taiwan, which split from China in 1949 during a civil war. Beijing claims the island off its southeastern coast as sovereign territory and has vowed to seize it, by force if necessary.

Jason Hsu, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former legislator in Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan, said Taiwan always consults with the United States on transit and called it “abnormal” for Washington not to agree when such stopovers are permitted under the Taiwan Relations Act. Bruce said transits by high-level Taiwanese officials, including presidents, “are fully consistent with our longstanding policy and policy.”

In Taipei, Karen Kuo, spokesperson for the presidential office, said there was no immediate plan for Lai to travel.

“Considering the recent typhoon disaster recovery efforts in southern Taiwan, the U.S.-Taiwan reciprocal tariff measures and regional developments, the president currently has no plans for overseas visits in the near future,” Kuo said.

Routine practice that draws routine protests from Beijing

The Chinese Embassy did not respond to an AP request for comment. Beijing, however, has routinely protested any transit through the U.S. by Taiwanese leaders.

Lai was elected president of Taiwan in 2024. On his first overseas trip last November he made stops in Hawaii and Guam, where he was received by U.S. politicians. While such transits had been routine by previous Taiwanese presidents and under previous U.S. administrations, the person familiar with the discussions said Beijing considers Lai an exception because it views him as being more aggressive in seeking Taiwan independence.

Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said that while recent U.S. administrations have not allowed Taiwan to be used in negotiations with Beijing, “this decision raises questions about whether the Trump administration is reconsidering that approach.”

And Jason Hsu, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a former legislator from Taiwan’s KMT party, said that in preventing Lai’s stopover “the Trump administration appears to be accommodating China’s red lines.”

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee said on Tuesday that Trump is folding to Beijing. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, who is the top Democrat on the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, called it “another example of the Trump Administration caving to China in hopes of reaching a trade deal.”

“Presidents of both parties have allowed Taiwan officials to transit through the U.S. in the past, and now should be no different,” he said in a statement.

BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man was sentenced Tuesday to 26 months in prison for attempting to stab a flight attendant in the neck with a broken metal spoon and trying to open an airliner’s emergency door on a cross-country flight.

Francisco Severo Torres, of Leominster, pleaded guilty in May to one count of interference and attempted interference with flight crew members and attendants using a dangerous weapon in the March 2023 disturbance on United Airlines Flight 2609 from Los Angeles to Boston.

U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris sentenced Torres to time served, which was just over 2 years. He also will be on supervised release for five years, during which he is prohibited from flying on a commercial aircraft.

According to prosecutor and witness accounts, Torres went on a midair rant and tried to stab a crew member with a modified metal spoon.

The plane was about 45 minutes from Boston when the crew received an alarm that a side door on the aircraft was disarmed, according to court documents. One flight attendant noticed the door’s locking handle had been moved. Another saw Torres near the door and believed he had moved the handle. Cabin pressure during flight prevents airplane doors from opening.

Torres started loudly rambling that his father was Dracula, that he wanted to be shot so he could be reincarnated and that he would kill everyone on board, one passenger said. He punched a male flight attendant, who felt the metal spoon in Torres’ hand hit him on his shirt collar and tie three times, according to court documents. No one was injured.

Torres was eventually subdued and restrained by other passengers. He was arrested when the flight landed at Boston Logan International Airport, authorities said.

A lawyer for Torres could not be reached for comment.

Torres has spent time in mental health facilities, according to court records. The police chief in his hometown said officers have dealt with him several times since 2014, mostly over family issues and mental health episodes.

During one court appearance after his arrest, a federal judge ruled that Torres was not competent to stand trial and that he needed additional treatment. Magistrate Judge Judith Dein based her decision on a mental health evaluation of Torres and her own observations.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Five people have been charged in a bloody, late-night brawl in downtown Cincinnati over the weekend that involved dozens of people and raised concerns about crime in the Ohio city.

A video of the fight early Saturday shows a crowd milling about before several people start throwing punches. One man falls to the ground and was repeatedly punched and kicked by a bystanders. Another woman is punched in the face and falls to the ground, lying motionless before another woman helps her. She can be seeing bleeding from the mouth.

“I am outraged by the vicious fight that occurred downtown,” Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval said in a statement. “It is horrifying to watch, and this is unacceptable and disgusting behavior is intolerable in any part of our community.”

Three days after the brawl, the city has released little information about it other than to say it was not related to a Cincinnati Reds game, a basketball tournament or a jazz festival that attracted over 150,000 people to the city. It said five people have been charged in the brawl but only two had been arrested as of Tuesday.

Police Chief Teresa Theetge said more people would be charged, warning that anyone who “put their hands on another individual during this incident in an attempt to cause harm will face consequences.” She also suggested some bar owners may be culpable for over-serving participants in the confrontation, which occurred about 3 a.m. Saturday.

Theetge appeared on the defensive during the news conference, complaining the brawl was getting all the attention and “undoing all the good stuff that happened this weekend.” She also complained that bystanders took many videos but that only one person called 911. Police responded to the scene after the fight was over, about six minutes after the call.

“For us to get one phone call about this incident is unacceptable in this city,” she said.

The video of the brawl quickly turned political. Vice President JD Vance ’s half brother Cory Bowman, who is running to be Cincinnati’s mayor, flagged the fight on social media on Saturday and blamed city leadership for creating an unsafe environment.

“For many, these images sparked shock and disbelief,” he said in a statement. “For residents within our city limits, they serve as a stark reminder of the ongoing crime and lawlessness we’ve had to endure this summer.”

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights at U.S. Justice Department, posted on X above an image of the video that “EVERY American ���� is entitled to the equal protection of our laws. Federal law enforcement is on it and we will ensure that justice is done.”

The videos also became a flashpoint among conservatives online, despite a lack of available details about the incident. Political influencers pointed to it as an example of apparent Black-on-white violence and criticized media coverage of the fight.

“Why zero stories?” billionaire X owner Elon Musk wrote on his social platform on Sunday. Grok, Musk’s AI chatbot, fanned the flames, claiming in an X post the same day that the “media blackout” of the story was “telling.”

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Swenson reported from New York.

The University of California, Los Angeles, reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor whose suit against the university argued it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.

The settlement comes nearly a year after a preliminary injunction was issued, marking the first time a U.S. judge had ruled against a university over their handling of on-campus demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza.

UCLA had argued that it had no legal responsibility over the issue because protesters, not the university, blocked Jewish students’ access to areas. The university also worked with law enforcement to thwart attempts to set up new protest camps.

But U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi disagreed and ordered UCLA to create a plan to protect Jewish students on campus. The University of California, one of the nation’s largest public university systems, has since created system-wide campus guidelines on protests.

How the university handled dispersing the encampment in the spring drew widespread criticism. One night, counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment, throwing traffic cones and firing pepper spray, with fighting that continued for hours, injuring more than a dozen people, before police stepped in. The next day, after hundreds defied orders to leave, more than 200 people were arrested.

Trump administration joins lawsuit filed by Jewish students

In March, the Trump administration joined the lawsuit filed by the Jewish students and Jewish professor as it opened new investigations into allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Minnesota; Northwestern University and Portland State University.

Last week, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into alleged violations of federal antidiscrimination laws and restore more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation for future agreements.

Government finds UCLA violated civil rights of Jewish students

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

“UCLA failed to take timely and appropriate action in response to credible claims of harm and hostility on its campus,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

The university has said that it’s committed to campus safety and will continue to implement recommendations. The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the settlement or the DOJ announcement Tuesday.

UCLA agrees to granting students equal access

As part of the settlement agreement, UCLA must ensure Jewish students, faculty and staff are not excluded from anything on-campus.

The $6.13 million settlement will pay the plaintiffs’ damages and legal fees and go toward eight Jewish organizations.

Pro-Palestinian protesters also sue university

A group of 35 pro-Palestinian students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and activists also has filed a lawsuit against UCLA, alleging the university failed to protect those who participated in the demonstrations.

During the 2014 protests, at least 15 pro-Palestinian protesters were injured and the tepid response by authorities drew criticism from political leaders as well as Muslim students and advocacy groups.

BOSTON (AP) — The degenerative brain disease that has besieged the National Football League for two decades with a billion-dollar lawsuit, congressional hearings, an A-list movie and an unrelenting cortege of ex-players’ obituaries has now intruded on America’s favorite sport in the most violent manner yet.

The Las Vegas casino worker who killed four people in a New York City skyscraper that is home to the NFL’s headquarters carried a note blaming the league for mental health problems he attributed to his time as a high school football player.

Shane Tamura, 27, said in a three-page note found in his wallet that he had chronic traumatic encephalopathy — diagnosable only after death — and implored those who found him: “Study my brain.” Among his grievances against the NFL was a claim that the league put its profits ahead of player safety by concealing the harm CTE, and football, can cause.

Echoing an eerie trend in NFL player suicides, he shot himself in the chest, preserving his brain for an autopsy that could confirm whether his layman’s diagnosis was correct.

A degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other head trauma common in military combat and contact sports, CTE has been diagnosed in more than 100 former NFL players and arisen as an existential threat to the United States’ most powerful pro sports league.

Its dangers have led some states to consider banning youth football, prompted leagues at most levels to limit contact drills in practice, and spawned a series of concussion protocols and other rule changes designed to take the most violent edges off the hard-hitting sport.

Here is what we know and don’t know about the connection between CTE, the NFL and the shooter.

What is CTE?

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy can affect regions of the brain involved with regulating behavior and emotions. This can lead to memory loss, depression, violent mood swings and other cognitive and behavioral issues, though researchers note that these symptoms can also be linked to other illnesses.

Experts say symptoms can arise years or decades after the last brain trauma. Evidence of the disease has been found not just in those with long professional careers but in high school athletes as well.

Why is it associated with the NFL?

Researchers have established a connection between CTE and contact sports, military combat and other activities with repeated blows to the head. After more than a decade of denial, the NFL conceded the link between football and CTE in 2016 testimony before Congress, and has so far paid more than $1.4 billion to retired players to settle concussion-related claims.

The 2015 Will Smith film “Concussion” detailed the pioneering efforts of forensic pathologist Bennet Omalu, whose diagnosis of CTE in Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame center Mike Webster was the first in a former NFL player. Hall of Famers Ken Stabler, Frank Gifford and Junior Seau have also been diagnosed with CTE, as has Aaron Hernandez; in a 2017 paper, evidence of the disease was found 110 of the 111 former NFL players’ brains studied.

Did the NFL headquarters shooter have CTE?

It’s not possible to say.

For now, CTE can only be diagnosed definitively by examining the brain posthumously through an autopsy. According to Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Center, progressive degeneration of brain tissue in people with CTE includes the buildup of an abnormal protein called tau in a pattern that distinguishes it from other diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

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Associated Press writers Maryclaire Dale and Laura Ungar contributed to this story.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Susan Monarez to be President Donald Trump’s director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Monarez, 50, was named acting director in January and then tapped as the nominee in March after Trump abruptly withdrew his first choice, David Weldon.

The Atlanta-based federal agency, tasked with tracking diseases and responding to health threats, has been hit by widespread staff cuts, key resignations and heated controversy over long-standing CDC vaccine policies upended by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

At her confirmation hearing, Monarez said she values vaccines and rigorous scientific evidence, but she largely dodged questions about her dealings with Kennedy, an antivaccine activist who has sought to dismantle some of the agency’s previous protocols and decisions.

With the 51-47 vote in favor of Monarez, she becomes the first CDC director to pass through Senate confirmation under a 2023 law.

She holds a doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Wisconsin, and did postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Prior to the CDC, Monarez was largely known for her government roles in health technology and biosecurity.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles County leaders want to prohibit law enforcement officers from concealing their identities while on duty, a response to recent immigration raids during which some federal agents refused to identify themselves or covered their faces.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 4—0, with one abstention, to direct county counsel to draft an ordinance that bars officers, including federal agents, from wearing masks, with limited exceptions such as for medical protection or during undercover operations. Officers would also be required to visibly display identification and agency affiliation while out in public.

Since early June, immigration agents have swarmed Southern California, arresting hundreds of people and prompting protests against the federal raids and the subsequent deployment of the National Guard and Marines. About half the Guard troops and all the Marines were pulled out of LA in recent weeks.

Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored the motion, said the raids carried out by the Trump administration have sparked fear and residents have a right to know who is stopping, questioning or detaining them.

“Across the county, people are being pulled out of their cars, beaten, and ripped from their families by men in tactical gear with balaclavas, no badges, and no names,” Hahn said. “That’s not how law enforcement in a democracy should operate.”

Hahn conceded that it is unclear if the county will be able to enforce the law when it comes to actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. “Ultimately, it might have to be decided by a court,” she said.

Legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky said Tuesday that a court could have to decide if the ordinance is interfering with the ability of officers to carry out their duties.

“They key is that it has to apply to all law enforcement. It can’t just apply to federal law enforcement,” said Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.

Administration officials have defended the practice of officers wearing masks, saying immigration agents have faced harassment as they have gone about their enforcement. Officials said agents are hiding their identities for their safety to avoid things like death threats and doxing, where someone’s personal information is released without their permission on the internet.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” ICE acting director Todd Lyons said last month.

In the state legislature, a pending measure would ban local, state, and federal police from covering their faces while conducting operations in California. And a similar bill has been introduced into the U.S. Congress by Democratic senators Alex Padilla, of California, and Cory Booker, of New Jersey.

Chemerinsky said the advantage of federal legislation is that it would “clearly be constitutional” because Congress has the power to regulate how federal law enforcement operates.

County counsel has 60 days to submit the draft ordinance to the board for approval.

Supervisor Hilda Solis, the measure’s other co-author, said local officials must set expectations about how law enforcement should conduct themselves while in the county.

“The use of masks, tactical gear, and refusal to show identification is not only alarming and confusing, but erodes public trust and raises serious safety concerns,” Solis said.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters in eastern Nebraska battled a fire for hours following an explosion Tuesday at a wood pellet manufacturing plant, but authorities said they have been unable to get close enough to search for three people believed to be missing.

The explosion happened at the Horizon Biofuels plant, which makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, on the south end of Fremont, Nebraska.

Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said three individuals were in the building, but “that’s all we can say at this point,” he said in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re working with the state patrol as well as the state of Nebraska and other groups to assess the building and the structure of the building to where, again, we can be able to get in,” Spellerberg said.

Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said first responders were up against “heavy smoke and a lot of flames” when they first arrived on scene. The first call reporting the explosion came in just before noon, according to Spellerberg.

Bernt said they believe the facility stores wood and some alcohol-based materials.

Dodge County Attorney Pamela Hopkins, who also serves as the county coroner, said law enforcement and first responders were busy securing the scene Tuesday afternoon and had not yet contacted her in her role as coroner. She added that she was hoping not to get that call.

“Right now, we’re focused on the safety of the community and getting the situation under control — keeping the scene secure,” Hopkins said. She declined to comment further.

Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska, is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha, Nebraska.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man pleaded guilty Tuesday to smuggling lab equipment to Russian companies in violation of trade sanctions the United States imposed after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Federal prosecutors charged Andrew Pogosyan, a 68-year-old Russian-born U.S. citizen who lives in Madison, in June in a four-count information with conspiracy to defraud the United States and smuggling goods out of the country.

According to the information, Pogosyan started using his company, Omega Diagnostics LLC, in September 2022 to ship lab equipment to Russian companies, including one that that performed chemical research for the Russian military.

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security imposed sanctions in February 2022 on exports to Russia in response to the Ukrainian invasion. The sanctions require exporter to obtain special licenses to ship technology and goods to Russia, particularly products that could help Russia produce chemical and biological weapons.

According to prosecutors, Pogosyan did not obtain a license and tried to conceal his exports’ ultimate destination by sending them to third-party countries, including Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey, Latvia, and Lithuania. The products were then forwarded on to the Russian companies.

Pogosyan faces up to 35 years in prison when he’s sentenced Oct. 7. His attorney, William Coffield, said in an email to The Associated Press on Monday afternoon that Pogosyan is a good person and didn’t appreciate the seriousness of the sanctions. He added that Pogosyan’s customers were scientists working on medical and other non-military research.

“He has accepted responsibility,” Coffield said, “and is working to make amends.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two top Federal Reserve officials could dissent from the central bank’s likely decision Wednesday to hold its key interest rate steady, a sign of division at the Fed that reflects the economy’s muddy outlook and possibly the jockeying to replace Chair Jerome Powell when his term ends in May 2026.

Based on their public comments in the past two months, it’s possible that governors Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman could vote against leaving the short-term rate at about 4.3%. If so, it would be the first time two governors have dissented in over three decades.

The division could be a preview of what might happen after Powell steps down, if President Donald Trump appoints a replacement who pushes for the much lower interest rates the White House desires. Other Fed officials could push back if a future chair sought to cut rates by more than economic conditions would otherwise support.

For now, any dissent also would likely reflect that there are at least two different ways to see the U.S. economy, which is clearly in flux. The first is the way that most Fed officials have described it: Unemployment is at a low 4.1%, while the economy is growing, albeit modestly, and inflation did tick up in June, largely because of tariffs.

So, the thinking goes, why not stand pat on rates and see what happens next? If inflation continues to worsen, a rate cut could make things worse — the Fed typically raises borrowing costs to combat inflation. And as long as the economy is doing well, there is no need to cut to support growth.

The other view is more worrisome: There are signs the economy is weakening, such as sluggish hiring, slower consumer spending, and pretty modest overall growth. The economy, in the first six months of the year, probably expanded at an annual rate of about 1.5%. At the same time, tariffs have lifted inflation by less than many economists expected, so far.

This is the view of the economy that Waller sketched out in a speech earlier this month.

“Private-sector payroll growth is near stall speed,” Waller said. “We should not wait until the labor market deteriorates before we cut the policy rate.”

When the Fed cuts its rate, it often — but not always — leads to lower borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards.

Some economists agree with Waller’s concerns about the job market. Excluding government hiring, the economy added just 74,000 jobs in June, with most of those gains occurring in health care.

“We are in a much slower job hiring backdrop than most people appreciate,” said Tom Porcelli, chief U.S. economist at PGIM Fixed Income.

Waller was appointed to the Fed’s seven-member governing board by Trump during the president’s first term. He has often been mentioned as a potential replacement for Powell. Waller has underscored in several speeches that he does not think Trump’s tariffs will lead to persistently higher inflation.

Bowman, the vice chair for regulation, was also appointed during Trump’s first term. She suggested in June that the Fed should soon reduce borrowing costs. Bowman is also a possible Powell replacement, though more of a long shot.

Michael Feroli, an economist at JPMorgan Chase, said in a note to clients this week if the pair were to dissent, “it would say more about auditioning for the Fed chair appointment than about economic conditions.”

The Fed’s two-day meeting comes after a week of extraordinary interactions with the Trump White House, which has accused Powell of mismanaging an extensive, $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings. Trump suggested two weeks ago that the rising cost for the project could be a “firing offense” but has since backed off that characterization.

Notably, Trump argues that the Fed should cut because the economy is doing very well, which is a different viewpoint than nearly all economists, who say that a healthy, growing economy doesn’t need rate cuts.

“If your economy is hot, you’re supposed to have higher short-term rates,” Porcelli said.

CHICAGO (AP) — Kevin Huigens wipes away tears as he gazes upon the statue of Cubs’ legend Ryne Sandberg outside Chicago’s famed Wrigley Field. Flowers, Cubs caps, American flags and — of course — baseballs, litter the base and the ground beneath.

“I believed in him,” said Huigens, 68, of nearby Berwyn. “He made being a Cubs fan enjoyable.”

Sandberg, who had cancer, died Monday.

“But he’s here in sprit, and he’s going to lift up our Cubs even if he’s not here physically,” Jessie Hill, 44, said, wearing a Cubs cap and jersey.

Social media is swamped with outpourings of love, regret and sadness at the death of Sandberg and other cherished celebrities who died this month.

The Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 54, drowned in Costa Rica on July 20. Two days later, legendary heavy metal and reality show star Ozzy Osbourne, who had Parkinson’s disease, died at age 76. Jazz musician Chuck Mangione also died July 22 in his sleep at age 84. Then, on Thursday, former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, was pronounced dead at a hospital after a cardiac arrest. He was 71.

‘A loss you can share with everybody’

When celebrity deaths come in quick succession, “if nothing else, it reminds people of their own mortality,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University.

“The people who were a central part of the culture of the 1980s are getting to that age when biology has its way,” said Thompson, 65. “When it happens in these big chunks, it becomes even more powerful.”

Hogan, Warner and Sandberg were introduced to millions of people as television’s popularity exploded during the 1980s. Mangione’s trumpet and flügelhorn were staples on smooth jazz radio stations during the 1970s and into the 1980s.

Osbourne’s career spanned multiple decades, from the 1970s, when his band, Black Sabbath, dominated the heavy metal scene, through the 2000s, when his family dominated reality TV with “The Osbournes.”

“The silver lining about celebrities is they continue to exist for us exactly as they did before” Thompson said, because we can continue to listen to their music or watch their TV shows even after they die.

“When you lose a grandparent or an uncle it’s sad and you grieve with your family,” he continued. “But it’s a private kind of thing. When a celebrity dies, it’s a loss you can share with everybody.”

Eternal fans

Robert Livernois, 59, said he grew up an Osbourne fan. He lives in Birmingham — not the gritty city in the English Midlands where Ozzy was born and raised, but a tony city in suburban Detroit.

“I loved his music. I never subscribed to any of the theatrics,” said Livernois, a radio show host. Osbourne famously bit off the head of a bat during a live performance.

Robert West, 40, produces content for The Wrestling Shop in San Antonio. He said he lost two icons within days when Osbourne and Hogan died.

He learned of Hogan’s death through a text from a friend.

“It’s almost like the last bits of my childhood is almost gone,” West said. “I think he was part of everyone’s life.”

Hogan was a pioneer in the wrestling and entertainment industries, having a similar impact to that of Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson in music, West added.

Twenty-three-year-old Indigo Watts is a Black Sabbath and heavy metal fan who was working at Flipside Records, a store in Berkley just north of Detroit, when he learned his hero had died.

“Some guy came in and before he left he asked ‘Have you heard about Ozzy?’” Watts said. “As soon as he said, it my heart just sank.”

He said the recent celebrity deaths remind him of a dark period in 2016 when the world lost music legends Prince and David Bowie.

“I was still young, but that hit me like a truck,” Watts said. “When you’re a celebrity and you die, you leave an impact on the world.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats reintroduced a bill Tuesday to restore and expand protections enshrined in the Voting Rights Act of 1965, their latest long-shot attempt to revive the landmark law just days before its 60th anniversary and at a time of renewed debate over the future administration of American elections.

Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia unveiled the measure, titled the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, with the backing of Democratic leaders. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-led Congress, but it provides the clearest articulation of Democrats’ agenda on voting rights and election reform.

The legislation would reestablish and expand the requirement that states and localities with a history of discrimination get federal approval before changing their voting laws. It would also require states to allow same-day voter registration, prevent voters from being purged from voter rolls if they miss elections and allow people who may have been disenfranchised at the ballot box to seek a legal remedy in the courts.

“Democracy is the very house in which we live. It is the framework in which we get to fight for the things that we care about,” Warnock said. “These last seven months have reminded us that we ought not take any of it for granted. We are literally in a fight for the life of the republic.”

Warnock was joined by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, as well as Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Alex Padilla of California. The senators were flanked by dozens of activists, including voting rights advocates, environmental campaigners, faith leaders and union organizers.

The reintroduction comes at a precarious moment for the Voting Rights Act. The enforcement mechanisms of the law have been removed or hampered by two decades of court rulings and lapsed congressional reauthorizations. And an unusual push by Republicans in several states to redistrict congressional maps five years ahead of schedule has also raised questions about the effectiveness of the law in protecting voters.

State lawmakers have enacted dozens of laws in recent years that voting rights activists argue restrict access to the ballot, especially for people of color, poorer communities and people with disabilities.

Schumer promised that Democrats would “fight fire with fire” to protect voting rights.

And Warnock warned of “an authoritarian movement that is afoot right now in our country,” before denouncing a special session called by the Texas legislature to redistrict the state’s legislative and congressional maps. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans are backing the effort, which they hope will net the GOP several seats in the House of Representatives and help them hold the House majority.

Democrats first introduced the updated Voting Rights Act in 2021, when the party had unified control of Congress. The bill came in response to several years of states enacting restrictive voting laws following the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down the section of the Voting Rights Act that required some states to seek federal approval for legislative maps and election policies.

The bill passed the House twice in that Congress but failed to pass the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate. Rep. Terri Sewell of Alabama reintroduced a House version in March.

The bill is named after John Lewis, the longtime Democratic congressman and civil rights activist who died in 2020. Warnock represents Lewis’ home state, while Sewell represents Selma, Alabama, the city where Lewis organized during the Civil Rights movement and was bludgeoned by state troopers during a peaceful protest on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, known as Bloody Sunday.

A picture of Lewis was positioned behind the senators as they spoke about the bill. Blumenthal, the Connecticut Democrat, said that Lewis’ “stare is unrelenting. He’s going to hold us accountable.”

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A Marine Corps veteran’s wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.

Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy’s office put in a request Friday for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children.

Kennedy’s constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife’s release and thanked him for his military service. “I am so happy for you and your family,” Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. “God is truly great!”

Kennedy’s office proved “instrumental” in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family’s attorney. Kennedy’s office did not provide further comment.

Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans.

Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration policies.

“Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,” Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man.

Senator’s office requests mother’s release from ICE custody

The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be “illegally” in the country.

An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family’s attorney reached out to Kennedy’s office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May.

Tate received Paola Clouatre’s court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange.

On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre’s deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy’s office, Tate said she “sent the request to release” Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge’s motion with the agency, emails show.

In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it “continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case” and had received the judge’s decision from Kennedy’s office “for consideration.”

The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody.

“We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers,” Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. “If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us.”

Back with her children

Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application.

She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre’s mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless.

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre’s release.

Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would “actually look at the circumstances” before detaining people like his wife. “It shouldn’t just be like a blanket ‘Oh, they’re illegal, throw them in ICE detention.’”

Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again.

“I was feeling bad,” she said of detention. “I was feeling like I failed my kids.”

It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre’s immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said.

For now, she’s wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city’s famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they’ll finally get that chance again: “We’re going to make that day up.”

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is asking a judge to free him on a $50 million bond while he awaits sentencing in October after a jury found him not guilty of the most serious federal charges he faced earlier this month.

In a court filing Tuesday, Combs’ lawyer argued that conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn are dangerous, noting that others convicted of similar prostitution-related offenses were typically released before sentencing.

“Sean Combs should not be in jail for this conduct,” Marc Agnifilo said. “In fact, he may be the only person currently in a United States jail for being any sort of john, and certainly the only person in jail for hiring adult male escorts for him and his girlfriend.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Prosecutors have previously insisted he remains a flight risk.

Combs, 55, faces up to a decade in prison on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, for sexual encounters. A conviction on racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking could have put one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures in prison for life.

Immediately after he was acquitted on July 2, Agnifilo had asked that Combs be released on bond.

But Judge Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Combs at the time had not met the burden of showing by clear and convincing evidence a “lack of danger to any person or the community.”

Combs is the latest celebrity inmate to be locked up at MDC Brooklyn, the only federal jail in New York City, joining a list that includes R. Kelly, Ghislaine Maxwell and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican lawmakers on Tuesday overrode several vetoes by Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, getting just enough votes from Stein’s own party to enact some laws while falling short on others.

The votes were key tests for Republican General Assembly leaders since they narrowly lost their veto-proof majority following last fall’s elections.

Both chambers enacted eight of 14 vetoed measures to further their conservative agenda, including laws that target transgender rights, allow firearms on private school property and eliminate an interim greenhouse gas reduction mandate.

The GOP is one seat shy in the House of overcoming vetoes at will. Lawmakers were able to convince anywhere from one to three House Democrats to override on some measures.

“It depends on what the issue is, but on most issues, we’re going to have a working supermajority,” House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters after session.

Democratic leaders managed to keep intact other vetoes issued by Stein, meaning GOP goals to let adults carry concealed handguns without a permit and eliminate DEI initiatives are derailed for now.

Republicans “didn’t override them all. I mean, we might come back and override them if they have the numbers,” Democratic Rep. Pricey Harrison said after Tuesday’s session. “It’s a heck of a way to do policy.”

Possible Democratic victory on transgender bill ends in defeat

House Democrats weren’t able to uphold the governor’s veto on a bill targeting transgender people when one of their party members broke ranks.

The legislation initially ran as a bipartisan measure curbing sexual exploitation of women and minors on pornography websites. But several contentious provisions were tacked on later, such as recognizing only two sexes and preventing state-funded gender transition procedures for prisoners.

Freshman Democratic Rep. Dante Pittman voted for the measure in June but on Tuesday sided with Stein’s veto instead. Another Democrat, Rep. Nasif Majeed, sided with Republicans to override Stein’s veto.

“I had some moral issues about that and I had to lean on my values,” Majeed told reporters of the bill after the vote.

DEI bills blocked for now

In one of their biggest victories, Democrats blocked three bills that would have restricted diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the state by staying unified in their opposition.

Two of the bills would bar certain “divisive concepts” and “discriminatory practices” related to race and identity in K-12 schools, public universities and community colleges. The third bill would ban state agencies from implementing diversity, equity and inclusion programs or utilizing DEI in hiring practices.

Hall told reporters he expects the chamber will overcome the remaining vetoes, such as the DEI bills, at some point.

“If people are out and the numbers are there, we’re going to vote to override,” Hall said.

Mixed results on guns and immigration

Republican lawmakers fervently prioritized legislation on guns and immigration this session, but in some cases, they couldn’t complete that agenda Tuesday.

A vetoed bill allowing permitless concealed carry for eligible people over the age of 18 wasn’t heard in the House. That bill already faced an uphill battle after two Republicans voted against it with Democrats last month.

House Republicans also failed to call a vote on vetoed legislation that would require several state law enforcement agencies to engage in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown by formally cooperating with federal agents.

Other legislation on guns and immigration followed the pathway to becoming law.

A bill that allows certain people to carry firearms onto private school property with administrative permission passed with support of a Democrat. Another Democrat’s support also pushed through a separate immigration measure expanding the offenses that would require a local sheriff to check a detained person’s legal status in the country.

Interim greenhouse gas mandate gets repealed

Enough Democrats joined Republicans in overriding Stein’s veto of legislation that largely addressed activities of Duke Energy, the state’s dominant electric utility.

The new law in part repeals a portion of a bipartisan 2021 law that told electric regulators to work toward reducing carbon dioxide output 70% from 2005 levels by 2030. A directive in the 2021 law to meet a carbon neutrality standard by 2050 is still in place.

Republicans said the 70% reduction mandate was unnecessary and if eliminated would moderate electricity rate increases required to meet the 2050 standard by allowing use of less expensive power sources.

Stein and environmental groups opposed the measure, saying that eliminating the 2030 standard and other provisions will result in higher consumer rates by having utilities rely more more on natural gas to generate electricity.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Authorities are warning hikers to steer clear of streams and rivers where salmon are running and to take precautions after bears mauled hikers on two different occasions within a week in Anchorage.

Both unidentified hikers survived the attacks in separate parts of the municipality of Anchorage, a sprawling urban-wildlife interface that spreads across 1,961 square miles (5,079 square kilometers), an area slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island.

Anchorage is home to about 290,000 people, or about 40% of the state’s population, and all kinds of wildlife, including an estimated 350 black bears, 65 brown bears and 1,600 moose.

One Facebook group captures stunning videos and photographs of bears, moose, wolves and other wildlife living and traveling within a half mile of a populated neighborhood in east Anchorage, in the shadows of the Chugach Mountains.

“Every year we recommend that folks avoid salmon-bearing streams because that concentrates both species of bears,” said Cory Stantorf, the Anchorage area biologist for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “That’s a major food source for these animals as they get ready for that hibernation season coming up.”

Both bear maulings in the last week occurred near populated areas, including the second attack Saturday near the suburb of Eagle River.

A man was walking on a trail that runs parallel to the south fork of the Eagle River, where salmon are running, when his unleashed dog happened upon a brown bear with a cub, said Timothy Gurnett, a Chugach State Park ranger.

The bear mauled the hiker, who unloaded his entire can of spray deterrent to ward off the bear, first to stop the attack and then a second time when the bear returned. The sow and her cub disappeared into the woods.

Armed officials searched for the bear on foot and with a drone, but the bear had left the area.

Officials believe the sow was protecting her cub, and don’t intend to kill it.

“That’s not something we go after bears for because any sow in that position would have likely done the same,” Stantorf said.

The first attack occurred July 22 when a bear attacked a woman on a popular trail in a hillside neighborhood overlooking Anchorage and Cook Inlet.

The woman called police and said she had been attacked by what she thought was a brown bear about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) into the trail near the Stuckagain Heights neighborhood.

Cyndi Wardlow, a regional supervisor for the state Department of Fish and Game, said shortly after the attack that it has not been determined if the bear was a brown bear or a cinnamon black bear, which could look like a brown bear.

Visibility on the trail was very low, with tall grass and heavy brush. Wardlow said staff was able to collect hair and scat samples for submission for analysis, but it could take two weeks to get results. Stantorf said they are still waiting for results.

Officials were hoping the samples could shed light on the type of bear and if it was male or female. Since they didn’t know what they were working with, she said they weren’t actively searching for an animal after that.

At this time of the year, people should avoid the salmon-bearing waterways.

“There’s so many other places to hike,” Gurnett said. Those areas include over 300 miles (483 kilometers) of trails within Chugach State Park, 95% of which lies within the Municipality of Anchorage.

Hikers should be extra vigilant when they are next to a river since the water masks sounds, and bears don’t hear people coming. Hikers could carry and sound air horns to let bears know they are nearby.

“Bears don’t want to be around us. They want to be somewhere else,” he said.

Regardless of where people may hike, whether it is in the backcountry or near waterways, there is always a chance they could have a bear encounter or come across a moose, wolf or wolverine, Stantorf said.

Stantorf recommends people travel in groups, make noise, have bear spray ready, don’t run or hike with earbuds in, keep pets leashed and be aware of your surroundings.

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Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer in Juneau, Alaska, contributed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. will partner with Israel to run new food centers in Gaza to address the worsening humanitarian crisis there, but he and U.S. officials offered few additional details about the plan or how it would differ from existing food distribution centers.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned from a trip to Scotland that Israel would preside over the new food centers “to make sure the distribution is proper.”

“We’re going to be dealing with Israel, and we think they can do a good job of it,” Trump said.

The opaque details come as the Trump administration is facing calls at home and abroad to do more to address the hunger crisis in Gaza. The U.S.’s close ally, Israel, is at the center of an international outcry as more images of emaciated children continue to emerge.

That pressure comes after the U.S. pulled out of talks last week to try to broker a ceasefire in the 21-month Israel-Hamas war, accusing Hamas of acting in bad faith. But Trump this week broke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, disagreeing publicly with him about starvation in Gaza and citing the pictures of hungry people.

The White House described it as “a new aid plan” to help people in Gaza obtain access to food and promised that details would emerge. It did not elaborate.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Tuesday that she didn’t know “the framework” of how the new aid distribution would work.

“I’m waiting for the president to return. I don’t want to get ahead of him,” Bruce said.

Democrats in Congress have implored the Trump administration to step up its role in addressing the suffering and starvation in Gaza.

More than 40 senators signed a letter Tuesday urging the Trump administration to resume ceasefire talks and sharply criticizing the Israeli-backed American organization that had already been created to distribute food aid.

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, questioned why the U.S. was not allowing long-standing aid groups to run food centers.

“I’m glad that the president is saying that this is a problem. But if we want to solve the problem, turn to the folks who have bee