Associated Press – Baltimore Sun https://www.baltimoresun.com Baltimore Sun: Your source for Baltimore breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather and traffic Mon, 28 Jul 2025 16:03:00 +0000 en-US hourly 30 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 https://www.baltimoresun.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/baltimore-sun-favicon.png?w=32 Associated Press – Baltimore Sun https://www.baltimoresun.com 32 32 208788401 Israeli strikes kill 36 in Gaza, including a mother and newborn, as more aid is allowed in https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/mideast-wars-newborn-killed/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:55:00 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582291&preview=true&preview_id=11582291 By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes killed at least 36 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, including a pregnant woman and her newborn, local health officials said. Israel meanwhile eased some aid restrictions as it came under mounting pressure over the spiraling hunger crisis in the war-ravaged territory.

Israel announced Sunday that the military would pause operations in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi for 10 hours a day until further notice to allow for the improved flow of aid and designate secure routes for aid delivery.

Aid agencies have welcomed the new measures but say they are not enough to counter worsening starvation in the Palestinian territory.

Israel said it would continue military operations alongside the new humanitarian measures. The Israeli military had no immediate comment about the latest strikes, which occurred outside the time frame for the pause Israel declared would be held between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Newborn dies after complex surgery

The newborn died hours after being delivered in a complex surgery. She had been placed in an incubator and was breathing with assistance from a ventilator, footage from The Associated Press showed.

Her mother, Soad al-Shaer, who was seven months pregnant with her, was among 12 Palestinians killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house and neighboring tents in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies.

Another strike hit a two-story house in Khan Younis, killing at least 11 people, more than half of them women and children, according to the hospital. At least five others were killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza, according to other hospitals.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on most of the strikes. It said it was not aware of one strike in Gaza City during the pause that health officials said killed one person.

Israel says it only targets combatants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the fighters operate in densely populated areas. The daily airstrikes across the territory frequently kill women and children. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Israel allows more aid to enter

Images of emaciated children have sparked outrage around the world, including from Israel’s close allies. U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called the images of emaciated and malnourished children in Gaza “terrible.”

Israel has restricted aid to varying degrees throughout the war. In March, it cut off the entry of all goods, including fuel, food and medicine, to pressure Hamas to free hostages.

Israel partially lifted those restrictions in May but also pushed ahead on a new U.S.-backed aid delivery system that has been wracked by chaos and violence. Traditional aid providers have encountered a breakdown in law and order surrounding their deliveries.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid shipments, said U.N. agencies collected 120 trucks for distribution on Sunday and that another 180 trucks had been allowed into Gaza.

The U.N. and aid groups say the territory needs 500-600 trucks a day to meet its needs. Israel’s blockade and military operations have destroyed nearly all food production in the territory of roughly 2 million Palestinians.

Two air force planes from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates meanwhile airdropped 17 tons of humanitarian aid in Gaza on Monday.

The head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, warned that airdrops are “expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians” and won’t reverse the increasing starvation.

The 17 tons of aid would fill less than one aid truck, according to World Food Program’s calculations of almost 19 tons per aid truck.

Seven killed near aid site, officials say

The Awda hospital in central Gaza said it received the bodies of seven Palestinians who it said were killed Monday by Israeli fire close to an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor. The hospital said 20 others were wounded close to the site. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hamas started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack, in which Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people and abducted 251 others. They still hold 50, and Israel believed more than half the remaining hostages are dead. Most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 59,800 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry operates under the Hamas government. The U.N. and other international organizations see it as the most reliable source of data on casualties.

Magdy reported from Cairo.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

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11582291 2025-07-28T11:55:00+00:00 2025-07-28T11:59:40+00:00
Kim Jong Un’s sister rejects outreach by South Korea’s new president https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/north-korea-rebuffs-south-outreach/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:49:52 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582300&preview=true&preview_id=11582300 By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rebuffed overtures by South Korea’s new liberal government, saying Monday that its “blind trust” in the country’s alliance with the U.S. and hostility toward North Korea make it no different from its conservative predecessor.

Kim Yo Jong’s comments imply that North Korea — now preoccupied with its expanding cooperation with Russia — sees no need to resume diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S. anytime soon. Experts say she likely hopes to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.

“We clarify once again the official stand that no matter what policy is adopted and whatever proposal is made in Seoul, we have no interest in it and there is neither a reason to meet nor an issue to be discussed,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by state media.

It’s North Korea’s first official statement on the government of South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, which took office in early June with a promise to improve badly frayed ties with North Korea.

Lee’s government has halted anti-Pyongyang frontline loudspeaker broadcasts, taken steps to ban activists from flying balloons with propaganda leaflets across the border and repatriated North Koreans who were drifted south in wooden boats months earlier.

North Korea complains of South Korea-US military drills

North Korea has shunned talks with South Korea and the U.S. since leader Kim Jong Un’s high-stakes nuclear diplomacy with President Donald Trump fell apart in 2019 due to wrangling over international sanctions. North Korea has since focused on building more powerful nuclear weapons targeting its rivals and declared a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula to terminate relations with South Korea.

Kim Yo Jong called Lee’s steps “sincere efforts” to develop ties, but said the new government still plots to “stand in confrontation” with North Korea. She mentioned the upcoming summertime South Korea-U.S. military drills, which North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.

Lee said it’s important to restore trust between the Koreas as he met Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and asked about his thought on the latest North Korean statement. Chung, whose job makes him the top South Korean official on North Korea, later told reporters that he intends to propose to Lee that South Korea and the U.S. “adjust” their military exercises.

Chung’s remarks, which could mean scaling back South Korea-U.S. training as a way to get North Korea to return to talks, will likely invite strong criticism from conservatives, who support expanded South Korea-U.S. training to cope with North Korea’s advancing nuclear program.

Moon Seong Mook, an analyst for the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, said Kim Yo Jong’s statement shows North Korea is holding out for South Korea to abandon the U.S. alliance.

Moon said that Kim likely sees little upside in engaging with the South since it cannot restart economic projects that previously benefited the North as long as international sanctions remain in place.

North Korea focuses on Russian ties

North Korea built cooperation with Russia, sending troops and conventional weapons to support its war in Ukraine, and likely receiving economic and economic assistance in return.

Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly boasted of his personal ties with Kim Jong Un and expressed intent to resume diplomacy with him. But North Korea hasn’t publicly responded to Trump’s overture.

Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said that Kim Yo Jong’s statement had a domestic audience.

“Kim Yo Jong’s comments are an effort to advance national pride by portraying North Korea in a superior position, despite its economic struggles and international pariah status,” Easley said. “She also seeks to justify Pyongyang’s weapons programs and divide Seoul and Washington by criticizing upcoming military exercises.”

Still, there is a limit on what North Korea can get from Russia, and Pyongyang could change course at a major upcoming meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party, likely to be held in January, said Kwak Gil Sup, the head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korea affairs.

“I think North Korea may formulate a Plan B and Plan C in relations for South Korea and the U.S.,” Kwak said.

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11582300 2025-07-28T11:49:52+00:00 2025-07-28T11:59:07+00:00
Creating realistic deepfakes is getting easier than ever. Fighting back may take even more AI https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/ai-impersonation/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:42:42 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582263&preview=true&preview_id=11582263 By DAVID KLEPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) — The phone rings. It’s the secretary of state calling. Or is it?

For Washington insiders, seeing and hearing is no longer believing, thanks to a spate of recent incidents involving deepfakes impersonating top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration.

Digital fakes are coming for corporate America, too, as criminal gangs and hackers associated with adversaries including North Korea use synthetic video and audio to impersonate CEOs and low-level job candidates to gain access to critical systems or business secrets.

Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence, creating realistic deepfakes is easier than ever, causing security problems for governments, businesses and private individuals and making trust the most valuable currency of the digital age.

Responding to the challenge will require laws, better digital literacy and technical solutions that fight AI with more AI.

“As humans, we are remarkably susceptible to deception,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and founder of the tech firm Pindrop Security. But he believes solutions to the challenge of deepfakes may be within reach: “We are going to fight back.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures as he boards his flight before departing from Subang Air Base, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, on Friday, July 11, 2025, after attending the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio gestures as he boards his flight before departing from Subang Air Base, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, on Friday, July 11, 2025, after attending the 58th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ meeting. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP)

AI deepfakes become a national security threat

This summer, someone used AI to create a deepfake of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in an attempt to reach out to foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor over text, voice mail and the Signal messaging app.

In May someone impersonated Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles.

Another phony Rubio had popped up in a deepfake earlier this year, saying he wanted to cut off Ukraine’s access to Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service. Ukraine’s government later rebutted the false claim.

The national security implications are huge: People who think they’re chatting with Rubio or Wiles, for instance, might discuss sensitive information about diplomatic negotiations or military strategy.

“You’re either trying to extract sensitive secrets or competitive information or you’re going after access, to an email server or other sensitive network,” Kinny Chan, CEO of the cybersecurity firm QiD, said of the possible motivations.

Synthetic media can also aim to alter behavior. Last year, Democratic voters in New Hampshire received a robocall urging them not to vote in the state’s upcoming primary. The voice on the call sounded suspiciously like then-President Joe Biden but was actually created using AI.

Their ability to deceive makes AI deepfakes a potent weapon for foreign actors. Both Russia and China have used disinformation and propaganda directed at Americans as a way of undermining trust in democratic alliances and institutions.

Steven Kramer, the political consultant who admitted sending the fake Biden robocalls, said he wanted to send a message of the dangers deepfakes pose to the American political system. Kramer was acquitted last month of charges of voter suppression and impersonating a candidate.

“I did what I did for $500,” Kramer said. “Can you imagine what would happen if the Chinese government decided to do this?”

Scammers target the financial industry with deepfakes

The greater availability and sophistication of the programs mean deepfakes are increasingly used for corporate espionage and garden variety fraud.

“The financial industry is right in the crosshairs,” said Jennifer Ewbank, a former deputy director of the CIA who worked on cybersecurity and digital threats. “Even individuals who know each other have been convinced to transfer vast sums of money.”

In the context of corporate espionage, they can be used to impersonate CEOs asking employees to hand over passwords or routing numbers.

Deepfakes can also allow scammers to apply for jobs — and even do them — under an assumed or fake identity. For some this is a way to access sensitive networks, to steal secrets or to install ransomware. Others just want the work and may be working a few similar jobs at different companies at the same time.

Authorities in the U.S. have said that thousands of North Koreans with information technology skills have been dispatched to live abroad, using stolen identities to obtain jobs at tech firms in the U.S. and elsewhere. The workers get access to company networks as well as a paycheck. In some cases, the workers install ransomware that can be later used to extort even more money.

The schemes have generated billions of dollars for the North Korean government.

Within three years, as many as 1 in 4 job applications is expected to be fake, according to research from Adaptive Security, a cybersecurity company.

“We’ve entered an era where anyone with a laptop and access to an open-source model can convincingly impersonate a real person,” said Brian Long, Adaptive’s CEO. “It’s no longer about hacking systems — it’s about hacking trust.”

Experts deploy AI to fight back against AI

Researchers, public policy experts and technology companies are now investigating the best ways of addressing the economic, political and social challenges posed by deepfakes.

New regulations could require tech companies to do more to identify, label and potentially remove deepfakes on their platforms. Lawmakers could also impose greater penalties on those who use digital technology to deceive others — if they can be caught.

Greater investments in digital literacy could also boost people’s immunity to online deception by teaching them ways to spot fake media and avoid falling prey to scammers.

The best tool for catching AI may be another AI program, one trained to sniff out the tiny flaws in deepfakes that would go unnoticed by a person.

Systems like Pindrop’s analyze millions of datapoints in any person’s speech to quickly identify irregularities. The system can be used during job interviews or other video conferences to detect if the person is using voice cloning software, for instance.

Similar programs may one day be commonplace, running in the background as people chat with colleagues and loved ones online. Someday, deepfakes may go the way of email spam, a technological challenge that once threatened to upend the usefulness of email, said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop’s CEO.

“You can take the defeatist view and say we’re going to be subservient to disinformation,” he said. “But that’s not going to happen.”

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11582263 2025-07-28T11:42:42+00:00 2025-07-28T11:46:25+00:00
Tariffs threaten Asian beauty product boom in US https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/asian-beauty-products-us-tariffs/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:28:35 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582221&preview=true&preview_id=11582221 By MAE ANDERSON, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — When Amrita Bhasin, 24, learned that products from South Korea might be subject to a new tax when they entered the United States, she decided to stock up on the sheet masks from Korean brands like U-Need and MediHeal she uses a few times a week.

“I did a recent haul to stockpile,” she said. “I bought 50 in bulk, which should last me a few months.”

influencers try on new Korean perfume during a workshop at Senti Senti in New York
Customers and influencers try on new Korean perfume during a workshop at Senti Senti in New York on Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

South Korea is one of the countries that hopes to secure a trade deal before the Aug. 1 date President Donald Trump set for enforcing nation-specific tariffs. A not-insignificant slice of the U.S. population has skin in the game when it comes to Seoul avoiding a 25% duty on its exports.

Asian skin care has been a booming global business for a more than a decade, with consumers in Europe, North and South America, and increasingly the Middle East, snapping up creams, serums and balms from South Korea, Japan and China.

In the United States and elsewhere, Korean cosmetics, or K-beauty for short, have dominated the trend. A craze for all-in-one “BB creams” — a combination of moisturizer, foundation and sunscreen — morphed into a fascination with 10-step rituals and ingredients like snail mucin, heartleaf and rice water.

Vehicles and electronics may be South Korea’s top exports to the U.S. by value, but the country shipped more skin care and cosmetics to the U.S. than any other last year, according to data from market research company Euromonitor. France, with storied beauty brands like L’Oreal and Chanel, was second, Euromonitor said.

"Made in Korea" is printed on products displayed at Senti Senti in New York
“Made in Korea” is printed on products displayed at Senti Senti in New York on Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Statistics compiled by the U.S. International Trade Commission, an independent federal agency, show the U.S. imported $1.7 billion worth of South Korean cosmetics in 2024, a 54% increase from a year earlier.

“Korean beauty products not only add a lot of variety and choice for Americans, they really embraced them because they were offering something different for American consumers,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, said.

Along with media offerings such as “Parasite” and “Squid Games,” and the popularity of K-pop bands like BTS, K-beauty has helped boost South Korea’s profile globally, she said.

“It’s all part and parcel really of the same thing,” Lovely said. “And it can’t be completely stopped by a 25% tariff, but it’s hard to see how it won’t influence how much is sold in the U.S. And I think what we’re hearing from producers is that it also really decreases the number of products they want to offer in this market.”

Senti Senti, a retailer that sells international beauty products at two New York boutiques and through an e-commerce site, saw a bit of “panic buying” by customers when Trump first imposed punitive tariffs on goods from specific countries, manager Winnie Zhong said.

The rush slowed down after the president paused the new duties for 90 days and hasn’t picked up again, Zhong said, even with Trump saying on July 7 that a 25% tax on imports from Japan and South Korea would go into effect on Aug. 1.

Sales Team Leader Jay Liang restocks Asian beauty products at Senti Senti in New York
Sales Team Leader Jay Liang restocks Asian beauty products at Senti Senti in New York on Friday, July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia subsequently reached agreements with the Trump administration that lowered the tariff rates their exported goods faced — in Japan’s case, from 25% to 15% — still higher than the current baseline of 10% tariff.

But South Korea has yet to clinch an agreement, despite having a free trade agreement since 2012 that allowed cosmetics and most other consumer goods to enter the U.S. tax-free.

Since the first store owned by Senti Senti opened 16 years ago, beauty products from Japan and South Korea became more of a focus and now account for 90% of the stock. The business hasn’t had to pass on any tariff-related costs to customers yet, but that won’t be possible if the products are subject to a 25% import tax, Zhong said.

“I’m not really sure where the direction of K-beauty will go to with the tariffs in place, because one of the things with K-beauty or Asian beauty is that it’s supposed to be accessible pricing,” she said.

Devoted fans of Asian cosmetics will often buy direct from Asia and wait weeks for their packages to arrive because the products typically cost less than they do in American stores. Rather than stocking up on their favorite sunscreens, lip tints and toners, some shoppers are taking a pause due to the tariff uncertainty.

Los Angeles resident Jen Chae, a content creator with over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers, has explored Korean and Japanese beauty products and became personally intrigued by Chinese beauty brands over the last year.

When the tariffs were first announced, Chae temporarily paused ordering from sites such as YesStyle.com, a shopping platform owned by an e-commerce company based in Hong Kong. She did not know if she would have to pay customs duties on the products she bought or the ones brands sent to her as a creator.

“I wasn’t sure if those would automatically charge the entire package with a blanket tariff cost, or if it was just on certain items,” Chae said. On its website, YesStyle says it will give customers store credit to reimburse them for import charges.

At Ohlolly, an online store focused on Korean products, owners Sue Greene and Herra Namhie are taking a similar pause.

They purchase direct from South Korea and from licensed wholesalers in the U.S., and store their inventory in a warehouse in Ontario, California. After years of no duties, a 25% import tax would create a “huge increase in costs to us,” Namhie said.

She and Greene made two recent orders to replenish their stock when the tariffs were at 10%. But they have put further restocks on hold “because I don’t think we can handle 25%,” Namhie said. They’d have to raise prices, and then shoppers might go elsewhere.

The business owners and sisters are holding out on hope the U.S. and Korea settle on a lower tariff or carve out exceptions for smaller ticket items like beauty products. But they only have two to four months of inventory in their warehouse. They say that in a month they’ll have to make a decision on what products to order, what to discontinue and what prices will have to increase.

Rachel Weingarten, a former makeup artist who writes a daily beauty newsletter called “Hello Gorgeous!,” said while she’s devoted to K-beauty products like lip masks and toner pads, she doesn’t think stockpiling is a sound practice.

“Maybe one or two products, but natural oils, vulnerable packaging and expiration dates mean that your products could go rancid before you can get to them,” she said.

Weingarten said she’ll still buy Korean products if prices go up, but that the beauty world is bigger than one country. “I’d still indulge in my favorites, but am always looking for great products in general,” she said.

Bhasin, in Menlo Park, California, plans to keep buying her face masks too, even if the price goes up, because she likes the quality of Korean masks.

“If prices will go up, I will not shift to U.S. products,” she said. “For face masks, I feel there are not a ton of solid and reliable substitutes in the U.S.”

AP audience engagement editor Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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11582221 2025-07-28T11:28:35+00:00 2025-07-28T11:36:44+00:00
Judge blocks Trump administration’s efforts to defund Planned Parenthood https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/planned-parenthood-funding-cuts-blocked/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:20:56 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582180&preview=true&preview_id=11582180 By KIMBERLEE KRUESI, Associated Press

A federal judge on Monday ruled Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the nation’s largest abortion provider fights President Donald Trump’s administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation.

The new order replaces a previous edict handed down by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last week. Talwani initially granted a preliminary injunction specifically blocking the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood members that didn’t provide abortion care or didn’t meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year.

“Patients are likely to suffer adverse health consequences where care is disrupted or unavailable,” Talwani wrote in her Monday order. “In particular, restricting Members’ ability to provide healthcare services threatens an increase in unintended pregnancies and attendant complications because of reduced access to effective contraceptives, and an increase in undiagnosed and untreated STIs.”

A provision in Trump’s tax bill instructed the federal government to end Medicaid payments for one year to abortion providers that received more than $800,000 from Medicaid in 2023, even to those like Planned Parenthood that also offer medical services like contraception, pregnancy tests and STD testing.

Although Planned Parenthood is not specifically named in the statute, which went into effect July 4, the organization’s leaders say it was meant to affect their nearly 600 centers in 48 states. However, a major medical provider in Maine and likely others have also been hit.

In its lawsuit, Planned Parenthood had argued that they would be at risk of closing nearly 200 clinics in 24 states if they are cut off from Medicaid funds. They estimated this would result in more than 1 million patients losing care.

“We’re suing the Trump administration over this targeted attack on Planned Parenthood health centers and the patients who rely on them for care,” said Planned Parenthood’s president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson in a statement on Monday. “This case is about making sure that patients who use Medicaid as their insurance to get birth control, cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment can continue to do so at their local Planned Parenthood health center, and we will make that clear in court.”

The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah.

The federal department of health did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Previously, the department said it strongly disagreed with the judge’s initial order that allowed some Planned Parenthood members to receive Medicaid funding.

“States should not be forced to fund organizations that have chosen political advocacy over patient care,” said the department’s communication director, Andrew Nixon. Doing so, he said, “undermines state flexibility” and “concerns about accountability.”

Medicaid is a government health care program that serves millions of low-income and disabled Americans. Nearly half of Planned Parenthood’s patients rely on Medicaid.

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11582180 2025-07-28T11:20:56+00:00 2025-07-28T11:53:09+00:00
Trump says he wants Netanyahu to ‘make sure they get the food’ in Gaza amid humanitarian crisis https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/trump-gaza-food/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:20:08 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582196&preview=true&preview_id=11582196 By MICHELLE L. PRICE

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Israel to get people food, seemingly recalibrating his stance on Gaza as images of emaciated children have sparked renewed worries about hunger in the war-torn territory.

Trump, speaking in Scotland on Monday, said the U.S. and other nations are giving money and food to Gaza but that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has “got to sort of like run it.”

“I want him to make sure they get the food,” Trump said. “I want to make sure they get the food.”

Trump’s comments seemed to result from the images in recent days of the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza and were more urgent than the resigned message he had about the 21-month Israel-Hamas war last week, when ceasefire talks derailed. His remarks Monday also marked a new divergence from Netanyahu after the two leaders had become closer following their nations’ join strikes in Iran.

The U.S. president was asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s comments on Sunday in which the Israeli leader said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza.”

“I don’t know,” Trump replied Monday. “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”

Trump says US will set up food centers in Gaza

In the face of mounting international criticism, the Israeli military over the weekend began airdrops of aid, along with limited pauses in fighting in three populated areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to help with the distribution.

Trump on Friday had expressed some resignation about the situation in Gaza after the U.S. and Israel pulled their negotiating teams out of talks in Qatar to try to reach a ceasefire. Trump said last week that Hamas was likely “going to be hunted down” and said of Israel, “They’re going to have to fight and they’re going to have to clean it up.”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

But Trump seemed more inclined to action on Monday after reports of starvation-related deaths and images of people, especially young children and infants, struggling to get food continued to emerge over the weekend, drew international outcry.

The U.S. president, speaking as he visited with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at his Trump’s Turnberry golf course, said that the U.S. was “going to set up food centers,” but he didn’t offer specifics.

The White House did not immediately have more information about the food centers.

International outcry grows louder

While Trump urged Netanyahu to do more to deliver aid, the U.S. leader faced similar pleas.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in a televised address on Monday that Trump is “the one who is able to stop the war, deliver the aid and end this suffering.”

“Please, make every effort to stop this war and deliver the aid,” el-Sissi said, addressing Trump in his remarks “I believe that it’s time to end this war.”

Trump said Hamas has stolen food and aid trying to reach people in Gaza, but when asked by a reporter about what responsibility Israel has for limiting aid to the area, he said, “Israel has a lot of responsibility.”

But he quickly said Israel was also hampered in its actions as it seeks to keep the remaining 20 hostages kept in Gaza alive.

When asked by what more can Israel do, Trump said, “I think Israel can do a lot.” But he didn’t offer more details and changed the subject to Iran.

“We have to help on a humanitarian basis before we do anything. We have to get the kids fed.”

Starmer was more adamant than Trump, calling it “a desperate situation” in Gaza.

“I think people in Britain are revolted at seeing what they are seeing on their screens,” he said.

US and UK leaders discuss Gaza as UN discusses Israel-Palestinian two-state solution

Starmer, who faces pressure from his Labour Party to recognize a Palestinian state as France did last week, said the U.K. supports statehood for the Palestinians but it must be part of a plan for a two-state solution.

Trump said last week that France’s recognition of a Palestinian state “doesn’t carry any weight.”

“I’m not going to take a position,” Trump said Monday of recognizing a Palestinian state. He added of Starmer, “I don’t mind him taking a position.”

The comments came as the U.N. General Assembly on Monday brought together high-level officials to promote a two-state solution to the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Israel and the U.S. are boycotting the two-day meeting.

Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Edinburgh, Scotland and Tia Goldenberg in Tel Aviv, Israel contributed to this report.

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11582196 2025-07-28T11:20:08+00:00 2025-07-28T12:03:00+00:00
Attorneys: ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detainees held without charges, barred from legal access https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/alligator-alcatraz-detainees-attorneys/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:59:15 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582155&preview=true&preview_id=11582155 By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press

Lawyers seeking a temporary restraining order against an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades say that “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been barred from meeting attorneys, are being held without any charges and that a federal immigration court has canceled bond hearings.

A virtual hearing in federal court in Miami was being held Monday on a lawsuit that was filed July 16. A new motion on the case was filed Friday.

Lawyers who have shown up for bond hearings for “Alligator Alcatraz” detainees have been told that the immigration court doesn’t have jurisdiction over their clients, the attorneys wrote in court papers. The immigration attorneys demanded that federal and state officials identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detainees and start accepting petitions for bond, claiming the detainees constitutional rights to due process are being violated.

“This is an unprecedented situation where hundreds of detainees are held incommunicado, with no ability to access the courts, under legal authority that has never been explained and may not exist,” the immigration attorneys wrote. “This is an unprecedented and disturbing situation.”

The lawsuit is the second one challenging “Alligator Alcatraz.” Environmental groups last month sued federal and state officials asking that the project built on an airstrip in the heart of the Florida Everglades be halted because the process didn’t follow state and federal environmental laws.

Critics have condemned the facility as a cruel and inhumane threat to the ecologically sensitive wetlands, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican state officials have defended it as part of the state’s aggressive push to support President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has praised Florida for coming forward with the idea, as the department looks to significantly expand its immigration detention capacity.

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11582155 2025-07-28T10:59:15+00:00 2025-07-28T11:14:57+00:00
Project 2025 author Paul Dans will challenge Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/project-2025-author-challenges-graham/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:34:05 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582076&preview=true&preview_id=11582076 By LISA MASCARO and MEG KINNARD, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A chief architect of Project 2025, Paul Dans, is launching a Republican primary challenge to Sen. Lindsey Graham in South Carolina, joining a crowded field that will test the loyalties of President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement in next year’s midterm election.

Dans told The Associated Press the Trump administration’s federal workforce reductions and cuts to federal programs are what he had hoped for in drafting Project 2025. But he said there’s “more work to do,” particularly in the Senate.

“What we’ve done with Project 2025 is really change the game in terms of closing the door on the progressive era,” Dans said in an AP interview. ”If you look at where the chokepoint is, it’s the United States Senate. That’s the headwaters of the swamp.”

Dans, who is set to formally announce his campaign at an event Wednesday in Charleston, said Graham has spent most of his career in Washington and “it’s time to show him the door.”

Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to Graham’s campaign who co-managed Trump’s 2024 bid, predicted in a statement to the AP that Dans’ campaign would “end prematurely.”

“After being unceremoniously dumped in 2024 while trying to torpedo Donald Trump’s historic campaign, Paul Dans has parachuted himself into the state of South Carolina in direct opposition to President Trump’s longtime friend and ally in the Senate, Lindsey Graham,” LaCivita said.

Challenging the long-serving Graham, who has routinely batted back contenders over the years, is something of a political long shot in what is fast becoming a crowded field ahead of the November 2026 midterm election that will determine control of Congress.

Trump early on gave his endorsement of Graham, a political confidant and regular golfing partner of the president, despite their on-again-off-again relationship. Graham, in announcing he would seek a fifth term in the Senate, also secured the state’s leading Republicans, Sen. Tim Scott and Gov. Henry McMaster, to chair his 2026 run. He has amassed millions of dollars in his campaign account.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
FILE – Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., listens to journalists at the end of his visit to Israel, in Jerusalem, Wednesday, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)

Other candidates, including Republican former South Carolina Lt. Gov. André Bauer, a wealthy developer, and Democratic challenger Dr. Annie Andrews, have announced their campaigns for the Senate seat in an early start to the election season, more than a year away.

Graham, in an appearance Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” did not discuss his reelection campaign but fielded questions on topics including his push to release “as much as you can” from the case files on Jeffrey Epstein, something many of Trump’s supporters want the government to do.

Dans, an attorney who worked in the first Trump administration as White House liaison to the office of personnel management, said he expects to have support from Project 2025 allies, as well as the ranks of Trump’s supporters in the state who have publicly tired of Graham.

After Trump left the White House, Dans, now a father of four, went to work at the Heritage Foundation, often commuting on weekdays to Washington as he organized Project 2025. The nearly 1,000-page policy blueprint, with chapters written by leading conservative thinkers, calls for dismantling the federal government and downsizing the federal workforce, among other right-wing proposals for the next White House.

“To be clear, I believe that there is a ‘deep state’ out there, and I’m the single one who stepped forward at the end of the first term of Trump and really started to drain the swamp,” Dans said, noting he compiled much of the book from his kitchen table in Charleston.

Among the goals, he said, was to “deconstruct the administrative state,” which he said is what the Trump administration has been doing, pointing in particular to former Trump adviser Elon Musk’s work at the Department of Government Efficiency shuttering federal offices.

Dans and Heritage parted ways in July 2024 amid blowback over Project 2025. It catapulted into political culture that summer during the presidential campaign season, as Democrats and their allies showcased the hard-right policy proposals — from mass firings to budget cuts — as a dire warning of what could come in a second Trump term.

Trump distanced himself from Project 2025, and his campaign insisted it had nothing to do with his own “Agenda 47.”

Dans is launching his campaign with a prayer breakfast followed by a kick-off event at a historic venue in Charleston.

Kinnard reported from Chapin, South Carolina, and can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP.

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11582076 2025-07-28T10:34:05+00:00 2025-07-28T11:54:19+00:00
Wall Street coasts for now ahead of a week packed with potential flashpoints https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/wall-street-us-eu-deal/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 14:14:47 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582045&preview=true&preview_id=11582045 By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are drifting on Monday after the United States agreed to tax cars and other products coming from the European Union at a 15% rate, lower than President Donald Trump had earlier threatened. Many details are still to be worked out, though, and Wall Street is heading into a week full of potential flashpoints that could shake markets.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading after setting an all-time high every day last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 8 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher, coming off its own record.

Tesla added 3.5% after its CEO, Elon Musk, said it signed a deal with Samsung Electronics that could be worth more than $16.5 billion to provide chips for the electric-vehicle company. Samsung’s stock in South Korea jumped 6.8%.

Other companies in the chip and artificial-intelligence industries were strong, continuing their run from last week after Alphabet said it was increasing its spending on AI chips and other investments by $10 billion to $85 billion this year. Chip company Advanced Micro Devices rose 3.7%, and server-maker Super Micro Computer climbed 6.7%.

They helped offset a 9.7% drop for Revvity. The company in the life sciences and diagnostics businesses reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than Wall Street expected, but it also gave a forecasted range for profit over the full year whose midpoint fell below analysts’ estimates.

Companies are broadly under pressure to deliver solid growth in profits following big jumps in their stock prices the last few months. Much of the gain was due to hopes that Trump would walk back some of his stiff proposed tariffs, and critics say the broad U.S. stock market looks expensive unless companies produce bigger profits to justify the moves.

Many more fireworks may be ahead this week. “This is about as busy as a week can get in the markets,” according to Chris Larkin, managing director, trading and investing, at E-Trade from Morgan Stanley.

Hundreds of U.S. companies are lined up to report how much profit they made during the spring, with nearly a third of all the businesses in the S&P 500 index scheduled to deliver updates. That includes market heavyweights Apple, Amazon, Meta Platforms and Microsoft. Those companies have grown so huge that their stock movements can almost solely dictate what the overall S&P 500 index does. Microsoft alone is worth roughly $3.8 trillion,

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rates.

Trump has been loudly and angrily calling for the Fed to cut interest rates, a move that could give the economy a boost. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell has been insisting that he wants to wait for more data about how Trump’s tariffs are affecting the economy and inflation before the Fed makes its next move. Lower interest rates can give inflation more fuel, and the economy only recently came out of its scarring run where inflation briefly topped 9%.

The widespread expectation on Wall Street is that Fed officials will wait until September to resume cutting interest rates, though a couple of Trump’s appointees could dissent in the vote. The Fed has been on hold with interest rates this year since cutting them several times at the end of 2024.

This week will also feature several potentially market-moving updates about the economy. On Tuesday will come reports on how confident U.S. consumers are feeling and how many jobs openings U.S. employers were advertising. Wednesday will show the first estimate of how quickly the U.S. economy grew during the spring, and economists expect to see a slowdown from the first three months of the year.

On Thursday, the latest measure of inflation that the Federal Reserve prefers to use will arrive. A modest reading could give the Fed more leeway to cut interest rates in the short term, while a hotter-than-expected figure could make it more cautious.

And Friday will bring an update on how many more workers U.S. employers hired during June than they fired.

Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market ahead of all that action. The yield on the 10-year Treasury edged up to 4.41% from 4.40% late Friday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, rose to 3.93% from 3.91%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes dipped in Europe following the announcement of the trade deal’s framework.

Chinese stocks rose as officials from the world’s second-largest economy prepared to meet with a U.S. delegation in Sweden for trade talks. Stocks climbed 0.7% in Hong Kong and 0.1% in Shanghai.

Indexes were mixed across the rest of Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% for one of the world’s bigger losses.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

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11582045 2025-07-28T10:14:47+00:00 2025-07-28T11:49:17+00:00
Trump says he’s shortening the 50-day deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine https://www.baltimoresun.com/2025/07/28/trump-shortening-russia-deadline-ukraine/ Mon, 28 Jul 2025 13:56:05 +0000 https://www.baltimoresun.com/?p=11582006&preview=true&preview_id=11582006 By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday he is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin 10 to 12 days to stop the killing in Ukraine, shortening a 50-day deadline he had given the Russian leader two weeks ago.

Russia fired an overnight barrage of more than 300 drones, four cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said, as the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities continued despite Trump’s pressure for it to end. U.S.-led peace efforts have also failed to gain momentum.

Trump had said on July 14 that he would implement “severe tariffs” on Russia unless a peace deal is reached by early September. On Monday, Trump said he would now give Putin 10 to 12 days, meaning he wants peace efforts to make progress by Aug. 7-9.

The plan includes possible sanctions and secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s trading partners. The formal announcement would come later Monday or on Tuesday, Trump said.

“No reason in waiting,” Trump said of the shorter timeline. “We just don’t see any progress being made.”

firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, firefighters put out the fire in a fire department school following a Russian air attack in Kropyvnytskyi, Ukraine, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Putin has “got to make a deal. Too many people are dying,” Trump said during a visit to Scotland.

There was no immediate response from Russia.

Trump repeated his criticism of Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians.

“And I say, that’s not the way to do it,” Trump said. He added, “I’m disappointed in President Putin.”

Asked at a news conference about a potential meeting with the Russian leader, Trump said: “I’m not so interested in talking anymore.”

Still, he voiced some reluctance about imposing penalties on the Kremlin, saying that he loves the Russian people. “I don’t want to do that to Russia,” he said, but he noted how many Russians, along with Ukrainians, are dying in the war.

Ukraine has urged Western countries to take a tougher line with Putin. Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, thanked Trump for shortening the deadline.

“Putin understands only strength — and that has been conveyed clearly and loudly,” Yermak said on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared the sentiment.

Latest attacks in Ukraine

A Russian drone blew out the windows of a 25-story residential building in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, wrote on Telegram. Eight people were injured, including a 4-year-old girl, he said.

The attack also started a fire in Kropyvnytskyi, in central Ukraine, local officials said, but no injuries were reported.

The main target of the Russian attack was Starokostiantyniv, in the Khmelnytskyi region of western Ukraine, the air force said. Regional authorities reported no damage or casualties.

Western Ukraine is on the other side of the country from the front line, and the Ukrainian military is believed to have significant airfields as well as arsenals and depots there.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces carried out an overnight strike with long-range, air-launched weapons, hitting a Ukrainian air base along with an ammunition depot containing stockpiles of missiles and components for drone production.

Associated Press journalist Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.

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11582006 2025-07-28T09:56:05+00:00 2025-07-28T11:39:17+00:00